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American Morning
Senate Shake-Up: Taking the Pulse of Washington
Aired May 25, 2001 - 10:18 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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Now we're going to check on the pulse inside the Washington Beltway the day after Senator James Jeffords has announced his defection from the Republican Party. Joining us from Capitol Hill, one of his colleagues, one of his Republican colleagues right now, Senator Bill Frist from Tennessee. Senator, good morning. Thanks for joining us today.
SEN. BILL FRIST (R), TENNESSEE: Good morning. Good to be with you.
KAGAN: Does the regrouping in the Republican Party, especially on the Senate side, does it continue today?
FRIST: Well, it does. We're going to have a caucus meeting shortly. It was a fascinating day up and down yesterday. It'll be a lot of reconsideration today, planning for the future, all of us getting ready to go back home for the Memorial Day recess, again, coming back with new leadership in the United States Senate.
KAGAN: Let's talk about some of the specifics which might lie ahead, and I'm especially interested in talking to you, sir, since you are not only a senator, but a doctor as well. The Democrats have made it clear that right up there at their top of the list of priorities, patients bill of rights and the version of the legislation sponsored by Ted Kennedy. Do you think that now has a much better chance of making its way through the Senate?
FRIST: Well, it'll be interesting. About a week and a half ago I introduced, along with Jim Jeffords and John Breaux, a bipartisan patient bill of rights that is consistent with the principles as outlined by the president of the United States.
KAGAN: Senator, if we can just have you stand by, I think you'll appreciate why. The president today speaking at Annapolis, the graduating midshipmen, the U.S. Naval Academy. We're going to go ahead and listen in to what the president has to say.
(INTERRUPTED BY LIVE EVENT)
KAGAN: We've been listening to President Bush as he addresses the graduating midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy. We jumped to the president's address and we rudely, I should say, interrupted Senator Bill Frist, who we were talking to, Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee. Senator, my apologies. We appreciate you sticking around to continue our conversation.
FRIST: Good to be with you. Always good to hear the president.
KAGAN: Always good. I thought you would appreciate it. Easier to interrupt our conversation than Senator Levin, who we'll be talking to after this.
Since the president is at the Naval Academy, let's bring up the issue of defense. Senator Levin, who we'll be talking to after you, does stand in line to become now the head of the Armed Services Committee, bringing about a very different future potentially for much of the wishes of the president in revamping the U.S. military.
FRIST: Well, I think, first of all, going back to health care, we're going to see real progress in health care on a patient bill of rights, on Medicare, with prescription drugs, and I hope continuation of the president's proposal on supporting HIV/AIDS around the world.
Coming to military defense of the country, I think it really boils down to the fact we've seen huge momentum under the president of the United States' leadership. We've seen it on the budgets, tax cut, education. We've seen an energy proposal put out there. And we've seen a general framework for the military and defense of this country.
The American people expect leadership, leadership in the United States Senate. That leadership is being given to the Democrats for the time being, I hope, and only for a short period of time. But I expect the American people do understand the importance of that leadership, of that momentum. And our new leadership will be put under the microscope, I believe, to continue that real leadership, to make sure that those values of the American people are represented in a fair and balanced way.
KAGAN: What about some of the comments that Senator Jeffords made yesterday and the discussion that it brings about? Do you believe the Republican Party has become too conservative and is not inclusive enough to people of many different ideas?
FRIST: No. I think the comments of Senator Jeffords do represent the fact that he, in many ways, was a round peg in a square hole. And he's been there for a while. He was uncomfortable. He was voting with the other side on an ongoing basis. He made it on principle, that decision on principle. But we have the same 100 senators in the United States Senate today that we had yesterday, that we had last week.
I expect under the leadership of President George W. Bush we're going to hear, have a lot of listening to the American people, true leadership on education, taxes, the budget, the military, quality of life, safety in our schools, a better education. That leadership, hopefully, we will continue to respond to as we have over the last 120 days.
KAGAN: And what about reports, we were hearing from Kate Snow on Capitol Hill that perhaps the Democrats aren't done reaching out, that they continue to reach out perhaps to John McCain of Arizona and also to Lincoln Chafee of Nebraska?
FRIST: Well, I think you can see a lot of reaching out on both sides of the aisle. And again, this president, President Bush, came to this town with a different tone, a bipartisan tone, a reaching out across the aisles. You've seen it in bills that I've put forward like the patient bill of rights, working with John Breaux and Jim Jeffords and myself, putting forth a bipartisan plan. You're seeing it today and last week on education, again, a bipartisan bill in the United States Senate with prominence like Ted Kennedy, Jim Jeffords, myself, Judd Gregg, Joe Lieberman again working together for the interests of the American people.
The American people deserve that working together under the leadership of a strong president who put tax cuts on the table, who put education on the table, who put quality of life for individuals and safety in our schools and on our streets on the table.
KAGAN: You might have to come up with a new term now in the U.S. Senate, tripartisan, now that you have an independent to work with as well.
