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Opening Day of 112th Congress; Unemployment in America; Robert Gibbs Stepping Down; Rep. John Boehner, Nancy Pelosi Nominated for Speaker of the House; Senate Pays Tribute to Longest Serving Woman Senator, Barbara Mikulski Of Maryland
Aired January 05, 2011 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "SITUATION ROOM": I'm Wolf Blitzer. We're here in Washington, together with the "Best Political Team on Television." Candy Crowley is here, Gloria Borger is here, Donna Brazile -- welcome, Donna. We've got John King up on Capitol Hill joining us right now.
John, quickly set the scene for us because it's going to be a dual screen, if you will, a split screen, what's happening in the House of Representatives, the Republicans taking over, also what's happening in the U.S. Senate. The Democrats, albeit a smaller majority, they will continue to be the majority in the Senate.
JOHN KING, HOST, "JOHN KING USA": Wolf, It's a dramatic day here. You have a great sense of anticipation. The American people watching at home might be wondering, What does it mean to me? The biggest drama is, of course, on the House side, where you have a transition in the balance of power here in Washington. John Boehner, as you noted, becomes the Speaker. He replaces the country's first woman Speaker, Nancy Pelosi.
As the Republicans take charge, there will be great ceremony. And we can show you a picture of the House floor as we do it. There will be a great ceremony, the traditional passing of the gavel. Today will be a day for oath-taking and speech-making.
But then we move to the substance, and the substance matters here. So there is both big ceremony and big substance today as the Republicans cease power on the House side.
And as you noted, on the Senate side as well, the Republicans will have more seats. The Democrats will have the majority, Wolf, but Republicans, essentially, have veto power in the United States Senate.
So what does that set up? Divided government -- we've had it in the United States many times before -- a Democratic president down the road, a Republican Speaker, a Democratic Senate majority leader with very little room to maneuver and huge challenges facing the country, from spending, to whether the health care law stays or is amended, or the Republicans can succeed, unlikely, in repealing it.
And already, Wolf, there's great frustration among some of the new members who have yet to be sworn in. This is the "Pledge to America," if I could show it to you quickly, come off the House floor and the drama there.
This is the "Pledge to America" that the House Republicans campaigned on twice in this document. It says they will cut spending by more than $100 billion in their first year in office, and their leadership has already told these new members -- here's the pledge -- already told some of the new members, well, maybe $50 billion. This is hard, and we're just taking power now, and we can't do it as fast as we would like.
And so you have Tea Party tensions, you have establishment tensions. As the Republicans take power, there will be celebrations today, Wolf, but there's a had the of work to be done.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: John, Lorraine Miller is calling the House to order right now. She's the clerk of the House, of the 111th Congress. She's about to call into session the 112th Congress. She's a holdover from the Democratic majority.
Let's listen in briefly.
LORRAINE MILLER, CLERK, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: By public law, 11- 289 pursuant to the 20th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States for the meeting of the 112th Congress of the United States, the House will come to order.
The prayer will be offered by Father Coughlin.
REV. DANIEL COUGHLIN, CHAPLAIN, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: Let us pray.
Come, Holy Spirit. Fill the hearts of your faithful believers and kindle within them the fire of divine love, that they may be truly open to respond to your word and the needs of your people.
Lord, send forth your spirit and renew the face of the Earth. May the spirit of the living God descend upon this chamber, that from here, may come forth good news for the poor, healing for the brokenhearted, and renewed hope in the nation. Let there go forth a proclamation to the people that captivity has ended and the action of true politics will set this nation free. By setting single-minded self-interest aside, in the search for the common good, may a just society flourish with the gifts of your spirit and be recognized by others for its equal justice, unity and peace.
Lord, may the 112th Congress of the United States of America be an instrument of your goodness with abiding laws and grace, and clarity and policy statements reaching beyond institutional thinking and public opinion polls. May every human life in this country be renewed with dignity and purpose so we may truly be the glory given to your name as the free children of God, made in your image and conformed to your saving grace, both now and forever.
Amen.
BLITZER: The Reverend Daniel Coughlin. He delivers the opening prayer for this historic day. Looking at a split screen right now. On the one side, the House of Representatives. On the other side, the U.S. Senate.
The president of the U.S. Senate -- that happens to be the vice president of the United States at all times -- that's Joe Biden right now. He's about to start swearing in some of the new members of the United States Senate. That's why we're showing both of those.
Joe Biden is now in the Senate. He's there. He's standing up.
Let's listen in to Biden right now.
JOSEPH BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The Senate will come to order, please.
The chaplain, Barry Black, will read the -- will say the Senate prayer.
BLITZER: All right. So there you have what's going on, a little bit of the formalities on both sides.
The real history though unfolding in the Senate, where there's a dramatic shift -- in the House of Representatives, I should say -- a dramatic shift from the Democratic majority. Nancy Pelosi, now the outgoing Speaker, the former Speaker, to John Boehner, the new Speaker of the House of Representatives. He'll be sworn in shortly.
Dana Bash is our senior congressional correspondent.
Dana, there's a lot of stuff going on in both chambers, but the real excitement, the real history right now, is in the House.
DANA BASH, CNN SR. CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And what you see right now -- you mentioned this before -- it's Lorraine Miller. She's the clerk of the House.
