MSNBC ""Hardball With Chris Matthews" - Transcript

Interview

MSNBC ""Hardball With Chris Matthews" - Transcript

MSNBC "HARDBALL WITH CHRIS MATTHEWS" INTERVIEW WITH SENATOR JIM WEBB (D-VA) INTERVIEWER: CHRIS MATTHEWS

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MR. MATTHEWS: Here's Senator Jim Webb, Democrat of Virginia.

Senator Webb, let me ask you about this big problem. We have an economy which still is falling. It may not even be in recession; it may be in serial decline. What's the president got to do tonight?

SEN. WEBB: Well, I think this is a chance for the president to have a forum for the American people that he really hasn't had since he was elected, and to lay out his agenda. And I think it's also important to point out that he is the president, and even though we're of the same party, we are the legislature, so he's going to be talking to us. He's going to be giving us his expectations. And we will be looking forward to working with him toward a solution. But we are two separate bodies of government here, and that's the approach that I think we're going to be taking.

MR. MATTHEWS: Well, do you think, based upon what your words are right now, that you're going to be more resistant to him on issues like health care, energy and education than you were with regard to the stimulus package?

SEN. WEBB: Well, I was one of those who worked really hard offline on the stimulus package to take $100 billion out of it that was not directly related to infrastructure programs or getting money into people's hands immediately or fixing the mortgage crisis. So I will continue to do that. We want to work with the administration. We are of the same party. But we also -- again, I want to emphasize, we are the legislative body, and we're going to analyze these things very carefully.

MR. MATTHEWS: What do you make of the new poll in The New York Times today that said that people would more like him to be a Democrat -- in other words, be the guy he ran to be -- than split the difference with Republicans?

SEN. WEBB: Well, as people generally say, and particularly with respect to the presidency, you have to be careful about polls. But I think what we are looking forward to seeing from President Obama is a leader who is going to manage his people, who is going to put the right issues before the Congress so that we can work on them together.

MR. MATTHEWS: Let me ask you about the Democrats. Bobby Jindal, the new governor of Louisiana, he's got a real hard-right speech tonight. This is not a split-the-difference kind of thing. This is hard right. He's obviously out there competing with Governor Palin and Huckabee for the far right of the Republican Party.

He says that the whole stimulus package, the very thing itself, the Keynesian effort to try to increase government spending and cut taxes in order to offset the decline in consumption and business investment, was wrong. He says it was irresponsible. It was no way to strengthen our economy. It's totally wrong to do what you guys did the other day.

"Democratic leaders say their legislation will grow the economy. What it will do is grow the government, increase our taxes down the line and saddle future generations with debt. Who among us would ask our children for a loan so we could spend money we do not have? This is precisely what the Democrats" -- he has trashed right down the line. He is betting on red against the success of this president. He is saying, "If this economy comes back, the Democrats are going to win, so if it doesn't come back, we Republicans deserve to win." What kind of a political gamble is that he's taken?

SEN. WEBB: Well, you're articulating the cleavage that has now grown between the two parties on issues where we really need to come and work together. It's been the Republican Party strategy to rebuild their party and rebuild their base on this issue.

We're all in uncharted territory here. And, you know, I just spent two weeks down in southwest Virginia, which is probably one of the most conservative places in America, not simply in Virginia, and once people started listening to what we were doing and related it not only to the global situation but to what's happening locally -- for instance, I have a cousin that I stayed with down in southwest Virginia who has a cattle farm. And the price of his feed has gone up. The price of his electricity has gone up. And at the same time, we're facing challenges in terms of moving product all through our economy.

So when people start to hear that and understand it, I think they are going to be with us to the point where we have to produce. Now, the trick is -- and, quite frankly, this is the gamble, I think, that the Republicans have taken -- it's going to be very difficult to demonstrate success while it's going to be very easy to sit back and pick apart one item or another. So this is the big issue going into the next two years.

MR. MATTHEWS: What do you make of this new poll that's come out that says that Republicans should work in a bipartisan way with President Obama and not stick to their GOP policies? Only 17 percent of the people in this poll say stick to Republican policies. And overwhelmingly, four out of five, 79 percent say work in a bipartisan way. So the Democrats are being urged to be Democrats. The Republicans are being urged to be bipartisan.

SEN. WEBB: Well, as I said, we are all in uncharted territory here. And I believe that what we have put forward with the reductions that I and probably 14 other senators were able to make in programs that weren't going to directly affect the stimulus is the way for us to go. And we ought to all be working together to try to save the nation's economy and to help solve this world economic problem.

And I think Americans understand that. This is a place for respectful disagreement, but it's not a place to hope where one side or the other fails. We've got to come together and fix the country.

MR. MATTHEWS: Well said. Let me ask you, should Senator Roland Burris retire from the Senate?

SEN. WEBB: He is, from all evidence that I see, in the Senate legally. And it's up to the Illinois delegation to resolve that issue in the future.

MR. MATTHEWS: What do you make of Dick Durbin, your whip, your party whip, calling for him to quit today, late today?

SEN. WEBB: I have great respect for Dick Durbin, but he's also from Illinois, so I think they need to solve their problem.

MR. MATTHEWS: So this is a Chicago problem. You don't want to touch it with a 10-foot pole, in other words.

SEN. WEBB: Well, I tend to --

MR. MATTHEWS: (Laughs.) You sound like you don't want to be anywhere near this baby.

SEN. WEBB: Well, you know, I tend to respect the Constitution and legal process, and that process put Senator Burris into the Senate. And the rest of it they're going to have to sort out.

MR. MATTHEWS: Do you think the Republicans are going to cheer tonight or sit on their hands?

SEN. WEBB: I don't know. I really don't know. What we need to do -- I have many friends in the Republican Party, and we've worked on issues together. And I think that whatever the disagreements are, we have to agree that we have to solve this economic situation. It's affecting everyone from the one home down the street to the global economy. And we need to do this with some seriousness.

MR. MATTHEWS: Okay, thank you very much, Senator Jim Webb of Virginia.

SEN. WEBB: Thank you.

END.

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