MSNBC Hardball - Transcript
MSNBC Hardball - Transcript
Wednesday, August 3, 2005
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MATTHEWS: Joining me now is the winner of yesterday's Ohio election, Republican congresswoman-elect Jean Schmidt.
Congresswoman-elect, thank you for coming on here on HARDBALL right away.
SCHMIDT: Thank you so much. I've been up 48 hours, which proves that I still have the stamina of a 20-year-old.
MATTHEWS: Well, you'll love being in the House of Representatives, as we've been talking. I worked up there for a long time. It is a wonderful place. It's a very, I should democratic with a lower-case D. It's a very wonderful place to work.
Let me ask you this. What did you make of your opponent, Paul Hackett?
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: He was out there calling the president phrases-I have never heard anybody call the president a son of a bitch. That's quite a phrase. He called him a chicken hawk. And he still got 48 percent.
SCHMIDT: Well, he did that with the national media, when he was trying to paint himself in the Cincinnati-based market. He was painting himself as a Republican. If you looked at his ads, he aligned himself with the president, because he caught on rather quick when he won the primary election and he had gone on a radio station and said that the worst threat to the United States was not Osama bin Laden, but the president, that people didn't like that.
And so, suddenly, he decided to cloak himself as a supporter of the president in his TV ads.
MATTHEWS: Let me ask you about the horror of the last couple days in Iraq, a battalion based in Ohio, the Buckeye State, your state, 20 people dead.
Do you think this war is going to end up, in a sense, here at home, much less popular, say, a year from now, the way it's going? Or where do you it's going in terms of public support?
SCHMIDT: Well, I think that the public-first off, my heartfelt condolences to the families that have been left behind.
I-I will continue to pray for them, because I can't imagine what it is like to wake up and realize that your loved one is never coming back. But I honor their sacrifice that these men and women have made, because our freedom is not free. There is a cost to it. And-and we realized that when we woke up this morning.
Having said that, the people really want us to stay the course and finish the job. We've planted the seeds of democracy and it would be irresponsible for us to leave now. The insurgents are trying to do this to whip the public sentiment into a frenzy to leave when it is too soon, so that they can once again take over that country. We're on the right track. We're on the right course.
I think that the finish line is in sight and we just have to stay the course.
MATTHEWS: President Bush won your district, your congressional district, by a wide margin, something like 2-1. Could he do that today?
SCHMIDT: I think he still could. If you look at the way my opponent painted himself in this election, with his literature and his TV and radio commercials, he wrapped himself around the president.
And the public, in this very short election cycle, was rather confused as to who the real Republican was. And, once the mask was taken off, and they realized that he was different, then they were more solid in my camp. But, with a very short election and a very special election cycle, I caution anybody to use this as a bellwether for where the Republican Party is going in Ohio, because very unique elections make outcomes very, very different.
MATTHEWS: Let's take a look at something you said here on this program last week and see if you still think this way right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCHMIDT: They're not solely focused on this war. Maybe the national media is, but the people right here in southern Ohio are talking about issues that affect them. They're talking about having tax cuts that are permanent, because they want to spend their own money. They don't want government to.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEWS: Issues that affect them. Do you think that the loss of the 20 guys over there, servicemen fighting for their country over in Iraq, that Ohio-based unit, is going to bring this war home to people?
SCHMIDT: I don't think it is going to bring the war home any more differently than the button that I wear on my lapel. And that's for Matt Maupin, the only missing soldier in Iraq.
The people in Ohio are very smart. They understand the sacrifice that these men and women are making on our behalf. But they also want to talk about other issues, issues like taxes and tax reform, like a strong energy policy. They want to talk about national issues, including Iraq, but also border patrol and border security.
And yesterday, as I stood outside the polls for 13 hours, I never heard people talking about the war. They talked about issues that were more important and more local to them.
MATTHEWS: What's your number one thing you would like to get done in the next year or so?
SCHMIDT: My number one thing is to address the needs of the beautiful 2nd Congressional District. It's very diverse. There are very many needs. I want to follow Rob Portman's style of continued leadership. And I am going to do that and answer and address their needs in the same manner that Rob Portman did.
MATTHEWS: But what's the one specific thing you would like to do, the one bill you would like to pass, the one policy you would like to see enacted?
SCHMIDT: There are two. Actually, I would like to address sexual predators in a much better fashion. I would also like to address eminent domain. I think that there are bills already in place for that, and I would be proud to sign on and sponsor those bills.
MATTHEWS: OK, thank you very much, Jean Schmidt. Congratulations, a member of the United States House of Representatives, as soon as she is sworn in.
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