'Meet the Press' transcript for Nov. 23, 2008

MR. BROKAW: I hear the word regret but not the word apology.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Well, I do, I regret it. I mean, I don't, I, I, you know, I'm going forward. You can take from the word regret what you, what you, will. I wish I had not said some of the things I've said. But, again, we all do it. There was a lot of stuff said in this campaign about both candidates that I think a lot of people regret. I'm happy to step forward and say that I regret some of the things I've said. But somebody once said to me, God put our eyes in front of our head so we would always be naturally looking forward. And that's what, at this time of peril for our country, we've all got to be doing.

MR. BROKAW: Do you think that your friend Senator John McCain will become an advocate, an enthusiastic advocate for trying to heal the partisan divides that have so--been so cancerous in this town and work closely with Barack Obama?

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Yeah. I'm convinced John McCain will play a leadership role in bringing people together across party lines in support of Senator Obama, obviously on the areas in which he agrees with him. And, and I'm not just guessing, because that's been McCain's whole record. He's been one of the most productive legislatures we've had because he has worked across party lines. He will do it again. There will be occasions, I presume, where he would disagree with the president-elect, President Obama; he will say so respectfully. But you couldn't ask for a Republican candidate for president who didn't win who is more prepared than John McCain to do everything he can, as he said during the campaign, to put our country first by supporting our country's president. He's not the Democrat's president. Barack Obama is going to be America's president, and we all need to help him be a great president.

MR. BROKAW: Senator Lieberman, thanks very much for being with us.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Thank you, Tom.

MR. BROKAW: Hope you'll come back again.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: I look forward to it.

MR. BROKAW: OK.

The very latest on the prospects for a bailout of Detroit. Also President-elect Obama's expected Cabinet picks and his big economic stimulus program. Our political roundtable will be weighing in. Erin Burnett, Paul Ingrassia, Eugene Robinson and Chuck Todd next only here on MEET THE PRESS.

(Announcements)

MR. BROKAW: We're back. We've got lots to talk about this morning with Erin Burnett of CNBC; Paul Ingrassia, the former Detroit bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal; Gene Robinson of The Washington Post; and Chuck Todd, political director of NBC News. Welcome to all of you.

Erin, you've been around the world and back in the last 10 days or so. You were in Moscow, you've been talking to Hank Paulson and other people. Of course you've been keeping track of the markets nanosecond by nanosecond because that's what's required today. What do you think the response will be, and I always hate that amorphous term, of the markets tomorrow to this announcement that Barack Obama plans a two and a half million job economic stimulus program of some kind?

MS. ERIN BURNETT: It's so hard to tell what the market will do, you're right, nanosecond by nanosecond, but if you take Friday as an indication to Timothy Geithner as head of the Treasury, obviously that did cause a last minute surge, and it broke a couple of bad days for the market. So you could say that might be an indication the market would take it positively. Two and a half million jobs, though, really isn't that many. That would still leave you with a net loss next year, and many people might say OK, that's good, but not overly ambitious, particularly those on Wall Street who are lukewarm on the idea of a massive infrastructure project. So maybe it indicates he's being a little cautious on the infrastructure side, and that would be received warmly.

MR. BROKAW: Isn't the more critical need to do something about Citibank and the other financial institutions that are in free fall?

MS. BURNETT: Citibank is an incredible story. And some reports that I've heard is that the vast majority of trading last week was people betting the stock would go down. You look at the cash position of Citigroup, it may be too big to manage, it may be a company with a lot of problems, all of that is true, but that company has $800 billion in deposits. There has been no fear, no fleeing, and to see that institution go down so quickly is truly shocking and, as you said, would be shocking to the Treasury secretary as well.

MR. BROKAW: Chuck Todd, we heard former Secretary of the Treasury Jim Baker, former secretary of state, a wise man in the Republican Party, announce today that he thinks that Barack Obama and President Bush should get together before the inauguration with some kind of a symbolic act to try to shore up confidence in this country.

MR. CHUCK TODD: Well, it's interesting, and, and what I'll be curious to see is what Republicans will jump on that bandwagon and say let's do something. And maybe the symbolic act is what you asked him about in particular, asked Bill Daley about it, about getting Timothy Geithner in place now. You know, don't wait until January 20th. What's been interesting about watching Barack Obama during this transition is he wanted to hold off on, on doing this economic team.

There was a lot of, of sort of, of political advice he was getting: "Hold off, don't take, don't take control of this economy just yet. Don't..." And yet, a lot of Wall Street folks got to him and said, "No, get on this now. Hurry up and inspire confidence." What Baker outlined, I could absolutely see in the next couple weeks influencing Obama and saying, "You know what? Maybe I will sign on to something."

MR. BROKAW: Good idea, Gene Robinson?

MR. EUGENE ROBINSON: Well, I, I think it's a good idea. I--but I think it was extraordinary to hear Jim Baker, the, the Republican eminence grise, essentially call on George Bush to, to share power, Republican president to, to effectively step down early and, and hand over the reins to the president-elect as a way of, of reassuring the, the market and the economy.

MR. BROKAW: I'm not sure he was going quite that far, but.

MR. ROBINSON: Well, well, but almost. And, you know, the--I mean, he is still president.

MR. BROKAW: Right.

MR. ROBINSON: And, and as, as Bill Daley was saying, George, George Bush--there are things he can do now, yet he does not have the credibility in the market, or I think in the, in the, in the country to, to get--to bring about that sort of confidence right now.

MR. TODD: He was speaking like a Treasury secretary, though. He was just talking in full confidence. It seemed like he took off his Republican hat there.

