Book i am the youngest child of the family. Guest i said that to him when we were first meeting each other it was that wasnt a student political meeting in ohio in 1962. We were writing notes back and forth to each other and he had something a sort of typical 19yearold boy and i wrote back. My family has a wonderful family. My father and mother are some of the most dedicated Public Servants in the history of the country. My father was elected in congress in 1940 before i was born there yet he was 26yearsold. My mother was 24. They had a baby girl and eight days later a baby boy. They came here and i think about it now in my old age and think about these kids coming to washington in this day and age age they would still be on their Parents Health insurance and there they were the members of congress and his wife so of course they were not scared to leave cocaine. But here it was the world war ii washington. And it was very similar to the period of washington that i write about in my history books. You have to go calling and the women were expected to call, i will get today is wrong but the cabinet on monday the senate on tuesday, the house on wednesday and scream Court Thursday and received on friday and it was very formal and organized. Mom told the story of the first day she had to go calling and there she was a very young woman moved to washington and they were living in an Apartment Building on connecticut avenue. She goes down running down the stairs to go calling and it was leedy kurt johnson and pauline gore driving and she became quite a few subgroup. Host what happened october 16, 1972 . Guest by father was the majority leader of the house of representatives and a spirit that was very typical of him when he campaigned for a freshman member of congress in alaska, and they had it had been a very tiring session up until that point she was very exhausted but he had made a promise and he was going to keep it. They took off on a small plane from Anchorage Alaska and headed for juno and the plane disappeared into this day has never been found. I lived in california at the time i was a young mother and i had a couple. I had a child who just turned two and my little boy turned for while i was in alaska looking for my father. My mother was we lost her last year but was a remarkable human being. A day doesnt go by without someone coming up to me telling me Something Else my fabulous mother did. She was from a long line of politicians in fact just recently steve here at the Brookings Institution has come out with a reprint of his 50 year old book americas political dynasties and realized that my mothers family were actually after the roosevelts, the second most political family in times of office and of course when she married my father, women were not coming into office but then when my father was killed, his plane disappeared, she ran for his seat in a special election in the march of 1973 and served until she decided not to run again in 1990. She made that decision because my sister was dying at the time, but then as always she discovered retirement was hard work because everybody asked her to do everything and she didnt have an excuse to say no. So at the age of 81 she took a new job offered to her by president clinton as the ambassador to the vatican and that was a wonderful experience for her. Host you right in write in the book we are our mothers daughters. She was a little cheerful of taking the seat because she would lose influence in a sense. Guest that was interesting because as a political wife she had a tremendous amount of influence. She, people like mrs. Johnson, mrs. Ford, the rest of them they were quite a cohort and they ran everything. They ran the political conventions, Voter Registration drives, their husbands offices and us kids. It was before the home rule when they started out in washington so they worked with the africanamerican women in washington to run all of the social services and so they were a powerful group of women and of course one of the things that my mothers power stemmed from his people were never quite sure where she stood. She made them always think that she was with them because she didnt actually have to vote and my sister said to her you know, what youre going to hate about being in congress is voting because there is no need be but him. You have to declare your self yes or no but she ended up being a very powerful member of congress. Host you write a she went to get a loan in Downtown Washington. Test code after she went to congress, this is one of the things that is very each grew as no to this day women in congress find they not only represent their districts and states that they represent the women of america and women come to them with all kinds of issues and problems that they did not come to the male members of congress and one of the things that became very clear was that women lost their credit they lost their husbands because the husband died or took off with someone. So my mother went to congress in march of 73 and went on to the Banking Committee and they were considering a bill to end discrimination in lending and they it said on the basis of race or national origin, and as she tells the story she went into the back room and wrote in longhand for sex or matter to a comparable status and brought it to the members of the committee and said very polite im sure that my colleagues put this by accident and of course thats how women got credit and then years later several years later not that many but we bought her house to house i and the house i grew up and where i still live and she was moving to Downtown Washington into a condominium and was having trouble with the loan and she called the bank and said since my income and assets are a matter of Public Record as a member of congress i find it strange that im having a difficulty with this loan in as the author of the equal credit act im worried that this is because i am a female and elderly and she