Good morning, I'm Lee cowan this is "Sunday morning." Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink.
In the 18th century poem "the rhyme of the ancient mariner."
By contrast in today's America we like to think plenty of
drinking water everywhere.
Reality however is drastically different in one corner of the
desert southwest as we'll show in our cover story.
For generations of navajo people high in the desert
landscape water is sacred.
In this day and age you wouldn't think ripping watt we're be a
luxury but here it is.
We looked at the global water crisis as a foreign crisis.
Here it is right in our back yard it's an American problem.
Ahead op "Sunday morning" a life without water.
And the people come to the rescue.
We'll be hearing summer song this morning from Sam Smith.
A singer with a proven staying power as Anthony hey son will show.
This song and that voice have made Sam Smith an international
star almost overnight.
You think you were prepared?
I think ... no.
Where did he come from?
It's hard to explain.
But we will when we go home with Sam Smith ahead on "Sunday morning."
Then and now is austerer from Barry petersen about a nature
photographer been looking for that rocky mountain eye he.
John fielder has hiked and crawled to nearly every corner
of Colorado national parks.
He is considered to be the premiere nature photographer.
I've been to the park a hundred times in the last 40
years it gets better each time.
Later on "Sunday morning"
capturing nature's majesty on film and a project a hundred years in the making.
Questions and answers with comedian turned municipal money
senator Al franken this morning.
The questions from our Rita braver.
That's right.
I believe we're entering what I like to call the Al franken decade.
Why would Al franken give up a life of comedy ... I rise and speak about
extending tax cuts to all Americans.
For the lifer of a senator is.
Is it fun in any way?
Of course.
Not as much fun as doing comedy but it's the best job I've ever had.
Later on "Sunday morning,"
senn or franken taking care of business.
Tracy Smith visits with actor Ed burns and introduces us to a
sculpture who truly those how to make money.
Steve hartman finds moments of z, en and more.
First, here are the headlines or this Sunday morning the 16th of August, 2015.
Airliner with 54 people on board is missing in Indonesia this
morning the twin turbo prop plane was flying over eastern
most province when it lost contact with ground control.
A technical glitch and flight control center in Leesburg,
Virginia, triggered major airline delines up and down the east coast.
Officials say they expect travel to be back to normal today.
Long same civil rights activist, former board chairman of the
naacp was earliest symbols.
Julian bond was 75.
The death toll has risen to 112
now after that series of huge blasts in China last Wednesday.
Several hupped tons of toxic cyanide were held, the in chattanooga, Tennessee,
yesterday.
Vice president Joe biden spoke at memorial for the service
members killed in shooting rampage last month.
It considers the 24-year-old gunman to be a home grown extremist.
On to today's weather heat is smothering the west, Phoenix to
palm Springs will sweat it out in trip I will digit temperatures.
The week ahead excessive heat will ease and hot and muggy
system tours will move east.
Here about 600 feet.
Next, in search of water.
And later, seeing double.
Pretty popular saying but without a drop of truth for some
folks in one beautiful part of our country.
We saw firsthand how they struggled to get with you when
they traveled there for our Sunday morning cover story.
It's easy to miss this corner of the navajo nation, just 100
miles west of Albuquerque.
Most things pass the reservation right by including progress.
Many of the roads here are unpaved, electricity is spotty
and employment in the area hovers near 70%.
But perhaps most shocking of all, an estimated 40% of the
people who live here don't have access to running water.
We don't use a sink.
There's no water.
Loretta Smith share this small mobile home with their
disabled granddaughter.
With no in door plumbing what little water the family has is carried in.
Bucket by bucket.
Stored inulas particular barrels outside.
You feel forgotten out here?
Yes.
The area's main source is miles away in a parking lot of
the St. bonaventure mission.
Getting water here can mean a 100 mile round trip for some
families and mission's office manager says many don't even of
a access to a car.
What happens when they run out of water?
If they don't have water, they don't have any water.
Sometimes they get so frustrated, why can't people get water.
And that is where Darlene comes in.
They call her the water lady.
Every day Darlene loads up her big yellow tanker truck and
takes to the roads to deliver something most take for granted.
Darlene is navajo, born and raised right here on the reservation.
She's used to carrying precious cargo, she's been driving the
school bus on the reservation for years.
But her water route is a job that she considers almost sacred.
For my people.