She is basically, effectively, in charge of the House right now. She is going to be the one, and she's the one who has called it to order. She is going to be the one who is going to call on people to nominate the historic moment that we will see, meaning the nomination for John Boehner to be Speaker, the nomination for Nancy Pelosi to become the new House Minority Leader, Democratic Leader. So she's going to be in charge there until probably around 2:20.
So for about an hour and 20 minutes, we're not going to have sort of an official Speaker yet, if you will. I mean, obviously Nancy Pelosi still has the title.
But this is going to be absolutely momentous. And you'll remember, it was just four years ago that we saw those pictures of John Boehner handing the gavel over to Nancy Pelosi.
Well, now she's going to have to give it back. And we're going to hear from both of them in pretty interesting speeches. We've got some excerpts from both of them, and particularly from John Boehner. He is going to say that he believes that this is going to be, from his perspective, the people's House again. He's going to try to make it very low key, as he has done in the days and weeks leading up to this, making clear that there is no celebration like we saw from the Democrats' takeover of the Congress four years ago, a very different tone that we're going to see.
But I just want to also tell you where I am, Wolf. I am in the Will Rogers corridor, if you will. But I'm right off the House chamber.
So if you just kind of take a look back here -- if we can point back -- right down the hall, that is where the Speaker's office is. That is where Nancy Pelosi had her office.
John Boehner has already moved into that office. That is now his office. It is a very, very nice set of digs, so to speak, a very nice suite. And he already has that office, and we're seeing members of Congress who are new, who are old, coming in, ready to be sworn in.
It's certainly -- it's electric here.
BLITZER: And there's the sign of the new Speaker of the House, "John A. Boehner." You can see right there, they've got that ready to go.
He's in. He'll be formally sworn in, in the next couple of hours or so. But for all practical purposes, he's the Speaker of the House.
Candy Crowley, you've covered the House of Representatives for a long time. Given the rules in the House, as opposed to the rules in the Senate, they've got a lopsided majority, the Republicans, right now. They can basically -- assuming they can all remain on the same page, the moderate Republicans, the Tea Party movement Republicans, they can basically do in the House whatever they want.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Sure, as the Democrats did when they were in charge and had such a huge majority. And I love the idea of just four years ago, Boehner gives the gavel to Pelosi, now she gives it back to him. And I think that would be good to sort of watch chronologically, because what it tells you about the voters is they can change their minds pretty darned quickly.
BLITZER: And they're doing a quorum call, first business in the House of Representatives, to make sure they have enough members there. So this is a real procedural thing.
CROWLEY: I'm betting they do have a quorum today.
BLITZER: I think they'll have 435 members of the House of Representatives.
All right. Joe Biden on the Senate side. He's the president of the Senate.
Let's listen in to see what's going on there.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS) BIDEN: -- at the desk in groups of four, as their names are called in alphabetical order, the chair will administer the oath. The clerk will read the names of the first group.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ms. Ayotte of New Hampshire; Mr. Bennet of Colorado; Mr. Blumenthal of Connecticut; Mr. Blunt of Missouri.
BLITZER: All right. Here, the vice president is about to swear in the new senators. Some of them are former senators, incumbent senators. Some of them are brand new senators.
He's doing them in groups of four. And you'll be seeing this unfold in alphabetical order.
Let's just watch this first group of four.
BIDEN: Would you please raise your right hands?
I'm going to read the entire oath and you will respond appropriately.
"Do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that you will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, that you take this oath freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you are about to enter, so help you God?"
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: I do.
BIDEN: Congratulations.
(APPLAUSE)
BLITZER: All right. So there it is. It's going to happen repeatedly now, as the vice president swears in the new Senate. Every two years, a third of the Senate is elected, comes up for election. And we've just seen what's happened.
The Democratic majority has gone down from 59 to 53, 47 Republicans in the Senate.
This role that the vice president has in the Senate, it's not just symbolic, Gloria, as you well know.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: No. He has really served -- particularly, we saw it, I think, in the lame-duck session, with the whole question of the tax cut issues -- he's essentially been the chief congressional liaison here, using his roots in the Senate to talk to people on both sides of the aisle.
CROWLEY: They're far deeper than the president's and far friendlier.
BORGER: Exactly. And I think you're going to se him doing that more and more, because he's going to be needed in that role to -- you know, to talk to Republicans, not only in the Senate, by the way. He was the person they sent into the lion's den to talk to House Democrats when House Democrats were really mad about this tax cut deal. So I think you're going to see Biden's domestic policy role be really increased during this next session of Congress.
DONNA BRAZILE, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: There's a lot of institutional friends up on the Hill.
BORGER: Yes.
BRAZILE: He knows them quite well. He campaigned for a lot of the Democrats. They trust him, they know his politics. But he's not just well connected on the Hill, he's well connected across this city.
BLITZER: You see what they're doing on the Senate side, which is on the right-hand side of your screen. They're signing the journal, these senators. Now that they are United States senators, including -- you saw Senator Blumenthal of Connecticut, a new senator from Connecticut, succeeding Chris Dodd. They formally sign these journals.
Let's listen to the vice president once again.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- Mr. Boozman of Arkansas; Mrs. Boxer of California; Mr. Burr of North Carolina; Mr. Coats of Indiana.
BLITZER: These are the next four U.S. senators who are going to be sworn in. They're accompanied by senators from their home states.
This is the tradition. And the vice president will once again administer the oath, as he just did.
