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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With Victoria Jones, Martha Zoller

Aired November 03, 2002 - 09:10   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.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. We've heard a lot of talk from the candidates heading into Tuesday's election. But what are the voters talking about? What are you talking about? In a moment, we're going to share some e-mails with you here. So just wanted to give everybody a heads up on that.
Joining us are two guests with their fingers on the pulse of the people. Here in Washington, sitting across the studio from me, special correspondent for the Talk Radio News Service, and one of the few liberal talk show hosts in the world, Victoria Jones. And from our Atlanta headquarters, Martha Zoller, who is a conservative radio talk show host from WDUN, that's News Talk 550 in Atlanta. Good to have you with us.

All right. First of all, before we get to the e-mail, which is coming up, and I'm warning the control room of that, we're going to be doing some e-mail. Antigua or Antigua? Victoria, what is it?

VICTORIA JONES, TALK RADIO NEWS SERVICE: It is Antigua.

O'BRIEN: Yeah?

JONES: That is definitive.

O'BRIEN: Martha, do you disagree?

MARTHA ZOLLER, WDUN TALK SHOW HOST: I will go with Antigua also. I'll defer to Victoria on that one.

O'BRIEN: Two Antiguas. We're overruled.

JONES: See, it's the accent, people defer to me on that.

ZOLLER: That's right.

JONES: Fascinating.

O'BRIEN: It's that Liverpool accent is what does that.

All right. I want to incorporate a little e-mail on this. Let's go to the first one. This comes from Ann in Olney, Maryland. "I've never felt more cynical about politicians as I do now. In 2000, Bush ran on moderation. As a Democrat, I don't have a problem with moderation. However, his actions seem very conservative and polarizing, and it seems most Republicans are using the same bait-and- switch strategy this election. It's all very confusing, and somewhat disingenuous."

Martha, you want to take Ann to task there?

ZOLLER: Well, I tell you what. I think that what my advice is, that I don't read direct mail pieces and I don't look at advertising, only because what is the purpose of advertising on either side? Is to make your point and spin it in your way.

But no, I think the president has shown that he's reached out. He's shown it in his cabinet; he's shown it in the decisions that he has made. He compromised with Ted Kennedy on education, which was the key to his platform. I think if you look for compromise, you will find it. If you don't want to find it, you won't. So the president has brought moderation back, but there is a lot of cynicism in politics. And what it's going to take to change that is to get good people to run.

O'BRIEN: There's a news flash, cynicism in politics. Let's get that on the crawler right now. Hopefully we can spell cynicism right. Joanne in Michigan has this: "Nothing has changed since the 2000 elections. Al Gore and the rest of Democrats are still crying. It's time to get over it, guys." Victoria.

JONES: No, it is definitely time to get over it. And of course, Al Gore is conspicuous by his absence, which shows how much clout he has. No, they have to get over it, as the Bush administration and the Republicans have to get over Bill Clinton, who they apparently still think is in office. No question.

ZOLLER: Well, but you've got to agree that Bill Clinton has been the most unusual former president we've ever seen. He's been out there much more, he has stayed more involved, and he's made himself a target. I agree they should move on...

(CROSSTALK)

ZOLLER: By appearing at these fund-raisers, by appearing at things while he is a...

JONES: Oh, please.

ZOLLER: But you know, let's talk about the Mondale...

O'BRIEN: Oh, those fund-raisers can be a real tough crowd.

JONES: Oh, come on! What's he supposed to do?

ZOLLER: Well, I'll tell you what, he's not supposed to go to a memorial service in Minnesota and then hop a plane to Hawaii and do four more memorial services on four different islands.

JONES: Why not? Who decided what Bill Clinton could or couldn't do? I mean, Bill Clinton never had a problem with deciding what he could (ph) do.

ZOLLER: Bill Clinton belongs to the most exclusive club in the world, which is former presidents. And there is some decorum.

JONES: Well, the Bushes all already belong to that club, seeing as they already have so much money they don't know what to do with it.

ZOLLER: There needs to be some decorum, which he's not shown.

O'BRIEN: Listen, listen, not everybody can be Jimmy Carter. Let's just leave it at that.

Lloyd (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- I think we can all agree, Republican or Democrat, he is a very successful ex-president, more successful than he was as president. Lloyd Brush from Sacramento, California has this -- he's talking about election process here: "We should take it one step further and use an online Internet voting system. I would imagine more people would participate in the voting process if they could vote at home, using their online home computers."

ZOLLER: I'll tell you, the problem with that is security, though, Miles. We don't know how to secure that.

O'BRIEN: All right, but let's say, for a minute, we could figure out the technicalities, because it raises a billion questions about hackers and security and worms and viruses. But let's say they could figure that out. The bottom line is, most Republicans wouldn't want this, would they?