I love my job.
Do you?
Yes, I do.
What do you love about it?
I go out every day to meet different families.
There are 250 homes on her route and she can only get to
each family once a month and sometimes not even then.
Which is why when she does make it it's often treated like a celebration.
Show has never had a day with running water in her life.
Unlike the rest of us who use about 100 gallons a day, Nina
has been getting by on only about Senegal lops.
Hard truth that Darlene has hard time watching.
Sometimes I wish I could do more.
How do they make it last so long?
They just have to stretch out their water.
I see this having been raised the fact that this man,
George, is on this reservation at all is a testament to just
how dire the navajo situation s.
He runs a nonprofit called dig deep.
He normally works in developing country, digging Wells.
But now the problem is right in his back yard.
I really had no concept that this kind of material poverty existed in the u.
But it does.
Question is, why?
It show be regarded as a national embarrassment.
We could that question to a political science professor who
studied Indian water rights for the last 40 years.
How is this possible in this day and age.
American Indians in Arizona, new Mexico, were not allowed to
vote until 1948.
They did not have a voice.
They weren't in line politically when the money, the funding, the
projects, and water was being allocated.
So, the only source of water left for the navajo is
groundwater, lying deep beneath the hard rock of the continental divide.
We took to to construction specialist all over the country.
This is one of the most challenging projects we've ever seen.
Even if they can find water it might not be drinkable.
Hit water here about 600 feet but water you get out would be
laced with uranium.
That's from years of mining on the reservation.
Water Wells dot the landscape, has lived on the reservation
took us to this one.
It's still pumping water but few dare drink from it any more.
For years, maybe a good 20, 0
years ... >> It was fine.
Then what happened?
People started getting sick.
Dig deep, must dig deeper and the clock is ticking.
Running out of water is a painful experience.
Most of them do.
Yeah.
Lindsey Johnson makes sure she doesn't run out.
She has a system to conserve every drop Darlene delivers.
What would you do without her?
I don't know.
Aside from morning coffee mug she uses only paper plates and
cups so she doesn't have to wash dishes.
Like her fellow, Lindsey shares her home with as many as eight other people.
When it comes to washing hair, three will all use the same water.
Lipped see's 16-year-old granddaughter says almost
everyone here finds ways to cope without running water, but few
want to talk about it.
The counties and states.
The federal responsibility and feds, we're broke.
The states and counties responsibility.
Lot of finger pointing.
A lot of passing the buck.
So the navajo wait.
Updated on everything going on with the well?
Dig deep well is coming along.
But it will cost close to 500,000 dollars to complete.
And all of it is funded by donations.
But iep if the well gets up and pumping, Darlene still won't be out of a job.
A new well doesn't mean homes will suddenly have new plumbing,
what it means clean water will be more readily accessible.
The next will be building gravity-fed storage tanks like
these that could be hooked up to faucets inside.
But that is several years and probably countless fundraisers away.
Things are not simple here.
But every time we have even smallest success in this
project, those moments are ... it's the dollars.
Do you think you'll see a day where everyone here has water?
I hope so.
I just pray that they will have running water.
A simple wish the navajo people hope won't just be a drop
in an already empty bucket.
16, 1987.
28 years ago today, a day for worldwide meditation, music and dance.
For that was the day of the so-called Harmon in this case convergence.
The brainchild of art historian Jose arguelles.
Was based on the ancient Mayan calendar and relatively rare
alignment of the plap its.
We could be in for a new age of peace and love.
Cowan: Set the stage few days before finding enthusiastic
volunteers for the ceremonies to come.
We have to do something.
We have a responsibility to change the consciousness of the planet.
Just had a calling, inner guidance saying that I had to go to mount shasta.
Not that everyone around California's mount shasta was
eager forethe convergers to converge.
I don't want them up here.
No telling what they're going to do up there.
As for creator, his expectations were literally out of this world.
There may be ufo sightings or there may not be but there will
be some time of communication of an extra terrestrial.
There were no confirmed ufo sightings that we know of.
New York City Central Park.
A worldwide convergence of people of goodwill and good cheer.
Cowan: The Colorado rockies, then and now. A perm mix in the centennial
year, Barry petersen found him naturally hard at work.
In a crowded world of honking horns and cubicle offices,
nature can be heart stopping.
So think how lucky John fielder is.
