Smith Discusses Why he Left the Republican Party (Interview)

BYLINE: Catherine Crier

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

U.S. REPRESENTATIVE JOHN KASICH (R-OH): I feel as though I have a soul brother. I've got somebody that—that sees this future for our country the same way that I have. And I'm very privileged and honored today to have George Bush with us, and I'd like for him, if he would, to come out and join me here on the stage.

So Governor, I'm very proud to join your team today. We're going to have a great fight to win the White House.

CRIER: OK. That was Ohio Congressman John Kasich announcing he's not only leaving Congress and shelving his presidential bid, he's going to campaign for the GOP frontrunner, George W. Bush, all this coming out less than 24 hours after Senator Bob Smith announced on the Senate floor he was leaving the Republican Party, two big losses that have come back to back for congressional Republicans, each carrying their own message.

Joining us now to explain how they differ is Senator Bob Smith.

Welcome, Senator.

U.S. SENATOR BOB SMITH (I-NH): How are you, Catherine?

CRIER: Doing very well. There are rumors that Kasich made his announcement on the heels of yours to diminish the effect of yours. Any truth to that?

SMITH: I have no idea. I would—you'd have to ask John that. I frankly would doubt that. He's made a decision of conscience, as I have. really.

CRIER: OK, well, tell me about the decision to take your principled fight externally, because the party platform, the GOP platform, conforms to what you want, but you say the GOP leaders don't. Is it better to fight on the inside or flail away on the outside?

SMITH: Well, I've tried that for 15 years or so, Catherine, and it's not working. I don't know what—what good is a party—why be in a party that doesn't—that doesn't fight for the principles in its platform? And I tried to show in issue after issue on the floor of the Senate yesterday that our platform just does not match what we do.

You cannot, for example, have a pro-life plank in the platform and not support the pro-life cause. We've put judges—Republicans have put judges on the courts who have upheld Roe v. Wade, who, indeed, gave us Roe v. Wade, that gave us 35 million aborted children. And for the next 25 abortion.

pollsters and the consultants in our party advise us all the time, "Don't talk about the controversial issues," not only abortion, but gun control, anything else that may have some controversy. That's not leadership, Catherine. So I basically have come to the conclusion—and look, I've been in the party for 50 years. I haven't left the principles of that party. I support the platform of the Republican Party, for the most part. I haven't left it, and the platform is fine. But if you don't...

CRIER: OK...

SMITH: If you have people in the party who aren't articulating the platform, why be in the party?

CRIER: Well, a platform is one thing, but the people you represent are another group entirely. George W. Bush says, "I am pro-life, but, in fact, the country is not ready to overturn Roe v. Wade. If the people were there, I could head that charge. My beliefs won't change, but we must do other things until the people that you represent come around to that." What's the matter with that philosophy?

SMITH: Well, there's a lot the matter with it. That's not leadership. Leadership is convincing, is being an advocate and coming out and saying to the American people that abortion is wrong.

CRIER: But there have been leaders on that now for years, since Roe v. Wade was decided, and even before, and the majority of the American people in this country have yet to move in that direction. What's the matte with the people's will being executed?

SMITH: I don't—I don't think that that's leadership at all. Leadership is being articulate on the issue. The last person we had on that who was articulate was Ronald Reagan. No one else leading our party has been a strong advocate for that issue. In fact, the pollsters and the consultants tell us to walk away from the issue.

But it's not just that. It's—our platform says we should—we should cut the size of government by eliminating the Department of Education, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Energy, the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

We don't do it. If I put a motion on the floor to do it, it would be defeated with overwhelming Republican support defeating it. So you know, the issue is why have a platform and issues in that platform that you don't support?

There's no need for a party. It's a handicap to me. I'd rather be important to America. I cannot stand by and allow 35 more million more children to die in the next 25 years while I'm in a party that won't do anything about it.

CRIER: OK, now...

SMITH: Now you could—and if I could just say...

CRIER: Sure.

SMITH: I'm sorry for being so long-winded.

CRIER: That's all right.

SMITH: You know, I'm not—this is not about George Bush. It's about the party. But to say that you're pro-life and you won't commit to putting the judges on the court to reverse this horror is simply not good enough, and that's not leadership.

CRIER: OK, well, let's listen real quickly to another sound bite from John Kasich, when he was talking about "compassionate conservativism."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KASICH: You might say why George Bush? Hey, this business of "compassionate conservatism"—I wish I'd have thought it up. It's exactly what I am. It's what he represents. It's a vision that we should stop polarizing. We should stop dividing, and we should start unifying, and we should start pulling together this country.

CRIER: Do you see a problem with that?

SMITH: No. I don't—I don't see a problem with unifying and pulling together. I'm—I support the platform of my party. Why am I divisive for supporting the platform of my party? When people don't support that platform, that is where the divisiveness begins.

Let me give you another example, Catherine. On the issue of the International Monetary Fund, $18 billion of taxpayer dollars, hard-earned money that our taxpayers in this country pay, sent off to some international organization to shift it off to Russia or some other place. And we got veterans lying on the streets of America on grates, homeless. That's not right. That's not "compassionate conservatism," and I'm going to stop it.

And I'm going to—I know that the party establishment will strike back hard, and the pollsters and the consultants and this infrastructure here will strike back hard, but I've...

CRIER: OK, let me jump in real quickly...

SMITH: ... got the people on my side.

CRIER: ... because I don't want us to run out of time before I get to ask you this. How much of it is the fault of institutionalized politics on both the Democrat and Republican front, that—that politicians, as a interests rather than looking out for the American people?

SMITH: Oh, I think there's a lot of truth to that in both parties. I think we put pragmatism ahead of principle and—you know, and there's an infrastructure around here to do that. We count numbers. We need more Republicans. We need more Democrats to have a majority, to get elected, to compromise their views, to get elected. Again, that's not good enough for me.

I'm just not—I'm just not cut out for it.

I've been involved in the party for all these years. I've been proud of it. But I cannot tolerate this anymore because we're not giving the American people a fair shot here. They deserve to have these issues debated. You mentioned a moment ago what is the will of the American people? I don't know what the will of the American people is because we really haven't had a good, honest debate.

Come out from under the rug. Let's debate abortion. Let's debate sovereignty. Let's debate MFN. Let's talk about these issues. Let's not run from them just because somebody in a poll said the American people don't want it to happen.

CRIER: Well, I'll tell you...

SMITH: That's not leadership.

CRIER: I'll tell you what. You get out there and debate those. We'll cover it because I'll second that.

SMITH: That's...

CRIER: A little more public debate, Senator Smith.

SMITH: Catherine, that's a deal. And I'll tell you, we're going to have a tough—we're going to have a tough, strong race, and I'm going to be right in the middle of this around next November, a year from this November, and you be there with me, you'll see.

CRIER: You got it. Senator Smith...

SMITH: Deal.

CRIER: ... thanks very much.

Got a lot more coming up. Don't go away.

<22:28>

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

Copyright© 1999, LEXIS-NEXIS, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.