MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

Interview

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SCHULTZ: Good ad. Eric Cantor says, Barton is not the issue. He"s correct. The issue is Barton represents what the Republican Party stands for. This is how the righties sink. They are more concerned with protecting Joe Barton than standing up for the victims in the gulf coast.
John Boehner, force Barton to issue a cover his backside apology so to
speak for calling BP"s $100 billion damages a fund. The government fund,
the government shakedown. Nobody believed it and nobody thought he really
meant it. Barton"s twitter posted this yesterday. Joe Barton was right in
reference to the shakedown comment. Predictably as soon as people saw it,
the tweet was deleted and some press flak in Barton"s office took the blame for it. I think it"s pretty obvious that there is a real pattern here.
Joining me now is Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen, Chairman of the DCCC. Congressman, good to have you with us.
REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, (D), MARYLAND: Good to be with you Ed.
SCHULTZ: Is this just red meat for the democrats? Is this going to be the theme into the mid-terms?
VAN HOLLEN: Well, it"s going to be a big piece of it, for obvious reasons. Number one, Joe Barton is not any republican. He is their point person on energy policy. If they were to take back control of the house, which they"re trying desperately to do, he would be the guy who shakes the energy policy. Number two, he"s not alone. He has a whole bunch of folks in the republican caucus who use the same language, who criticize the president for sticking up for the fund. And the reason this resonates with the American people is they understand that Joe Barton did speak for the republicans when it comes to their energy policy and when it comes to dealing with big corporate special interests. Time and again, we"ve seen them side with the big corporations, whether it"s the big oil companies or in voting against Wall Street reform, they voted with all the big Wall Street firms. So, the reason this is important is that let the American people know once again where the republicans stand. And there were the big corporation against the average citizen.
SCHULTZ: Why do you think this will resonate? I mean, you know, we had a story on here last night at one of the oyster companies. They"ve gotten some pretty good checks here early on. The owner was on there saying that, you know, BP is doing some things. Why would you think this would resonate?
VAN HOLLEN: Well, it resonates because it lets people know exactly where the republicans in the house stand on energy policy. When you have.
SCHULTZ: And you think that their rank and file of the republicans are right with Joe Barton on that and behind closed doors they might even be high-fiving him?
VAN HOLLEN: Well, we"ve already seen a bunch of the rank and file rush to his defense. We know that the day before Joe Barton made those comments publicly, 115 members of the republican study group had issued a statement criticizing the president for the same reasons that Joe Barton criticized the president. So, this is not an isolated incident. He"s not just any member. He spoke for a broad, you know, part of the caucus, which is why that caucus is not going to be able to make the decision to replace him, because at the end of the day, he was giving voice to what has been in the past, the republican energy policy, and it reinforces the point that we"ve been making to the voters, which is you"ve got a real choice in this election.
SCHULTZ: No doubt.
VAN HOLLEN: Do you really want to go back to the Bush-Cheney oil policies that Joe Barton was there working on since day one?
SCHULTZ: So if the election were tomorrow, would you hold the house?
VAN HOLLEN: Yes. We would. Yes.
SCHULTZ: Would you lose seats?
VAN HOLLEN: Look, we got a long way to go before the election, Ed. If we know this is an uphill climb, we now hold almost every swing district in the country. We picked up a lot of seats in the last two years, but I do believe that the American people are going to focus on both candidates in every one of these races around the country. It will be a choice for them.
SCHULTZ: But oil is going to be an issue in this campaign, and oil will play favorably for the democrats, correct?
VAN HOLLEN: Oil will be an issue because the republicans continue to stand on the side of big oil as we"re trying to move this economy toward a clean energy economy, invest in jobs here rather than overseas and work on all the components of an energy policy that helps the whole country, not just the big oil companies.
SCHULTZ: Good ad. I got to hand that to you. I mean, that"s a heck of an ad. I mean, between the most--well, the vote just an hour ago and the senate knocking down the bill to help the folks who are unemployed and Barton"s comments on big oil, I mean, you guys got all the material in the world.
VAN HOLLEN: Let me just say, Ed, in the house, we also passed a very important bill called the disclosed bill to give voters the right to know who is spending money in these elections. Because as a result of that terrible supreme court decision, corporations and foreign control companies can secretly spend millions of dollars. So, we said let"s shine a little sunlight on this, and unfortunately, our colleagues on the other side of the aisle would prefer that the voter not know who is spending all that money to influence their vote.
SCHULTZ: That is just amazing. They want secret money into elections. Unidentified funds going into elections. I mean--I don"t know how the American people are going to be missing on this one. Chris, great to have you with us tonight. Thanks so much.
VAN HOLLEN: Great to be with you. Thanks, Ed.