Perhaps Colorado's premiere nature photographer and you
could say a place like this rocky mountain national park is his office.
Do you still come to a place like this and just take a deep
breath and be a little bit in awe of all of this?
I never get tired of being in places like this.
It's my medicine.
I've been to the park in the last years it gets better each time.
Over the last 40 years his llama packed with camera gear
he's hiked or climbed or called looking for the next perfect shot.
Capturing nature's majesty, a fence made of Aspen trees.
A ranch nestles deep in a valley.
When I'm alone I think I can experience to a deeper degree
the sensuousness of nature.
Thought just these views but again the sounds and the smells
and the taste, the touch of these grasses.
Aspiring photographers.
It's a treat to be able to spend an afternoon with Colorado's photographer.
Flock to his workshops.
His work is amazing.
It's inspirational it can speak to anyone in any corner of the
United States or the world.
Or come to his gallery where the lesson is that you cannot
hurry the pursuit of beauty.
We call it the north folk of the gunnison country.
It's stunning.
This took me about a dozen trips to get this photo.
Every year I would go to this location, look at the quality of the Aspen trees.
It was never right.
And finally after 12 visits I fine low got it at its perfect moment.
This is 12 years in the making picture.
Yeah.
One of his most famous projects was actually a century in the making.
Fielder found a kindred soul, photographer William h. Jackson
with 350 pounds ever gear he was hired by the federal government
to from his way across the state in the 1870s.
Jackson shot 10,000 pictures of Colorado, many archived at
Denver's history Colorado center.
Fielder chose 300 and went hunting for the same spots.
Some were easy.
Like Aspen in its early prospect for heyday.
And now actually less populated a century later.
Or already tracks, now back to nature.
Just like this.
This is the sweet spot that you finally found.
Exactly.
Sometimes he needed patience, strong legs and resighs sense of
geography to find the more remote areas.
It created a book that became a best seller.
Tell me, how did you find this place?
What were your landmarks?
First crew was big Thompson river in the foreground.
Second clue was mount ypsilon, the mountain right there in the
background slightly disguised by that ponderosa pine.
Then just moving around until I got things to line up.
The decades have changed fielder.
He still finds calm here, but now, apprehension.
Well, nature is challenged more than ever these days, we've
got a warming planet.
We soon will have nine billion people on the planet visiting places like this.
We need to protect it.
That's what drove president Lyndon Johnson to sign the
wilderness act 50 years ago protecting America's outdoors.
To celebrate that anniversary, fielder hit the road for a year
showing his pictures, selling his books.
Working up to this night matching John the photography
with that other Colorado John, John Denver, his music played by
the John Adams band.
♪
It filled a downtown Denver concert hall, the wonder of nature with a warning.
Nature is being lost very quickly because of climate
change I want to be a part of the community of people that
truly care about four billion years of the evolution of life on earth.
And one of the best ways to share with people how special
this is and why it needs to be protected forever is through photography.
Sweeter.
♪
Grammy winning singer Sam Smith and ...
Ed burns debut back in 1995.
And far from that failure, actually a career changing
moment just like in the movies.
He talks this morning with our Tracy Smith.
You may know Ed burns as an actor or independent film maker.
Or the guy lucky enough to marry supermodel Christie tougher ring ton.
Is how much he loves New York City.
And love is probably not a strong enough word.
It's funny your eyes light up when you talk about old New York.
Like romantic kind of thing.
The minute I got my first apartment I lived in the west
village on bank street I had no money.
The only thing that I would do was walk around the city.
It's where he shot nearly all of his films.
And where he's shooting his latest project.
"Public morals" a cops and gangsters TV series burns
writes, directs and stars in.
The show, which premiers on tnt next week is set in 1906est
New York, an era burns wandered the streets to recapture.
You would just walk these blocks and figure out ... I drop my kids off from
school school.
Take my phone.
Pick a different neighborhood to walk around and just take
pictures of the buildings that remained untouched.
Much to our surprise there's still a lot of old New York left.
It's a show that's been decades in the making.
Inspired by stories burns heard as a kid.
A lot of my cousins became cops, every wedding and funeral
we went to were cop events.
What I remember some guy I didn't even know telling me
about that great arrest they made.
And I was always fascinated by those stories.
This is the old neighborhood?
This is it.
This is where I spent every day of my childhood and my teen years.
