kentucky, arizona, and organ. "the washington post" headlines is calling it is super tuesday for both parties. we saw a transfer of power in great britain this past week. in the outlooksection of the "the washington post" -- the headline is "britain does it fast, so why can't we?" the number is 202-737-0002 for democrats and 202-737-0001 for republicans, if you are an independent, the number to call is 202-628-0205. he makes these points. on tuesday, prime minister gordon brown went to buckingham palace and told the queen he was resigning. minutes later, david cameron visited her majesty, accepted the resignation and walked into 10 downing street. 10 downing street. he went on to say -- in terms of moving people into a top jobs, it will never end. that is because by the time the administration finally fills all the most important positions, maybe sometime next year, many of the appointees will be rotating out. in the first year of reagan's administration, filling 255 of 295 top positions. no president did better until president obama last year, filling 272 such positions. the number of senate confirmation positions went from confirmation positions went from 295 to 422 in the obama administration. are there lessons from the uk when it comes to transitions? something we could see again in 2013 or 2019. here was this scene last week in london with gordon brown, the outgoing prime minister, and david cameron, the new prime minister. >> i have informed the queen's private secretary that it is my intention to tender my resignation. in the event the quicksteps, i will adviser to invite the leader of the -- except as i will advise her to invite the queen to accept. >> before i talk about that new government, let me say something about the one that has just passed appeared compared with a decade ago, this country is more open at home and more compassionate abroad. that is something we should all be grateful for. on behalf of the country, i would like to pay tribute to the outgoing prime minister for his long record of dedicated public service. host: that was it last week as gordon brown leaves, david cameron comes on board. this morning's "the washington post" -- britain's transition is done. we are still at it. dennis joins us on the independent lines from arlington, virginia. caller: good morning. caller: good morning. it starts almost after a person gets elected. primarily, the big corporations who buy our candidates, especially the senators, there are groups of individuals i will not name who are very powerful in washington and everybody knows who the big ones are. they have the reins of power and the people don't. we could learn a lot from althe labour party in england, where special interests do not have as much influence over their politicians as they have over hours. it is really obvious, based on a lot of laws passed in congress, just the fact that -- the glass- steagall act overturned -- all these incremental laws that put on the books over time. it is sickening. they are cow-towing to special interests. host: let me come back to some of the examples written in the peace in the "the washington post" this morning. the whole craze must end. under senate rules, any senator can temporarily block on nominee -- one way to speed things up is if the senate or committee reaches a general understanding with what the white house says, unless a nominee's job has something to do with public finance, assistant secretary, tax checks in most cases would be general reviews rather than detailed audits. next, is kevin joining us from upstate new york. good morning. caller: hello. this is my first time ever getting through here. as far as the lessons being learned from the transition in the u.k., i just want to say that we should all welcome our president, our new president, with an open mind, even if we do not agree he is in power now. we happen to be a nation of such ignorance and stupidity. i hate to say that, but when i watch your shores sometimes -- your show sometimes, i hardly ever hear anyone who addresses the question you asked. everything about what needs to be responded to. in short, let me say that if there is any lessons we can learn from the u.k., which i am not very familiar with their system, but i do know they seem to be a more open-minded people. we can disagree with people, but we do not have to demonize them all the time and be cynical about their intentions. i am afraid there is a lot of that going on in this country. if anything can get done throughout the rest of this year, it will be a miracle. host: al kamen points otu this are we morning, whtyy so slow -- compared with our cousins across the pond? the headline -- "britain does it fast, so why can't we?" a republican on the line. caller: we have an incredible example in my congressional district. we had a special election this past week, a primary. and it is a runoff between tom grace and another fellow. and whoever wins this, they have to run again july 20. not only is a very inefficient, but it can be very costly. people that lost, they can run again. i think we need to make fundamental changes, because it is very expensive to have to pay for two, three, four elections in the period of two months to fill a congressional seat. host: how would you fix it? caller: make this election -- do not make them have to run again july 20. only have that election, and if you won that, you go to congress and you do not have to run for reelection until the next term. host: let me turn it back to the advice and consent in the u.s. senate. the british members of parliament can yell at the british prime minister. opposition senators can hold the president's nominees a hostage in the united states. does the system need to be fixed? caller: i do, steve. i do not know how we can do it. running the debts that we are, we need to do everything we can to save the taxpayers' money. running special elections is very costly. i do not know the answer. i like britain. say you have a year and that is it. you have the primaries and you have one year to run. host: it is less than that. it is only a five week campaign. caller: that is not enough. host: we are already talking about 2012. joe, a pleasure to hear from you. "the white house can not select, peoplend nominate that fast. the senate simply cannot push that many people through its clearance, hearing and approval process. back to your calls. on the democrats' line, from alabama. are there lessons from the uk? we saw the transfer of power literally in a matter of hours this past week. what do you think? caller: that is very true. there it is a lot of lessons to be