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American Morning

Outgoing Governmental Affairs Chairman Vows to Continue Fighting Government Waste

Aired June 05, 2001 - 09:33   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.
KAGAN: This is the day that Democrats have been waiting for and Republicans have been dreading. The Senate is preparing for the Democrats to operate with a slender majority. CNN's Jeanne Meserve is following the power shift on Capitol Hill from Capitol Hill. How fitting. Jeanne, good morning.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn. A lot of shuffling going on up here on Capitol Hill this week, and one of the people being shuffled right out of a committee chairmanship is my guest this morning, Senator Fred Thompson, Republican of Tennessee, chairman until the end of business today of the Governmental Affairs Committee.

SEN. FRED THOMPSON (R), TENNESSEE: All day long.

MESERVE: Enjoy it while you have it. Some Republicans saying that what they want to see in this reorganization is deal by which presidential nominees, including judicial nominees, would be considered on the floor of the Senate whether or not they get through committee. Democrats say, wait a minute, no way. Shouldn't be part of this agreement. It's never happened before. Where are you on this issue?

THOMPSON: I think it's yet to be seen as to what we're going to ask for, but basically what we're asking for is fairness, to not unduly hold up the president's nominations. There have been some tests that they say they're going to apply to judge nominations that hasn't been applied before. We're a little concerned about that, so we need some accommodation on that. Exactly what that's going to be or what it should be remains to be seen. But it's nothing we can't work out.

MESERVE: Do you believe that the Republican Party should take it so far as to filibuster on this issue on the Senate floor?

THOMPSON: Well, you know, any minority party has a right to require the other side to get 61 votes. So...

MESERVE: But strategically, would it be a bad idea?

THOMPSON: ... hopefully, it doesn't come to that. I hope it doesn't. I don't think that it will. I think we will be able to come to some kind of accommodation on that. Let's just wait and see and don't create trouble before it arises. But we're going to have some discussions. We have our rights, and the majority has theirs. And we just need -- come -- some accommodation so that we're treated fairly and the judges who are proposed by the president are treated fairly.

MESERVE: You're using the word accommodation, but Senator Lott, in many of his remarks, has been quite aggressive. At this point in time, how confrontational should he be in dealing with the Democrats?

THOMPSON: Well, I don't think it's a time for a confrontation. You know, I think as leader sometimes you probably feel compelled to rally the troops a little bit, and I think you're seeing a little of that going on on both sides perhaps. But I think after all is said and done, we should sit down across the table from one another and work things out. We've always been able to do that before. I think we will here.

MESERVE: Is his tone going to alienate some of the moderates, even the moderates within your own party?

THOMPSON: Oh, perhaps. I think there'll be a few people who...

MESERVE: Does it irritate you?

THOMPSON: No, not really, because you're always going to have someone who is irritated a little bit with whatever you're doing. Some people are irritated that we're not more accommodating. Some people are irritated that so much accommodation was made, for example, to Senator Jeffords. He got an awful lot of what he wanted. That irritated some people on the other side. So, you can't go around worry about pockets of folks that you're irritating. You've just got to do what you think is right, and I think basically the right tone will be set.

MESERVE: Senator Lieberman appeared on our program just a few minutes ago, talked about his priorities for your committee, because he'll be taking over as chairman. He Talked about energy, he talked about regulatory rollbacks by the Bush administration. Which of your priorities are going to end up going by the wayside?

THOMPSON: Well, I don't anything will go by the wayside. I think the priorities will change. Joe and I have been able to work together real well when I was chairman and he was ranking member. I expect that we'll be able to do that. He has right to bring things up as chairman just as I did.

But I'm going to continue to work on things, for example, the operation of the government. It's not as high profile as some of these other things, but waste, fraud and abuse in the government is rampant. We're coming out with a report today, a later today showing that this government for many years now has been grossly mismanaged and we're wasting and losing billions and billions of dollars.

We've got to do something about that. Computer projects where we're throwing billions of dollars into it with nothing to show for it; duplication, sending out checks to dead people, things of that nature. We pull that all together, and it's kind of a blueprint for what, hopefully, this administration, I believe, will take on as one of their top priorities, and I want to work with them on trying to clean that situation up.

MESERVE: Senator Fred Thompson, thanks so much, and we should point out that for the time being, Republicans will have more votes than Democrats on your committee, even though you lose the chairmanship.

THOMPSON: That's right. Whatever that means.

(LAUGHTER)

MESERVE: Daryn, Leon, back to you in Atlanta, and if he doesn't know what it means, we're really in trouble

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We're all in trouble, then.

KAGAN: Thank you, and thank you to the chairman for the day.

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