47-year-old Edward burns grew up in a large Irish catholic
family in the New York City suburb of valley stream, Long Island.
He hasn't been back inside his childhood home sips his parents
sold it 15 years ago.
Wow.
It smells the same.
It smells the same?
What's it feel like to be walking back in here?
It is surreal.
Really is.
And this is where, as a teenager, his parents encouraged him to start writing.
My desk was over there.
I had all the film books over there.
I would sit there working on that first screen play
determined to somehow get into the business.
That determination led burns to film school in New York.
Then a grunt job at entertainment tonight.
On the side, he used e.T. Crew members, and supplies to bring
to life a little script he'd written called the brothers
mcmulle, this a story 'three brothers living in their boyhood
home trying to figure out love.
Like any relationship.
Long relationship?
Six months?
I would get the different sound guys, we got four hours,
would anyone want to go to Central Park shoot a scene.
They're like, be back by 6:00
let's go knock it off.
What do you want?
That is literally how you shot that.
In fits and spurts like that?
Yeah.
Excuse me.
Do you know where Jane street is.
121 I think is down this way.
Burns borrowed $25,000 from friends and family happened shot
the movie where they could do it for free, the streets of
New York and the house where he grew up.
Before you know it she's going to have you picking out
wedding cakes go asking me to be your best man and moving into
the best bedroom.
Both of my parents, want to shoot in their house?
Anything you need we will support you.
The real feat may have come after the film was made, burns
had already been rejected by nearly every film festival
including Sundance when by chance entertainment tonight
landed this interview with the festival's founder, Robert redford.
Already, guys, roll 'em.
I rehearsed by 30 second speel.
Burns knowing he could get fired handed red Ford a rough
copy of the film as he got to the elevator.
He doesn't really say anything.
Okay, thank you.
He hands it to his obeli cyst.
And that's it.
Until four months later we get a phone call from the festival
that mcmullen has been accepted.
Now fudly e.T. Was covering him.
We're one of the potential end rell Las,.
Following him going to the 1995 festival ... see you when I get back.
And actually winning.
The brothers mcmullen!
How did that film change your life?
You know, on a Tuesday I'm making $18,000 a year getting coffee.
The following Tuesday I've sold my movie, it's one the grand
jury prize and I'm flying out to L.A. to basically start talking
about my next film which will have a real budget.
That's how quickly it happens.
In a week.
One of those American dream stories.
He made a name for himself with his own film.
Even if you think they're missing ... "Saving private Ryan" huge,
big budget picture.
Was that scary?
Private Ryan was terrifying.
I hear Steven Spielberg say "action" for the first time.
I turned to captain Miller and it's Tom Hanks I try to speak my
voice cracks and my hands are shaking.
I hear "cut."
That scene never made it into the films but burns made good
impression on its director.
Spielberg isn't just a mentor but the executive row dueser of his new show.
Burns impressed a certain supermodel as Christie told us a few years ago.
I took him to spend a day with my nieces and nephew.
And the fact that he was willing to do that and spend a long day
with these little kids that weren't his own.
Or his own nephews.
That was a good day.
That was really good day.
I remember seeing like, I can see the potential of a father in this man.
They married in 2003 and have two kids.
Still, burns' career wasn't always worthy of envy.
After a number of box office disappointments, the film maker
felt the sting of Hollywood rejection.
I would walk into a room and they didn't want to talk to me.
They really had no idea.
I was in director's jail.
Director's jail?
How did that feel like?
I'm never going to get this movie made.
Nobody believes in me any nor.
Whatever the promise of brothers mcmullen the fact that this
guy might be able to make a certain type of film, that was done.
Burns returned to his low budget beginnings, shooting
films for as little as $9,000.
He skipped theaters finding success by releasing them on demand instead.
Soon his stint in director's jail was over.
The budget is higher.
But with New York as his backdrop and plenty more stories
to tell Ed burns is at home again.
Cowan: It happened this past week. News of the passing of
Hollywood's biggest little star.
Uggie the dog has been put to sleep after a bout of prostate cancer.
A Jack hustle terrier too frisky for his first owner he was about
to be sent to the pound when Von Mueller decided to take him in.
After a few bit parts uggie attained superstardom in the
2011 Oscar winning film "the artist" stealing scene after
scene from leading man Jean dujardin.
In his most heroic moment uggie saves his owner from a burning
house by running for help in the Nick of time.
