MSNBC Hardball - Transcript

MSNBC Hardball - Transcript
Wednesday, August 10, 2005

DAVID GREGORY, GUEST HOST: Tonight, two of the most controversial politicians in the country, Florida Congresswoman Katherine Harris, now vying for the Senate, and Paul Hackett, the first Iraq war vet to run for office, on his narrow loss in Ohio-Harris and Hackett on politics, the war and their futures.

I'm David Gregory. Let's play HARDBALL.

Good evening. I'm David Gregory, in again tonight for Chris.

Paul Hackett, a Marine from Ohio, grabbed headlines and almost won a seat for Congress after running as an anti-war candidate with no love lost for his commander in chief. And he lost by just four points in Ohio's second most Republican district. What does his run say about voter anxiety over the war and is it a wakeup call for Republicans next year?

But, first, Katherine Harris. She was the lightning rod of the Florida recount, vilified for insuring President Bush's victor, lampooned for her appearance. Now she's back, this time without support from the Bushes and running for the Senate.

Katherine Harris, Congresswoman, welcome to HARDBALL.

REP. KATHERINE HARRIS ®, FLORIDA: Thank you, David.

And it was an extraordinary, historic day yesterday. We had one woman launch her Senate campaign and another woman safely pilot the shuttle back to Earth.

But I have to disagree. We don't-we're not running without support from the Bushes. In fact, we had an overwhelming round of support yesterday, with the governor giving us a-a great send-off, saying that we would be formidable, and great things coming from every sector of the Republican Party. Let's just keep on it a level playing field here.

GREGORY: OK. Well, you brought it up, so, let me ask you about something specifically that Governor Jeb Bush said.

HARRIS: Yes.

GREGORY: He said the following-quote-"I hope Congresswoman Harris runs a strong race. She'll be a good candidate, and Bill Nelson is very vulnerable."

Is that an endorsement?

HARRIS: And the day before, he-the day before, he said I would be very, very-that I would be very formidable, and he wished me well.

And I can't wait to get running. We've already started our historic listening tour. It is going to be a campaign for Florida's future. And we've gone-going to go...

(CROSSTALK)

GREGORY: I want to get to some of those issues. But I'd like to pin you down on this point, because I think...

HARRIS: OK.

GREGORY: ... it strikes a lot of people that there doesn't appear to be an endorsement here. And let me ask you more specifically, when the president...

(CROSSTALK)

HARRIS: We're still in a primary, David.

GREGORY: Well...

HARRIS: We're still in a primary, so I don't expect to-you know, it is unusual to have endorsements, although we've already had very strong statements from our national state party leaders, as well as Carole Jean Jordan, my-my party chairman, and across the board, all of our 67 county chairs in every county have called...

(CROSSTALK)

GREGORY: But-but, Congresswoman, let me just interrupt you, because when the president's senior adviser, Karl Rove, and Governor Bush of Florida spoke to you about your bid for the Senate, what is it that they said to you?

HARRIS: Actually, when I spoke to the governor, he was extremely gracious. And I haven't spoken-I had not spoken with Karl or anyone else since the press announced I would be running, and I have had no negative comments or feedback whatsoever. You can take a look at the polls.

GREGORY: Isn't it true-isn't it true that the White House and even the president's brother, the governor's of Florida, have discouraged you from entering this race?

HARRIS: The governor never discouraged me from entering the race. And, quite frankly, we're single digits down. We have only to make up a few points, and we're going to encourage-we are going to just get our base so engaged.

And then we're going to go to all the Democrats and independents and let them make their decisions. We have found that, once they know more us about, they move dramatically, when I'm not just a caricature.

GREGORY: Well...

HARRIS: When they've learned about my accomplishments and what we will do, instead of the ineffectiveness and the lack of a record from my competition.

GREGORY: One-one of the issues that I have detected from my own reporting at the White House is that the view within the White House is that you are simply too polarizing a figure in Florida to win.

HARRIS: I-I would-I love that aspect. And that's not actually correct. But the polarizing nature that you mentioned, I'm far less polarizing than the governor or the president, who both won elections and won reelections overwhelmingly.

What happens with these-quote-"polarizing figures" is that they engage their base. And come next year, in the general election, that engagement of the Republican base will do an extraordinary job of turnout. It is going to be really important, not only in the U.S. Senate race, but also in the governor's race. We look forward to that engagement and-and we can't wait.

GREGORY: But just-just to be clear here, for the record, you're saying that nobody within the White House, nobody within the Republican Party in Florida ever discouraged from you entering into this race?

HARRIS: No one from the Republican Party ever discouraged me from running. And Karl Rove never asked me not to run.

