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American Morning

Interview With Senator Tom Daschle

Aired November 14, 2003 - 07:04   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Turning now to politics. Senate minority leader Tom Daschle has been critical of President Bush's policies, both in Iraq and here at home. The South Dakota Democrat is out with a new book. It's titled, "Like No Other Time," and it's an account of how the 107th Congress has dealt with many challenges facing the nation since 9/11. Senator Daschle joins us from the capital this morning.
It's nice to see you, Senator. Good morning.

SEN. TOM DASCHLE (D-SD), MINORITY LEADER: Good morning, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Before we talk about the book, I want to ask you a couple of questions that have been in the news lately about Iraq. First and foremost, the administration's plan to accelerate the approach to moving Iraq into self-rule, maybe before a constitution is written. What's your reaction to that fast-track approach?

DASCHLE: Well, Soledad, a lot of us have been calling for a plan for a long period of time, and I think the administration's reluctance to come up with one is an indication of how uncertain all of this is. I think it would be wrong to accelerate without having the pieces in place. If we pull out, if we change the set of circumstances we're facing without assurances that we're going to have the stability we're looking for, it could be self-defeating.

O'BRIEN: At the same time, there are many people who say if you install a government, as you mentioned, that is not quite ready yet, it will be perceived that the United States is cutting and running I think is the term many that people have used over the last day or so. What do you make of that?

DASCHLE: Well, cutting and running is a very apt description of what we could be accused of doing if we do it too quickly or do it without adequate thought to what happens once we're gone. I think we have to be very concerned about creating a vacuum. The president has created a quagmire. He wants to get out of it. But I think to do it prematurely would be exactly the wrong thing to do.

O'BRIEN: Yet it's an attempt to combat the major security problems going on in Iraq right now. Are you concerned that after six months after the president declared that the major combat operations were over there are now operations going on that involve gunships, that involve air power as well?

DASCHLE: Well, six months ago, they declared that the mission was accomplished. It's clear that the mission is far from accomplished. What we need to do is to beef up Iraqi security forces. We need to do that with all haste and with all expertise we can. We also need to involve the international community. The more we can do that, the fewer fatalities we're going to experience, and that's what the American people want.

O'BRIEN: In your book, you detail to a great degree the decision back in 2002 to support the president's call for war in Iraq. How much of that support was based on a fear of not being seen as patriotic?

DASCHLE: Well, we talk about that in the book, Soledad, and our feeling all along was that we needed to support the effort to see regime changes as successfully as we can. We were given a lot of information that we now know may have been wrong for either purposeful or unintentional consequences. We're not sure yet. But clearly, we based our decisions on information that the administration selectively chose. I still think it was the right thing to do to pass the resolution, but we have a long way to go to see the effects that the president promised a year ago.

O'BRIEN: Should the resolution, though, have been contingent on the U.N. support for the war, the U.N. backing the war?

DASCHLE: Well, the resolution, if you recall -- and we talk about this extensively in the book -- was really a design to engage the United Nations, NATO, the international community, a lot more effectively. I was criticized for my comments last spring when I said we should have put greater emphasis on diplomacy. Now, I think we all recognize the importance of having done that.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about this talkathon that's been going on. We've been dipping in and out of it to show some of your colleagues at the podium talking and talking and talking and talking. It's been something -- you know, 37-plus hours that they've been up there. Republicans are trying to make a point. Do you think that they're going to be successful in making their point?

DASCHLE: Well, to give you some indication, they must not have thought they made their point after 30 hours, because they want now another 9 hours. It's like at the end of a nine-inning ballgame they still want three or four innings because they're behind. They haven't made their point, because the point can't be made. The fact is the president has gotten 98 percent, 168 judges confirmed in three years. That's almost unprecedented. It beats Ronald Reagan's record in his whole entire first term of four years. So, there is very little point to be made here.

O'BRIEN: A Medicare bill. Bill Frist is predicting that Congress is going to actually approve that before Thanksgiving. Do you think that's realistic?

DASCHLE: Well, that's very optimistic. I'm not sure on what he's basing that prediction. I think that this situation continues to worsen. He has great internal dissension within the ranks of the Republican caucuses in part because they want to privative Medicare. They want to force seniors into a private HMO, and even Republicans recognize in many cases that that's a huge problem.

O'BRIEN: Senator Tom Daschle, thanks for talking with us about many topics this morning.

DASCHLE: My pleasure.

O'BRIEN: The book is called "Like No Other Time: the 107th Congress and the two years that changed America forever." Thanks for your time.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.







