MSNBC "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript

Interview

MS. MADDOW: Now on to the politics of the bailout, or the non- bailout, as it turned out. It's blame game time, and everybody gets to play. Was it Nancy Pelosi's fault for not delivering 10 or so more Democrats? Was it John Boehner or Roy Blunt's fault or John McCain's fault for barely delivering any Republicans?

John McCain said it was Barack Obama and Democrats in the House to blame for injecting partisanship. Then McCain said it was no time to affix blame. Thanks for suspending your campaign, Senator.

We reached out to numerous Republican members of Congress today to talk about the bailout bill. Sadly, none of them would come on the show tonight to talk with us. We are now joined, though -- and we're not at all disappointed -- by Congressman Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland. He's chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and he voted for today's bill.

Congressman Van Hollen, thanks for joining us.

REP. VAN HOLLEN: Rachel, great to be with you on your new show.

MS. MADDOW: Thank you. Before the vote on the bailout today, it looked like congressional leaders thought they had the votes to pass the bill. Did you think it would pass? And why did it fail?

REP. VAN HOLLEN: Yes, I did. We did think we had a bipartisan compromise. Look, nobody liked this bill. Everybody had something else that they either wanted in it or that they didn't like. It was a compromise.

The president had sent a bill to the Congress. It was a blank- check request for $700 billion. We said no. We worked with our Republican colleagues to put the restraints on that Laura (Tyson) just talked about. And we thought we had an understanding, a bipartisan understanding that, given the fact that this is a difficult bill and we need to make sure we come together, Republicans and Democrats alike, to do the right thing for the country, that both the Republicans and Democrats would come up with their share of the votes.

And what happened is, as the clock ticked down, it became very clear that the Republicans just did not hold up their end of the bargain. And what was interesting was that even before this vote, John McCain issued his press release taking credit for getting the Republicans on board. But when the hour clicked -- you know, when the final vote was tallied, those votes weren't there.

MS. MADDOW: I feel like I understand the biggest-picture perspective on what you're saying. But then I look at 95 Democratic votes against this bill. And, sure, in retrospect, you can see that had there been a dozen fewer Democrats voting against it, it would have passed.

But are you saying that the Republicans didn't hold up their share, their end of the bargain, that the Democrats were sort of cleared by negotiation to allow 95 Democrats to vote against it? There was a sort of math done in advance that that would still be okay for the bill to pass?

REP. VAN HOLLEN: No, nobody was cleared. But Rachel, as you well know, there are a lot of people that don't like this bill. There are lots of members of Congress who, in talking with their constituents, don't think this bill went far enough. There are things that I wish were in the bill with respect to bankruptcy protection that are not in this bill.

And so there were a lot of Democrats who said, "We want a better bill," and voted against it. But at the same time, we asked the Republicans to see what they could do to come up with some of their members, because their members also had some misgivings on the bill. And so the question was whether, for the good of the country, we'd be able to put together a majority.

And to hear them after the vote suggest that they wanted to do the right thing for the country but some of their members got miffed by what Speaker Pelosi said, I think really will cause their constituents to question their judgment. In other words, they were saying, "Yes, I would have voted for this bill for the good of my community, for the good of my country," but because Speaker Pelosi said that President Bush's economic policies were to blame of the crisis we find ourselves in, they decided to punish their constituents and punish their country. We challenge them to have one Republican member of Congress come forward and say that was the reason that he or she changed his or her vote.

MS. MADDOW: Representative Chris Van Hollen, let us know if you hear back from any of them on that. (Laughs.) Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, thank you for coming on tonight. I appreciate it.

REP. VAN HOLLEN: Thanks for having me.

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