As we watch this unfold -- and let's watch it again, because I sort of appreciate the pomp and circumstance, the history of what's unfolding. Let's watch once again these new senators being sworn in.
BIDEN: Would you all please raise your right hand? And I will read the oath.
"Do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that you will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, that you take this oath freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you are about to enter, so help you God?"
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: I do.
BIDEN: Congratulations, Senators.
(APPLAUSE)
BLITZER: If you were looking closely, you saw the former vice president of the United States, Dan Quayle. He's standing right next to Richard Lugar over there. He was accompanying the newly-elected senator from Indiana, Dan Coats, as well. The former vice president was once a senator. He was also, as vice president, president of the Senate as well. So there's a lot of history unfolding right now.
Now they're signing in the register to make sure that all of this is official, that there will be 100 U.S. senators as usual. And as I pointed out, a much smaller Democratic majority.
But given the rules -- and Donna, let me bring you in here -- given the rules of the Senate, a lot of these Democratic senators want to weaken this filibuster rule because they're afraid that the Republicans will be able to hold up legislation in the Senate. But you know what? Some Democrats -- and I've been speaking to some of them -- they're afraid to go too far, because they're worried, two years from now, if the Republicans have another debacle, or another shellacking, whatever you want to call it, the Democrats will nostalgically look backward and say those filibuster rules are great, because they're going to want to prevent the Republicans from pushing through legislation.
So they have a walk a delicate line right now, the Democrats.
BRAZILE: Yes. Wolf, I think the frustration among Democrats on the Senate side is that they saw this legislation come from the House, and it arrived at the Senate, and it was stalled. So, they're looking for ways to get the debate going in the Senate, to stop one senator from putting a hold on legislation, from stopping this endless filibuster where they don't get around to tackling some of the major issues facing the country.
BLITZER: Erick Erickson is our CNN contributor as well.
Erick, this is something though, if the Democrats get their way right now, and weaken the filibuster rules, change the filibuster rules, not necessarily do away with that 60-40 filibuster majority that is required, supermajority, if you will, they could live to regret it in two or four years.
ERICK ERICKSON, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Very much so. The irony here is that just five years ago, when the Republicans were trying to push through George Bush's judicial nominees, the Democrats were hooting and hollering that you just couldn't get rid of the filibuster. And remember, we had the Gang of 14 compromise to preserve the filibuster.
I'm being told, actually, by some Democrats that what they're probably going to wind up doing, ultimately, is getting rid of the secret holds that tie up the Senate and leave the filibuster, because you've got a lot of the grownups in the room, if you will, who have been there in the minority, who are realizing, you know, maybe we don't want to get rid of this. And besides, you've got Republicans in the House now anyway, so it's not like we can get stuff out of the Senate and then get it through the House anyway.
BLITZER: Erick, stand by for a moment.
I want to go quickly back to Dana Bash.
Dana, where you are, I take it the incoming Speaker is going to be walking right past you fairly soon. What's going on?
BASH: That's right. We just got word, Wolf.
I mentioned to you that the Speaker's suite is right down the hall. John Boehner already has that office even though he isn't officially Speaker yet. We're told that just in a few moments, he's actually going to come down this hall. And on the other side of me is actually where the House chamber is.
So he will be coming down, walking into the House chamber, so that he can be there to become the 61st Speaker of the House.
BLITZER: Well, maybe if he walks right by you, Dana, you'll grab your little handheld microphone, and you'll encourage him to come over to our location, and you'll speak to him for a few moments. That would be pretty cool, right?
BASH: It would be cool. I'll try, but I'm going to lower expectations for him stopping though -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Well he might. I don't know why the Speaker would resist Dana Bash, who's an excellent reporter. I'm sure she'll ask some excellent questions as well.
If you get him, let us know. We'll immediately come right to you, Dana. Stand by for that.
Gloria, didn't the framers of the Constitution want the U.S. Senate to go slowly, the House of Representatives to go more quickly? Wasn't that all part of the process?
BORGER: They did, but the question is whether they indeed wanted the legislative process to come to a complete halt, which is what we've seen in recent Congresses.
And, you know, with Congress having a 13 percent approval rating, people believing that they're getting anything done, one of the reasons they're not getting anything done is because you can't get anything passed out of the United States Senate. And that's a problem, and that's why the House is so upset, because they've taken a lot of tough votes.
Things go over to the Senate, nothing happens. And, you know, former vice president Walter Mondale, who was also a senator, wrote a piece the other day saying, you know what? It's really time to end this so the Senate can actually get to work. Right now, you cannot even start debate on pieces of legislation, and that's part of the public's frustration, I think.
CROWLEY: I think in some ways, though, you could argue at this point that you have to have the magic 60 to start the debate on the bill and to get to a vote, et cetera, et cetera. Now that the numbers are much closer in the Senate, it almost forces bipartisanship in a way, that magic 60, because nobody can get where they're going without somebody from the -- and the numbers you need from the other party are now growing.
And I think the other thing we should point out at least is the Republicans say, yes, we did do a lot of filibusters, we did put a lot of holds on, but it's because they would set it up so that we couldn't amend bills that were on the floor. So that's their argument. So it's --
BORGER: So maybe you allow debate to start with 50 votes, and then still have a filibuster.
CROWLEY: Well, and allow amendments on it, is what they're arguing, is they weren't allowed to --
BLITZER: Let me tell our viewers what's going on.