MS. BURNETT: But, Tom, there's also this whether Tim Geithner should take over. There are real differences between Henry Paulson and Tim Geithner.

MR. BROKAW: Right.

MS. BURNETT: And one of the biggest questions out there, when you talk about Citigroup, what are we going to use the rest of this TARP money for? Hank Paulson's trying to wait and leave that for the next administration. So if you did have Tim Geithner come in, he could say, "This is how I want to spend it. This is what I want to use it for." And that would give some clarity that might be needed.

MR. BROKAW: In the meantime, the 100,000-pound gorilla in Washington and across the country is your area of expertise, Paul Ingrassia. We're going to show on the screen a letter that Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, and Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, have sent to Detroit, saying really, "You've got to get your house in order. We'll help if you can guarantee us that you'll make the kinds of changes" that required everything from executive pay to reorganization. What do you think the chances are that something will be done before January 20th on behalf of Detroit with pretty strict conditions that are short of formal bankruptcy?

MR. PAUL INGRASSIA: Well, you know, we hear a lot about hybrid cars, Tom, and I think what we probably need in a case like this is something that might be called hybrid bankruptcy. Or if that word is toxic, let's call it hybrid restructuring. You need someone that has the authority to really cut through some of the ropes that are tied around this industry that really prevent it from being competitive and effective. The dealer franchise laws basically make it impossible for General Motors to really shrink its dealership network from about 7,000 dealers to about 1500, which it really needs to go down to. The union contract, just the master contract with the UAW and the car companies, is about that thick. Meanwhile, out in California, General Motors and Toyota have a joint venture called NUMMI, New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., that has a modern contract about that thick. Much less work rules, much less bureaucracy on both sides. And those kind of things have to be cut through with someone who has the, has the power to invalidate the union contracts and the dealer franchise laws so real restructuring can be done.

MR. BROKAW: But in, in your own column you wrote about bankruptcy would take shareholder value to nothing, probably. It's down...

MR. INGRASSIA: Shareholder value's already nothing.

MR. BROKAW: ...74 percent.

MR. INGRASSIA: Look at the stock prices.

MR. BROKAW: But what does it do at the other end of the pipeline to those communities across America that really do depend on their car dealerships to be a part of the heartbeat of their local economy?

MR. INGRASSIA: Well, sure. I mean, look, there's no painless way out of this, I don't think. But there is--there are parts of America where the car companies are really thriving. I mean, Honda just opened a brand-new assembly plant in Indiana last month, making Honda Civics that are selling--you know, nothing's selling well in this economy, but they're selling OK. So the truth of the matter is there's no painless way out of it. What you really have to do is find a way to minimize the pain and to give these companies a chance to really reboot themselves. And I think it's going to take some very harsh action with people who don't have to negotiate solutions but can impose solutions.

MR. BROKAW: A week ago there was some talk that GM may disappear. Do you think that's unlikely?

MR. INGRASSIA: Well, I hope they don't disappear. I think it'd be a disaster for the country, certainly. But I think that they have to be radically restructured, probably some new leadership and certainly downsized. They have eight brands with about 20, 22 percent of the market. If you just do the math, they don't have enough money to put behind marketing or product development for eight brands. They really need to get down to Cadillac, Chevy and maybe one other, maybe Saturn. But, again, to do that, it's going to take someone who can really invalidate some contracts with dealers.

MR. BROKAW: And, Gene Robinson, you have been writing about this. We're going to share with our viewers now from your column. "Detroit blames its situation on the financial and economic crisis. It's true that demand for cars has fallen off a cliff, largely because many would-be buyers are unable to get financing. It's also true that the auto industry claims to have seen the light about making energy-efficient cars. But it's also true that these newly enlightened executives spent years defending their industry's obsession with SUVs--and pooh-poohing the idea that times, and tastes, would ever change." Do those three executives to appeared here in Congress last week have to just hang it up and walk away?

MR. ROBINSON: I think they do. I, I think for, for the country to have confidence in, in any sort of, you know, call it a bailout or restructuring or whatever, but the US government's going to have to put money into it, and, and for people to have confidence in that, I don't think they have confidence in, confidence in current management. I think a lot of people on Capitol Hill don't either. I had a long talk with a veteran Democratic senator on Thursday, the kind of guy who, who recognizes that--how disruptive a failure of GM would be, a failure of any of the automakers and, and who supports unions and, and wants to see the retirees get their money and everything. But he was enormously frustrated, just enormously frustrated and recalled conversations he had had with, with several of these executives in the past about "When are you guys going to get your act together?" "Oh, we've learned. We're better. We're going to, we're going to reform and make better cars." And then nothing happened.

MR. BROKAW: Chuck Todd, one of the first tests of Obama's leadership, it seems to me, is he's got to go get in the face of the labor unions, the UAW in this case, and say, "Look guys, I know you supported me. I said I would be a champion of labor."

MR. TODD: Right.

MR. BROKAW: "But it's time for you to take a step back and get realistic here."

MR. TODD: Well, you know, it struck me that those--the head of the UAW should've been on Capitol Hill as well with--as part of this. I mean, it is going to be a, a dual solution. Now, this is why I don't think, politically, you're going to see this Democratic-controlled Congress or Barack Obama let the car companies go under, let any one of them go under because there is enormous pressure being put on them by labor beyond what we've seen. And that's why you do wonder if, if Congress should put them up and say, you know, "You've got to publicly be a part of this solution," and put them up with the executives. And that's something they haven't done. We'll see. I, I, I think that, that there is a majority out there to save, to save the auto.

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