MTP Transcript for Oct. 1

REP. BROWN: This election’s more a referendum on the special interest stranglehold in our government. The drug industry always gets its way, the HMOs always get their way, the oil industry always gets their way, the big companies that outsource jobs always get their way. That’s what this is—that’s really what this election’s about. Who’s fighting for the middle class? That’s what this election’s about.

MR. RUSSERT: What’s this election about? Is it, is it a referendum on George W. Bush’s policies?

SEN. DeWINE: I’ll get to that in a minute. Can I answer the first question, though, about the bipartisanship breaking down? If I could do that, Tim.

Dick Durbin, certainly not a, a Republican, number two Democrat in the Senate, said this about me in the Columbus Dispatch. He said “Mike DeWine, yes, he votes Republican Party a lot of times.” But he says, “When I go to him on specific important issues,” he said, “he, he is not a rubber stamp. He is someone who will look at things and thinks about things.” That’s what number two man in the Senate, Dick Durbin, said.

The fundamental difference, really, when you put aside all the votes, between Sherrod Brown and Mike DeWine in this campaign is that, Tim, for 12 years in the Senate, I’ve gotten things done. And the way I’ve gotten things done is by working with Democrats and Republicans. I worked with Jay Rockefeller, for example, on highway safety issues. I worked with Jay on steel. I also worked with Jay on, on, on other issues, as well—adoption, foster care. I worked with Chris Dodd to get better medicines for kids, on the fire act to get money, $100 million, directly back in Ohio. Worked with Senator Levin in regard to the Great Lakes. I could go on and on and on. I have a long, long record of working with Democrats and Republicans alike. It is the only way, Tim, you get things done. And despite the headlines about all the acrimony in Washington, work still gets done. I’ve been able to do it. I’ve fought for kids, I have fought for better pharmaceuticals for children, highway safety, these are things I care passionately about.

The difference between myself and Sherrod is, if you look at his record, he has a very, very slim record in the House of Representatives of getting anything done. He has been described, he has been described as a partisan in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He has been described as someone who is on the fringe by the National Journal. He’s on the fringe of his own party. Many, many times his votes have been in the minority even of his own party. He is to the left of his own party and not in the mainstream of Ohio.

What Ohioans want, when I travel around the state, they say “Mike, we’re sick of the acrimony, we’re sick of the partisanship, we’re sick of the fighting.” I’m the one candidate in this race who has demonstrated I can work with Democrats and Republicans to get things done and make things happen for Ohio.

MR. RUSSERT: I’ll consider that a closing statement and I’ll give you 25 seconds.

REP. BROWN: Yeah, I, I don’t—this whole thing about—that Mike DeWine just said—the Certified Public Accountants of Ohio, a, a Republican-leaning conservative business group that cares about economic development, that cares about tax cuts for the middle class, that cares about fairness, and is a, is a conservative Republican-leaning group, as I said, has endorsed me. I’m the only Democrat challenger in the country, I believe, that was endorsed by them.  And we—I can make a list, a long list of bipartisan issues I worked on. I, I wrote with Bill Frist the first bioterrorism bill in the country—law in the country.

SEN. DeWINE: He denied that, by the way.

REP. BROWN: No, he denied five years later, another bill.

REP. BROWN: I’ve worked with Mike Bilrakis, Florida Republican, to change the way the children’s health bill, how we do children’s health research. I worked for—with John McCain on a bill to try to stop the gaming of the patent system by the drug companies. I will continue to work bipartisan in the, in the Senate, and—but my ultimate allegiance is to the middle class and working to help Ohioans.

MR. RUSSERT: To be continued. Sherrod Brown, Mike DeWine, thanks very much.

REP. BROWN: Thank you, Tim.

SEN. DeWINE: Thanks, Tim. Thank you very much.

MR. RUSSERT: And we’ll be right back.

(Announcements)

MR. RUSSERT: That’s all for today. We’ll be back next week. Another in our series of MEET THE PRESS Senate Debates: Missouri. Republican incumbent Senator Jim Talent faces off Democratic challenger Claire McCaskill. Also, an exclusive Sunday morning interview with Bob Woodward, author of the new book “State of Denial: Bush at War Part III.” The Missouri Senate Debate and Woodward here next Sunday. Because if it’s Sunday, it is MEET THE PRESS.

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