MSNBC "Decision '08" - Transcript

Interview

MSNBC "Decision '08" - Transcript

MR. TODD: Joining (us) now -- he made it in here very quickly -- it's Senator Chuck Schumer from New York. But he's head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

What we've been terming the drive for 60 -- it seems like more and more buzz these days about the Democrats actually having an opportunity to get to 60 Senate seats? Why 60? Sixty would be a filibuster-proof majority.

Senator Schumer, the drive for 60, is it something we should stop talking about?

SEN. SCHUMER: No, I don't think we should stop talking about it, but we shouldn't make it seem like it's easy, because it isn't. And the great difficulty is we are in so many deeply red states that one doesn't know what would happen. Now, whenever did a Democrat win in Mississippi or win in Alaska or Oklahoma or states like even North Carolina? We have real shots in those seats right now.

MR. TODD: Oklahoma, you think you have a shot at.

SEN. SCHUMER: Well, all of a sudden it's tightening up.

MR. TODD: More than Kansas? Have you written off Kansas?

SEN. SCHUMER: Well, you know, I don't want to rank them. But, yes, the recent polls in Oklahoma show it's tightening up. But even without that, we have 11 seats without Oklahoma, without Kansas, without Georgia, without Texas, without Idaho, which are the outlyers, that are in play. We're ahead in five. We're even in three. We're close in three.

MR. TODD: I want to talk about an ad that the DSCC is running down in North Carolina against Elizabeth Dole. It's gotten a lot of play.

SEN. SCHUMER: Yeah. (Laughs.)

MR. TODD: We don't have the clip of it, but I'm going to quickly describe it. It's an interesting ad; two guys in a rocking chair debating the numbers 92 and 93. It caused Elizabeth Dole to come out and issue a statement. Actually, let's take a quick clip at the ad. We don't have it.

(Begin videotaped segment.)

MAN 1: She ranks 93rd in effectiveness.

MAN 2: After 40 years in Washington?

MAN 1: After 40 years in Washington, Dole is 93rd in effectiveness, right near the bottom.

MAN 2: I read she's 92.

MAN 1: Didn't I just tell you she's 93?

MAN 2: No, 92 percent of the time she votes with Bush. What's happened to the Liddy Dole I knew?

MAN 1: She's just not a go-getter like you and me.

ANNOUNCER: The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is responsible for the content of this advertising.

(End videotaped segment.)

MR. TODD: All right, you're laughing. You seem pretty proud of this ad. Now, would you like to see Senator Barack Obama run a similar ad on John McCain, who's the same age as Elizabeth Dole? Elizabeth Dole -- a lot of Republicans say that this ad was a little bit age-ist. If Obama -- should he run a similar ad?

SEN. SCHUMER: No, I think what Obama should do is point out how out of touch John McCain is in a different way. This man has not lived the life of an average person. He's got six, seven houses. He wears $500 shoes. He comes from one of the wealthiest families in Arizona. No wonder he doesn't understand middle-class people and what they need. That's the ad I think they should do, and they're doing it.

MR. TODD: So you would not say use this rocking chair ad in the presidential --

SEN. SCHUMER: Different ads work in different kinds of situations. The big thing here in this ad -- when in the past could you say that it was bad in North Carolina to vote 92 percent of the time with the Republican president?

MR. TODD: Fair enough. Senator Chuck Schumer, thanks for doing this.

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