'Meet the Press' transcript for May 17, 2009

MR. STEELE: No it doesn't. No, no. Dick--I, I'm not in the business of suppressing someone's opinion and their thoughts. He gave a legitimate interview, he shared his opinion. My opinion as chairman of the party is that I want them both and we can accommodate everybody. You all come, the table's open, sit down, let's get to work.

GOV. KAINE: Michael, then I'm, I'm just going to ask you this; then don't go after the Republican senators who voted with President Obama on the recovery act.

MR. STEELE: Well, no...

GOV. KAINE: You said you might go after him in the primaries...

MR. STEELE: Wait a minute.

GOV. KAINE: ...and that pushed Arlen Specter away.

MR. STEELE: You've taken...

GOV. KAINE: Embrace those senators, don't go after them.

MR. STEELE: Arlen--first off, Arlen Specter voted himself out of the party. He pushed himself away. In 1966, when he couldn't get himself elected as a Democrat, he became a Republican. And in 2009, when he couldn't get re-elected as a Republican, he became a Democrat. So that takes care of that.

MR. GREGORY: Look, I want, I want to bring up Charlie Crist, because this is an interesting point.

MR. STEELE: Mm-hmm.

GOV. KAINE: Yeah.

MR. GREGORY: Here he was earlier this year effectively campaigning with President Obama on the stimulus plan, Charlie Crist supporting it. He's now denying funds to anybody who supported the stimulus plan. running for the Senate. You have said, Chairman Steele, that you are open to

MR. STEELE: As--that is not...

MR. GREGORY: Will you do in the case of Charlie Crist?

MR. STEELE: Let's, let's set the record straight here. That is not what I said. What I said was that I would follow the lead of the state party leadership and, and, and making their determinations with respect to primaries and, and the outcomes thereof. Charlie Crist is going to be in a primary for this office. If he wins the primary, I look forward to supporting him if the, if the party's behind him. And that's all I said.

MR. GREGORY: Right.

MR. STEELE: And I think, I think that...

MR. GREGORY: Why would the senatorial committee already announce support for him?

MR. STEELE: Because the senatorial committee is, is in a different business. They're looking to build the Senate, the Senate numbers...

MR. GREGORY: Mm-hmm.

MR. STEELE: ...and the membership. They don't have, they don't have to deal with the state party chairmen and the party leadership and the grassroots the same way the national party chairmanship does.

MR. GREGORY: But...

MR. STEELE: And our general rule is we don't get into primaries. We, we, we trust the judgment of primary voters and we trust the leadership to make those political decisions that they need to make with respect to the candidates who'll be running.

MR. GREGORY: Do you think, as head is--head of the Republican Party, that you need more voices like Governor Crist?

MR. STEELE: I need voices period. I need, I need the Republican base, I need Republican activists to stand up and talk about what this administration is doing on the economy, what it's going to do to us on health care and the actions it's taken thus far in the Middle East and around the world. So, you know, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not...

MR. GREGORY: But why make support for the stimulus a litmus test then?

MR. STEELE: The support for the stimulus was not a litmus test in, in the, in the way that you're meaning it. The, the key thing here to keep in mind is that was a core principle for Republicans across this country with respect to our views on spending and, and government interference in, in the market. And so that was, that was a line, it was a clear line that the House Republicans did not cross. Three members of the Senate did. That was a choice that they made. And as I said at the time, they will account to their voters in their respective primaries when that, when that comes.

MR. GREGORY: Final point on this before I want to turn to some Democratic criticisms of the administration. You have the prospect of real consolidation the Senate with Specter flipping... MR. STEELE: That was scary, isn't it? of Democratic power. You have it in

MR. GREGORY: You have the executive and you have, with Specter coming over, the legislative. How do Republicans overcome that?

MR. STEELE: Well, Specter seems to be having a little bit of problem. I just want to, I just want to know what the deal was that, that got him to the other side. I mean, this is a very sweetheart deal. He jumped to the front of the line, you're hearing the grumbling behind the scenes. I mean, clearly Governor Rendell...

GOV. KAINE: The deal was we have a big...

MR. GREGORY: Whoa, let's...(unintelligible). How do you overcome this consolidation of power?

MR. STEELE: Clearly--well, but--well, the way you overcome it is to expose it, expose what it means, expose the fact that when--if, if the Senate gets to 60 that there will be very little that can be done to stop, you know, the wholesale, you know, use of the government in the lives of business, in the lives of, of families. And I think what we need to do is, is talk very clearly about what this means to, to the average person out there, to have one power, one power, one political power control it all. This country has been built on and certainly in the law 25 years worked with this balance. And right now the Democrats are positioning themselves to tip that balance when they lock it down, and I'm standing in, in the way of that as best I can.

GOV. KAINE: And...

MR. GREGORY: Chairman Kaine, we've talked about some of the internal dissention in the Republican Party.

