CNN Judy Woodruff's Inside Politics - Transcript

CNN

SHOW: JUDY WOODRUFF'S INSIDE POLITICS 16:00

October 7, 2004 Thursday

HEADLINE: Foreshadowing the Second Presidential Debate; Keeping an Eye on the Spin; DeLay Reprimanded by Ethics Committee; The Importance of Women Voters; Missouri Voters

GUESTS: Donna Brazile, Bay Buchanan, Jo Mannies, Nancy Pelosi, Roy Blunt, Chris Dodd, Orrin Hatch

BYLINE: Judy Woodruff, Ed Henry, Jeanne Meserve, Candy Crowley, John King, Bruce Morton, Dan Lothian, Suzanne Malveaux, Paula Zahn, William Schneider

BODY:

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WOODRUFF: Back here at Washington University in St. Louis, as we mentioned, House Republicans and Democrats are now engaged in a dispute over whether majority leader Tom DeLay should step down from his position. The furor is over three Ethics Committee rebukes of DeLay in a week.

We're going to hear from House Majority Whip Roy Blunt in just a moment. But joining me now is one of DeLay's harshest critics, the minority leader of the House, Nancy Pelosi.

Congresswoman Pelosi, Tom DeLay says that he is very pleased by the decision of the Ethics Committee because he said it has dismissed what he calls these frivolous charges.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), MINORITY LEADER: Well, how sad for the Congress and how sad for the country. The fact is that Majority Leader DeLay has been rebuked three times in a week, and this would be the fourth rebuke for Mr. DeLay and his unethical conduct. He's not contrite, as you can see. In fact, I think he holds the whole ethical process in contempt.

WOODRUFF: Well, he says that he has been exonerated on every charge, that this was the mildest statement that the committee could have made about him.

PELOSI: He's so in denial. This Ethics Committee is bipartisan, as you know. And they came to a conclusion not to dismiss but to rebuke him on three counts, deferring one until the state-Texas courts resolve the issue, where three of his associates, two employees of his campaign and one consultant to his campaign, are under indictment for laundering money and undermining the redistricting process in Texas, giving a criminal basis to the redistricting in Texas and that representation in the Congress of the United States.

That's what's so sad about it, is this corruption has an impact on representation in Congress and on public policy in our country.

WOODRUFF: Well, here's something else Congressman DeLay just said, Congresswoman Pelosi. He said the Republicans are focused on preventing another 9/11, they're focused on keeping America safe, while, he says, the Democrats are focused on something like this.

PELOSI: Well, the fact is, is the Republicans have fallen fall short in protecting the American people when it comes to homeland security, real-time communication among our first responders, buying up the plutonium, uranium in the world to keep it out of the hands of terrorists, whether it's about protecting our ports and waterways, screening our cargo coming into the ports and on to planes. So, that's a false claim.

He is in denial. The fact is that we have a responsibility to the public to uphold a high ethical standard.

On four charges, a bipartisan membership of the Ethics Committee rebuked Mr. DeLay and warned him that they could consider an accumulation of violations if this behavior continued. They found his behavior wrong. They warned him not to continue it.

And in a bipartisan way they issued their rebukes. Not once, not twice, not three times, not-but four times. And in one of those that related to the prescription drug bill, the consequences to America's seniors were very, very serious.

Instead of a guaranteed, affordable prescription drug bill under Medicare, we have a boondoggle for the HMOs and the pharmaceutical companies, care of Mr. Tom DeLay. So, his unethical conduct affects policy as well.

WOODRUFF: The other thing we're hearing from Congress-Congresswoman Pelosi, the other thing we are hearing from Tom DeLay is that-from his allies-is that you are now somebody in the House leadership who is just constantly calling for Republicans to step down. They point out you called at one point for Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld to step down.

PELOSI: I did, indeed.

WOODRUFF: Ray LaHood of Illinois said this is just the latest call for a step-down from Nancy Pelosi.

PELOSI: Well, I think their behavior has been-doesn't measure up. I think the secretary of defense should have stepped down. I think he's responsible for many deaths and injuries in Iraq, and somebody should be accountable for that policy. If it isn't Rumsfeld, then it's the president of the United States.

But this is all a diversionary tactic on their part. The fact is, is that Mr. DeLay's behavior is not up to an ethical standard that the American people expect and deserve. He should answer for that.

It's up to the members of his caucus, of the Republicans in the House, as to whether his unfitness ethically for leadership is something that's acceptable to them. If they find that acceptable, four rebukes, three in one week, then I think they should answer to the American people for their standard of ethical conduct.

WOODRUFF: All right. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, who is the House Democratic leader, we thank you very much.

PELOSI: Thank you.

WOODRUFF: Well, as you can hear from my questions to Congresswoman Pelosi, the Republicans are fiercely defending their man. Coming up, House Majority Whip Roy Blunt joins me with his take on Tom DeLay's fight with the Ethics Committee.

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