JONES: No, they wouldn't want this, because their plan is to suppress the vote, rather than to get out the vote.

ZOLLER: Oh, not at all.

JONES: You can see that in just about every state.

ZOLLER: I mean, in Oregon...

JONES: What we need is to have more early voting and to have more online voting. What we need to do is to make it as easy as possible for people to vote, not as difficult as possible.

ZOLLER: Well, I agree with that.

JONES: The more people who participate in this process, the better for everybody.

ZOLLER: I agree that more people should participate, but we have great examples in Oregon and Arizona and other places where they extended voting, they had mail-in voting. They allowed people two weeks. And you know what? The turnout was no higher than what they expected before they had the kind of voting that we all hate. What we have got to do is polarize people, and I don't mean it in a bad way, with issues. If they have an issue, they'll get out to vote. And that's what they'll do. I believe...

(CROSSTALK)

ZOLLER: The biggest problem is absentee ballots. In Georgia, Florida, wherever. Now, I do believe you need to open up the voting for about two weeks ahead of time.

O'BRIEN: Listen, I don't understand why we don't vote on, like, Sundays.

ZOLLER: Or Saturdays. That would be great.

JONES: That is so sensible, Miles, really.

O'BRIEN: All right. Let's go to Kevin Embry in Floorsville, Texas. He has this, relating to this whole issue of issues and what is resonating with voters and turnout: "I'm fed up with the mudslinging. No longer hear what a candidate is going to do in office, so you can't hold a candidate responsible for what they do in office anymore. Sometimes I think it's a conspiracy between both parties."

(CROSSTALK)

JONES: Well, you know, that's very funny. A lot of people think there is only one party. Howard Kurtz had a great piece in yesterday's "Washington Post" about -- and Martha, you're so wise not to watch this stuff -- about how many ads there are in the news, for example, versus how much actual election coverage. And you can't get election coverage, you can only get ads.

O'BRIEN: We have to be fair here, because the media has only started covering this race because we were dominated by the sniper, up until about a week ago.

So we have some role to play in all this. Go ahead, Martha.

ZOLLER: Well, and I think in our state of Georgia, where I am right now, where the governor raised $19 million to get his message across and was, in fact, continuing with fund-raisers through Friday, he has blanketed the airwaves. North Georgia, where I am, where he's not doing very well, he doesn't want to do any public events. I think what happens with advertising and mailing pieces is that it makes a kind of packaged view of a candidate instead of them getting out and actually talking to voters. And you know what, we're voters, and that's what we need to be listening to.

O'BRIEN: Homogenized, this is the problem with the system, my opinion.

Argus Linney has this one and we're going to end on this one: "I hate to complain, but how come Miles' dad gets on and nothing, nothing I write ever gets read?" My dad's comment got on yesterday, ladies.

Here's your comment, Argus, OK? I'm putting you on TV you know, Argus. I don't want to hear any complaining from you anymore. Angus -- not Argus. Angus. "If we have a total Republican government, is war and bankruptcy in the USA inevitable?"

I think we know where Angus stands politically, but the question is checks and balances here, and will people be voting with this in mind. Victoria, you go first. JONES: Yes, they're going to be voting with this in mind, and yes, Angus is absolutely right. And why hasn't my dad been on?

O'BRIEN: All right, Martha, go.

ZOLLER: Well, I think that certainly Republicans we know have their own air, water, money supply, so nothing that they do affects them directly. So no, I don't think it will be the end of time, but there's been Democrat control in all three houses. Do I think that the checks and balances should be in place? Yes, they should be in place, but voters need to make their decisions based on who they think will be the best candidate, and you know, news flash, Republicans do not have their own air, water and money supply. We have to live under the same thing.

O'BRIEN: You want the checks and balances? Would you prefer that, say, the Senate was still in the Democratic hands?

ZOLLER: Well, but who is to say, because it's in Republican hands, that they're going to just give a carte blanche to the president? Plenty of Republicans have voted against the president.

JONES: Oh, please.

ZOLLER: I think the people should be heard. You know what? if, on Wednesday, if on Wednesday, the Democrats still control the Senate, I will congratulate those folks and I will look to see what their record will hold. But I still think...

JONES: We are not going to know for months who controls what. There are going to be so many appeals on this thing.

O'BRIEN: All right. Ladies, ladies, I'm sorry, we have digressed, but yes, I think we'll be talking about this election much farther downstream than Wednesday, as it moves into the litigation phase.

ZOLLER: Absolutely.

O'BRIEN: That's my prediction.

Ladies, excellent job. Victoria Jones, Martha Zoller, joining us from Washington and Atlanta, respectively. Left and right, respectively, and now I think I better respectively move on.