Uggie was ruled ineligible for an Oscar by the motion picture academy.
British film academy rejected him, too, saying he's not a
human being and as his unique motivation was sausages, he is not qualified.
After retiring from films, uggie did occasional commercials and
served as a spokes dog for the dog rescue movement.
Uggie was 1 years old.
Cowan: Still to come.
Al franken.
What a wonderful second chapter.
Cowan: The life in politics.
And ... how much artistic freedom do you have?
A matter of money.
First spouses.
From stamping metals to making money minute designers are hard at work.
Thinking small as Anna Werner shows us.
In this fast paced world obsessed with earning money and
spending it, it's understandable why you might not take a minute
to examine your spare change.
Without if you did, you might find those coins are miniature works of art.
There's art in money.
There is.
There's not maybe money in art but there's art in money.
I like that.
don everhart should know he's the lead sculpture for the U.S.
Mint in Philadelphia.
People talk all the time about making money.
But you actually make money.
Right.
You could say that.
Everhart's designs range from the state quarters we use every
day to medals presented to world leaders.
It's a pretty unique job.
It's very unique.
There's only sech of us in this country that do what I do.
We're all in this building.
How many designs do you think you've come up with?
It's got to be in the thousands, literally.
Most coin designers use computers but not everhart for
him each design starts with a lump of Clay 689 so how much kept do you get?
I think we did this in 70 or 80 thousandths of an inch.
Is what you ... like 16th of an inch.
That's what you get to work with.
Not a loft space.
No.
After he's put in his two cents worth his design goes to federal committees.
We take what their recommendations are very seriously.
How much artistic freedom to you have?
Surprisingly a lot.
Because the committees like to see new, refreshing angles
because we've done so many different things on coins that
they want to see something that's indicative of the time we live.
All the way back in 1792 our founding fathers knew their new
democracy couldn't be independent without it's own
currency so the mint was born.
First federal building erected under the new constitution.
The mint has per spent its practice since then.
One machine uses lasers to trace sculptures.
It notes every nook and cranny to shrink the image down to scale.
Next, they make a stamp.
Using anywhere between 40 and 06
tons of force that stamp strikes blank pieces of metal making coins.
Press this one?
Yeah.
I'll press one.
What did I do wrong?
I did it wrong.
This is what happens when you let TV talent do this.
But I got the hang of it.
I can now say that I've made money in this job.
Thank you.
The U.S. mint turns out 2.7
million dollars in coins every day.
And thousands of them could be don every all right's design
which could be a pretty heavy thought for a unique artist.
How do you wrap your head around the fact that millions of
people have seen your work?
Millions of people have seep it but I don't think they know
who don everhart is.
They look for tiny initials.
There are initials on it?
Yes.
On every coin or metal that I've done.
I put initials on.
We just have to look for them.
A little "de" in the lower right hand corner.
Hey, don did that coin.
That's right.
♪
Spends.
And the grammy goes to ... "Stay with me."
♪
It's "Sunday morning" on CBS.
Here again is Lee cowan.
Cowan: Sam Smith won four grammys earlier this year
including that one for best song for his huge hit "stay with me."
Not bad for a singer who was largely unknown thought that long ago.
Anthony Mason now with a summer song.
♪
His is the voice behind the international smash "stay with me."
Almost overnight that soul full falsetto made Sam Smith one of
the biggest stars in the world.
Do you think you were prepared for where you are now?
I think ... no.
Actually 100% no.
Early last year the 23-year-old singer had two songs top the British charts.
I wanted it so bad.
And I still want it so bad that the thought of being 60 years
old and thinking, I could have tried harder makes me feel sick.
How did it feel to play "Saturday night live"?
It was possibly the scariest night of my entire life.
Also my manager cleverly on the morning said to me, this is the
most important night of your in tire life.
Which is ridiculous.
But it was.
His album "in the lonely hour" would be the best selling debut.
Number one on iTunes.
Everybody's watch list.
Give it up for Sam Smith!
The 6'3" singer who suddenly was everywhere seemed to come out of no where.
It's really hard to explain where I come from actually
because it's in between Cambridge is half an hour away.
London is an hour away.
Smith grew up in the rural English village of great
chishill where he started mapping out a career before he was even a teenager.
What was the plan?
Plan was to move to London.
Become a famous singer.
