And judicial nominees ending and ongoing dispute over nominations that had tied up most of the chamber this month. The most highprofile nomination was janet yellen for the federal reserve. The hearing will be held in january and the senate will vote confirmation of the deputy secretary of the department of homeland security, the commissioner of the Internal Revenue service, and a u. S. Allrict judge in florida this morning. Earlier on thursday, senators had been preparing for a rare weekend session as democrats and republicans were at loggerheads on when to help hold votes. Senate democrats were informed during their closed Party Meeting that they would be staying in washington through saturday. Republicans had sketched out a plan ensuring one of their members with stay on the floor to keep their eye on democrats. Six other executive branch nominees were pending, mostly deputy ands for state. That batch of nominees will be sent back to the white house because they were not cleared by the senate. From the hill newspaper, sets debtecretary lew hike deadline. Congress will need to set a deadly meant. In a letter sent to congress on warned that he does not see a reasonable scenario in which treasury will buy more than a few weeks of ise before the debt limit reached. This is from roll call this morning. Now the hard part. Three weeks to apportion 1 trillion. Capital have the opened intentionally secret negotiations on the measure necessary to make good on the budgetary truce just called by congress. The two dozen or so members involved have given themselves less than three weeks to agree on the sofa thousand line items in the bill that will be written as legislating dictating the governments Discretionary Spending for the final 37 weeks of this budget year. The enormity of the task and the type timetable would normally present significant time obstacles. At the lawmakers are betting that these challenges will be eased by several fact is, including the fact that the fiscal deal that cleared the senate on thursday is a package that both parties negotiators say they can live with. The vast majority of lawmakers will be away from washington during the next 2 work weeks. Haveeaders of the talks agreed to draft a bill as a take it or leave it package. S writingavid hawking in roll call. Charlie wrangle, 83 years old, to run again. The iconic lawmaker will run for reelection in 2014. He announced on thursday. He said, i may not be a perfect human being, but i am best equipped by my experience among my passion for serving the people of my district to help goalsesident achieve his in the next three years. Firede wrangle is still up, that is why i am running. Angel is still fired up, that is why i am running. You have all been reading about this. You have probably watched this program. In every major paper this morning is a similar article to this one in usa today. Duck dynasty controversy raises the harry question of free speech. To be aasty has proved popculture phenomenon. On thursday, the series moved to a new level in our cultural and political consciousness as it became the center of a raging debate. It became a symbol for the line between free speech and paid speech. Late thursday, the robertsons released a statement casting doubt on the shows future without phil. As a family, we cannot imagine the show Going Forward without our patriot act patriarch at the helm. We are in meetings to see what that means for the future of doug i missed it. The human rights campaign, the groupt lgbt civil rights in the u. S. , and the naacp are demanding an apology. The American Family association urged fans to write letters of a e. Ort to Phil Robertson made some comments about homosexuals and africanamericans in an interview with gq magazine. Heres the from page of the Washington Post this morning. Hopefuls flocked to embattled duck dynasty star. Few could have predicted that the dynasty and the 2016 president ial contest would converge. Conservative politicians rushed to defend Phil Robertson, the star of the breakout series, who was suspended after his published comments about gays stirred a storm of controversy. Louisiana governor bobby gentle, a republican, whose state is home for the show over bobby republican, whose state is home for the show, called robertson and his family i remember when tv networks believed in the First Amendment. Signed in onruz facebook writing, if you believe in free speech or religious liberty, you should be deeply dismayed over the treatment of Phil Robertson. Sarah palin wrote in a facebook intolerant and taking on the duck dynasty patriarch are taking on all of us. We want to get your reaction to what happened to Phil Robertson and what happened to Martin Bashir, alec baldwin, paul la deen. We want to talk about free speech and Political Correctness. 5853881 for republicans. Four democrats for democrats and 2025853882 for independents. Here is part of what Phil Robertson had to say in the gq article. Here is just one paragraph that got him suspended. The 1960s. Uct of i centered my life around sex, drugs, and rock n roll until i hit rock bottom. My Mission Today is to go forth and tell people why i follow christ and what the bible teaches. Heart of that teaching is that women and men are meant to be together. I would never treat anyone with disrespect just because they are different from me. We are all created by the almighty. I love all of humanity. He would all be better off if we loved god and loved each other. He had also made some comments we will get to in some of these articles about africanamericans and his comments about gays included comparisons to beast reality. We want to hear your comments. Free speech, Political Correctness and we will begin with chuck, a democrat, in charleston, west virginia. Caller we all have the right to freedom of expression and freedom of speech. Whether youes are talking about newspapers or radio stations or tv