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CNN Live Saturday

Interview With Mike Allen

Aired April 19, 2003 - 15:38   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.


JONATHAN KARL, CNN ANCHOR: Democrats today slammed President Bush's proposed tax cuts in the party's weekly radio address. They're trying to turn the focus back to the battered economy and away from the war. But will Mr. Bush's victory in Iraq help him secure his agenda at home? Mike Allen is the White House correspondent for the "Washington Post," and he's in Crawford, Texas, with the president.
So, Mike, the president's up in various polls, 70-plus approval rating. Do the White House officials, the president's political advisers, believe that he can use that popularity to get this domestic agenda through Congress?

MIKE ALLEN, WASHINGTON POST: Well, Jonathan, they're hoping, but it's not as much popularity as they'd hoped for. President Bush's father, as you remember, was up to 90. This president, 70 is a great number, but it's not 90. And the big difference it is is that his father had strong majority of Democrats, held on to independents. This president hasn't. This president remains a polarizing figure. And so that makes it tough as he goes into an area where he's less sure, domestic policy, whereas on wars since September 11, he's been very sure-footed.

KARL: And Mike, even his father with that 90-plus approval rating, got nothing done of significance on the domestic agenda, unless you count the highway bill that was touted as his great domestic achievement after the Iraq war. So what's the plan here? You've got an article in today's "Post" about how they want to flood the zone with administration officials to sell the tax cut. What's the plan?

ALLEN: Exactly, a little football analogy there. What this administration says that is different, is they had a number of programs teed up. They're ready with a tax cut, what they're calling a jobs program. Nobody can really object to jobs, whereas in polls, a lot of people say we don't need a tax cut, we can't afford a tax cut. So the flood the zone idea is you're going to pull out all the stops, everything you have, including presidential travel, paid advertisements, you saw some of those on "INSIDE POLITICS" yesterday. Friends of the administration are writing op-eds. Business groups are having their employers lobby congressmen. They're punishing lawmakers, they're rewarding lawmakers, trying to do everything between now and Memorial Day to get as much of this tax cut as they can.

KARL: Now, Mike, in your piece, you also talk about the problems that the administration has had with the Senate and with the new Senate leader Bill Frist. You have an intriguing quote in your piece from an unnamed senior administration official that says of Dr. Frist -- "You've let the president and party down. What are you going to do about it?" How deep is the anger within the Bush administration at what has happened in the Senate? Of course, the basically, the cutting of the tax cut in half?

ALLEN: There are different views about exactly how much of a role the Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist played in the deal in which several key senators believed that the tax cut will be almost half of what the president wanted. You can see from that quote what the White House believes happened, and you can see that they're ready to play real hardball.

The fascinating part about this is this is Republicans the president's having to invest so much of his capital, invest so much of his time in dealing with. After the election, you know, we thought the president owned the town. This is a reminder how, with just a seat or two, as one administration official said, everyone can be king for a day. So they're having to go and, in addition to trying to reach a few moderate Democrats, and I think that's where you'll see a lot of the president's trips to states where a Democrat might come his way. He also is having to focus on these very ugly relations with a couple of Republicans.

KARL: All right, Mike Allen in Crawford, fascinating that the president is also targeting states with Republican senators, pressuring those moderate Republicans, at least one of whom is up for reelection. Thank you very much, Mike.

ALLEN: Thanks, Jon.

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 April 19, 2003 - 15:38   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JONATHAN KARL, CNN ANCHOR: Democrats today slammed President Bush's proposed tax cuts in the party's weekly radio address. They're trying to turn the focus back to the battered economy and away from the war. But will Mr. Bush's victory in Iraq help him secure his agenda at home? Mike Allen is the White House correspondent for the "Washington Post," and he's in Crawford, Texas, with the president.
So, Mike, the president's up in various polls, 70-plus approval rating. Do the White House officials, the president's political advisers, believe that he can use that popularity to get this domestic agenda through Congress?

MIKE ALLEN, WASHINGTON POST: Well, Jonathan, they're hoping, but it's not as much popularity as they'd hoped for. President Bush's father, as you remember, was up to 90. This president, 70 is a great number, but it's not 90. And the big difference it is is that his father had strong majority of Democrats, held on to independents. This president hasn't. This president remains a polarizing figure. And so that makes it tough as he goes into an area where he's less sure, domestic policy, whereas on wars since September 11, he's been very sure-footed.

KARL: And Mike, even his father with that 90-plus approval rating, got nothing done of significance on the domestic agenda, unless you count the highway bill that was touted as his great domestic achievement after the Iraq war. So what's the plan here? You've got an article in today's "Post" about how they want to flood the zone with administration officials to sell the tax cut. What's the plan?

ALLEN: Exactly, a little football analogy there. What this administration says that is different, is they had a number of programs teed up. They're ready with a tax cut, what they're calling a jobs program. Nobody can really object to jobs, whereas in polls, a lot of people say we don't need a tax cut, we can't afford a tax cut. So the flood the zone idea is you're going to pull out all the stops, everything you have, including presidential travel, paid advertisements, you saw some of those on "INSIDE POLITICS" yesterday. Friends of the administration are writing op-eds. Business groups are having their employers lobby congressmen. They're punishing lawmakers, they're rewarding lawmakers, trying to do everything between now and Memorial Day to get as much of this tax cut as they can.

KARL: Now, Mike, in your piece, you also talk about the problems that the administration has had with the Senate and with the new Senate leader Bill Frist. You have an intriguing quote in your piece from an unnamed senior administration official that says of Dr. Frist -- "You've let the president and party down. What are you going to do about it?" How deep is the anger within the Bush administration at what has happened in the Senate? Of course, the basically, the cutting of the tax cut in half?

ALLEN: There are different views about exactly how much of a role the Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist played in the deal in which several key senators believed that the tax cut will be almost half of what the president wanted. You can see from that quote what the White House believes happened, and you can see that they're ready to play real hardball.

The fascinating part about this is this is Republicans the president's having to invest so much of his capital, invest so much of his time in dealing with. After the election, you know, we thought the president owned the town. This is a reminder how, with just a seat or two, as one administration official said, everyone can be king for a day. So they're having to go and, in addition to trying to reach a few moderate Democrats, and I think that's where you'll see a lot of the president's trips to states where a Democrat might come his way. He also is having to focus on these very ugly relations with a couple of Republicans.

KARL: All right, Mike Allen in Crawford, fascinating that the president is also targeting states with Republican senators, pressuring those moderate Republicans, at least one of whom is up for reelection. Thank you very much, Mike.

ALLEN: Thanks, Jon.

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