What good we do, inside the house of representatives. He is a familiar face around these parts having spent the early part of his career as one of the marquee writers. It is kind of like dean martin and jerry lewis. He is currently a contributing writer to the New York Times magazine and National Geographic and his previous books include a critically acclaimed biography of george bush and two novels. He is a native of houston and please join me in welcoming robert draper. Thank you. I thought we would start broad. Are we better off than we were two years ago . [laughter] do i really have to answer that question . [laughter] well, i think that the unit of management that the democrats would use is different from that that the republicans would use. As Speaker John Boehner has said. The fact that we have passed a Record Number of bills the swell of congress. The we are not increasing taxes and that is one way of looking at it. It has a record low popularity Approval Rating this is a congress that is defined by dysfunction and gridlock. A congress in which and it is a policy point to the delivering body. For the people that have ascended to positions of leadership, do you think that they believe that they were elected to not do things as opposed to do things . I refer to the Tea Party Class of the congress, they believe they will do precisely what they were elected to do, which is to roll back all obama initiatives and cut spending a lot of them thought that the debt ceiling should not be increased. Basically they believe that their job is to obstruct barack obama and then once there is a republican president in place, to have a Better Business climate with more deregulation or the funding of programs that have never quite been near and dear to them. Yes, i think they do believe that. Flashing forward a little bit, we have that fiasco of 2011. When we were taken to the brink of a fiscal cliff what we were about to see again, the thinking on the part of the House Republicans leadership was maybe our tea party question will realize that compromise is not such a bad thing. The opposite occurred. They went home and the people tend to be the activists of their party and those people tend to be the tea party and they were the ones screaming and asking why did you accept a deal . There have been mixed messages and it is likely that we will see mixed signals from these people. The mixed freshmen are members of congress and they think the way, if only we could control them. It indicates that the leadership feels it is, itself, out of sync with those who obstruct us. The leadership is happy that they are leadership and that they are in power. That is it. I suspect that they week of screaming because they dont have control. Speaker john boehner, and Kevin Mccarthy this class of 2010 of the 87 freshmen, but these guys came in novel holden by any means to leadership and made it very clear from the outset that they were not going to just fall into line. It will prove to be the case when the democrats regain power. The enforcement tools are indeed of yesteryear. Especially since earmarks have now been banned and with the blogosphere, you can turn someone into an instant martyr by stripping them of their committee assignments. It is very hard. So there is a point in my book that i refer to after the debt ceiling fiasco of the summer of 2011 when i came back in yet another continuing resolution used to fund the government and the Obama Administration had not passed a budget and it was coming out. The republicans in the leadership believed that the own members voted against it. And the appropriations committee, which defined these resolutions and all others was insisting on a meeting with the leadership. We are cutting spending to record lows, and yes, these guys still are voting for us. We need to tell them to fall in line and Speaker Boehner said that we cant do that anymore. So the leadership doesnt feel like they are in a position to lead. On the debt ceiling or anything else . Yes. Whole books have been devoted to the debt ceiling and specifically, you know, the socalled grand bargain between Speaker Boehner and obama. It fell apart. A with all due respect to the authors of those stories and books, the bottom line is that Speaker Boehner never had the votes anyway. Whatever deal he would have struck was with the Obama Administration and would almost certainly have failed and he would not have been able to get sufficient votes or he would have relied so heavily on democratic votes to do so that he would run the risk of indirection. In fact, this is detailed in my book that there was a meeting during the whole showdown over the debt ceiling in which some of Speaker Boehners closest allies met in the office and said to him, if you come back with a deal that you fashioned with president obama doesnt get more than 100 votes or so, and eric cantor has already started to whisper a campaign against you, and we saw it happen with speaker Newt Gingrich and it can happen to you. Speaker boehner took that to heart and he walked away from a deal shortly after that. Coming to the interplay between the republican side in the second, task list. The president was initially doing a Des Moines RegisterEditorial Board and did not get the endorsement of that paper and one of the things he said is that he believed he could get a grand bargain struck on the debt ceiling if he were reelected on november 6. Based on what youre saying, it may not be possible if the freshmen, now sophomores, and some of the new members dont essentially give him their blessing to go cut a deal. They may feel in the same tough spot now that they were last year. A grand bargain based on what youre saying they not be possible if obama