had her loan that afternoon. [laughter] host lets take a quick look. Its my great honor to welcome you to this joint meeting in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of congress. This occasion is a very special part of the bicentennial congress which will be marched beneath the marked by historical publications, ceremonies, exhibits, a special film and other activities during 1989. All three branches of the federal government trace the beginnings to 1789 but it was the congress which assembled first and successfully launched the United States of america. Host by another was a great story in and she was the person that really put that love in me and she was the chairman of the bicentennial in congress. She had been the chairman of the bicentennials along the way. My sister said to her you know this is great. Everything is likely to turn 200 at some point. But particularly of course she appreciated that one as i said many members of her family had been in congress and they then assembled in Independence Hall and all that she was the person designed to side over it so if so she sat in a chair in George Washingtons and her feet didnt touch the floor. [laughter] host youve referred to your sister a couple times. Guest my sister was a really incredibly intelligent and humorous and beautiful delightful human being. She was a is a politician, local politics in new jersey for many years and she died of cancer. Host and you had another brother tom. Guest a prominent lawyer in washington and a lobbyist and he was again very smart, very funny. He also met a wellknown person in washington again someone who was incredibly generous with his time and talent and his treasure and he died last year. Host from your book we are our mothers daughters. As children, my brother and sister and i thought of people like sam rayburn, lyndon johnson, hubert come to the end gerald ford as friends who would come by for a casual dinner. Guest that is one of the great benefits of our lives. Barbara and tommy also both said we might not have had the kind of money that some of the people we knew had growing up in washington, but we have to treasure well beyond anything that you could put in the bank. Host is washington still like it was back then . Guest not even close. Its tragically different. I had the incredible honor a couple of years were several years ago now to be asked by teddy ford i joked i would have been scared to death except this is what she would have wanted me to say which is she would have wanted me to talk about washington when everybody was friends and harry ford and betty ford and my parents were very good friends and president ford said to me in my last interview i dont understand whats going on in washington now and that was well before it was as bad as it is now. When your dad and i come the majority have the majority leader and minority leader of the house, we would have big debates but then we would still be very good friends and he said for heavens sakes we were the leaders of our party in the house but then the debate would be over and we would sit down together and be good friends and they were. And susan ford and i are still good friends. Host we are our mothers daughters. Lets take a moment to explain what the womens vote is and what it is not. It is not a vote based on abortion or other socalled womens issues. All of our polling tells us men and women vote both the same on those questions. The womens vote is an economic vote. Guest its certainly true about the womens vote. The women still feel themselves economically more vulnerable than men because they are. Its a correct perception and there is the last phenomenon. But women also have a very different relationship with the role of government. That isnt to say that the women love government but they hate government less. [laughter] and thats when you think about it, its very understandable reasons. You think about who are the major beneficiaries of the biggest Government Program of medicare and Social Security women because we been because we wish you lived longer but who were the people taking care of people on those programs . When men and who were the people who are on welfare, women with children. You go to the Government Programs and they are either elderly women are younger women into chocolate and who works for government and who works for all kind of government we funded institutions like the arts council or libraries or hospitals in many cases. So theres a different attitude about government and that is what women bring to the podium. Host gun control, women see this as the mommy issue no guns on playgrounds, the ban on assault weapons would never have passed congress had there been fewer women in 1993. Only 23 of republican and voted for it at 67 of republican women. Guest then it expired and it was never renewed. You see it is very salient right now and there is no accident that Hillary Clinton is talking a lot about guns and gun control and a lot of it is to appeal to women. Host a lot of your history books are all of your history books are focused on women. Where did you get the idea . Guest its not like there are not history books about men. Theres a lot of those. But the first one i wrote was about the women of the founding period and really i got the idea from the women i was just talking about, the women of my growing up years who were so influential in washington and government. And you know as somebody that has covered congress and politics as long as i have you spend spending an enormous a lot of time with the founding fathers. They are invoked all the time as you know. The founders had this about that coming it almost always i would see about 99. 