MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

Interview

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Joining me now is Maryland congressman Chris Van Hollen, chairman of the DCCC. Congressman, good to have you with us tonight.

REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD), DCCC CHAIRMAN: It"s good to be with you, Ed.

SCHULTZ: You bet. I want your response. Does President Obama need to be more confrontational? Doe he need to be more forceful? I mean, you guys over in the House, how many bills have you passed that they"re sitting on over in the Senate? What do you make of this?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, we"ve got a lot of bills in the Senate. But let me say this, Ed. The president has been very clear about calling out the congressional Republicans, House and Senate Republican leaders, on a whole host of issues. He"s focused on the comments made by John Boehner, the Republican leader, when John Boehner said that the financial meltdown and the economic pain it caused throughout the country was like an ant. He called out Joe Barton when Joe Barton apologized to BP. And the president has pointed out that if you vote for Republicans for the House, you"re going to get a party that"s more interested in apologizing to the big oil companies than moving to a new clean energy policy. And he"s called them out on trying to privatize Medicare and partially privatize Social Security.

So the president is very clearly laying out the choices American voters are going to be making in this next election and making it very clear that if you vote for the Republicans, you"re going to get the same old economic agenda that got us into this mess. So I would say that the president is clearly painting the lines, the battle lines, in this campaign going forward and making it into the clear choice that it is.

SCHULTZ: What would be the motivation of Harry Reid or any Democrat to call out the president on being forceful, on being confrontational, and being tougher on Republicans? What would be the motivation there, other than to say to the base in his own state, Hey, it"s not my fault that we haven"t got a
lot of stuff done? What do you think?

VAN HOLLEN: Look, Ed, I really don"t know. I wasn"t at the meeting that took place at the White House between the Senate Democrats and the president. All I know is what the president has been saying very clearly...

SCHULTZ: But isn"t this...

VAN HOLLEN: ... across the country...

SCHULTZ: I don"t mean to interrupt you because--you know...

VAN HOLLEN: Yes.

SCHULTZ: But isn"t this something that your candidates are going to have to deal with on the campaign trail because now it"s in the minds, Heck, the leadership of the Senate says that President Obama isn"t strong enough. Why in the heck should I support any Democrat in the House?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, I think that the results are pretty clear. The results are in. In other words, we can engage in some Monday-morning quarterbacking on how a particular piece of legislation was enacted, but we got health care reform done. We"re on the verge of getting Wall Street reform done.
The point that we all need to get together and make is on all these issues, the Republicans have been on the ones on the other side. So let"s focus on where the Republicans in Washington are because time and again, they"ve been on the side of the big corporate special interests.

SCHULTZ: Yes.

VAN HOLLEN: I would agree with your earlier point here, though, Ed, with respect to the Senate and filibusters. You know, it wasn"t that long ago when Senator Bunning, the Republican from Kentucky, decided to try and block unemployment compensation, and the Democrats called them on it. They said, Let"s have a filibuster. Let"s show the American people...

SCHULTZ: Sure.

VAN HOLLEN: ... who is standing in the way. They need to do a lot more by way of filibuster to...

SCHULTZ: Well...

VAN HOLLEN: ... to make it clear to the American people that the Republicans are blocking progress on all these important issues to jobs and the economy.

SCHULTZ: Congressman, good to have you with us tonight. Thanks so much.

VAN HOLLEN: Good to be with you. Thanks.

SCHULTZ: Appreciate your time.

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