wins under any circumstance to well, i will go ahead and talk about it anyway because i have been doing general election reporting for the New York Times magazine. In talking to the Campaign Manager of the obama campaign, asking them how with the next four years, given that the american people, if they vote for president obama for another four years, will basically be voting against obstructionism and the republicans will get the message and they will be towards the center. I cant see that happening. You know, that is their talking point. Are you anymore optimistic when it was they that governor romney one on november 6. That there is some deal he office. No, i am not. It is that is what you meant specifically on governor romney and i im what is it about three weeks ago or so. I interviewed a number of people and particularly the more conservative of republicans who say this is a great moment for them if mitt romney wins. A moment for them to legislate aggressively driven agenda. My question is what if that is not so the wouldve romney decides that that is not how he wishes to govern. That it is in the mode of him being the governor of massachusetts. And one of the stars featured in my book said we have been pretty calm us far. If present nominee doesnt behave like a conservative, we are going to burn it down. [applause] okay, lets let that sit here and think right and. [laughter] lets come back to the leadership. Lets begin characterizing them beginning with Speaker Boehner. He was not the obvious choice to lead this sort of Tea Party Class. But nonetheless, you can see the Tea Party Phenomenon for the Freight Train that it was. So Speaker Boehner campaign heavily for a number of the tea party freshman. And he also believed that it presented republicans with a great opportunity. His belief was that this would be a perfect recipe for entitlement reform. If you are going after entitlement reform, ideally it had a bipartisanship so that they couldnt walk away from it. So he believed that he could leverage, you know, that the conservatism of the tea party and action. But he failed to do so. The tea party freshman with who i spend time with, you know, they found him as a congenial ceo. But certainly not as a real leader. And that has been implicitly clear throughout the 112th congress. Eric cantor is somewhat younger than Speaker Boehner and is a very clever guy and very ambitious. I think that they have found that this would not surprise any of them but it was leaking out to eric cantor, that Speaker Boehner was pursuing this separately with obama and this made him livid and tanner ultimately walked out of this certainly because of what was going on with Speaker Boehner. So does this sound childish you . [laughter] the question is a little childish. Which is john boehner wouldnt hesitate to push him out an open window, would he . Well, he isnt even tempered sword. You know,. So there is an essence between Speaker Boehner and eric cantor . Yes, i would say so. Working in the middle is the majority risk of Kevin Mccarthy. Mccarthy has only been in for three terms. So he is practically a freshman himself and he became sort of the big brother to them and that was a clever move on his part. So to the extent that anybody knows their whims and sentiments, they are very close. Mitt romneys running mate, is everyone mountain republican leadership, and that matter, republican ranks happy to see him there, any resentment of him . Do they respect him as much as they are said to for the brain and facility for numbers and all of that . They do respect him, and there are those who resent and distrust paul ryan in the Republican Party are the ryan budget, and the Republican House budget, they had ryans budget kicked around for several years as Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee back when pelosi and the democrats were in power. He would introduce that budget as the minority budget, and i think 20 to 25 of republicans voted against it, and, yet, when the Tea Party Wave came in and when the republicans retook the house, and now ryan was chairman of the House Budget Committee, he ryan was very, very clever to, for one thing, develop consensus among think tanks and the leadership as well, and the small number of moderates were drowned out, and ultimately, that bill passed with, i think, only four republicans voting against it, an astonishing, you know, kind of consensus. Hes ryans widely admired among the freshman class. A wise guy. What was written in the piece recently on ryan, ryan is one of those guys who pulled off the seat of being a politician who makes you feel like hes above politics. Hes not about politics. Hes practiced his own brand of politics, a cunning brand. Should they lose on november 6th, and congressman ryan is reelected running on the same day to the seat in wisconsin and returns to the chorus, is that going to be okay with him, and will that be okay with them or ryan with the newfound celebrity possibly displace boehner, cantor, and the others in a leadership role . It wont. Thats not the path hes interested in. I think he likes being in the house. You know, if hes not in the white house, being the chair of the House Budget Committee is actually where the action is, and, in fact, on the democratic side, Chris Van Hollen made a move away from the socalled leadership track to be the counter part, basically, to ryan because he knew that that was a high profile assignment that would benefit his ambitions as well. You mentioned the democrats, which reminds me theres some democrats. A few. You can be forgiven for thinking there are not in. We have not talk about the democrats reasonably getting back into the majority. We dont think that will happen. No, it will