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Interview

MR. ASMAN: Joining us now, South Dakota Senator John Thune.

Senator, first question, do you know whether or not John McCain will speak on the floor of the Senate?

SEN. THUNE: I don't know the answer to that, David. You can probably check with him or his campaign. I know he's coming back for the vote.

MR. ASMAN: Wouldn't you encourage him to do so?

SEN. THUNE: Well, I think it's useful for him to be outspoken on this issue, and he has been throughout the course of the day. I think both of the candidates, he and Senator Obama, have made it very clear that they believe this is something that we need to do.

Whether or not he is able to get to the floor tonight remains to be seen, but I would certainly think that would be helpful.

MR. ASMAN: Now, I'm looking at a bill, the draft of the House bill, which is 110 pages long. Initially, there was a two-page memo, essentially, from Hank Paulson saying what he wanted to do. Then we had this.

Now we have a 451-page bill in the Senate that you're going to be dealing with which, I must say, is laden with a lot of stuff, a lot of Christmas tree ornaments, if you will.

Is it so laden with those ornaments that you would find it difficult to vote for it?

SEN. THUNE: Well, really, what's happened, David, is it's essentially the House bill along with the adjustment on FDIC insurance, and then it's a tax bill that passed the Senate last week by a vote of 93 to two.

So there isn't anything in here that hasn't passed the Senate by a large majority previously. In fact, that same bill we passed multiple times in the Senate; we've never been able to get a vote on it in the House.

The reason for attaching it to the rescue plan was to attract Republican votes in the House. And I think it will be additive; I think there are Republicans in the House who are going to be more inclined to vote for this with these tax provisions on there.

These are -- many are business tax provisions that a lot of us support -- making sure the alternative minimum tax doesn't harm people, effective at the -- first of the year, in this next -- as they do their tax returns next year. Those are all things that are included in here, and those are all things that a lot of Republicans are for.

MR. ASMAN: Yeah. Senator, very quickly, we're running out of time. Do you think that you are going to incur the wrath of voters who are still very much against what they call a bailout?

SEN. THUNE: I think there are a lot of people who are opposed to this, and I respect that. But I also believe we have to do something, David.

And I think that even though this may not be the popular thing, the political vote to make, I think it's the responsible thing to do for the country and for the people that I represent in South Dakota.

And I know there are those who would disagree with that and I'm sure we're going to hear from them.

MR. ASMAN: Senator John Thune. Thank you very much, Senator. Appreciate it.

SEN. THUNE: Thanks, David.

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