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 November 3, 2002 - 09:10   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. We've heard a lot of talk from the candidates heading into Tuesday's election. But what are the voters talking about? What are you talking about? In a moment, we're going to share some e-mails with you here. So just wanted to give everybody a heads up on that.
Joining us are two guests with their fingers on the pulse of the people. Here in Washington, sitting across the studio from me, special correspondent for the Talk Radio News Service, and one of the few liberal talk show hosts in the world, Victoria Jones. And from our Atlanta headquarters, Martha Zoller, who is a conservative radio talk show host from WDUN, that's News Talk 550 in Atlanta. Good to have you with us.

All right. First of all, before we get to the e-mail, which is coming up, and I'm warning the control room of that, we're going to be doing some e-mail. Antigua or Antigua? Victoria, what is it?

VICTORIA JONES, TALK RADIO NEWS SERVICE: It is Antigua.

O'BRIEN: Yeah?

JONES: That is definitive.

O'BRIEN: Martha, do you disagree?

MARTHA ZOLLER, WDUN TALK SHOW HOST: I will go with Antigua also. I'll defer to Victoria on that one.

O'BRIEN: Two Antiguas. We're overruled.

JONES: See, it's the accent, people defer to me on that.

ZOLLER: That's right.

JONES: Fascinating.

O'BRIEN: It's that Liverpool accent is what does that.

All right. I want to incorporate a little e-mail on this. Let's go to the first one. This comes from Ann in Olney, Maryland. "I've never felt more cynical about politicians as I do now. In 2000, Bush ran on moderation. As a Democrat, I don't have a problem with moderation. However, his actions seem very conservative and polarizing, and it seems most Republicans are using the same bait-and- switch strategy this election. It's all very confusing, and somewhat disingenuous."

Martha, you want to take Ann to task there?

ZOLLER: Well, I tell you what. I think that what my advice is, that I don't read direct mail pieces and I don't look at advertising, only because what is the purpose of advertising on either side? Is to make your point and spin it in your way.

But no, I think the president has shown that he's reached out. He's shown it in his cabinet; he's shown it in the decisions that he has made. He compromised with Ted Kennedy on education, which was the key to his platform. I think if you look for compromise, you will find it. If you don't want to find it, you won't. So the president has brought moderation back, but there is a lot of cynicism in politics. And what it's going to take to change that is to get good people to run.

O'BRIEN: There's a news flash, cynicism in politics. Let's get that on the crawler right now. Hopefully we can spell cynicism right. Joanne in Michigan has this: "Nothing has changed since the 2000 elections. Al Gore and the rest of Democrats are still crying. It's time to get over it, guys." Victoria.

JONES: No, it is definitely time to get over it. And of course, Al Gore is conspicuous by his absence, which shows how much clout he has. No, they have to get over it, as the Bush administration and the Republicans have to get over Bill Clinton, who they apparently still think is in office. No question.

ZOLLER: Well, but you've got to agree that Bill Clinton has been the most unusual former president we've ever seen. He's been out there much more, he has stayed more involved, and he's made himself a target. I agree they should move on...

(CROSSTALK)

ZOLLER: By appearing at these fund-raisers, by appearing at things while he is a...

JONES: Oh, please.

ZOLLER: But you know, let's talk about the Mondale...

O'BRIEN: Oh, those fund-raisers can be a real tough crowd.

JONES: Oh, come on! What's he supposed to do?

ZOLLER: Well, I'll tell you what, he's not supposed to go to a memorial service in Minnesota and then hop a plane to Hawaii and do four more memorial services on four different islands.

JONES: Why not? Who decided what Bill Clinton could or couldn't do? I mean, Bill Clinton never had a problem with deciding what he could (ph) do.

ZOLLER: Bill Clinton belongs to the most exclusive club in the world, which is former presidents. And there is some decorum.

JONES: Well, the Bushes all already belong to that club, seeing as they already have so much money they don't know what to do with it.

ZOLLER: There needs to be some decorum, which he's not shown.

O'BRIEN: Listen, listen, not everybody can be Jimmy Carter. Let's just leave it at that.

Lloyd (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- I think we can all agree, Republican or Democrat, he is a very successful ex-president, more successful than he was as president. Lloyd Brush from Sacramento, California has this -- he's talking about election process here: "We should take it one step further and use an online Internet voting system. I would imagine more people would participate in the voting process if they could vote at home, using their online home computers."

ZOLLER: I'll tell you, the problem with that is security, though, Miles. We don't know how to secure that.

O'BRIEN: All right, but let's say, for a minute, we could figure out the technicalities, because it raises a billion questions about hackers and security and worms and viruses. But let's say they could figure that out. The bottom line is, most Republicans wouldn't want this, would they?