Working out remarkably well.
This is my house here.
That was my bedroom there.
His mother, a banker and his stay at home dad noticed his talent.
So did neighbors like Jim Cunningham.
You remember this guy?
Of course I do.
Yeah.
What do you remember?
He was causing all kinds of trouble.
He used to be screeching out of that window up there.
But it was wonderful.
In grade school at St. Thomas Moore, he sang in the school musicals.
Last fall, his album had just hit number one again in England.
♪ Oh, won't you stay with me? 'Cause you're all I need. ♪
Oh, my, god. You're such an inspiration. I've been able to tell them this could be you.
After school, Smith would walk for hours along country roads headphones on singing along to Beyonce.
Yeah, this is my little spot.
I got my first ever job in the news agency over there.
How did you pick this spot?
I don't know.
Something about listening to music and looking at that for me.
It made the music sound sweeter.
I remember 14 times being here, suddenly this car would screech up here.
My dad thinking I'd been kidnapped.
His father would connect him with a music teacher, Joanna eden.
What did you work on in those early days.
The first song was "come fly with me."
By age 12 he had his first manager.
So proud of you.
Thank you.
But it didn't all come easily.
I had adults around me promising me things which they
knew in their head was a lie.
That was the most horrible thing.
Did you start to doubt yourself?
100%.
Even now I doubt myself.
I don't understand what the big fuss is.
I don't understand what people hear in my voice.
I can't hear it myself.
♪
Smith's break through came in 2012
when the electronic group disclosure asked him to sing
lead on their hit "latch."
♪
That's when he and his producer started writing songs together.
Give me an example of how this process worked.
In a week they had this tune. ♪
Cowrote "stay with me" the chorus is actually Smith's voice recorded in about 40 different
chorus is actually Smith's voice recorded in about 40 different takes. ( ♪ )
It felt like we built a choir out of just Sam's voice.
It was just me and Sam.
And I was like run to that corner of the room.
And then higher.
Smith says his album was inspired by his unrequited love for a married man.
I told all my secrets on that album.
My deepest and darkest secrets.
I'm a very hope person.
But to me the things I've always kept hidden were the fact that I
was a bit lonely.
The fact that maybe I've loved someone and they didn't love me back.
When I decided to tell the entire world that.
Which I didn't think through.
I didn't realize quite how much I was revealing.
Thank you for coming out, guys.
I hope you know how much this means to me.
It's not just the voice.
It's his vulnerability that has made Sam Smith a star.
Part of your success is that you have shown all of yourself.
Yeah, I know.
Hearing a whole entire room sing back to me, I guess it's true
that I'm not good at a one nightstand.
I can't explain the feeling.
It's unreal.
Feels like you just read your diary to thousands of people and
they have gone, it's okay, we still love you.
♪
Not not on the road, but in the weeds.
I have confession to make.
After the kids are in bed, the fact is, I have a weed addition.
He just can't stop pulling the things.
Some of my favorites.
I realized the extent of my addition only recently.
After my cameraman interviewed my wife Andrea about it.
He goes out at 7:00 and weeds until dark.
Sometimes he's out there past dark.
Her point is?
It's not weeding a garden.
It's five achers.
Four and a half technically.
See a few years ago I had this idea, to turn this weedy
hillside into a beautiful prairie full of native wild flowers and grasses.
I contacted this man, who would eventually become my dealer.
We started with prairie.
He owns prairie nursery in west field, Wisconsin, he got me
hooked on weeds through gateway plants like purple coneflower,
compass plant and smooth aster.
I was trying to get you hooked.
My product is highly addictive.
Called love of nature.
But here's the problem, before you see those flowers in
the magazine you often need to spend a great deal of time
weeding a new prairie meadow.
Neil made no mention how addicting.
I'd come out here every night and dread it.
Then a switch flipped.
I started coming out here and loving it.
That is therapy for all of us.
You can just tune everything out and focus on one single-minded purpose.
Of course the downside to a laser focus like that is that
sometimes the rest of the world becomes a blur.
For example, I'm told the prairie actually looks pretty nice now.
But honestly I can't see the flowers through the weeds.
I know there are still a lot of them lurking in here.
That's okay.
I mind, what else am I going to do at this point, just give up
on the whole project?
It would ... Andrea?
I could live without it.
You want your husband back?
No.
