This morning, Steve Inskeep of NPR's Morning Edition
interviewed Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY), the chairman of the RCCC. In the interview, Reynolds acknowledges that with regard to Iraq, "Congress passed oversight responsibilities, and to my knowledge is doing that." The interview ended with Reynolds getting furious and hanging up on Inskeep to go to an important meeting.
One can only assume that the meeting had to do with determining who would make the best minority leader for the Repubs.
Quotes from the interview and more commentary on the flip...
Inskeep begins by playing a clip from an interview last year in which Reynolds says that he doesn't believe that voters are angry at incumbents. Inskeep asked Reynolds if he still believes that is true. Reynolds pointed out that majorities of people support their personal representative.
Inskeep then points out that most Americans disapprove of Congress and that only 29% approve of Bush's handling of Iraq. Reynolds replies "that's all great, but I go back to--you asked me if there's an anti-incumbent mood." He goes back to cite the same poll and then runs of a list of local issues which are what he says voters "really" care about, so Inskeep asks him if voters care about Iraq.
Reynolds: "There's only one race that I'm aware of that has Iraq as the center theme, and that is Chris Shey's seat in Connecticut, and that's because he wants it to be the centerpiece of his campaign."
Inskeep then asks if, regardless of the outcome of the election, there needs to be a change in the way the war in Iraq is being fought.
Reynolds responds "The commander-in-chief is the president, and I believe that the generals who run the war will look to see what type of course corrections the president, his ambassador, and the generals he summoned a few weeks ago will continue to look at-uh-where the president put that, but as I said, the number one issue in my district is jobs. The number two issue is taxes. The number three issue is social security."
Inskeep isn't buying the pass the buck answer, so he asks Reynolds if Congress has any responsibility for pushing the president to change his Iraq policy.
Reynolds: "Congress always has a responsibility for oversight."
Inskeep clearly expected a bit more then an extremely vague generality and says, "I'm asking you a much more specific question, though. Do you have response--"
Reynolds: "I gave you a specific answer. The commander-in-chief is the person that runs the military and is the point on Iraq or any other war. Congress passed oversight responsibilities and to my knowledge is doing that."
Inskeep, perhaps sensing the significance of that statement, tried to "put that in his own words." He asked, "Are you saying that you trust the president to do what he will in Iraq? You'll look afterward, but you're not pushing him to change direction."
Reynolds loses it at this point: "Now Steve, you can draw whatever conclusion. I stand by what I said. I said it twice and I want the listeners to hear clearly what I just said twice. Uh, you're drawing whatever conclusion you want out of it. I've set the discussion on Iraq. You've asked it in politics. I said there was one race in the country. Many national media people, like you, see one issue they can cover out of Washington, and it just isn't happening that way this year. Each race has its own issues and it's a choice between two candidates."
Inskeep isn't buying it. "Congressman, with all due respect, I was asking about your substantive position on an issue the president of the United States considers one of the most important issues of our time."
Reynolds: "Steve, I gave you an answer. Is there any more you have because I'm about to walk into another meeting."
Inskeep: "That'll do." <Audible Click>
Now there are three points I draw out of this four minute conversation (there's a twenty minute version on the NPR website at the link above if people are interested.)
1) The person in charge of getting Republicans elected to Congress acknowledges that there will be no oversight of Iraq by Congress as long as Republicans are in charge.
Mr. Reynolds explicitly states that "Congress has passed its oversight responsiblities." That is an astounding statement. He admits openly that Congress no longer has any say in how Iraq goes and that the Congress is completely at the mercy of whatever the president chooses to do. He admits openly that Congress is impotent on "the most important issue of our time." Undecided and independent voters need to hear this quote and others like it acknowledging that a vote for a Republican is a vote for a continuing blank check for Bush. That is utterly incredible to me.
2) Republicans are utterly out of touch with reality.
Reynolds would have us believe that no one cares about Iraq except "those people in Washington" (let's set aside for the minute that fact that he IS one of "those people in Washington.") Poll after poll this year has shown that the issue Americans care about more than any other is the war in Iraq. Reynolds, perhaps in a fit of psychological projection, believes that all Americans care about is money--jobs, taxes, and social security.
Though as long as we're talking about those issues, who wants to give you a job paying a reasonable wage? The Democrats who look to raise the minimum wage and whose last president led the largest peacetimes economic expansion in history or the Republicans who have led at a time of declining wages and economic stagnation despite the presence of an ongoing war?
And who do you want to decide your taxes, the Democrats who want to cut taxes on the middle class and working class people or the Republicans who want to cut taxes on the millionaires?
And who do you want to decide what happens to social security, the Democrats who want to ensure a stable income for all retirees or the Republicans who want to place it all on Red 34 on the NYSE roulette wheel?
3) Republicans can't stand to answer questions that they haven't been prepped for.
It was clear from the tone through the interview that Reynolds was getting increasingly flustered. He clearly had been prepped to talk about economic issues and was expecting a typical interview where members of the media roll over and allow him to pontificate about whatever he'd like. Instead, when Inskeep pressed him and asked intelligent follow-up questions, he freaked out, got angry, and essentially hung up on the interviewer. Republicans realize that their success is based on a house of cards and as soon as someone in the media pulls out one, the whole thing comes crashing down.
The interview was a microcosm of why we can't vote for Republicans and must vote for Democrats. My only hope is that those people on the fence hear interviews like this one before Election Day passes and it is too late.