FRIST: Well, we do. And, you know, the fact that it is 50-49-1, nobody knows exactly how it's going to work out. I would expect that on the Republican side you're going to see a lot more in terms of unity among the 49 that are there. People say that people are accusing each other. There is no finger pointing going on, not at the White House or within our own caucus. I suspect that you'll see a lot more in the way of unity coming together on the part of Republicans.
KAGAN: Senator Bill Frist, Tennessee, thanks for joining us today, sir.
FRIST: Great to be with you. Thank you.
KAGAN: Appreciate your time, especially for sticking around while we listened in to the president.
FRIST: Thank you.
KAGAN: Thank you.
Our pollsters hit the phone banks last night, asking Americans about Senator James Jeffords' split with the Republican Party. Jeffords' decision to be an independent will give Democrats control of the Senate for the first time since 1994, which you know. We've just reported that. But according to a CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll of more than 600 adults, 43 percent think Jeffords' break with the GOP is good for the country. Half of those surveyed agree with Jeffords' statement that the Republican Party has become too conservative.
Perhaps one man who might agree with that, our next guest, Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, joining us. Senator, good morning. Thanks for being with us.
SEN. CARL LEVIN (D), MICHIGAN: Good morning. Thank you.
KAGAN: I don't know if you were able to listen in to Senator Frist and hear any of his comments.
LEVIN: Just part of it.
KAGAN: Just part of it. Well, we'll go from here. What about the reports we're hearing that perhaps the Democrats aren't done reaching out, that there might be more reaching out to senators like McCain and Chafee?
LEVIN: In terms of switching parties, you mean?
KAGAN: Yes.
LEVIN: I don't know of any that's happening. But you never know here. People have switched parties over history. There were two Democrats who became Republicans here in the last 20 years and we never know. This was unpredictable, as far as I'm concerned, with Senator Jeffords and so I don't know of any specific effort to have other senators switch parties from either direction, but perhaps they're going on without my knowing it.
KAGAN: Let's look at exactly how this is going to affect you as the senior Democrat on the Armed Services Committee. You stand in line to become chairman of that committee.
LEVIN: Right. I think that this committee that I will now be chairman of has always been a bipartisan committee. An effort has always been made through history to have Democrats and Republicans work together when it comes to defense policy and security policy. Senator Warner, who's now chairman, maintained that tradition. He and I have always worked closely together and we will continue to work closely together and I will maintain that tradition of being a -- really making an effort to be a bipartisan chairman.
There will be differences, obviously. But on most things there's commonality. We will focus on quality of life for the men and women in uniform. That's number one. Number two will be readiness, to make sure that our troops are ready, have the best equipment and the best training to continue to be the strongest military in the world.
Will there be any change in emphasis? I think there will be some change. We'll put more emphasis, I believe, on the new threats that are emerging, the terrorist threats that attacked the World Trade Center in New York, that attacked the USS Cole, that attack our embassies around the world. Those are the real world threats that we've got to put more focus on, put more eggs in that basket.
We have focused so much on this missile defense issue...
KAGAN: Exactly. You've been working...
LEVIN: ... which is the least likely of all the threats.
KAGAN: You have been one of the most outspoken critics of that plan and as you know, sir, President Bush, this is a favorite project of his. This is going to face a very different fate now, isn't it, now that you're head of the Armed Service -- once you become head of the Armed Services Committee?
LEVIN: I think the president is already looking at the down sides of a unilateral deployment of missile defense. At least he's hearing plenty about that from our allies. He said he would engage in real consultation with our allies and if he does, he's going to hear what we've all heard, which are there are real concerns that the reaction to the unilateral deployment of a missile defense in violation of a treaty will lead to a less secure world, that there are real dangers in doing that and the dangers are that the Russians or the Chinese will end up keeping or having more nuclear weapons on their soil, more nuclear material on their soil, will not be willing to reduce the number of nuclear weapons and therefore the threat of weapons of mass destruction being proliferated will grow if we unilaterally deploy a national missile defense.
The pros and cons of that, I think, are now going to be more considered by this administration than they were during the campaign when the president just made a statement, we're going to deploy and pull out of the ABM treaty, because he's heard plenty from our allies as well as from the Russians and the Chinese as to what the likely response would be.
KAGAN: Very quickly, Senator, you, this president also plans on a top to bottom military review. How do you plan to participate in that?
LEVIN: Yesterday we met with Secretary Rumsfeld as a committee and he gave us assurance that there will be much closer involvement of the Congress as this plan progresses. We heard reports that the military have not been, the uniformed military, indeed, have not been fully involved, that it's been too exclusive a plan so far in terms of the design of the plan.
But he gave us assurances that there will be a really strong involvement by Congress, by the military leaders before he proposes this plan to the country or to the president.
KAGAN: Senator Carl Levin, Democrat from Michigan, thank you for your time, sir.
LEVIN: Thank you.
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