The split screen on the left is the House of Representatives. On the right is the U.S. Senate.
They've got a quorum call in the House. And there you see Daniel Inouye. He was just reelected, the Democratic senator from Hawaii.
He's the Senate pro tempore. He's the leader of the Senate, in effect. If you take a look at the line of succession, the president, the vice president, the Speaker of the House, then the Senator Pro Tempore of the Senate. He's the most senior of the U.S. senators, so he's next in line.
He's really, when you think about it, third in line to the presidency. Senator Inouye, once again, easily reelected in Hawaii right there.
John King is up on Capitol Hill watching all of this unfold.
It's interesting. All of the action today, John, deliberately, is on Capitol Hill. A lot of the excitement in the House of Representatives, a little bit less excitement in the U.S. Senate.
But the White House is pretty much dark on this day. The president very much low key, letting the Congress get all of the attention.
KING: And that is traditional respect here in Washington, whether the president is Democrat or Republican, to let the Congress have its big day, Wolf.
But the president, too, is part of the transition and the balance of power, planning a big staff shakeup, confirming publicly today his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, will be leaving soon. He's looking potentially for a new chief of staff. It could go to the Clinton administration veteran, the former Commerce secretary, Bill Daley, for that.
David Axelrod, the senior adviser, leaving. David Plouffe, the former campaign adviser, coming in. So, we are at a big time of transition and power shifting here in Washington. As you're watching those two screens, it's pretty fascinating. You're watching these new senators sworn in -- Roy Blunt of Missouri, a veteran member of the House, now in the United States Senate, Kelly Ayotte, new Republican from New Hampshire, she was the state's attorney general. You mentioned Dick Blumenthal, Democratic of Connecticut. He was the state attorney general.
John Boehner now walking in. Let me be quiet and watch the new Speaker walk to a big day in his life.
BASH: Mr. Speaker, could you give us a quick comment? We're live on (INAUDIBLE).
KING: That's what we call a nice try by my favorite CNN correspondent, the senior congressional correspondent, Dana Bash, there.
You know, this is an interesting time for John Boehner because he is a veteran legislator, as all of you know in the room. He worked with George W. Bush and the late Ted Kennedy on the No Child Left Behind Act. He is known as somebody who cuts deals, who makes compromises.
Yet, he now manages a Republican conference that has all these Tea Party members who don't think much of the Democrats, who don't think much of the president of the United States, who want to slash and slash and cut and make government smaller in Washington. John Boehner is someone who, in the process now, is about to become Speaker of the House. He has a huge management challenge as he signs in there, Wolf.
There you see George Miller, the veteran liberal with the mustache there from California, next to him. This is a monumental management and political challenge for the new Speaker of the House.
BLITZER: You know, it's interesting, John. As we saw the Speaker walking by, he's going to have to get used to a lot more media attention as Speaker of the House, as compared to being the minority leader of the House of Representatives. It just comes with the territory.
You saw cameras outside his townhouse up on Capitol Hill today. There's going to be a lot more media intrusion, if you will, in his life than he had in the past. And maybe he'll check in with Nancy Pelosi to get some tips on how to deal with all of that, because he certainly could learn from Nancy Pelosi. I suspect they're not going to have a whole lot of conversations on that.
But you see there he's shaking hands with not only Republicans, but Democrats as well.
This is an historic day in the United States House of Representatives. John Boehner, 61 years old, has served in the House for a number of years. At one point, he was on the out, now he's very much on the in. He's the next Speaker of the House. He'll formally be sworn in after about two hours of preliminary activities on the floor of the House of Representatives.
Our special coverage here on this opening day of the 112th Congress will continue right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: All right. You're looking at a split screen over there.
On the left, the House of Representatives. They're continuing their preliminary work, calling for the quorum to make sure that 435 representatives are there, at least a quorum is there. They're getting ready to swear in the new Speaker of the House, John Boehner.
On the right, the vice president, Joe Biden. He's the president of the U.S. Senate.
He's swearing in new members. You see Rand Paul just signing in over there. He has just been sworn in himself as the U.S. senator -- a U.S. senator, I should say -- from Kentucky. There's Rob Portman of Ohio. He's a new senator, former member of the House of Representatives.
All right. A lot of history unfolding up on Capitol Hill.
John King is standing by. He's got a special guest as well -- John.
KING: Wolf, with the transfer of power as John Boehner becomes Speaker, there is a dramatic shift in the control of all of the congressional committees. And we're joined now by Congressman Darrell Issa of California, Republican of California. He is about to become the chairman of the Government Oversight Committee.
And Congressman, Mr. Chairman, you have promised aggressive investigations of this administration, and you have drawn some criticism, even before you become chairman in just a few moments, because you have already said on the record before you've had any hearings and any evidence and used your subpoena power before you, that you believe this is one of the most corrupt administrations in history.
Do you owe the president and his administration an apology for saying that before you've done your work?
REP. DARRELL ISSA (R), CALIFORNIA: Well, in the last Congress, we saw that this last Congress and the Congress before handed out huge amounts of money to this administration that were misused. TARP money never authorized the bailout of car companies and their union pension companies, causing the bondholders to be stiffed.
So, there has been a great deal of misuse of those monies. But I've always said that Congress is more to blame.
We have an absolute obligation to deliver our money without that kind of specificity. So I've never blamed the administration alone. They were given this money. They misused it. But the fact is they were given this money.
