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American Morning
Discussion with Senator Joseph Lieberman
Aired October 28, 2002 - 07:32 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: Senator Paul Wellstone will be remembered tomorrow in a memorial service as the investigation continues into exactly what caused his plane crash on Friday, also killing his wife, daughter and five others. With Democrats holding control of the Senate right now by just one seat, the party appears to be pinning its hopes on Walter Mondale. Party leaders say Wellstone's son is urging the former vice president to take his father's place on the ballot.
And joining us now to talk about his friend and his colleague and the upcoming election is Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman.
Welcome.
SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D), CONNECTICUT: Good morning, Paula.
ZAHN: Good to see you in person for a change.
LIEBERMAN: Good to be with you.
ZAHN: Before we talk about all the jockeying for position going on, Paul Wellstone was a dear friend of yours. What impact will his death have on you and the Senate?
LIEBERMAN: Well, he was an unusual person. First, he came to politics not professionally, but from a background as a professor, as a protester, as an advocate for people. When he was elected, a lot of people in the Senate wondered who this guy was. It's, after all, a hundred people working together. And though he never diminished the passion of his beliefs, his willingness to stand apart if he felt it was right, he became a truly beloved member of the family.
It was hard not to like Paul first, because he always did what he thought was right. Whether or not you agreed with him or not, you had to respect that. And secondly, he just had an uncontrollable instinct for warmth and humor. He was a lot of fun to be with.
ZAHN: Let's talk about the politics of all of this in the aftermath of his death. Mr. Wellstone's sons urging Walter Mondale to consider running in his stead. Do you think he'll heed that call?
LIEBERMAN: Every indication is that former Vice President Mondale will do that. But, of course, we'll wait until after the memorial service tomorrow night for a formal announcement. It's actually a wonderful tribute to Paul Wellstone's memory that somebody of the stature and principle of Walter Mondale would now pick up the fallen torch and carry it forward to election day and into the Senate. I don't know whether they agreed on everything. I'm sure their sense of priorities about protecting Social Security, health care for people, better education, a place for diplomacy in our foreign policy were similar.
But the important thing is that Walter Mondale is out of that tradition of great Minnesota Democrats who also, like Paul Wellstone, will do what he thinks is right.
ZAHN: At a time when people are mourning his loss, you also have to deal with this icky political factor.
LIEBERMAN: Sure.
ZAHN: The "USA Today" reporting that "Democrats hope sympathy for Wellstone will help the party hold the seat."
LIEBERMAN: Well, I think Paul was going to hold the seat in any case and everybody who intended to vote for him before this tragic ending to his life will vote for him now that he's gone. And I felt that all along. And I felt even when the race was close, and I said it to Paul -- I was out there campaigning with him in August -- you're going to win because, again, to repeat, whether people here agree with you or don't agree with you on a given issue, they know you're a good man. You care for them. You want government to be there to help them when they need help and you're going to do what you think is right.
And ultimately that's what the voters want to see from their elected officials.
ZAHN: Given the tightness of so many of these elections around the country, there is a prediction that we're going to see lawyers engage the extent to which we did in your election in the year 2000.
LIEBERMAN: Yes.
ZAHN: Do you see this happening? Is that how this is going to play out?
LIEBERMAN: As an alumnus of the election of 2000, I hope not. I don't think so. I have an instinct here that in the Senate races, at least, we're actually going to elect more Democrats than we have now. And I think so for two reasons. The American people are very upset about the economy, don't see any leadership from President Bush and the Republicans on it. Secondly, they don't want every branch of our federal government to be controlled by one party. They want balance. They want checks. And they, therefore, will elect Democrats to the Senate, will give, in close races, the benefit of the doubt to Democratic candidates.
I think we're going to have 52 or 53 Democrats when the votes are counted on election night.
ZAHN: We'll see. The Republicans polled certainly don't show what you're saying here this morning. A final question for you about the devastating Council on Foreign Relations report going into the weekend that the U.S. is woefully ill prepared for potential bioterrorism attacks. And a lot of the blame seems to be pinned on Congress.
LIEBERMAN: Well, the blame should go around. I'm afraid, you know, I spent a lot of time on this. I submitted the first bill to create a department of homeland security. My committee has done investigations on this, held 18 hearings on it in the last year. The fact is we haven't done enough since September 11. We ought to be creating a department of homeland security as soon as we get back and not get gridlocked, as we are, on a marginal little issue.
This requires some willingness of the president to accommodate on a point that's not at the heart of protecting American security. And we've got to give some money to state and local firefighters...
ZAHN: Of course, you know what the Republicans say and the president's people say that you guys are just trying to protect the union workers in all this. But the fact remains...
LIEBERMAN: That is ridiculous. I mean we've made to compromise offers to the White House and they've been absolutely rigid. I hope they get a little more flexible and sensible when the election is over, because the American people's security is on the line.
ZAHN: Trying to subtract politics from all of this, how vulnerable is the U.S. public as a result of the dithering going on?
LIEBERMAN: More vulnerable than they should be if we tightened security, had our ports and our transportation systems -- look, in an open society if somebody has no regard for their own safety, the rest of us are going to be in danger. But we can raise our guard and most important, this hasn't happened yet, we can create a place, which our bill would do, in the federal government where all the intelligence and law enforcement information comes together so we can see the outline of a potential attack before it happens and stop it before it does.
Ultimately, when you come to terrorism, the best defense is an offense, good intelligence, infiltration of the enemy and then preventative action.
ZAHN: We're going to have to leave it there.
Senator Lieberman, thanks for covering so much territory for us this morning.
LIEBERMAN: Thanks, Paula. Great to be with you.
