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CNN Saturday Morning News
An Interview of Lamar Alexander
Aired December 21, 2002 - 08:03 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: Now, first up this hour, the man who is about to become the Senate's Republican leader. The GOP hopes Bill Frist will be the new start of the embattled party and lift the race, lift all the controversy that was stirred up by Senator Lott.
For more on this, we turn to CNN's Jason Carroll, joining us from Nashville, Tennessee
Good morning, Jason.
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And good morning to you, Miles.
You talk to voters here and they'll tell you that Senator Frist is a man who is well liked and well respected here in his home state. He is a two term senator, first elected back in 1994, the first practicing physician elected to the Senate since 1928. He's a heart and lung transplant surgeon.
Again, he's a man who is well respected by voters as well as his peers.
Joining me right now is, in fact, one of his peers, Republican Senator Elect Lamar Alexander.
Why don't you fill in some of the blanks for us. Tell us something, if you will, about Senator Frist's character.
LAMAR ALEXANDER, (R-TN), SENATOR ELECT: He's a humanitarian, I'd say. You know, he founded the Heart-Lung Transplant Center at Vanderbilt University and now that he's in the Senate, he's chairman of the Africa Subcommittee. He takes a week in the summer when he could be taking a week off. He goes to Africa, flies his own plane into the Sudan to rebel held territory and performs operations on poverty stricken people there so he can learn more about AIDS. That says a lot about his character.
CARROLL: Obviously there are still quite a few senators who supported Senator Lott.
What sort of challenges do you think Senator Frist will face if he is elected as majority leader?
ALEXANDER: Well, we all respect Trent Lott and respect him even more because he put his party and his country ahead of himself. But Senator Frist will do fine. He works hard. He's got a physician's bedside manner. He doesn't sleep much and that's helpful. He'll have to listen to 51 different senators and a lot of Democrats at the same time.
So I, more than any other senator, he'll be able to do this just because he has such high regard among his colleagues.
CARROLL: He's also said to be somewhat of a friend of the White House. Some of his critics say perhaps he is too close to the White House. What are some of your thoughts on that?
ALEXANDER: Well, he'll have to be careful with that because the Senate is independent. But he's popular in the Senate for the same reason he's popular in the White House, he's smart, he listens, he's effective, he got a lot of us elected. That makes him a lot of friends in the Senate, especially among us freshmen whom he recruited to run.
CARROLL: Very quickly, tell me something about this vote on Monday. I'm told that sometimes these votes can be notoriously sort of unpredictable in many ways.
ALEXANDER: Well, they can be. The rule of thumb is you need to go into these secret ballots with a few votes to spare. But I don't think there's anything to worry about here. I think we have a consensus among Republicans. We respect Trent Lott for putting his party ahead of his own ambitions and we're glad Bill Frist is available because he presents such an interesting, appealing personality to the country to carry our message.
CARROLL: All right, thank you so very much for joining us, especially so very early this morning on this chilly morning in Nashville, Tennessee.
ALEXANDER: Thank you, Jason.
Good to see you.
CARROLL: Good to see you, as well.
Again, you heard it right here, apparently Senator Frist has the votes, has taken the polls, has the votes to become elected majority leader. We'll have to wait and see what happens on Monday -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: CNN's Jason Carroll, Nashville, Tennessee.
Thanks very much -- Fredricka.
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 December 21, 2002 - 08:03 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now, first up this hour, the man who is about to become the Senate's Republican leader. The GOP hopes Bill Frist will be the new start of the embattled party and lift the race, lift all the controversy that was stirred up by Senator Lott.
For more on this, we turn to CNN's Jason Carroll, joining us from Nashville, Tennessee
Good morning, Jason.
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And good morning to you, Miles.
You talk to voters here and they'll tell you that Senator Frist is a man who is well liked and well respected here in his home state. He is a two term senator, first elected back in 1994, the first practicing physician elected to the Senate since 1928. He's a heart and lung transplant surgeon.
Again, he's a man who is well respected by voters as well as his peers.
Joining me right now is, in fact, one of his peers, Republican Senator Elect Lamar Alexander.
Why don't you fill in some of the blanks for us. Tell us something, if you will, about Senator Frist's character.
LAMAR ALEXANDER, (R-TN), SENATOR ELECT: He's a humanitarian, I'd say. You know, he founded the Heart-Lung Transplant Center at Vanderbilt University and now that he's in the Senate, he's chairman of the Africa Subcommittee. He takes a week in the summer when he could be taking a week off. He goes to Africa, flies his own plane into the Sudan to rebel held territory and performs operations on poverty stricken people there so he can learn more about AIDS. That says a lot about his character.
CARROLL: Obviously there are still quite a few senators who supported Senator Lott.
What sort of challenges do you think Senator Frist will face if he is elected as majority leader?
ALEXANDER: Well, we all respect Trent Lott and respect him even more because he put his party and his country ahead of himself. But Senator Frist will do fine. He works hard. He's got a physician's bedside manner. He doesn't sleep much and that's helpful. He'll have to listen to 51 different senators and a lot of Democrats at the same time.
So I, more than any other senator, he'll be able to do this just because he has such high regard among his colleagues.
CARROLL: He's also said to be somewhat of a friend of the White House. Some of his critics say perhaps he is too close to the White House. What are some of your thoughts on that?
ALEXANDER: Well, he'll have to be careful with that because the Senate is independent. But he's popular in the Senate for the same reason he's popular in the White House, he's smart, he listens, he's effective, he got a lot of us elected. That makes him a lot of friends in the Senate, especially among us freshmen whom he recruited to run.
CARROLL: Very quickly, tell me something about this vote on Monday. I'm told that sometimes these votes can be notoriously sort of unpredictable in many ways.
ALEXANDER: Well, they can be. The rule of thumb is you need to go into these secret ballots with a few votes to spare. But I don't think there's anything to worry about here. I think we have a consensus among Republicans. We respect Trent Lott for putting his party ahead of his own ambitions and we're glad Bill Frist is available because he presents such an interesting, appealing personality to the country to carry our message.
CARROLL: All right, thank you so very much for joining us, especially so very early this morning on this chilly morning in Nashville, Tennessee.
ALEXANDER: Thank you, Jason.
Good to see you.
CARROLL: Good to see you, as well.
Again, you heard it right here, apparently Senator Frist has the votes, has taken the polls, has the votes to become elected majority leader. We'll have to wait and see what happens on Monday -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: CNN's Jason Carroll, Nashville, Tennessee.
Thanks very much -- Fredricka.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