KING: But you have called them corrupt, sir. You just twice used the word "misuse." That's a judgment on your part. And you will have subpoena power. You can have hearings. You can call up the witnesses. And we will see what the evidence shows in the weeks and months ahead.
Was it wrong to use the word "corrupt," which you have used repeatedly, when you have not yet had a hearing?
ISSA: I think people misunderstand the meaning of the word "corrupt." And obviously CNN does.
"Corrupt," or "corrupted" or "failure," it's no different than a disk drive that's giving you some bits that are wrong. I've never said it's illegal. I've never made any of the statements that are often said on CNN that imply wrongdoing of the president at a criminal level.
But I do believe that the American people have changed control of the House, in no small part because they saw more regulation, more misspending than they ever dreamed possible. And they need Republicans to be part of the balance to bring that back under control.
And we have to be honest. A lot of that misconduct, if you will, of too much loose money started years ago under a Republican president, a Republican Congress.
So understand, as chairman, I intend to go back to the beginning of the Bush administration and look at the early funding of the war, and many things that can never be allowed to happen again. We cannot give the president blank checks or walking around money.
KING: I would give you, myself, personally, as someone who's been here 22 years, a big "amen" if what you conduct is congressional oversight, fair oversight of the administration. So help the American people on your first day of power understand where you draw the lines. What is first out of the box for Chairman Darrell Issa? And you will face partisan pressure -- you know that, sir -- in your new job.
Where do you draw the line between oversight and witch-hunt?
ISSA: Well, first of all, I said on Sunday that the administration doesn't need additional lawyers. They need more accountants.
We intend on working with the IGs and with all the government accounting organizations to try to find opportunities for saving, look for redundant programs and so on. We're going to begin not by doing any witch-hunts, but by taking the bipartisan work that Chairman Towns and I were doing in the last Congress and continuing it.
That will include things like food and drug safety. It will include looking at Countrywide and the programs they had that may have led to, at least in no small part, the loss to the American people.
As you know, Freddie and Fannie both received $1.3 billion each in settlement from the Countrywide misconduct. So we're going to continue on those because they're bipartisan. The subpoena against Countrywide was issued by Chairman Towns. As we go forward though, we're going to be looking for job killers and regulatory excesses. We're going to be calling in business, if you will, employers and job creators and trying to get their look on what it takes to get America working again.
KING: Congressman Darrell Issa, I want to bring in to the conversation, all her to ask a couple questions, our senior Congressional correspondent, Dana Bash. And as I do so, I just want to tell our viewers, you're watching the drama unfold on Capitol Hill. You see the current Speaker of the House, soon to be the former Speaker, the Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, on the floor of the House as we watch the pictures unfold.
Dana, take it away.
DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, John.
Mr. Issa, I just want to ask you, one of the things that you said, your aides released a list of the areas that you will want to look into.
ISSA: Right.
BASH: One is whether or not there is excess regulation on businesses. There's a report that along with that, you sent a letter to 150 trade groups asking for advice on
ISSA: Trade groups and individual companies.
BASH: OK. Is it not untoward for a Republican chairman to ask businesses what regulations they don't like?
ISSA: No, just the opposite. It is the appropriate thing to do.
You know, President Obama has invited -- and they have come -- CEOs to come in and say, what is it going to take to get America working again? I didn't assume that I should invite them to the Oval Office and listen. That's his job. My job was to try to find an efficient way to get the same sort of input. And we decided to spread a much wider net, initially, 150.
But Dana, I've got to tell you. We've had dozens and dozens of companies and trade groups who said they were left out and they'd like to have some input, too.
BASH: Bit it just seems as though for a Republican Congress coming in, promising to do things differently, that it seems like business as usual for Republicans to be asking businesses about information about how Congress can change things to make it easier for them to operate.
ISSA: Please, please, don't be so naive. Business as usual would be listening to trade groups behind closed doors or at fundraisers. We're listening to them on the record. What they say is going to be published. And when we have them before our committee, we're going to be asking them to speak with specificity about what we can do to be part of job creation. So I think open government is what we're changing, too. Just the opposite of business as usual.
BASH: Mr. Issa. Thank you so much. Your committee, obviously, is to be one that we're going to be watching carefully.
ISSA: Thank you.
BASH: Thank you and congratulations today on you being sworn in.
On that note, Wolf, I want to toss it back to you so we can get a sense of what's happening on the House floor.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: On the House floor they're wrapping up their quorum call, their quorum vote, to make sure there are enough member there is and there certainly are on this historic day. You see the totals now, not voting, 2, 433 present. Republicans, 241 and 192.
By the way, the official numbers in this new 112th Congress, 242 Republicans, 193 Democrats, will be in this new House of Representatives. We're watching what's going on. The vice president and the Senate is wrapping up swearing in the newly elected members of the United States Senate, in the Senate, right now. With that business removed, they're calling the roll to make sure there's enough members there to do the business.
Swearing in new members is one of the official roles of the vice president, who's also president of the Senate. The other official role is breaking a tie if there's a tie. It's up to the vice president, the president of the Senate to break that tie.
Ed Henry's over at the White House where it's relatively low key on this day. As it should be, the activity is up on Capitol Hill, the other end of the Pennsylvania Avenue. Although there was some news out of the White House today and we're getting ready for a little briefing.