I don't know if I could live with how defeated my husband
would feel if we gave it up.
I thought that was sweet.
I'm going to take her to dinner.
After the first frost, of course.
Ahead ... call him the gentleman
but Rita braver has some questions and answers for Al franken.
The senator who says, actually couldn't be happier with the job he already has.
Do you ever say to yourself, I can't believe I've got a senate office?
Every once in awhile I say to myself, I can't believe I'm a senator.
But then every once in awhile I say, I can't believe I'm a senator.
Nor can a lot of people.
After all, how many united states senators have pranced
around a stage as Mick Jagger.
♪
Or been a cast member on Saturday night life.
I'm good enough.
I'm smart enough.
And doggone it, people like me.
It can get a little old.
I'm introduced as you've been on ... also when I started
running was, you know, Al franken running for senate.
No joke.
Franken elected.
No joke.
I'm going to have to watch that in writing this story.
That's my warning to you.
64-year-old Al franken has established himself as a
straight talking, hard working lawmaker.
It's our job as adults to not just as senators, to protect children.
Shows up for committee hearings, is willing to reach
across the aisle to get things done.
The first day I got here Jim demint how head of the heritage
foundation, very, very conservative said to me, how are
things on the extreme left?
And I said, they're great.
How are thing on the nut case right?
And he laughed.
And we were friends ever since.
He makes friends his own quirky way.
He started as senatorial secret Santa gift swap and host an
annual hot dish competition for the Minnesota congressional delegation.
Tim walls is going for a three-peat here.
And it's kind of obnoxious.
So, how old were you when your family moved into this house?
I was six.
He was raised on this middle class street in St. Louis park, Minnesota.
A suburb of Minneapolis.
We had no quality time at my house.
We didn't go skiing or anything like that.
But we watched ... hat a lot of quantity time lot was watching comedy.
My dad loved to laugh.
And real estate agent.
Were you simultaneously interested in comedy and
politics or did that come later?
I became interested in politics when I was about 11,
12, 13 years old during the civil rights movement.
He recalls watching police unleash attack dogs on civil
rights demonstrators.
My dad would go, no Jew can be for that.
No Jew can be for that.
That was probably the ... when it crystallized to me how important
public affairs are.
Franken's fascination with both politics and comedy is
actually an ununexpected place in his current house in Minneapolis.
Something normal about ... it's special.
This is our Nixon bathroom.
This is Elvis' letter to Nixon and my favorite sentence is I
have done an indepth study of drug abuse and communist
brainwashing technique and I'm right in the middle of the whole thing.
Franken zeroed in on comedy as a profession during college at Harvard.
In 1975, he joined "Saturday night live" where he loved performing.
I'm a major.
But writing was even better.
Come up with stuff and laughing and laughing so hard
that you're falling on the floor.
That's the most fun you can ever have.
That's right, I believe we're entering what I like to call the
Al franken decade.
Which of course raises the question, why would somebody who
is so talented want to waste it on being in congress?
Are you kidding me?
This is a wonderful second chapter.
Isn't it terrific?
Isn't that right on the money?
After almost 20 years on snl franken left and began to focus
more on politics.
He wrote books, often poking fun at conservative political
commentators and wept on to host a radio talk show on the now
defunct liberal air America network.
I'm not a professional politics.
I'm going to make some mistakes this is the hardest thing.
In 2006 he decided to move back home to Minnesota and run for the senn at.
To me it made sense.
Everybody else.
I didn't blame anyone for being skeptical.
Thank you all.
I can't thank you enough.
It was a tight race against Republican incumbent and franken
believes this ad in which his wife franni reveals her struggle
with alcoholism turned the tide.
The Al Frank eni know stood by me through thick and thin.
So I know he'll always come through for Minnesota answer.
It was amazing thing for her to do.
Not only would I not have won had she thought done that and
all the myriad of other things she did, but I would have lost by a lot.
I would have been humiliated.
I am honored and humbled by this close victory.
He won by just 312 votes.
After a recount and court challenges that lasted almost
eight months, he was finally seated.
Congratulations, senator.
With former vice president Fritz mondale who once held the senate seat.
The caption here is, can I do this?
Do you think I'll be good at this?
And him just, I don't know.
I rise to speak about extending tax cuts to all Americans.
On income up to $250,000.
The voters thought he was good enough to re-elect in 2014.