Aired November 14, 2003 - 07:04   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Turning now to politics. Senate minority leader Tom Daschle has been critical of President Bush's policies, both in Iraq and here at home. The South Dakota Democrat is out with a new book. It's titled, "Like No Other Time," and it's an account of how the 107th Congress has dealt with many challenges facing the nation since 9/11. Senator Daschle joins us from the capital this morning.
It's nice to see you, Senator. Good morning.

SEN. TOM DASCHLE (D-SD), MINORITY LEADER: Good morning, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Before we talk about the book, I want to ask you a couple of questions that have been in the news lately about Iraq. First and foremost, the administration's plan to accelerate the approach to moving Iraq into self-rule, maybe before a constitution is written. What's your reaction to that fast-track approach?

DASCHLE: Well, Soledad, a lot of us have been calling for a plan for a long period of time, and I think the administration's reluctance to come up with one is an indication of how uncertain all of this is. I think it would be wrong to accelerate without having the pieces in place. If we pull out, if we change the set of circumstances we're facing without assurances that we're going to have the stability we're looking for, it could be self-defeating.

O'BRIEN: At the same time, there are many people who say if you install a government, as you mentioned, that is not quite ready yet, it will be perceived that the United States is cutting and running I think is the term many that people have used over the last day or so. What do you make of that?

DASCHLE: Well, cutting and running is a very apt description of what we could be accused of doing if we do it too quickly or do it without adequate thought to what happens once we're gone. I think we have to be very concerned about creating a vacuum. The president has created a quagmire. He wants to get out of it. But I think to do it prematurely would be exactly the wrong thing to do.

O'BRIEN: Yet it's an attempt to combat the major security problems going on in Iraq right now. Are you concerned that after six months after the president declared that the major combat operations were over there are now operations going on that involve gunships, that involve air power as well?

DASCHLE: Well, six months ago, they declared that the mission was accomplished. It's clear that the mission is far from accomplished. What we need to do is to beef up Iraqi security forces. We need to do that with all haste and with all expertise we can. We also need to involve the international community. The more we can do that, the fewer fatalities we're going to experience, and that's what the American people want.

O'BRIEN: In your book, you detail to a great degree the decision back in 2002 to support the president's call for war in Iraq. How much of that support was based on a fear of not being seen as patriotic?

DASCHLE: Well, we talk about that in the book, Soledad, and our feeling all along was that we needed to support the effort to see regime changes as successfully as we can. We were given a lot of information that we now know may have been wrong for either purposeful or unintentional consequences. We're not sure yet. But clearly, we based our decisions on information that the administration selectively chose. I still think it was the right thing to do to pass the resolution, but we have a long way to go to see the effects that the president promised a year ago.

O'BRIEN: Should the resolution, though, have been contingent on the U.N. support for the war, the U.N. backing the war?

DASCHLE: Well, the resolution, if you recall -- and we talk about this extensively in the book -- was really a design to engage the United Nations, NATO, the international community, a lot more effectively. I was criticized for my comments last spring when I said we should have put greater emphasis on diplomacy. Now, I think we all recognize the importance of having done that.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about this talkathon that's been going on. We've been dipping in and out of it to show some of your colleagues at the podium talking and talking and talking and talking. It's been something -- you know, 37-plus hours that they've been up there. Republicans are trying to make a point. Do you think that they're going to be successful in making their point?

DASCHLE: Well, to give you some indication, they must not have thought they made their point after 30 hours, because they want now another 9 hours. It's like at the end of a nine-inning ballgame they still want three or four innings because they're behind. They haven't made their point, because the point can't be made. The fact is the president has gotten 98 percent, 168 judges confirmed in three years. That's almost unprecedented. It beats Ronald Reagan's record in his whole entire first term of four years. So, there is very little point to be made here.

O'BRIEN: A Medicare bill. Bill Frist is predicting that Congress is going to actually approve that before Thanksgiving. Do you think that's realistic?

DASCHLE: Well, that's very optimistic. I'm not sure on what he's basing that prediction. I think that this situation continues to worsen. He has great internal dissension within the ranks of the Republican caucuses in part because they want to privative Medicare. They want to force seniors into a private HMO, and even Republicans recognize in many cases that that's a huge problem.

O'BRIEN: Senator Tom Daschle, thanks for talking with us about many topics this morning.

DASCHLE: My pleasure.

O'BRIEN: The book is called "Like No Other Time: the 107th Congress and the two years that changed America forever." Thanks for your time.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.