ZAHN: Appreciate it.
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 October 28, 2002 - 07:32 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Senator Paul Wellstone will be remembered tomorrow in a memorial service as the investigation continues into exactly what caused his plane crash on Friday, also killing his wife, daughter and five others. With Democrats holding control of the Senate right now by just one seat, the party appears to be pinning its hopes on Walter Mondale. Party leaders say Wellstone's son is urging the former vice president to take his father's place on the ballot.
And joining us now to talk about his friend and his colleague and the upcoming election is Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman.
Welcome.
SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D), CONNECTICUT: Good morning, Paula.
ZAHN: Good to see you in person for a change.
LIEBERMAN: Good to be with you.
ZAHN: Before we talk about all the jockeying for position going on, Paul Wellstone was a dear friend of yours. What impact will his death have on you and the Senate?
LIEBERMAN: Well, he was an unusual person. First, he came to politics not professionally, but from a background as a professor, as a protester, as an advocate for people. When he was elected, a lot of people in the Senate wondered who this guy was. It's, after all, a hundred people working together. And though he never diminished the passion of his beliefs, his willingness to stand apart if he felt it was right, he became a truly beloved member of the family.
It was hard not to like Paul first, because he always did what he thought was right. Whether or not you agreed with him or not, you had to respect that. And secondly, he just had an uncontrollable instinct for warmth and humor. He was a lot of fun to be with.
ZAHN: Let's talk about the politics of all of this in the aftermath of his death. Mr. Wellstone's sons urging Walter Mondale to consider running in his stead. Do you think he'll heed that call?
LIEBERMAN: Every indication is that former Vice President Mondale will do that. But, of course, we'll wait until after the memorial service tomorrow night for a formal announcement. It's actually a wonderful tribute to Paul Wellstone's memory that somebody of the stature and principle of Walter Mondale would now pick up the fallen torch and carry it forward to election day and into the Senate. I don't know whether they agreed on everything. I'm sure their sense of priorities about protecting Social Security, health care for people, better education, a place for diplomacy in our foreign policy were similar.
But the important thing is that Walter Mondale is out of that tradition of great Minnesota Democrats who also, like Paul Wellstone, will do what he thinks is right.
ZAHN: At a time when people are mourning his loss, you also have to deal with this icky political factor.
LIEBERMAN: Sure.
ZAHN: The "USA Today" reporting that "Democrats hope sympathy for Wellstone will help the party hold the seat."
LIEBERMAN: Well, I think Paul was going to hold the seat in any case and everybody who intended to vote for him before this tragic ending to his life will vote for him now that he's gone. And I felt that all along. And I felt even when the race was close, and I said it to Paul -- I was out there campaigning with him in August -- you're going to win because, again, to repeat, whether people here agree with you or don't agree with you on a given issue, they know you're a good man. You care for them. You want government to be there to help them when they need help and you're going to do what you think is right.
And ultimately that's what the voters want to see from their elected officials.
ZAHN: Given the tightness of so many of these elections around the country, there is a prediction that we're going to see lawyers engage the extent to which we did in your election in the year 2000.
LIEBERMAN: Yes.
ZAHN: Do you see this happening? Is that how this is going to play out?
LIEBERMAN: As an alumnus of the election of 2000, I hope not. I don't think so. I have an instinct here that in the Senate races, at least, we're actually going to elect more Democrats than we have now. And I think so for two reasons. The American people are very upset about the economy, don't see any leadership from President Bush and the Republicans on it. Secondly, they don't want every branch of our federal government to be controlled by one party. They want balance. They want checks. And they, therefore, will elect Democrats to the Senate, will give, in close races, the benefit of the doubt to Democratic candidates.
I think we're going to have 52 or 53 Democrats when the votes are counted on election night.
ZAHN: We'll see. The Republicans polled certainly don't show what you're saying here this morning. A final question for you about the devastating Council on Foreign Relations report going into the weekend that the U.S. is woefully ill prepared for potential bioterrorism attacks. And a lot of the blame seems to be pinned on Congress.
LIEBERMAN: Well, the blame should go around. I'm afraid, you know, I spent a lot of time on this. I submitted the first bill to create a department of homeland security. My committee has done investigations on this, held 18 hearings on it in the last year. The fact is we haven't done enough since September 11. We ought to be creating a department of homeland security as soon as we get back and not get gridlocked, as we are, on a marginal little issue.
This requires some willingness of the president to accommodate on a point that's not at the heart of protecting American security. And we've got to give some money to state and local firefighters...
ZAHN: Of course, you know what the Republicans say and the president's people say that you guys are just trying to protect the union workers in all this. But the fact remains...
LIEBERMAN: That is ridiculous. I mean we've made to compromise offers to the White House and they've been absolutely rigid. I hope they get a little more flexible and sensible when the election is over, because the American people's security is on the line.
ZAHN: Trying to subtract politics from all of this, how vulnerable is the U.S. public as a result of the dithering going on?
LIEBERMAN: More vulnerable than they should be if we tightened security, had our ports and our transportation systems -- look, in an open society if somebody has no regard for their own safety, the rest of us are going to be in danger. But we can raise our guard and most important, this hasn't happened yet, we can create a place, which our bill would do, in the federal government where all the intelligence and law enforcement information comes together so we can see the outline of a potential attack before it happens and stop it before it does.
Ultimately, when you come to terrorism, the best defense is an offense, good intelligence, infiltration of the enemy and then preventative action.
ZAHN: We're going to have to leave it there.
Senator Lieberman, thanks for covering so much territory for us this morning.
LIEBERMAN: Thanks, Paula. Great to be with you.
ZAHN: Appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