GREGORY: And do you-do you-do you expect...

(CROSSTALK)

HARRIS: So, we are moving forward. We have positive-David, we have positive comments.

(CROSSTALK)

GREGORY: I understand.

(CROSSTALK)

GREGORY: I understand that.

(CROSSTALK)

HARRIS: ... from the Republican National Committee.

GREGORY: And I want to get to that.

Let me just-let me just go through my questions. I will be happy to get to your agenda items. I just want to clear this point up, because there might be some confusion, based on what's been publicly written about this and, as I say, my-my own information. Are you saying that, because this is just the primary, that you expect President Bush to campaign with you in advance of this election?

HARRIS: No.

I think, because it is a primary, I wouldn't have expected any endorsements whatsoever. Absent a primary, a significant primary, that may occur. I wasn't looking for endorsements. We're engaged.

GREGORY: But do you expect the president...

HARRIS: We're going to take our race...

GREGORY: Does the president owe you? Do you expect him to campaign with you down the stretch?

HARRIS: Why in the world would you ask if the president owed me? I simply followed the letter of the law. That's it.

And I'm very proud of that record. So, as we move forward, certainly, when I'm the nominee, I hope that we will have everyone at the table. And I believe I will be the nominee. And I don't know why there's-I think we can move on and not create controversy-try to create controversy where none exists. Overwhelmingly...

(CROSSTALK)

GREGORY: All right. I'm certainly not trying to do that. I'm just trying-I'm just trying to-to-to get-to nail this down...

HARRIS: That's great.

GREGORY: ... on-on the record. Certainly, nobody...

HARRIS: So, now we're moving on to-we started in Hillsborough this morning.

GREGORY: Right.

HARRIS: We are in Orlando today. We will be in Jacksonville tomorrow

· tonight.

GREGORY: Right.

HARRIS: Tallahassee, Pensacola, and then Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach, Miami, Naples and Charlotte. It is going to be an amazing beginning, but then we will go to every single county as well.

(CROSSTALK)

GREGORY: No one-no one-Congresswoman, if I can just interject here, no one certainly can accuse you of not being tough. I mean, after the 2000 recount, you had a target on your back. As I'm mentioned, you were vilified by Democrats, who accused you of handing this election to-to President Bush.

HARRIS: It goes with the territory, David. You know.

GREGORY: If I can just finish the question. You were even lampooned for your appearance. And, yet, you keep coming back. I wonder what motivates you.

HARRIS: What motivates me is making a difference for the people.

We represent an extraordinary state, with amazing disparities. And it's not being represented adequately in the United States Senate right now. When you take a look at our voting record, "The National Journal"-

"The National Journal" reports that Senator Nelson has one of the most liberal voting records in the Senate, in fact, more liberal than Hillary Clinton or Charles Schumer.

The fact is, that may be good for-for New York, but that's not what Florida is. So, we look forward to a spirited debate. You can't come home and call yourself a moderate, when you have over a 76 percent voting record as a liberal. We're progressive conservative. And we have a great message, not only to give to the people of Florida, but to engage them.

We have this listening tour, so that we are going to go out.

GREGORY: Right.

HARRIS: The people of Florida are going to be our polls. The people that we meet with and listen will develop a-a very aggressive agenda. And I would argue, the line will be drawn in the sand by November. There will be very clear choices. Who has a vision? Who has the leadership and who can actually deliver?

GREGORY: You said, at one point, you thought the national media was trying to make you foolish. Do you still believe that's the case?

HARRIS: Oh, you know what? I can't speak for their motives. But whatever. It doesn't even matter to me.

All I care about is taking my message to the people of Florida. And that's what we're doing. And it is working. And we're developing an agenda that's going to be so exciting, because we don't want to be like California and other states. We want to make sure that we have an extraordinary education for our children. They're going to have to be competitive globally.

We want to make sure that we don't have the kind of congestion and overdevelopment that we've seen in other states. So, we are going to be actively engaged, listening, hearing people's deepest concerns and their grandest dreams. We want to make sure that they can accomplish those dreams, as well as come up with solutions for those problems.

GREGORY: Before we take a break, I-I...

HARRIS: And that's how we're going to engage for the next 15 months.

GREGORY: I want to ask you, who is your voter? Who is your rock-solid voter, Congresswoman?

HARRIS: My rock-solid voters are grounded folks with a world view that has a sincere, honest outlook and that are fiscally conservative.

And I think, whenever you take a look at those that-that really want to sincerely engage and make Florida a better place for our children and grandchildren, and where they came about the future, then-then they're going to be my ground-my bedrock voters.

GREGORY: We're going to take a break and come right back with the very latest and more with Katherine Harris in just a moment.