A year when many Democrats lost.
Franken calls himself a work horse not a show horse.
Whether it's at meeting after meeting after meeting back home
or hosting weekly constituent breakfasts at his DC office.
One way they're talking to me and I'm listening.
And yet, the perception among people that congress is a place
of all talk and not much action, isn't that somewhat frustrating for you?
To me, part of the problem is that the stuff that is getting
done and the ... very often is just not covered because it's not sexy.
I'm sorry.
But, look, look how long it took to get the new Attorney General in place.
That doesn't mean ... kind of thing ... Doesn't mean there isn't dysfunction.
But it's exemplary of what happens here.
It is exemplary of what happens here.
It's both.
We actually get things done and we don't get things done.
How's that?
Don't you ever just feel like sitting down and ripping out a
satire of what goes on in the committees or ... that's such a good idea.
That's what I'm going to do when I retire.
Cowan: Two big films are turning the movie going cliche on our head.
Says our critic, David old steen.
Here is a tip.
Never trust anyone what says, I haven't seen that movie but I
know I'm going to because you don't know what you don't know.
Two cases in point.
I knew I would hate the "man from u.N.C.L.E." Because it's a
naked attempt to create another studio franchise.
My least favorite word these days, from a decent but not
terribly timely old TV show starring two barely distinguishable hunks of the
moment, directed by the guy behind those lousy Sherlock
Holmes as action hero movies with Robert downey.
And it's delightful.
It's the height of the cold war, the U.S. and Russia have nukes
aimed at each other and two incredibly good looking ...
I do wonder if your ... Arrogant secret agents from
each country are stuck working together against an even more
intimidating enemy.
Henry cavill and his cleft chin play the former thief turned cio
hot dog Napoleon solo in crisp blue suits.
Armie hammer and his wide neck play the lion hearted borderline
psychotic KGB beast ilya kuryakin.
The constant testosterone-hosing one-upsmanship would be tiresome
if it weren't for wild card Alicia vikanderrer.
The Swedish born actress with the long ballerina physique and
touch of Audrey hepburn.
The man from U.K. sell a thrilling, grab you by the
throat and throttle you into submission film making.
How are you doing?
I felt rather badly.
It's witty and elegant.
You laugh out loud.
Special agent of a very special day.
The other film you might prejudge for better for worse is
straight outta Compton.
That was dope.
Which recount the rise of gangsta-rap pioneers n.W.A.
Whatever I might think of gangsta rap, the movie doesn't
put too high value on glib, prissy white guys' thoughts on rap.
The mean can, the urgency, the necessity of even the most
obscene and hateful rhymes emerges with thrilling clarity.
You kidding me?
The movie directed by f. Gary grey depicts a world that's all
confrontation from cops, but also other young black men,
their pride always on the line in dances of dominance that could turn deadly.
Just trying to give what you you want.
I gave you the product.
Give me my money.
It's a show biz rags to riches capital list saga.
There's betrayal, stupidity, excess.
But it reminds you why we need movies, not to have our
prejudices ratified, but to put us in other people's shoes and
discover, they fit.
Morning call endetermine.
Monday kicks off the usa pro challenge.
Dubbed America's most challenging bike race featuring
seven days of cycling through the Colorado rockies.
On Tuesday, actor and director Robert redford celebrates his 79th birthday.
Wednesday is opening day for the 44th tuskegee airmen national
convention in Las Vegas.
Honoring the first African Americans to be trained by the
U.S. army air corps during world war ii.
On Thursday, "Forbes" magazine releases its annual list of the
highest paid okay tresses, Sandra bullock topped last year's at $51 million.
Friday sees the expected release on probation of Oscar pistorius,
the south African olympian convicted of culpable homicide
in the death of his girlfriend.
And Saturday is day one for the first billboard hot 100 music festival.
A weekend long series of performances by more than 40
artists at Jones beach on New York's Long Island.
And now back to the present and John dickerson for what's ahead
on "face the nation."
Dickerson: We'll talk to governor John kasich of Ohio.
Also talk to Republican senator Lindsey Graham of south Carolina
and we'll jump to the other side talk to former Maryland governor
Martin O'Malley about his presidential run.
Cowan: We'll be watching.
Next week here on "Sunday morning."
Flowers in Steve hartman's back yard.
In catskill, New York.
You have a good rest of your weekend.