ED HENRY, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Oh, absolutely. Robert Gibbs is going to be briefing in just a few moments. He's going to be around for a few more weeks, but is officially stepping down sometime after the State of the Union at the end of this month. It has been expected for a while. And he's going to go out to the private sector. Maybe recharge the batteries, but still be very much engaged with this president.
As you know, Robert Gibbs goes all the way back to Barack Obama's first Senate campaign in 2004. And so he's going to be on the outside, coming on your program, making sure he's pushing back on behalf of the president. Just doing it from outside the White House, more free. Not having to deal with governance. Just deal with politics, 24/7, because they have a big re-election coming up.
When you step back and look at the big picture, this means that just in a few week, you're going to have Robert Gibbs, David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel all gone within just a few months. The troika that really was sort of the key power center in this White House for two years. All going to be gone. Replaced by some familiar faces. David Plouffe coming in, in a few days, the former Obama campaign manager. Speculation is maybe Bill Daley will come in the former Clinton Commerce secretary. Some new faces, some old faces.
But I think the bottom line what you'll hear from Robert Gibbs, from the podium in a few moments, what you are going to hear from this president in the days ahead, when you talk to his senior aids. Is they are really going to hammer the message that now the Republicans have a responsibility to govern. We heard this on Candy Crowley's program, "STATE OF THE UNION" a few weeks back, when Robert Gibbs was there. They're going to hit it harder now, which is that look, for two year, they feel the Republicans threw stones. They didn't have the responsibility to govern. Now, they have at least half of Congress in their control and that they're going to have to meet this president halfway.
The president said in his new year's message, he's ready to meet them halfway. There's a lot of talk on both sides about working together. We've heard that many, many times, but there are some senior aides here who are hopeful that as we saw in this lame duck session of Congress, at the end of December, that maybe divided government will force both sides to come together on some of these big issues, Wolf.
BLITZER: Ed Henry up over at the White House, the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. We'll dip in and listen to see what Robert Gibbs has to say at his briefing once that starts.
In the Senate, on Capitol Hill, and House of Representatives, they're moving along rapidly right now, getting ready for the official business to continue on. On the House floor, I want to quickly listen in to see what's going on.
(BEGIN LIVE FEED, IN PROGRESS)
REP. JEB HENSARLING, CHAIRMAN OF THE REPUBLICAN CAUCUS: Be it providence or destiny, a unique man, of uniquely American values, is now called to lead this effort. At a time when far too many of our countrymen remain unemployed, a former small businessman will lead the House to pass polices to encourage job creation. At a time when all agree our nation is on an unsustainable fiscal course, a fiscal reformer will ensure that this House never mortgages the torch of liberty in order to pay our debts.
At a time when too many doubt that their children can enjoy a brighter future in our country, he has lived the American dream, and will protect it for our posterity like few others before him. This proud son of Ohio, one of 12 children born into a working-class family has waited tables, mopped floors, tended bar, worked construction, worked his way to a college degree at night school. Led a thriving company and through his faith, his hard work, his values, is now poised to become the next speaker of the House of Representatives.
He knows firsthand that unlimited opportunity can only arise from limited constitutional government. Madam Clerk, as chairman of the Republican conference, I'm directed by unanimous vote of that conference to present for election to the office of the speaker of the House of Representatives for the 112th Congress, the name of the Honorable John A. Boehner, a representative elect of the state of Ohio! (APPLAUSE)
BLITZER: John Boehner's family, 10 of his siblings are there with their respective families. Unfortunately, one of the children could not come in from Ohio, to see what is going on, but they're all up there in the speaker's box on the -- in the House of Representatives watching their brother. He's about to become the speaker of the House of Representatives.
It has come to be known as a shellacking that the Democrats took in the House of Representatives, 435 members in the House. There are 96 new members, freshman members, of the House of Representatives. Just to put it into some perspective. Of those 96, the new members of the House of Representatives, 87 are Republicans. Only nine are Democrats. What a shellacking, in the word of the president.
There's John Boehner. He's walking out of the floor of the chamber. That was Jeb Hensarling, nominating John Boehner to be speaker. Now, they're going to go through the process. John Larson, of Connecticut will nominate Nancy Pelosi, to be the speaker. She's not going to win.
REP. JOHN LARSON (D), DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS CHAIRMAN: By vote of that caucus, to present for election to the office of speaker of the House of Representative for the 112th Congress, a person that gives me great honor and privilege, who has led with decency and dignity, I submit on behalf of this caucus the name of the honorable Nancy Dellasandro (ph) Pelosi, a representative from the great state of California.
BLITZER: All right, a short little introductory speech nominating speech, that was John Larson of Connecticut, nominating Nancy Pelosi to be the speaker. They are now going to have a formal roll, a roll call, voice responses by members and members-elect to see who the next speaker will be. There isn't a lot of drama here. This is Loraine Miller, the clerk of the House of Representatives. She is going to call this role call right now, and John Boehner will win this vote. I assume he'll win by the new majority that the Republicans have, 242 to 193 Democrats. Although may be some Democrats won't even vote for Nancy Pelosi.
Right now, Donna, would you be surprised if she doesn't get 193 votes, because that's how many Democrats are in the new House?
DONNA BRAZILE, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: There's a rumor, Wolf, the chair of the blue dog caucus, Mr. Shuler, from the state of North Carolina.
BLITZER: Pete Schuler.
