MSNBC "The Ed Show" -Transcript

Interview

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SCHULTZ: And he just happened to win nine Bush states. I think it"s pretty clear the Republicans are just giving lip service to the word cooperation. They have no desire to work with the Democrats and this administration, I don"t think. It"s an election year. And their strategy is still Waterloo.

Joining me now is Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter. Senator, good to have you with us tonight.

SEN. ARLEN SPECTER (D), PENNSYLVANIA: Thank you. Nice to be here tonight.

SCHULTZ: You bet. Seeing where you were a year ago and where you are tonight, I thought you"d be a perfect person to ask. Is the president wasting his time? What do you think?

SPECTER: No, he is not wasting his time. We have to keep trying. When there were 60 Democrats in the Senate, Republicans could say, you"ve got enough to do it all yourself. When the number will be reduced to 59, then the American people will be know that there has to be at least some Republican cooperation to get anything past.

Ed, what I think we have to do--I heard the quote that you just had from the Republicans. And that"s a lot of political rhetoric. What I think we have to do is take specific legislative proposals to the Republicans, and there are some who I think would be willing to talk. And it"s pretty plain to everybody that the American people are fed up with gridlock in Washington.

SCHULTZ: Senator, is it low-level political rhetoric to have 112 filibusters?

SPECTER: Well, it"s political rhetoric, Ed. I wouldn"t call it high level. I chose my words low-level political rhetoric with calculations. They want to make a splash.

Let"s get specific. Let"s get specific with concrete legislative proposals. Let"s take to the Republicans the idea for a 5,000 dollar tax credit for each new employee who is hired. Let"s take to them a proposal for a vacation on the payroll tax. And let"s see what they say. And when we deal in specifics, I think if they continue to say no, no, no, they"ll pay a political price.

SCHULTZ: In the meantime, they"ve commissioned Frank Luntz to come up with another study. He"s got a 17 page memo out to stop financial reform. They talk good game about getting along. But then he comes and says, "if there is one thing we can all agree on, it"s that the bad decisions and harmful policies by Washington bureaucrats that, in many ways, led to the economic crash must never be repeated. Washington incompetence is the common ground on which you can build support."

So apparently the game plan is to show how incompetent everybody else is, except the way they think. Correct me if I"m wrong, Senator Specter, but it just appears to me that everything the Republicans are talking about, even to this day, are exactly what they tried for the last eight days before President Obama got in. What do you think?

SPECTER: Well, Ed, that"s one of the typical Frank Luntz memoranda. I think he ought to be a little more careful how he distributes it, so it doesn"t get right to the news media. But all of the Republicans don"t follow what Frank Luntz had to say. I used to get his memos and didn"t pay much attention to them. So we can circumvent Frank Luntz. I think we have tougher opponents than that guy.

SCHULTZ: Senator, great to have you with us tonight. Thanks so much.

SPECTER: Thank you, Ed. Always a pleasure.

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