BRWSCHULTZ: Good ad. Eric Cantor says, Barton is not the issue. He"s correct. The issue is Barton represents what the Republican Party stands for. This is how the righties sink. They are more concerned with protecting Joe Barton than standing up for the victims in the gulf coast.
John Boehner, force Barton to issue a cover his backside apology so to
speak for calling BP"s $100 billion damages a fund. The government fund,
the government shakedown. Nobody believed it and nobody thought he really
meant it. Barton"s twitter posted this yesterday. Joe Barton was right in
reference to the shakedown comment. Predictably as soon as people saw it,
the tweet was deleted and some press flak in Barton"s office took the blame for it. I think it"s pretty obvious that there is a real pattern here.
Joining me now is Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen, Chairman of the DCCC. Congressman, good to have you with us.
REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, (D), MARYLAND: Good to be with you Ed.
SCHULTZ: Is this just red meat for the democrats? Is this going to be the theme into the mid-terms?
VAN HOLLEN: Well, it"s going to be a big piece of it, for obvious reasons. Number one, Joe Barton is not any republican. He is their point person on energy policy. If they were to take back control of the house, which they"re trying desperately to do, he would be the guy who shakes the energy policy. Number two, he"s not alone. He has a whole bunch of folks in the republican caucus who use the same language, who criticize the president for sticking up for the fund. And the reason this resonates with the American people is they understand that Joe Barton did speak for the republicans when it comes to their energy policy and when it comes to dealing with big corporate special interests. Time and again, we"ve seen them side with the big corporations, whether it"s the big oil companies or in voting against Wall Street reform, they voted with all the big Wall Street firms. So, the reason this is important is that let the American people know once again where the republicans stand. And there were the big corporation against the average citizen.
SCHULTZ: Why do you think this will resonate? I mean, you know, we had a story on here last night at one of the oyster companies. They"ve gotten some pretty good checks here early on. The owner was on there saying that, you know, BP is doing some things. Why would you think this would resonate?
VAN HOLLEN: Well, it resonates because it lets people know exactly where the republicans in the house stand on energy policy. When you have.
SCHULTZ: And you think that their rank and file of the republicans are right with Joe Barton on that and behind closed doors they might even be high-fiving him?
VAN HOLLEN: Well, we"ve already seen a bunch of the rank and file rush to his defense. We know that the day before Joe Barton made those comments publicly, 115 members of the republican study group had issued a statement criticizing the president for the same reasons that Joe Barton criticized the president. So, this is not an isolated incident. He"s not just any member. He spoke for a broad, you know, part of the caucus, which is why that caucus is not going to be able to make the decision to replace him, because at the end of the day, he was giving voice to what has been in the past, the republican energy policy, and it reinforces the point that we"ve been making to the voters, which is you"ve got a real choice in this election.
SCHULTZ: No doubt.
VAN HOLLEN: Do you really want to go back to the Bush-Cheney oil policies that Joe Barton was there working on since day one?
SCHULTZ: So if the election were tomorrow, would you hold the house?
VAN HOLLEN: Yes. We would. Yes.
SCHULTZ: Would you lose seats?
VAN HOLLEN: Look, we got a long way to go before the election, Ed. If we know this is an uphill climb, we now hold almost every swing district in the country. We picked up a lot of seats in the last two years, but I do believe that the American people are going to focus on both candidates in every one of these races around the country. It will be a choice for them.
SCHULTZ: But oil is going to be an issue in this campaign, and oil will play favorably for the democrats, correct?
VAN HOLLEN: Oil will be an issue because the republicans continue to stand on the side of big oil as we"re trying to move this economy toward a clean energy economy, invest in jobs here rather than overseas and work on all the components of an energy policy that helps the whole country, not just the big oil companies.
SCHULTZ: Good ad. I got to hand that to you. I mean, that"s a heck of an ad. I mean, between the most--well, the vote just an hour ago and the senate knocking down the bill to help the folks who are unemployed and Barton"s comments on big oil, I mean, you guys got all the material in the world.
VAN HOLLEN: Let me just say, Ed, in the house, we also passed a very important bill called the disclosed bill to give voters the right to know who is spending money in these elections. Because as a result of that terrible supreme court decision, corporations and foreign control companies can secretly spend millions of dollars. So, we said let"s shine a little sunlight on this, and unfortunately, our colleagues on the other side of the aisle would prefer that the voter not know who is spending all that money to influence their vote.
SCHULTZ: That is just amazing. They want secret money into elections. Unidentified funds going into elections. I mean--I don"t know how the American people are going to be missing on this one. Chris, great to have you with us tonight. Thanks so much.
VAN HOLLEN: Great to be with you. Thanks, Ed.

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