And later on, on HARDBALL, an exclusive interview with the Iraq war vet Paul Hackett. He lost a congressional seat in Ohio, but narrowly. What message does it send for Republicans next year? Will he return to the fight in Iraq? And does he have future plans in politics?

You're watching HARDBALL, only on MSNBC.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GREGORY: More with Senate candidate Katherine Harris, who was at the center of the 2000 Florida recount. I'm David Gregory.

HARDBALL returns after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GREGORY: I'm David Gregory. And we are back with Republican Florida Representative Katherine Harris, who is now running for the Senate.

Congresswoman, what do you care most about?

HARRIS: I care most about right now representing my district to make sure that people have adequate homes that are safe and secure, that they're not going to have to wake up in the middle of the night worried that their homeland is not protected, and that they're going to have a job, that they're going to be able to move forward and take care of their family.

We're working really hard in Congress right now to make sure that we secure America. So, it's exciting. And I think, from that, hot off the press, I just had the chairman of Orange County Republican Committee, the whole county, come in and-and endorse me, as well as Congressman Ric Keller and Congressman Dave Weldon.

So, I'm very grateful for that, showing that overwhelming support and with the polls being single digits behind a senator that's been in office, in public service 30 years.

GREGORY: Right.

HARRIS: We think we are going to have a groundswell of support.

GREGORY: Let-I want to-let-so, let's talk about some of the issues. Talk about homeland security.

HARRIS: Absolutely.

GREGORY: What step could be taken that has not been taken yet to better secure the American-the United States?

HARRIS: That's a really good question. And I think that's kind of in the hearts and minds of everyone, knowing how-how good Great Britain in, in terms their security, and then seeing recently what happens, what has happened.

One of the issues in the United States, we desperately need labor. With unemployment at its complete lowest, one of the most important issues is to have that kind of work force, especially in Florida, for our hospitality, our construction, our agricultural businesses. So, we need those workers that come temporarily.

But we have to make sure they are who they say they are. I have a bill with Senator Lugar in the Senate called the North American Cooperative Security Act that will employ biometrics to make sure we know who those workers are and also to make sure we apprehend the criminals before they cross our borders and work on that southern border of Mexico to preempt the Middle Easterners from pouring in and crossing our borders with Hispanic names.

We will have that before the Congress.

GREGORY: All right.

HARRIS: And I've already had one committee hearing in the United States Senate.

GREGORY: Let me ask you this. On-on policy areas...

HARRIS: Yes.

GREGORY: ... is there an area where you disagree with President Bush?

HARRIS: Actually, there are a number of areas that we disagree. And that's what makes our party so strong.

GREGORY: What are they?

HARRIS: Just recently-oh, well, to begin the list, the most recent, anyway, was the energy policy.

I think we needed an energy policy desperately concerning alternative resources and making sure that we can keep those prices low. However, it was going to be at the expense of Florida's coastline, drilling in our-in the Gulf. And, quite frankly, with an economy that depends on tourism, it was just a risk we couldn't take.

It's not just our quality of life or our pristine, fragile ecological coastlines. But, also, it's the fact that it is-it is-it is our economy. Another issue is housing. I felt very strongly that something called Hope Six, which has millions of dollars to tear down those failed social experiments, the government housing programs, so they can build respectful, affordable, safe, secure homes, he wanted to eliminate-the administration wanted to eliminate Hope Six.

So, through my American Dream Down Payment Act, which actually is going to enable millions of low-income homeowners to buy their first home, we amended this Hope Six funding, so that now we will also be able to help folks living in government homes and live in a much more appropriate development.

GREGORY: And-and one-one final area, Congresswoman, that's, of course, of great importance to everyone in the country and to Floridians, the Iraq war. Do you support a date certain for the withdrawal of American troops?

HARRIS: I support securing our homeland by making sure we're capturing and killing those terrorists abroad. I think our men and women are doing an extraordinary job, as they're putting their lives on the line to protect our freedoms here.

I don't support a date certain, only because the terrorists would just wait until that point in time when we've tipped our hand to say, we will be withdrawing, and then come in and try to devastate a country that we've already spilled our blood for and invested so strongly in. So, I-I believe that we need to help the Iraqis strengthen themselves. I want our troop home as soon as possible. But I feel very strongly that we can't leave before they have secured Iraq and helped the Iraqis stand up for themselves.

And, in visiting Iraq and talking with the women and our troops as well, they say that that's exactly what they want to do. They don't want to come home until they know we're safe.

GREGORY: Congresswoman Katherine Harris in Florida tonight, thanks very much for being our guest.

HARRIS: Thank you.

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