networks are not obligated to provide you with a platform. Back in thetime earlier days of broadcasting. We had something called the fairness doctrine, which stationsradio and tv to provide equal time for opposing points of view. It was president s reagan and the Reagan Administration that succeeded in getting rid of the fairness doctrine. That gave rise to things like conservative talk radio. Now you have all of these right wing talk radio shows and they can say whatever they want and they can they do not need to time for dissenting opinions. There is your freedom of speech right there. As far as Phil Robertson is a e, themd newspaper that airs duck dynasty, is not obligated to indulge Phil Robertson in his disdain for gay americans. That clan is not going to suffer. They are laughing all the way to the bank. You go into any store or any walmart, there is duck dynasty everything. Host if you have been running the network, would you have suspended him for the comments he made . Caller absolutely. It was not just homophobic. It was some comments about black people. I saw a sermon he did a few years ago that was even more inflammatory than some of the stuff he said in gq magazine. He has every right to express his viewpoints. But tv networks are not obligated to give everybody like off a platform to spout their views. Host we will leave it there. Thank you. Article. He conservative christians feel like they are under siege in a culture that is increasingly intolerant and discriminatory toward their views and they do not feel represented, said ralph reed, founder of the faith and freedom volition come up who noted that robertson paraphrased from the bibles look of corinthians. I did not get any impression that there was any animus said. Sed, reed robertson, the reality show star, is serving as a flashpoint. His comments about gays, including a graphic description of which body parts are more desirable, have garnered substantially more intention in his contention that African Americans were happier in the area the era of jim crow laws in the south, calling them singing and happy. Bill in illinois, you are on the air. Decorated vietnam veteran. I am totally disgusted with the way the media and the public in certain groups are select tens in bashing people who express their selective in bashing people who express their views. The network should have done a disclaimer saying they did not represent their views and points. Recently, cspan had ed schultz on your show. And scholz, on his msnbc program, wished the Vice President would die several times. He also called a female on hister a whore television program. Msnbc did not do a rain. Do a thing. Selective groups and people who go after people for expressing their views is destroying the amendment for freedom of speech. Martinin leasure bashir and alec baldwin are no longer with their networks. Do you think those gentlemen should have been fired as well . Bill is on an entertainment program. L is on an entertainment program. You see the difference between news and a reality program. Caller definitely. Reality is entertainment and news is to broaden the views of the nation. Host good morning, republican line. What do you think about all of this . Caller the stuff that you read made him sound like a boy scout. Stuffy and the jim crow he was saying you will never be able to read on air. Host do you think they have the right to say that . Caller the network has the right to do whatever they want to these people. Are makingthey money, they will hold them up for people to emulate. We do not need reality shows with these rednecks and hillbillies. They do not make life better for the rest of us. Host what do you think about Martin Bashirs comments about sarah palin. Caller i did not hear it. Caller are you actually a republican . Double host are you actually a republican . Caller i am an educator republican. Democrat in anaheim. Caller i love that last pier she is funny. I am a real democrat. That last caller. She is funny. A contract with those people. I am sure in their contract they said, you cannot say this or that. Covers themendment government from stopping free speech. There are repercussions. People do not like hearing everything you have got to say. There will be an outcome. April will backlash against you. People should be careful what they say. You can think whatever you want. Nobody can reach into your brain and stop what you are saying. Host are you familiar with Martin Bashirs comments about sarah palin . Caller i heard about it. Host are you familiar with alec baldwins comments that he made about gays . Caller yes, i am. Host should they have been let go . Is it a freespeech issue or a Political Correctness issue . Caller these people signed a contract with msnbc. You have to be careful what you say. You are representing us even if you are offcamera. There will be repercussions for whatever youre going to do. And scholz was in big trouble with what he said. Scholz ed s chultz was in big trouble with what he said. He took time off and he came back and he apologized. I do not know what the big deal is when they bring up ed s chultz. Tricia is on our independent line. Go ahead. Caller we are christians and we believe the act of homosexuality is a sin. Everyone, as mr. Robertson stated. My bigger concern is his act. Oint on the jim crow i did not read the article. A little racist. That is a greater concern to me than the homosexual aspect of it. Host should he have been pulled from the air . Do not believe so. Everyone has a right to their opinion. People on tvot of that i do not agree with who are still on. A lot of people saying things that are just way out there. Miley cyrus, she was all over the tv doing those dances and the music awards thing was disgusting what she did. Host should she be allowed to do that . Yes, i guess so. It is her right as an american. Her rights are protected. Mr. Robertsons rights are