JONES: No, they wouldn't want this, because their plan is to suppress the vote, rather than to get out the vote.

ZOLLER: Oh, not at all.

JONES: You can see that in just about every state.

ZOLLER: I mean, in Oregon...

JONES: What we need is to have more early voting and to have more online voting. What we need to do is to make it as easy as possible for people to vote, not as difficult as possible.

ZOLLER: Well, I agree with that.

JONES: The more people who participate in this process, the better for everybody.

ZOLLER: I agree that more people should participate, but we have great examples in Oregon and Arizona and other places where they extended voting, they had mail-in voting. They allowed people two weeks. And you know what? The turnout was no higher than what they expected before they had the kind of voting that we all hate. What we have got to do is polarize people, and I don't mean it in a bad way, with issues. If they have an issue, they'll get out to vote. And that's what they'll do. I believe...

(CROSSTALK)

ZOLLER: The biggest problem is absentee ballots. In Georgia, Florida, wherever. Now, I do believe you need to open up the voting for about two weeks ahead of time.

O'BRIEN: Listen, I don't understand why we don't vote on, like, Sundays.

ZOLLER: Or Saturdays. That would be great.

JONES: That is so sensible, Miles, really.

O'BRIEN: All right. Let's go to Kevin Embry in Floorsville, Texas. He has this, relating to this whole issue of issues and what is resonating with voters and turnout: "I'm fed up with the mudslinging. No longer hear what a candidate is going to do in office, so you can't hold a candidate responsible for what they do in office anymore. Sometimes I think it's a conspiracy between both parties."

(CROSSTALK)

JONES: Well, you know, that's very funny. A lot of people think there is only one party. Howard Kurtz had a great piece in yesterday's "Washington Post" about -- and Martha, you're so wise not to watch this stuff -- about how many ads there are in the news, for example, versus how much actual election coverage. And you can't get election coverage, you can only get ads.

O'BRIEN: We have to be fair here, because the media has only started covering this race because we were dominated by the sniper, up until about a week ago.

So we have some role to play in all this. Go ahead, Martha.

ZOLLER: Well, and I think in our state of Georgia, where I am right now, where the governor raised $19 million to get his message across and was, in fact, continuing with fund-raisers through Friday, he has blanketed the airwaves. North Georgia, where I am, where he's not doing very well, he doesn't want to do any public events. I think what happens with advertising and mailing pieces is that it makes a kind of packaged view of a candidate instead of them getting out and actually talking to voters. And you know what, we're voters, and that's what we need to be listening to.

O'BRIEN: Homogenized, this is the problem with the system, my opinion.

Argus Linney has this one and we're going to end on this one: "I hate to complain, but how come Miles' dad gets on and nothing, nothing I write ever gets read?" My dad's comment got on yesterday, ladies.

Here's your comment, Argus, OK? I'm putting you on TV you know, Argus. I don't want to hear any complaining from you anymore. Angus -- not Argus. Angus. "If we have a total Republican government, is war and bankruptcy in the USA inevitable?"

I think we know where Angus stands politically, but the question is checks and balances here, and will people be voting with this in mind. Victoria, you go first. JONES: Yes, they're going to be voting with this in mind, and yes, Angus is absolutely right. And why hasn't my dad been on?

O'BRIEN: All right, Martha, go.

ZOLLER: Well, I think that certainly Republicans we know have their own air, water, money supply, so nothing that they do affects them directly. So no, I don't think it will be the end of time, but there's been Democrat control in all three houses. Do I think that the checks and balances should be in place? Yes, they should be in place, but voters need to make their decisions based on who they think will be the best candidate, and you know, news flash, Republicans do not have their own air, water and money supply. We have to live under the same thing.

O'BRIEN: You want the checks and balances? Would you prefer that, say, the Senate was still in the Democratic hands?

ZOLLER: Well, but who is to say, because it's in Republican hands, that they're going to just give a carte blanche to the president? Plenty of Republicans have voted against the president.

JONES: Oh, please.

ZOLLER: I think the people should be heard. You know what? if, on Wednesday, if on Wednesday, the Democrats still control the Senate, I will congratulate those folks and I will look to see what their record will hold. But I still think...

JONES: We are not going to know for months who controls what. There are going to be so many appeals on this thing.

O'BRIEN: All right. Ladies, ladies, I'm sorry, we have digressed, but yes, I think we'll be talking about this election much farther downstream than Wednesday, as it moves into the litigation phase.

ZOLLER: Absolutely.

O'BRIEN: That's my prediction.

Ladies, excellent job. Victoria Jones, Martha Zoller, joining us from Washington and Atlanta, respectively. Left and right, respectively, and now I think I better respectively move on.

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