GOV. KAINE: Yep.

MR. GREGORY: Let's talk about the Democrats right now...

GOV. KAINE: Sure.

MR. GREGORY: ...and look at what happened just this week. The president reversed himself on the issue of releasing those detainee abuse photos, he's reversed himself on the issue of military commissions, now siding with the Bush administration approach with some key differences in how those commissions will move forward.

GOV. KAINE: Those differences are very important.

MR. GREGORY: They are, I understand that. During the campaign he said that "don't ask, don't tell," the government's--the military's prohibition against gays and lesbians in the military would be overturned. He hasn't done that yet. Is he walking back from some of the key campaigns that he...

GOV. KAINE: No.

MR. GREGORY: ...promises he made in the course of the campaign?

GOV. KAINE: Absolutely not. Let me take them in order. On the photos, the president wrestled with a very fundamental question, which is now that certain photos are out, are more photos going to help us in our national security or not? And he reached the conclusion that they would put American lives at risk who are in Iraq and Afghanistan and other places in the world, and so that there was not a good reason to release more photos and in fact it would hurt our security interests. I think we want a president who's going to look at that data every day and try to make the best decision for the national security, and that was this decision.

On the military tribunals, when he was in the Senate he was a harsh critic of the way these military commissions were operated by the Bush administration. But he did support military commission bills reforming the process, and that's what he's announced today. It's not contrary to what he said earlier. He said the way we're going it is wrong, we have to put fundamental reforms in place to make sure that detainees are brought to trial quickly, the right evidence is used, and that's what'll happen.

And then finally, on "don't ask, don't tell" the president has said, and I share this, this is a policy that needs to change. It is a policy that was enacted by Congress, and so working with Congress to find a way to change it is something he's committed to doing with Secretary Gates. But he, he has the same...

MR. GREGORY: Why hasn't he done it? Why...

GOV. KAINE: Well, he's only been, he's only been in for three-plus months. He's had a little bit to deal with.

MR. GREGORY: Right.

GOV. KAINE: A couple of wars, toughest economy since 1930s.

MR. GREGORY: So this is not a top priority for him.

GOV. KAINE: This is a very important priority, but it is something that's going to need Congressional support so he's working with the military leaders on this. And there's a whole host of other issues that the president has said, "I'm getting to. I can't get to them yet, but I'm going to get to them." And that's what happens with every president.

MR. STEELE: But it's not a, but it's not as important as overturning the project labor agreements that would allow small businesses to actually effectively compete on, on contracts, on federal contracts which they can no longer do because they're not unionized. It's, it was, it was certainly not as important as, you know, reversing the, the executive order banning abortions overseas and it certainly was not as important as defunding the opportunity scholarships here in the District of Columbia where, where low-income African-American students are now looking this fall, they're being cut off from their opportunity to get an education. Many of those opportunity scholars attended my high school, attend my high school, John, John Carroll, here in D.C. Now the president's come back and go, "Oh, we'll just let those go through." But what about the long line of, of low-income African-American students in this very city who won't have the same education that he and I both had as we were coming through at a, at a tough time as well? So I think, I think the priorities of this administration are a little bit misplaced when it comes to a whole host of things.

MR. GREGORY: All right, I want to get you both...

MR. STEELE: Particularly with respect to something like that.

MR. GREGORY: I want to get you both to comment quickly on another priority, and that is health care.

Chairman Kaine, what will be the basis of bipartisan reform?

GOV. KAINE: Sure. Mm-hmm.

MR. GREGORY: There's been some push back this week, warnings to Democrats not to push this too far because there are Democrats who don't want to pay the steep price tag for it.

GOV. KAINE: If, if this was easy, it would have been done. But the president's said the status quo is unacceptable, failed policies of the past are not going to solve our problems, we've got to move forward and reform. And we have to structure reform around three components: cost reductions for, for citizens, for businesses; but also it's really important that the health care industry bring down costs, and you saw historic announcement this weeks with health care industry leaders that they're going to start to reign in costs. That'll help everybody. Second, choice, that people should have a choice between plans that they're currently using or other plans that could be devised and put on the table to create more real competition. And finally, access, that the, the specter of 45-plus million Americans without health care access is troubling. We need to come up with a proposal that puts these together. You're right that Democrats and Republicans have a lot of different views on this. But I've actually been heartened, David, by what I've seen, the, the fact that there is some dialogue across party lines on this.

MR. GREGORY: Well, let me ask...

GOV. KAINE: And I think, I think Republicans congressional leaders have applauded the president...

MR. GREGORY: Do you think it's going to happen?

GOV. KAINE: ...for reaching out to...

MR. GREGORY: Chairman, do you think it'll be passed this year?

MR. STEELE: I think--no. I think...

MR. GREGORY: You don't think it'll pass.

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