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American Morning

House Majority Leader Dick Armey Announced He Will Not Seek Re- Election Next Year

Aired December 14, 2001 - 09:12   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: House majority leader Dick Armey this week announced he will not seek re-election next year. If that's news to you, you're probably not the only one in the dark. With so much attention focused on the war and the bin Laden tape, news from the Capitol has taken a backseat.

Well, this morning, we've got you covered. Our congressional correspondents Kate Snow and Jon Karl are going to provide the stories behind some of the stories you may have missed, and they are literally taking us behind the scenes to a location inside Dick Armey's Capitol offices.

Who gave you the keys? Good morning.

KATE SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

We got a little lucky here. We got some access we don't usually get. This is one of his majority leader offices. This where he holds every week weekly pen-and-pad briefing, he calls it, which means no cameras, so it's sort of odd and rare that we were able to get in here with a camera this morning.

JONATHAN KARL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And, Paula, we're just a few steps off the floor of the House. This is a place where Army does let those reporters come in and pen and pad briefing, but only pencil and papers, no cameras, unusual.

ZAHN: We found out with your pencil and paper. What's the real story about why stepping down?

SNOW: You know, part of it, Paula, is it really comes down to his family and his wife, and I know that sounds like something people just say, but I think it's really true. He's been doing the job for 17 years -- well, he's been doing the majority leader job since '94, but he's been in office since 1984, so it will be 18 years at the end of this term, and you know, he told me the other night -- there's his wife you see on the screen there, Susan, and he said he never gets to see her. Basically, she's been a single mom raising their children in Texas all these years, and he wants to spend some time with her.

He actually got pretty teared up on the floor when he gave his goodbye speech the other day. He retired. And later that day, I saw him, Paula, and he told me that he was supposed to have dinner with wife that night, the night he announced his retirement, he was supposed to have dinner with his wife, and he had to cancel.

KARL: She had flown in from Texas, and we really get cynical in this town about family considerations, because whenever a politician leaves office, it's always, you know, well, it's my family considerations. This is what the head of the -- chairman of the Republican Party Jim Gilmore said when he was forced out by the White House just a little bit ago. So we get really cynical about this. But it's interesting, this is the second major Texas politician who has left the Congress and done so literally crying when he started talking about all the family events they had missed. The other Texas politician is Senator Phil Gramm who is also retiring at the end of this term.

And I got the sense that both of these seem sincere. I mean, the fact of the matter is, when you are here, these guys are here nonstop, they never do see their families, and they miss all those pivotal moments of their children growing up, and you know, we sometimes forget, cynical reporters, that they are human being as well. So there are major reasons, but family considerations.

ZAHN: As I understand, not only family consideration for Dick Armey, what this about the hobby he will have more time to go to?

SNOW: Oh, yes, yes, look, check this out. I've got this CD here, Dick Armey's favorite hits. This is something, little-known fact about Dick Armey. He likes to make mixed tapes. And this one has his first campaign song. It's called "I'm Just an Old Chunk of Coal," by the way. He's got all these songs, "The Winner," "I am a Simple Man," "Where Am I Going to Live."

KARL: We'll get you a copy, Paula.

SNOW: A bunch of his favorite country western songs, and his staff tells me that he's hoping to make more mix tapes now that he's got a little bit more time on his hands.

ZAHN: I've love to check that out, look like an interesting assemblage of songs there.

And let's talk a little bit, Jonathan, before we move on about all the alleged maneuverings of majority whip Tom DeLay. What's going on there?

KARL: Yes, we've done enough of the touch-feely stuff. Let's talk hard politics. Tom DeLay, as you may or may not know, as I'm sure you know, and many people may not, has really, within hours of Dick Armey's story leaking out that Dick Armey was leaving really solidified the support to become the number two person in the House of Representatives to replace Dick Armey.

Tom DeLay is the majority whip. That's the number three person in the House. He's nicknamed the hammer, because he's one of the most powerful and effective politicians that the House of Representatives have seen, at least in my lifetime.

For people who don't know what the whip is, Paula, that's the guy who gets the votes, it's the guy that runs around the floor make sure that he gets everybody in line, and Tom DeLay is known for not losing a lot of votes here. So the fact that he could get a lot support this week already, before Armey had really even announced sort of indicative of his style.

KARL: Yes. And one of Dick Armey's -- I mean, one of Tom DeLay's top advisers compared it to the nuclear football. He said, look, Tom DeLay had no idea that Dick Armey was going to step down, but he was ready when it happened to pursue the majority leader without even thinking about it. It's like the nuclear football. It's there. You can use when you need it, but you don't think about it. It's just something that's there. When the time comes to use it, you type in the codes and you're ready to go. Tom DeLay was ready to run for majority leader the minute that Dick Armey announced he wasn't going to do so. He knew the people to call. He had the people in place. He knew who his potential opponents were, he had the plan in place. And right now, at least if the election today, and it won't be for another year, because Dick Armey is going to be around for a year there is no question that Tom DeLay would be the majority leader.

ZAHN: I want to close with something lighter. I understand we missed something important this week. What was this gridiron dinner that didn't get much ink as we talked so much about war and the bin Laden tape?

KARL: Well, yes, the gridiron, which is this annual fest for politicians and some reporters, always off the record, Paula, so we have rare moment here. Al Gore -- and by the way, this week the one- year anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that ended the election last year. But Al Gore came out here. Here's the tape that was played at gridiron room. I don't know if we have some sound we can play up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AL GORE, FMR. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, I imagine sometimes what it would be like to be the leader of the free world. But frankly, there's nothing more satisfying that grilling the perfect cheeseburger.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KARL: Paula, what you've got there is never-seen-before video of former Vice President Al Gore. That was this video that was played at the Gridiron dinner what talking about that making a joke about the fact that there was a Reuter's report that Al Gore was operating a family restaurant down in Tennessee. It's not true, by the way, but it was a report on the news wire, and he's making a joke about enjoying that life.

ZAHN: Go ahead, Kate.

ZAHN: I was just going to make a note about the things you missed on this less light note. You actually missed the House passing election reform this week. Remember a year ago, we were all watching Florida. I spent a month and a half in Florida there a year ago today it ended, or yesterday. And anyway, this week, the House passed a bill this week that's going to say, no more punch cards, no more of those punch-card ballot machines, so that's pretty important, something that happened up here this week.

KARL: Passed on the one-year anniversary at the end of the election down there.

ZAHN: Yes. May we never have to utter the words "dimpled chad" and "hanging chad" ever again.

Kate and Jonathan have a good weekend. Thanks so much for your thoughts this weekend.

SNOW: Thank you.

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