MSNBC Hardball-Transcript

MSNBC Hardball-Transcript

MATTHEWS: Welcome back to HARDBALL. I‘m out in Las Vegas for the Miss America contest. I‘m one of the judges tonight.

Democrats now control 51 seats in the U.S. Senate. Will they grab more seats in 2008? Senator Chuck Schumer of New York is the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. He‘s the ramrod that won the Democrats the majority. He‘s also a new book author. The name of the book is "Positively American."

Well, Senator Schumer, talk to me about what I know you focus on a lot. Who is that middle, middle, middle voter...

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: Right.

MATTHEWS: ... middle voter family...

SCHUMER: Well, that‘s...

MATTHEWS: that swings every election?

SCHUMER: Well, that‘s the point about the book, Chris. The subtitle‘s "Winning Back the Middle Class Majority One Family at a Time." And the reason is because those middle class voters in 2004 went overwhelmingly for George Bush. In 2006, they voted for us, but mainly because they didn‘t like Bush anymore.

And 2008‘s going to be a real seminal election, and whichever party can create a platform that captures the middle class imagination I think will be the party that‘ll be dominant for a generation. Why do I say that? Technology‘s changed the world. We have terrorism. We have one global labor market. Our kids compete with kids in Chinese and Indian schools. We even live longer, and decisions about marriage and child rearing and retirement are changing.

All of that means that the average middle class person—we call them Joe and Eileen Bailey, a fictional couple who travels with me throughout the book—they‘re real in my head. I‘ve been talking to them for 15 years. My press secretary once said I had imaginary friends. But we say that the party that can reach Joe and Eileen Bailey is going to win this election. This may be an election where the personalities of the candidates mean less and their platforms and the way they talk to the middle class means more because Joe and Eileen were Reagan supporters. They‘re not anymore. They don‘t support the Reagan view, "Get government of off my back." They, rather, need some help from government in limited but very important ways.

MATTHEWS: Well, Senator, you sound like—the person in your book, the Baileys, sound like the crowd I came from, middle, middle, middle.

SCHUMER: You got it.

MATTHEWS: I don‘t mean poor. I don‘t mean lower-middle. I mean middle, middle, middle Catholics in many cases. They‘re not really tied to any political party. They grew up as Democrats. They voted for Reagan.

SCHUMER: You get it.

MATTHEWS: Why would they vote for the Democrats when it comes to matters of national security? What would make them turn against the Republicans on that big issue?

SCHUMER: Well, you know, Iraq has been such a fiasco, they‘ve given we Democrats an opening. But we have to stand for a strong foreign policy. We have to know that terrorism are (ph) danger. But what we propose in the book—we have something called the 50 percent solution. We propose 11 goals that we‘re going to promise the middle class we achieve in the next 10 years. And each one is a number -- 50 percent more of this, 50 percent less of that, 50 percent higher math and reading scores by a voluntary almost nationalization of the schools, 50 percent lower property tax.

On security, we promise to be 50 percent more effective against terrorism by focusing on the terrorists, not on having a war with nations, not on Islamo-fascism, but building up our strike forces, building up our human intelligence, and creating a world system where if a country is harboring terrorists, you go in there, wipe them out and leave. That‘s what we should have been doing in Iraq. That‘s what we...

MATTHEWS: Will the Democrats promise—will you promise to catch Osama bin Laden?

SCHUMER: Well...

MATTHEWS: I mean, the guy‘s on dialysis. He‘s riding on a donkey.

He‘s 6-foot-4. He stands out. He somehow got away from our forces...

SCHUMER: Hey...

MATTHEWS: ... at Bora Bora (ph) or wherever it was.

SCHUMER: If we use—if we use...

MATTHEWS: Why can‘t we catch him?

SCHUMER: If we use the plan in this book, that‘s where our military is going to focus, on going after people like bin Laden rather than nation building, democracy, Islamo-fascism. We didn‘t bargain to police civil wars. We didn‘t bargain to change regimes because we don‘t like them. We bargained to protect America. And if we‘re efficient in our military, we can be both tougher and save some dough for the domestic needs that we need.

MATTHEWS: Who do we have in power right now? I‘ve spent, like you do

I know you‘re the professional politician, but as a journalist, I‘ve been trying to figure it out. Who is the brain of this administration? George Bush, the former president‘s son, is president. Some people say he was trying to get even for Saddam Hussein trying to assassinate his father.

SCHUMER: Oh, I think, Chris...

MATTHEWS: Cheney‘s an oil patcher, an oil guy, loves the Saudi money...

SCHUMER: Dick Cheney...

MATTHEWS: (INAUDIBLE) the Saudi money, the oil, Dick Cheney. And the ideologues, the neoconservatives, who basically are very forward-leaning in their aggressiveness, their hawkishness. What is it that—what‘s the brain wave of this administration? Is it George Bush?

SCHUMER: No.

MATTHEWS: Is it Cheney?

SCHUMER: Cheney.

MATTHEWS: Is it the ideologues? Who is it?

SCHUMER: It‘s Cheney, who is an ideologue.

MATTHEWS: Cheney‘s the boss.

SCHUMER: Cheney‘s the keeper of the flame. Bush listens to him. And that‘s why they‘ve lost touch. They‘ve lost touch. They‘ve even given us an opening on security. But on domestic issues, where it‘s harder to pay for college, harder to pay for health care, where pornography is on the Net and people are worried about their children looking at it, where immigration is out of control, they‘ve abandoned the field.

And if we can come up with rational, smart plans where government actually works, we can win over the middle class. The middle class is up for grabs and open to us for the first time. I don‘t want to get rid of the old Democratic constituents. They‘re vital to us. I want to add the middle class to those constituencies, and that‘s what this book proposes we do.

Right now, Chris, no one is talking about a Democratic vision, a Democratic platform. Certain people are looking at this piece or that piece. But this book attempts to do it.

MATTHEWS: OK, Senator...

SCHUMER: Now—now, it may not be...

MATTHEWS: ... can we get a better look at that book?

SCHUMER: ... all the answers...

MATTHEWS: I want a better look at that book. I want a better look at that book of yours. Show it up real high.

SCHUMER: I don‘t know if you have one, Chris...

MATTHEWS: I‘m serious. Because you‘re...

SCHUMER: ... but I brought one.

MATTHEWS: There it is!

(LAUGHTER)

MATTHEWS: Let me ask you—you got some knee-capping in there. You said that Harry Reid, your opposite number—the opposite—the leaders of the—Harry Reid is on your side, I should say. Harry Reid you say is capable of knee-capping the other side. Tell me about how vicious he can be.

SCHUMER: Well, Harry Reid, I say in here, is mild-mannered, soft-spoken, devout. But if you cross him, if you lie to him, he doesn‘t forget it. And he makes sure you pay the price for it. He is one strong leader. And we couldn‘t have taken back the Senate without Harry Reid‘s leadership. I mean, I helped plan the strategy and raise the money, but Harry was there like a rock. And people are going to see what a strong leader he is. He brings unity to the party.

He‘s the one person I asked to read this book before I sent it to the publisher. And he didn‘t agree with all of it. No one will. But he liked it.

MATTHEWS: OK. We‘re out here in Harry Reid country. We‘re out here in Nevada.

Senator Chuck Schumer, author of "Positively American: A Prescription for the Democrats to Rule the World"—I mean, "Get Back Power in the United States."

SCHUMER: And keep it.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16886771/