learned. first of all, they do not spend millions of dollars to elect people. you see how they debated. i think we, as americans, we need to do something about racism. obama has been collected over one year now. they still question whether he has -- obama has been collected over one year now. they still question whether he is an american. - obama has been elected over one year now. these republicans were going to paint the white house black. that took us away from the debate. what we need to do to stop this mess. host: marcus, independent line from florida. caller: i think britain could learn from us. i think there system is ridiculously chaotic. you have that show about britain's parliament. host: we aired live on wednesday mornings on c-span-2. caller: we have an orderly transition of power. it is much better in my opinion. \ host: here is a photograph from bangkok. bangkok. the associated press with an update on that. they plan to impose a curfew and parts of bangkok. red shirt protestors and the army continue to clash. since thursday, at least 25 people have been killed in central bangkok. clifford joins us on the republican line from jacksonville, florida. we are talking about president and transitions. lessons from the uk. are there? caller: i do not believe there is. the american public needs to realize that we fought a resolution to break ourselves from england to start with. from england to start with. i have worked for government for four years. the transition in government is political, yes, but that is our system. we are republic. we are not a pure democracy. i do not think the american public would want to have a parliamentary system, based on the size of the country we have and we have 50 individual states, in each state has the right to determine how they will elect their representatives to represent the people of their state and congressional districts. host: thank you for the call. one of our twitter comments. you can join a the conversation online. republican senator leaders need to know what is in it before these gop ends these secret holds. again, something kamen writes about. a reporter writes in an "the new york times" -- "like the road gang -- rogue gang in "oliver," many of britain oppose the political class found themselves rapidly reviewing the situation when faced by the convoluted and sometimes cartoonish events that installed the countries first coalition government since world war ii last week." now mr. cameron and mr. clegg as a partnership between the parties that seeks to occupy the same center ground. but the early stirrings against them, among followers suggest that they may find themselves -- that they may find themselves -- and old party ties may prove stronger than the party can bear. they held their first joint news conference this week. discussing the first coalition government since the end of world war ii. gary joins us from springdale, arkansas, from that -- on the democrats' line. caller: good morning. i think it is amazing that a country the size of the u.k. can transfer power the way they do, but yet, the united states -- we have a sitting president that was elected a year ago and he still does not have his cabinet positions because our archaic government has not push them through fast enough. that is all i have to say. that is all i have to say. host: next is boston joining us from greensboro -- the republican line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i do not think that we have that much to learn from the u.k. its seems to me, i watched that show that you have gone on sunday nights, they have a certain amount of decorum and they know when to back off and be polite. they have a good sense of humor. we have way too much -- not that it is a bad thing -- it seems our politicians are we more extreme. they get a little more personal than the u.k. folks. i read some christopher hitchens, and they mentioned how it is uncouth for the average person in britain to take too seriously. thank you. host: mike freeman has this twitter comment. "not likely that americans, a young country can take advantage from the europeans, a century old culture. -- centuries old culture. arrogance." independent line. caller: good morning. i wanted to put in my two cents. i do not have the full truth answer for this question. i do feel this way and i do believe this -- i do not have a footproof answer for this question. about 234 years ago, we embarked on a revolution it to separate ourselves from great britain. what concerns me more than anything is i hear a lot of people -- i am not a young man anymore, i hear a lot of people, they seem to enjoy the milk and honey in our country but they do not want to take -- we are not perfect. we have some bad things that go on, but people that want to take the milk and honey and -- or they tend to preach about some other way of doing it, i believe that is wrong. i do not have the answer to the question, but that is all i feel about that. host: a couple of headlines this morning. a preview of tuesday's hearing. a lot of attention on the senate race. that special election to fill the seat by the late congressman and jack martin. -- jack murtha. will the democrats back him, specter, in the primary on tuesday? we will check-in on those primary states, pennsylvania, kentucky, and arkansas. democratic leaders in that race putting ellsworth in. he will face dan coates, the republican nominee to take back that seat in the u.s. senate. good morning to you, republican line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i do not think we have much to learn from england. i think the way the transition is a very smooth. at the same time, we have a unique system where we are able to control who gets into our federal seats, where england and everyone is from the same party, so it is typically tougher. we have that opportunity to vote against that. it is a unique opportunity. host: our guest on c-span's newsmaker program is new hampshire republican senator judd gregg, who will preview the debate that continues this week with votes continuing in the u.s. senate as early as 530 tomorrow. -- 5:30 >. this bill is getting worse rather than better. it will end up undermining our ability as a nation to be competitive internationally and it will probably make us less stable and the regulatory regime, relative to managing our financial houses. i am concerned about the direction of the bill. but nobody is try to stop it. we're just trying to improve it. yesterday, there were a series of amendments to improve it. i have been a co-sponsor of several of them to improve it. host: you can watch the