not. Not this time. How is pelosi regarded . I asked about the others. She was speaker pelosi, now leader pelosi. It was not a given she would be minority leader after losing the no. The majority, but shes in control, and theres not any insurrection on the democratic side to change the dynamic there. There will not be any kind of unsur recollection. Insurrection. Its interesting. I interviewed her for the book and other people on the democratic sides of leadership, and following around the republican freshman. It was interesting to see, you know, interesting to see them evolve, and that was a reason why i wanted to do the book, but what it involved, many things did not, but one thing was the opinion of pelosi, came to respect her. She holds her caucus together, and its a diverse caucus more than the Republican Caucus is, and she counts better than anyone in washington, else 218, the majority needed to get not house. After she lost the speakership and one of the dwindling number of democrats decided to run against her, i mean, she made it very clear quickly that she had the votes on him and a lot of people who, had she not moved quickly, who might have supported schuler realized it was not a good idea to be in a losing cause, but be out there. Shes a formidable person. Also, shes the face of the democratic house, and democrats at large, and thats not been a good thing. After the democrats lost in 2010, theres a meeting that i, a Democratic Caucus that pelosi called closed door, none of the staffers were present, and pelosi said what i would like is just for the people who are defeated, the election, id like this to be their opportunity to vent what they want to vent, and, in fact, the line was long. Democrats lost, and some said they lost because the obamacare and glad to fall on their speer for that. Others blamed no one, you know, it was just the nature of an unpopular president who dragged them down. The particular socalled democrats in the moderate or swing districts say speaker pelosi, you know, i have a lot of respect for you, but you have become the face of our defeat. I through no fault of mine, i cant, you know, i campaigned as a moderate congressman, but when it came for a campaign against me in 2010, all they did was run ads, a picture of you, nancy pelosi, and me as if we were best buds. If i run against the guy who beat me, they do that again. Thats the playbook, and a successful one of the pelosi has been indeed, you know, the fire pelosi was the big, there was a banner throughout 2010, and after the big sue tsunami hit the tear party wave, they took the sign down and said hire pelosi. Is leader pelosi or the president more problematic for the democrats today in terms of their desire to regain the majority in the house . Well, i think thats maybe a distinction at that level are meaningless. They are both problematic, and you dont find a lot of democrats other than in liberal districts that wouldnt need Barack Obamas help anyway campaigning with the president. They use, you know, the obama apparatus and the pelosi app apparatus for fundraising, and thats it. There was a socalled drive to 25. Thats how many seats are necessary for democrats to flip and regain power. There appeared to be a moment in time when a particularly after this woman kathy won on in upstate new york. In upstate new york, yeah, on taking chris lees seat on a mediscare platform basically, looking to be the winning argument for them, saying the republicans end the medicare guarantee, but now thats not sufficiently potent to get them the majority. I want to take the moderator at the texas book festivals prerogative here and ask about a texas congressman who you write about in the book. One of these freshman elected from Corpus Christi who is a very interesting guy if you Pay Attention to the delegation. Hes more interesting and fun to write about and cover than the others. Why did you pick him to write about . Yeah. Would you talk about him to this group. Many of you know the name, but know it in a different context. His grandmother is a liberal icon. Black did not get politics from his grandmother. He was an entrepreneur and accidental congressman running in 2010 in the texas Congressional District including Corpus Christi, and at the time included brownsville, a district, in other words, that was 70 hispanic. Blake, himself, spoke no spanish, and was a political unknown; however, in 2010, despite the numbers being overwhelmingly again him, a midterm year, latino voters stayed home, and there was a Big Tea Party movement in the area, and he won by 800 or 900 votes. Beat senior, a long time democratic member of the congress. Thats exactly right, yeah. He arrived because he was inexperienced of the ways of government at large. He arrived three and a half weeks after everybody else did because the recoup, and so he was, you know, i followed a lot of the congressman around to get aceps of the congressional experience, and his was one of the citizens politician who tries, as he might, to never catch up, just always, sort of, you know, holding on to the medicine ball for dear life and never getting on top of it. He was he his he told me he had this recurring nightmare that he was alone in his office, and there was no furniture, and only a phone that rang and rang and rang, and he was never able to get it. [laughter] he told us, a group of business lobbyists, he said, you know, you have that anxiety dream, apparently, anxiety dreams are big in the house of his mind that, you know, that anxiety dream of, like, going to school looking down, and youre not wearing your pants. You guys have to be the guys to tell me to wear my pants and what to vote for. You know, i remember him saying early he was tr