CNN Inside Politics - Transcript

CNN Inside Politics - Transcript
Wednesday, May 25, 2005

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WOODRUFF: About an hour-and-a-half ago, I discussed a range of issues with the House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. I began by asking her about this week's Senate compromise on judicial nominees. She and other leaders described the deal as a victory. But party chairman Howard Dean told me here, yesterday, he's not sure if it is a victory in the long run because he doesn't know what the president is going to do about Supreme Court vacancies.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), MINORITY LEADER: Judy, I'm happy to respond to your question, but before I do, I want to thank you for the opportunity for being on the show today. Gives me an opportunity to say to you how much we all appreciate that you are a consummate journalist that is a moderator. You have raised the level of dignity of these political issues that you lead the discussion on, and as a woman, I want to say thank you for being a pioneer and a trail blazer in a very difficult field. I can identify with that, and I really do wish you well in your future endeavors.

WOODRUFF: I appreciate that, very much.

PELOSI: So, as for the-but I think that that's what a compromise is. People see it in different ways, and I think the chairman is right. There's always-the majority always reserves the right for the nuclear option. But I think that the fact that minority rights were preserved in this compromise that was arrived at the other day was a success.

WOODRUFF: But some would say Democrats have had to swallow their principles. Democrats were saying these judges weren't fit to serve. Now, most of them are going to be confirmed.

PELOSI: Well, I think the debate on the credentials and the substance of the debate on those judgeships will continue, and I think that the compromise spoke to, when they-for those who go beyond the pale, that there will be the right to filibuster, to be reserved.

WOODRUFF: The congressional black caucus is calling it more of a capitulation than a compromise?

PELOSI: Well, a compromise has those features. They-I think the congressional black caucus is justified in its concern about the confirmation of some of these justices-to-be that the president has sent down. They have, some of them, been on record in turning back voting rights, provisions of the act, and there's reason to be concerned.

But again, this is a compromise, and it is one that will enable the Democrats to weigh in, in a very serious way, on those that are just out of the question. So, there won't be so many justices who do not share the value and the principle of equality throughout our society and how that comes down in terms of voting rights and civil rights.

WOODRUFF: Let me ask you about something else, and that is the public perception of Congress, right now. A new poll, CBS poll, has the public giving Congress a 29 percent favorability rating, and they seem to be blaming both parties, saying there is too much negativity, too much criticism. Do you accept some responsibility for that?

PELOSI: No, I don't at all. I think the negative rating of Congress accrues to the majority in the Congress. I do think, though, that Democrats will be out there in a stronger way, challenging the majority and the president to sit down at the table in a bipartisan way to address crises in our country. One of them is the health care crisis. Another is to do what-invest what we must in making our workforce, our child-educating our children so we have a workforce for the future, addressing the issue of the deficits, addressing the issue of energy in our country.

These are issues that are of concern in the lives of the American people. We have to be relevant to their lives. But, yes, they paint Congress with the same brush. I accept that. But the responsibility for setting the agenda is with the majority, and we challenge them to bring us all to the table to address the issues of concern immediately to the American people and their families.

WOODRUFF: I also want to raise with you an article in the new "Atlantic Monthly." A senior editor named Joshua Green writes about you and Senator Reid, the leaders for your party. He gives you credit for maintaining unity among Democrats, but then he goes on to say-he said, if Democrats are going to win back the majority in the Congress, he said, they've got to have the strategic ability to maintain a true opposition movement, and he said they've got to have-be able to galvanize the public. And he goes on to say he doesn't think either one of you have shown any evidence of being able to do that. What do you say to that?

PELOSI: Well, I certainly beg to differ. As one who has been reading the "Atlantic Monthly" since I was in ninth grade-I was thinking of that-I always wanted to have a piece in there. Maybe it will be my letter to the editor.

But, to the point, the-building unity among the House Democrats and the Senate Democrats is a challenging task. We've achieved that. I think that the Democrats and the Congress in both houses have been largely responsible for taking down the idea of privatization. When this debate started, people though President Bush was a man with fresh ideas called privatization. Now, they think he's a man who wants to cut their benefits. I think that the idea-the issue of the deficit and its relationship to Social Security is one that we have been successful in galvanizing the public on.

And also on the issue of abuse of power. Why do you think the Republicans folded into a compromise except that the American people saw what they were doing as an abuse of power. Can we do more? Absolutely. I hope the press will give us the opportunity to get our message across, but if they don't, we're on the internet. We're on the road. We're in the-on college campuses. We're all over to deliver our message to challenge the Republicans, to come together in a bipartisan way for jobs, health care, education and, of course, the safety of our country and do it all in a fiscally sound way and an ethical manner.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WOODRUFF: Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader.

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