9 of the time somebody in Congress Tells about something is wrong. So i felt determined to speed to go back and read what he actually said about the right to bear arms or religion in the public square. So i started wondering about the women of this incredibly important and crucial period and figured they they have had to be at least as influential as the women of mine and when i went back to learn about them i had a hard time. It was very difficult to find out what they were up to because there was so little by way of letters and diaries with the exception of Abigail Adams who thankfully wrote and wrote and her family that saved her letters the rest of them are hard. Host you demand in the introduction to leave the liberty of Martha Washington burned all her letters. Guest just today i was reading a new book about martha and george and it highlighted the fact that shes elusive because she has burned her own letters indicates to her. What we have are just little stuff thats delete the snippets of their relationship and other others from people that we are able to piece together and at the mount the Mount Vernon Ladies Association has done a fine job of trying to find everything they can to try to flush out a portrait of Martha Washington. Host good afternoon and welcome to book tv on cspan2. This is in depth. Once a month we invite an offer to talk about his or her body of work. This month as one does political journalist and commentator Cokie Roberts whos written several books many history books, a couple of autobiography as well. If you would like to participate there are several ways every of your going to put the phone numbers on the screen 202748 edt hundred if you live in east and central time zones. 7488201 for those in pacific time zone and you can also send a text message. This is only for text please dont call this number if you want to send a text if you cant get through on the phone lines and want to make a comment try social media. Email booktv cspan. Org. Twitter has back booktv is a reporter handling and you can leave a comment on facebook. Com facebook. Com booktv. Youll see a promotion with Cokie Roberts speaking. Make a comment after that and we will find the comment. We will begin taking your calls in just a moment. Who is steve . Guest his birth certificate did have it wrong. One of the reasons they changed it. They changed it to roberts that we met in the summer of 1962. He was at harvard and i was a closely and we were at a National StudentAssociation Meeting at the university in ohio this and i have actually met his twin brother for that in boston and i looked across the campus and i saw this guy that looked like mark roberts put but it didnt look exactly like him and then we all had name tags on so i went out and looked at his name tag and i said are you mark roberts brother and he looked at my name tag instead argue his sisters and thats how we met. And we started dating sort of off and on then and more seriously her and married 1966. Host and he was several years at the New York Times. Guest right after college he had a the wonderful experience of being an intern or assistant whatever they call it. At that point of the most powerful journalist in washington, the columnist for the New York Times bureau chief and scotty was a wonderful mentor and a really kind adviser said he made sure after the year was up the New York Times hired steve on the city staff and so he went to new york and then we went to california adventure athens greece and came back here. Host i think your motherinlaw described you as the best jew in the family. Guest that wasnt a heavy competition. [laughter] but that is true. Guest i am a very serious catholic and we are about to enter this in fact tonight is the first night of hanukkah and we are about to enter a very busy season. Host by did your mother described as the best jew in the family . Guest we were dating as a catholic jewish couple that was unusual in that day and age. Its not at all anymore but it was. And i think that it was very difficult for steves parents. They havent really had the experience of having non jewish friends and they were very concerned about what it would mean for him to marry outside of the tribe and so it was a difficult courtship and finally be convinced them we would not only honor them and love them but also their religion and for me the only way to embrace judaism was to know about the religion. For them it was more of a cultural phenomenon. So i started being serious about learning about it and celebrating certainly the holidays and in fact at one point his mother joked or he joked and said she wouldnt have made me go to temple on the holidays. [laughter] host youve written two books together from this day forward. Guest just in the service that is where the passover and its a ritualistic liturgy. So we have had passover for close to 50 years and years and years and years ago i wrote a little version of this because our first passover that we have had i bought a version of it and anybody that can have arguments about it. It doesnt have what i like about this. So i got a bunch together and we sat down and typed up a version that we still use but at one point the publisher came and said why dont you put it between the hardcovers and so we did along with a lot of commentary and introductions talking about the way the passover and easter are connected, so it was a very interesting exercise. Host from this day forward you write about how Steve Roberts got you your first job is guest not my first job but my job at npr. My first job i got at the College Placement office of all things but it was a wonderful job for a Production Company in washington and in fact after i was working for them for about a year when we did a program on the air cold meeting of the lines where i was the anchor was 21yearsold and was important for me to meet the press so i found myself sort of going full cycle to a monday morning but steve and i than when we got married never, never even had a conversation about my staying with my very good job. We just assumed that i would quit and moved to new york where he was working and so i did. But then i moved there and we moved to greece and i worked there and then we came ba