BRAZILE: Yes, the former Redskin player, he might vote for himself, but she will receive the overwhelming support of the Democratic Caucus. She has a lot of friends inside the Democratic Caucus. They met last night. The speaker gave them a really good send off speech, so this is going to be quite an emotional moment to see the speaker return the gavel to Mr. Boehner. BLITZER: Let me go back to John King he is over on the Senate side. We're watching the split screen. Harry Reid now speaking on the Senate floor.
John, what's going on?
KING: They are paying tribute, Wolf, on the Senate side to Barbara Mikulski, Democrat of Maryland. Who is a little bit of a fire plug on the Democratic side. She's also making a bit of history today, becoming the longest serving woman in the United States Senate, surpassing the 10-year record set by Margaret Chase Smith in the past. Candy and Gloria and Donna can tell you about Barbara Mikulski. She is a liberal from the Baltimore area. She is a fire plug on the Hill. She pushes especially on middle class issues. And what she has also done, is she has arranges these dinner, these private dinners, for now the growing number. I believe we are up to 17 women in the United States Senate. When she came to the Senate, she was it. And now she has these meetings with the female Senators. And they have become a good, cohesive group together, Democrats and Republicans. Dana Bash did an interview with her recently when she was talking about what a controversy it was when she first went to the Democratic leadership. It was Robert Byrd at the time, and said, I'm going to wear slacks, as she calls them-pants, on the Senate floor. So, there is a generational change in the Congress today, but there is also a tribute to someone who has been a feisty leader for the women on the Senate side, Wolf.
BLITZER: Candy Crowley is here.
You know Barbara Mikulski, you covered her. She was just re-elected from Maryland for another six years. She may be short, but she's pretty feisty.
CROWLEY: She is. And that may be a life seat. I mean, she-if anybody represents, in particular, the Baltimore area, but certainly the whole state she is a U.S. senator, it is Barbara Mikulski. She has not lost. Her constituents look at her and think this is still the same woman they sent to the U.S. Senate. She is not at all impressed with the pomp and ceremony. She is not a huge fan of Sunday morning. It takes some to get her to come on. She thinks there is a lot of preening that goes on sometimes, by her colleagues. So she has never been kind of into the pomp and ceremony. She has served --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She would be right about that.
(LAUGHTER)
CROWLEY: And she still thinks that she is there to serve the people of Maryland and the United States. She has these great parties, as she-you know get-togethers with the female senators and other females and they threw a baby shower for Kay Bailey Hutchison. I believe, maybe at Hillary Clinton's house.
BRAZILE: In 1986, she was first elected to the United States Senate. At that time only 16 women had served in the Senate. Now today, Wolf, we have 17 women serving. This is clearly, you know, for Barbara Mikulski, a milestone, but one that many women would like to see reached also in the House.
BLITZER: It's impressive, 17, but the number is not where it should be given the --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But they can wear slacks.
(LAUGHTER)
BLITZER: Yeah, but that's another story.
(CROSS TALK)
Take a look at the split screen. I want to show our viewers what's going on. In the House of Representatives and in the Senate, they have a role call. Who's going to be the next speaker of the House? They're voting. Should it be John Boehner? Should it be Nancy Pelosi.
On the Senate, they are paying tribute, right now, to Barbara Mikulski, the longest serving woman ever to serve in the United States Senate.
We're just getting started on the opening day of the 112th Congress. Our special coverage here on CNN will continue right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: You're looking at live pictures. On the left, the House Of Representatives. The roll call is being called to see who's going to be the next speaker of the House. They're doing this by voice vote.
John Boehner will win given the fact that the Republicans in the new House will have 242 Republicans compared to 193 Democrats. Nancy Pelosi was nominated, but she's not going to win on the Senate side, they're paying tribute to Barbara Mikulski right now. I want to give you a flavor of this roll call.
Let's listen in.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Campbell of California. Boehner. Kensayko. Boehner. Cantor. Boehner. Cappito. Boehner. Capps. Pelosi. Capuano --
BLITZER: All right so there you see it. Normally, in the House of Representatives, they have electronic voting. Not in this particular case. They're doing it by voice vote. The clerk is calling each member, newly elected and incumbents, calling each by name.
They stand up, they say for speaker, either Pelosi or Boehner. Boehner as I point out, will win. Ali Velshi is joining us right now. Ali, it's a lot of pomp and circumstance, a lot of procedure right now.
It's a beautiful, historic event that's unfolding given the history of the United States, but pretty soon, they've got to get down to business in dealing with huge issues like the economy, the national debt, budget cuts, taxes.
They've got a lot on their plate and they're going to start at least on the House side, with trying to repeal health care reform.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Right. There are a lot of things that have all got to do with the economy. A lot of people today that you're showing having their first day on the job something a lot of Americans would like.
Jobs is going to be one of the biggest issues facing this Congress as it face the last Congress. Let me give you a picture of what the job situation is in America. We just got a private sector jobs report for December and it shows that in the private sector, we gained 297,000 jobs in December.
This is a monumentally large number. It's up 92,000 from November. Now we'll get the big jobs report Friday and we'll see hopefully see that we've gained jobs and the unemployment rate has inched down. Let me just you give a picture, Wolf. You've seen this many times before with me.
Back in December of '07 when this recession began, we created a few jobs. But look at, through 2008 all the way to the end of 2008, then into 2009. By the end 2009, we had started creating jobs. You see those big green spikes, those were in many cases government jobs, stimulus jobs, census jobs and then dropped off again.
