Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Saturday
2002: Year in Review -- Politics
Aired December 28, 2002 - 17:20 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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Following a disastrous fall election for the Democratic Party, Democrats can do nothing but look ahead to 2003 now. The political landscape changed dramatically in the final quarter of 2002 and joining us from New York is CNN political analyst Ron Brownstein, political writer for "The Los Angeles Times," good to see you.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Hi, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right, a few things, pretty pivotal moments in 2002 but let's begin with that midterm election which really started to set the tone it would seem for the political fallout or at least the shape of Congress.
BROWNSTEIN: It was a big gamble for President Bush and it paid off big. President Bush and this White House were as intimately involved in this election as really I can recall the White House being, recruiting candidates, discouraging candidates they didn't want to run, raising money, risking the president's popularity in state after state, and as I said it paid off big.
President Bush became the first chief executive since Franklin Roosevelt in 1934 to gain seats in the house during the first midterm election and, of course, regaining the Senate, so he tremendously solidified his position and increased the odds of moving forward his agenda because this bet that he made paid off.
WHITFIELD: It certainly directly impacted the next congressional term but at the same time do you see that seeing the president influence and his impact on this campaign very much set a new tone perhaps for the presidency itself and the influence it may bring to congressional elections?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, you know, we haven't had many elections with a president having an approval rating as high as President Bush did this fall and he showed that he was able to leverage that into votes, especially in the states where he had been strong in 2000.
One of the things that really happened in this election was a big surge of Republican turnout in places like Georgia, Colorado, Florida, elsewhere, Minnesota, where Republican leaning voters came out really it seemed to cast a vote in support of President Bush and it really overwhelmed Democrats, many of whom had entirely respectable vote totals but saw the votes for their Republican opponents go up enormously. Jeb Bush, for instance, got 600,000 more votes than he did last time, an almost unimaginable change in a four-year period in the governor's race in Florida. So again, what President Bush showed was that his popularity with his base in particular could translate into votes and that is a real form of power on Capitol Hill.
WHITFIELD: Other big pivotal moments involving politics this year, Trent Lott?
BROWNSTEIN: Well clearly Trent Lott's flame-out was one of the biggest political stories of the year. Lott had been playing with matches for years on race. He had made comments about Strom Thurmond, almost identical to the ones that got him in trouble. Twenty-two years earlier with Ronald Reagan he had praised Jefferson Davis.
He had many votes on civil rights issues that raised questions, and ultimately the Republican Party, far more than the Democrats, decided that he had become a liability. He was really a throwback in some of the things he was doing to the first generation of Republican politicians in the south with a kind of subtle nudge and a wink racial signaling. The party has almost entirely grown beyond that and they saw him as a liability.
WHITFIELD: And, Ron, many Democratic leaders said they were going to take advantage of this to try and gain some momentum for the Democratic Party as it heads into the 2004 election, you know sort of riding the coattails of what has taken place with the Republican Party and Trent Lott. In fact, most recently then, even today, we heard from Joseph Lieberman now finally making an official announcement while he was in Israel. Let's listen in on his very special moment from there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D), CONNECTICUT: I said over the last two years since the campaign of 2000 in which I ran for vice president ended that if Al Gore did not seek the Democratic nomination I would seriously consider it. If he did run, because he gave me the opportunity of a political lifetime to run for vice president, I wouldn't run against him.
Well, now he's decided he won't run and I would say that I probably will run but when I go back I'm going to spend a little time mostly with my family, with my friends, and with my key political supporters deciding and I think I've got to make a decision and a clear one by the middle of January.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Then he would say he would probably run.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
WHITFIELD: Is that sort of code language for I'm testing the waters to see what kind of reaction I'll get now? BROWNSTEIN: Yes. I think he's more than testing the waters. He's sort of, you know, shoulder deep in the waters. You know one of the big stories of 2003, Fredricka, is going to be this accelerated Democratic presidential race. Because the party rules have changed and the calendar has moved up, the Iowa and New Hampshire votes, the caucus in Iowa and the primary in New Hampshire are both going to be done about 13 months from now, which means by the second half of 2003, you'll see not only Joe Lieberman in all likelihood, but Senator John Kerry, John Edwards, Dick Gephardt, Howard Dean, the outgoing governor of Vermont, some other possibilities all out there running very aggressively because the vote is going to be on us much sooner than most people think or perhaps even want.
WHITFIELD: Boy, it's already seeing very much more accelerated, thanks a lot Ron, good to see you.
BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.
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 December 28, 2002 - 17:20 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Following a disastrous fall election for the Democratic Party, Democrats can do nothing but look ahead to 2003 now. The political landscape changed dramatically in the final quarter of 2002 and joining us from New York is CNN political analyst Ron Brownstein, political writer for "The Los Angeles Times," good to see you.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Hi, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right, a few things, pretty pivotal moments in 2002 but let's begin with that midterm election which really started to set the tone it would seem for the political fallout or at least the shape of Congress.
BROWNSTEIN: It was a big gamble for President Bush and it paid off big. President Bush and this White House were as intimately involved in this election as really I can recall the White House being, recruiting candidates, discouraging candidates they didn't want to run, raising money, risking the president's popularity in state after state, and as I said it paid off big.
President Bush became the first chief executive since Franklin Roosevelt in 1934 to gain seats in the house during the first midterm election and, of course, regaining the Senate, so he tremendously solidified his position and increased the odds of moving forward his agenda because this bet that he made paid off.
WHITFIELD: It certainly directly impacted the next congressional term but at the same time do you see that seeing the president influence and his impact on this campaign very much set a new tone perhaps for the presidency itself and the influence it may bring to congressional elections?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, you know, we haven't had many elections with a president having an approval rating as high as President Bush did this fall and he showed that he was able to leverage that into votes, especially in the states where he had been strong in 2000.
One of the things that really happened in this election was a big surge of Republican turnout in places like Georgia, Colorado, Florida, elsewhere, Minnesota, where Republican leaning voters came out really it seemed to cast a vote in support of President Bush and it really overwhelmed Democrats, many of whom had entirely respectable vote totals but saw the votes for their Republican opponents go up enormously. Jeb Bush, for instance, got 600,000 more votes than he did last time, an almost unimaginable change in a four-year period in the governor's race in Florida. So again, what President Bush showed was that his popularity with his base in particular could translate into votes and that is a real form of power on Capitol Hill.
WHITFIELD: Other big pivotal moments involving politics this year, Trent Lott?
BROWNSTEIN: Well clearly Trent Lott's flame-out was one of the biggest political stories of the year. Lott had been playing with matches for years on race. He had made comments about Strom Thurmond, almost identical to the ones that got him in trouble. Twenty-two years earlier with Ronald Reagan he had praised Jefferson Davis.
He had many votes on civil rights issues that raised questions, and ultimately the Republican Party, far more than the Democrats, decided that he had become a liability. He was really a throwback in some of the things he was doing to the first generation of Republican politicians in the south with a kind of subtle nudge and a wink racial signaling. The party has almost entirely grown beyond that and they saw him as a liability.
WHITFIELD: And, Ron, many Democratic leaders said they were going to take advantage of this to try and gain some momentum for the Democratic Party as it heads into the 2004 election, you know sort of riding the coattails of what has taken place with the Republican Party and Trent Lott. In fact, most recently then, even today, we heard from Joseph Lieberman now finally making an official announcement while he was in Israel. Let's listen in on his very special moment from there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D), CONNECTICUT: I said over the last two years since the campaign of 2000 in which I ran for vice president ended that if Al Gore did not seek the Democratic nomination I would seriously consider it. If he did run, because he gave me the opportunity of a political lifetime to run for vice president, I wouldn't run against him.
Well, now he's decided he won't run and I would say that I probably will run but when I go back I'm going to spend a little time mostly with my family, with my friends, and with my key political supporters deciding and I think I've got to make a decision and a clear one by the middle of January.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Then he would say he would probably run.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
WHITFIELD: Is that sort of code language for I'm testing the waters to see what kind of reaction I'll get now? BROWNSTEIN: Yes. I think he's more than testing the waters. He's sort of, you know, shoulder deep in the waters. You know one of the big stories of 2003, Fredricka, is going to be this accelerated Democratic presidential race. Because the party rules have changed and the calendar has moved up, the Iowa and New Hampshire votes, the caucus in Iowa and the primary in New Hampshire are both going to be done about 13 months from now, which means by the second half of 2003, you'll see not only Joe Lieberman in all likelihood, but Senator John Kerry, John Edwards, Dick Gephardt, Howard Dean, the outgoing governor of Vermont, some other possibilities all out there running very aggressively because the vote is going to be on us much sooner than most people think or perhaps even want.
WHITFIELD: Boy, it's already seeing very much more accelerated, thanks a lot Ron, good to see you.
BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