protected. A e should have done what they did because he is voicing his own personal opinion. Host here is ted cruzs tweet from yesterday. If you believe in free speech or religious liberty, you should be deeply dismayed over treatment of Phil Robertson. Some of the comments regarding his tweet. Here are some of those. E is Ted Shackelford say an attack on christianity cloaked by speech arguments. Kathy says, i have already e, as my opinion to a many more have. Here is another comment. I am deeply dismayed that mike senator has such a poor understanding of free speech and has such amy senator poor understanding of free speech and liberty. If you are on twitter and are interested, you can do doug dynasty. There are thousands of comments. Duck dynasty. Here are a few comments. I do not care about duck dynasty. To deny rights is not equal rights. These are a couple of the comments we found. The duck dynasty star should be able to express his beliefs. There was no nastiness intended on his part. We engagedhappen if in conversation with those we passionately disagreed with . Some of the many twitter comments coming on duck dynasty. Thanks for holding, gainesville, texas, republican line. Caller i am not a pig. I am not a gun toting redneck. My brain is not much. I am a highly educated person. I despise miley cyrus and her she simulates. T is part of abc. It goes along with a vast left wing thing. Is not a natural anatomical act. Therefore, i am through. Thank you so much for cspan. Host should miley cyrus be allowed to be on tv . Caller no. If they are going to take robertson off, they should take her off. They should preview her things. It is very disgusting. You can turn your channel and not watch it. She is disgusting. Basically froms the bible. I do not understand about the jim crow because i did not watch that part. You can just turn the channel off if you do not like it. We are having a revolution beginning about christianity. Christians are knocked down every time you turn around. This is biblical what he was talking about. Straightforward and it was much what most people do not hear. Most people just take it and go on and do not think about it. When you think about it like he proposed it, it really becomes sad because it is not an act. Was a registered r. N these thingsout anatomically and everything. People have to live their own lives, i suppose. I do not support it and i will stand up for him. Color host this is keith in chicago on the democratic line. Caller can you say anything you want in your private life . A speech to an organization without any consequences on cspan . Host what do you think the answer to that question is . Course you cannot. You are entitled to say it. If you want to keep your job, you are not free of consequences. Majordia does us a disservice by making this debatable. This is not debatable. Tos is the medias job, educate and inform. In no way have his First Amendment rights been denied. I, as a private citizen, my employers are both lack and gay. I cannot tweet what i want it i cannot put on facebook what i want. If they saw comments that embarrassed them as a company, they would fire me. Why are we making the racial jim crow a secondary issue . That is not in the bible anywhere. Is not religious. He has a multiracial grandson, i believe. Enoughial comments were to have him suspended. I think he should be fired. The only reason they are not fired is because they bring in so much money. Lets not mainstream bigotry. We know bigots exist. Lets not give them platforms. Host this is keith and jonesboro, arkansas on our independent line. Caller this is an interesting conversation. A choice. Ity is i do not care what anybody says. They choose to engage in the act. It is unnatural, as one of your previous callers said. It is a totally unnatural act. Host we are talking more about free speech and Political Correctness. Caller that is what i was going to get to. This is about free speech. Why is it that certain groups are allowed to shout down those groups they do not agree with. They shout them down and shut them off. They do not want to hear about it. That is a problem. In america, we have the right. Cannot getpeople together to conspire to prevent someone to exercise their constitutional rights. All this man was doing was stating his particular beliefs. Like it or not, he stated them. That does not mean he should get fired were relieved of his duties. We just need to get on with our lives and quit this bickering about little things. Thank you and have a great day. Host from usa today, New Hampshire gop to scott brown, are you in . They might have hoped for a little gift from the former massachusetts senator, scott brown. To newas moved hampshire. He will register to vote in there. After a dozen political appearances in the state and a 10,000 donation to the state gop, will he also run for office . Sayle are starting to politely, fish or cut bait. You can only keep the show on the road so long and you have got to bring it to broadway. After losing his senate seat in 2012, round passed on to races in massachusetts. But he has made frequent but ,requent trips to New Hampshire where republicans are looking for a challenger for democratic jeanne shshaheen aheen. Washingtonm the newspaper. Two veteran groups want obama to veto the budget bill. They say the cuts to military Retirement Benefits are an insult to former troops. As commander in chief, president obama is the leader of the Nations Armed services and he has a duty to protect the interests of all military members, both active and retired. The chair of special operations for america. That is in the Washington Times. This is in the wall street journal this morning. New tweak to the Affordable Care act. The Obama Administration will allow some of the millions of americans whose Health Insurance policies have been canceled to purchase barebones plans in another 11th hour tweak to the law likel