But now, you see October and November, we gained jobs. We're hoping that for December, we'll get those numbers on Friday as I said, we will have gained jobs. Even bigger picture than that, let me show you what the labor force in the United States looks like.
And this will catch your breath, Wolf, all the way down back to January of '05, see the trajectory we were on in terms of adding jobs to the economy? Then look what happened in January of '08. Instead of that line going the way it was supposed to go continuing higher, it dropped off and we have only started to see it level off now in the last months of 2010.
So look at the difference between that red line, where it is now, and the dotted line above it. That's eight, nine, 11 million jobs short of where we would have been if we hadn't had this recession. So that is the challenge that the members of Congress face right.
This is a tough one, Wolf, because you can't legislate new jobs. You have to find ways to get the private sector to continue to employ people and that's the answer that most Americans need, Wolf.
BLITZER: Issue number one for the House, the Senate, the president of the United States right now creating jobs. We'll see what those numbers for December were on Friday when the government officially releases those numbers.
Take a look at this. A live p picture from the White House briefing room, Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary is about to walk out. He told reporters today he's going to be leaving next month to go into the private sector. They're looking for a new White House press secretary.
That could be interesting. We're also watching what's happening on the House on the left part of your screen and on the right, the Senate. Right now, because this is the opening day of the 112th Congress and our special coverage will continue after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WOLF: Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary telling reporters today why he's announced that he is leaving. He'll be leaving the White House job within a month or so, expressing gratitude for having the opportunity to serve.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: -- we've been in in a number of years in this country, and I think whoever stands here or whoever goes on television to make the case for this administration should be -- to be an advocate for the decisions and the policies that are coming from this building. You certainly have to play that role.
I'm not going in order to be freed up to say a series of things that I might not otherwise say. I have enjoyed every time I've come out here, and even on days when you -- I miss count them even every day, even when you wake up at 4:00 and pick up the paper and groan that you have a sense of what the first several questions might be.
But I think it's important for this country and for the administration to come out here and advocate on behalf of and -- on behalf of its policies and answer your questions.
QUESTION: And you talked about how long you've been next to now- President Obama. Can you talk about the impacts that you think your leaving will have in concert with David Axelrod and already Rahm Emanuel?
GIBBS: I will say this. One of the things you learn very quickly, as you walk into this building each day -- you are -- you're struck by the sense that -- of the history of this place, and you realize that, whatever your length of service here, it is temporary in the long and wonderful history of our country.
And I think it does an administration good, and I think it will do this administration good, to have -- to have people like David Plouffe and others come into an administration who haven't been here, who -- who have been able to watch, a little bit, from the outside. We all admit there's -- you have to admit there's -- there's a bubble in here, to some degree.
So I think having new voices and having fresh voices, some of those voices that are coming back from having taken a couple of years off, are an important part of this process. I think they will serve the president well, even as people like David Axelrod and I go outside of the building and have a chance to talk to the president and people here with a slightly different perspective of -- of not driving in here each morning. So, it's -- I think it's unique. I think it's -- but you know, the truth is, you're -- you walk around here and you see the history and such and, I'd just reiterate again, you realize that, for how ever long you're here, it's temporary, but what endures is -- what endures is our government. What endures is the great experiment of democracy that's proved to be such a wonderful thing for the world.
Let me -- let me go around. I have a feeling we'll be here for a little bit today.
(LAUGHTER)
QUESTION: A couple questions -- a couple questions, one domestic and one international.
The incoming Republican budget chief for the House, Paul Ryan, is saying that he will demand spending concessions from the administration, in exchange for an agreement -- a willingness to lift the national debt ceiling.
Would the administration be willing to consider such?
GIBBS: Well, I think we're going to have to have a discussion, and we are going to have a discussion, about steps that are going to be taken to get our fiscal house in order. We have -- we made some extraordinary decisions over the past several years, some in this administration, some in the previous administration, to deal with the financial calamity, to deal with the tremendous downturn in our economy and the job loss that it's wrought.
But we are not here -- I think it's important to understand, we're not here because of a series of decisions that just got made in the last six months.
GIBBS: We're dealing with -- we're dealing with a series of decisions that date back quite a long time; that the bills have continually come to the floor (ph), and we're going to have to address them.
What the -- what the exact specifics of those look like, obviously, that's part of the process that we're going to go through. But I hope that everybody approaches not just the exercise of fiscal responsibility and fiscal restraints here.
I think it's important -- as you heard Chairman Goolsbee say this weekend, it's important to approach our -- the upcoming vote, as you mentioned, on the debt limit in a way that's responsible and in a way that doesn't threaten the full faith and credit of our government.
QUESTION: The president is --
(END OF COVERAGE)
WOLF: So, there he is, Robert Gibbs. He's made it official now. He's going to be leaving his job as White House press secretary next month. Go into the private sector. He wants to do some speaking, talking on television on behalf of the president and administration. He's going to be presumably making money as well. The White House is now going to have to find a new press secretary. The White House is also looking for a new chief of staff for the president. The White House is also looking for a new chief of staff for the vice president.
They're looking for a new head of the economic council at the White House. They've got some vacancies up there that they're looking for, Gibbs saying this is good, bring some new blood in, change the people a little bit. It could help the president as he gets ready for his re- election.