entire interview today at 10:00 eastern time, 7:00 on the west coast. our focus this morning -- lessons from the u.k., as we saw the presidential transition which continues in this country, and the immediate transfer of power that took place within a matter of hours in great britain this past week. the story is getting a lot of attention in "the new york times" -- a situation in the gulf coast. the headline -- the giant plumes of oil forming. scientists are finding -- the plumes are depleting the oxygen. the oxygen levels could fall so low as to kill of much of the sea life near these plumes. these are photographs courtesy of the u.s. coast guard. are independent wine, from los angeles. good morning. caller: good morning. my question is this -- i know there is the right to advise and consent. how did that come out to be that any senator can put a hold, as opposed to a system where a group of senators would be required to put a hold? host: which is what the senate has the right to under the rules. he says the hold craze must end. any senator can block a nominee for any reason or no reason at all. joe joins us from virginia, republican line. caller: good morning. we lived in the england, 1969- 1973, they had a limit of six weeks was as long as the money could be spent for television and radio. the government paid for both sides to be debated. they have lots of information. there was no lack of information. the money that could be spent was $10000. . wouldn't it be wonderful if we could just have people being hurt and poor people could run for office? we would not have the lobbyists pushing secret agendas. we do not even know what exactly we are being brainwashed some time. that is my only comment. we do not have to rediscover the wheel. it is not like we are going to be like england in socialistic ways. i do not want that at all. i think we could learn from other countries when they have a very civilized elections. thank you. host: thank you for your call. our line for democrats, 202-737- 0002. 202-737-0001 for republicans. here is what some of you may be reading. "the new york times" best seller list -- numberone is "the big short," "this time together," by short," "this time together," by carol burnett is number two, "chelsea, chelsea bang bang" is number 3. tom joins us on the line. caller: my question is about the oil spill down in the gulf. they tried a pinch the line off, or use of controlled explosion to crash the pipe to shut it off. host: i am not an expert. we have been following this situation since april 20. you saw the frustration of the president on friday and the frustration of the people on the gulf coast. caller: are used to live down there and worked on a small shrimp vote. there are a lot of good people down there. a smallked ona shrimp boat. thanks for taking my call. host: pat joins us from dayton, ohio. caller: understanding all that is going on that we want to get on in the united states with what ever we are going to do, i am trying to get some understanding over why is it such a problem. host: you mean a delay in getting nominees confirmed it? caller: yes. host: it is two different systems. the question is whether or not we can learn from great britain's system. they have a parliamentary system. we will go on to richard joining us next from texas. good morning. caller: good morning. i think we've learned some lessons -- we could learn some lessons from our founding fathers. we have changed a lot of ways that we were originally set up to get our congress. there was a time when you did not have to be rich to run. you had the senators behold into the state, and governors and legislators that fixed things. you had much, much smaller congressional districts that would not cost as much money to represent. opposed tos 750,000 individuals in a district. if we have left thing as the founders made them, i think things would not be quite with as much money as they currently are today. host: on the issue of holds, another of your sang -- every time a senator places a secret hold, he or she should be exposed. our "newsmakers" program has judd gregg today. one of the issues getting a lot of attention in the bill. derivatives. he addressed that during the interview. guest: the language in this bill, unfortunately, it will contract the derivatives activities of this nation and undermine stability of the management and oversight of this nation. that is not me speaking. sheila bair said this. the head of the federal reserve staff told us this will be counterproductive to consumers at and the stability of the banking industry. chairman volcker has said that this bill is fundamentally flawed on the issues on how it tries to regulate derivatives. it will do harm to our ability on main street to get credit. we offered an alternative. it was voted down as you walked around the floor of the senate, and numerous democratic senators would come up and say, we know we have a problem. we cannot address and sel-- unt, after next tuesday, when walesa went in's primary occurs. that is not the way that you should legislate -- after next tuesday when blanche lincoln's primary occurs. host: kevin hall, mcclatchy newspapers national economics correspondent, joins us. thanks for being with us. caller: thanks for having me. host: explain the number of amendments, which is something that senator chris dodd and went on the floor frustrated, saying that there have been more than 60 a minute -- amendments which is slowing down the final vote. guest: that is happening in the house as well. there are a lot of amendments they are throwing out there to gum it out. there may be 200 more in the queue. there is really only one more that is a serious amendment that has a lot of bipartisan discussion in terms of what people are serious about addressing, versus the lack of nuisanceses n amendments. host: this bill passing the house by a vote of 223-202. no republican support. in the senate, we have been talking about senator rules. senator harry reid it needs at least one republican to support the bill. who on the gop side is with the democrats and the independence on this? guest: i think it will be easier -- a particular one. you can speculate on several of them. i do think republicans will have a hard time voting down the main package, once they get through these amendments. it is a hard argument to suggest that you are really trying to protect credit on main street when you are clamping down on preventing the overreached on derivatives. senator gregg was liberal on his explanation on how derivatives might hurt the average person. host: so much attention has been focused