which is the largest newspaper on Long Island.
The complete transcript (which apparently had a few parts on the tape that were too muddled to transcribe) was posted last night.
There are many interesting aspects on the tape, and you will note this is labeled as Part 1. Part 2, which will go up sometime tomorrow, will go through in detail what Clinton was asked and how she responded to education and related issues. There will be places where I will not agree with her on that. However, I was asked by a major figure in education to write about this transcript, particularly that part, as I did about the Daily News Transcript.
What I want to offer, without too much commentary from me, is part of what she said about working across the aisle. She had mentioned working with Tom Delay on one issue. She was asked about working with Mitch McConnell.
Please keep reading, because I am going to post that entire section, and then offer just a few words of my own.
These words come from the last major policy portion of the interview. There is some brief personal stuff after this.
Clinton: I'll tell you what I did with Mitch McConnell. Look, I was in Washington longer than President Obama was. And I know that relationships are everything. And you can build them even with people who you have serious disagreements with on 90 percent of the agenda. But you can't ever stop trying. You have to keep trying. I worked with McConnell when I was in the Senate, but my main work with him was when I was Secretary of State and here's what I did: I thought there was an opportunity for an opening to Burma. Now known as Myanmar. I knew that it would be controversial and that Senator McConnell was one of the biggest supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi, and keeping very tough sanctions on the military junta that ran the country. I went to see him and I said, Look, Mitch, I think there's an opportunity for an opening. I want you to be part of supporting me in trying this. I will tell you everything that we're doing. You will know whether we're making progress or not. But I need you to help me test this. He said, Well I don't think it will work. I said I don't know if it will work.
But let's give it a try. He took me over and on his wall, he has a hand-written note from Aung San Suu Kyi, and he said I will do what she tells me to do because I have supported her. I admire her. She's been a stalwart for the freedom and democracy of her country. I said I feel exactly the same way. So let's figure out if we can work together on this. Look where we are now. She's just essentially taken over as running the country. It would not have happened if we had not made that opening. I went there twice. I took President Obama there once. I kept Senator McConnell informed the whole way. Because I had a relationship with him, I was able to say Look, I will tell you how it works. If it doesn't work, I will be the first to tell you, but you've got to let me try this. And he did. And we did.
I am aware that there is a strong antipathy here towards Sen. McConnell. It started well before his obnoxious behavior on the Supreme Court vacancy. It goes back to his open statement that his goal was to make Obama a one-term President, something at which of course he failed. And of major national political figures he has the lowest approval of anyone right now, something around 16%, even lower than Donald Trump — those are numbers in the Dick Cheney range.
Politics requires compromise. Sometimes there may be only one issue on which you can agree with someone who otherwise is your avowed opponent if not outright enemy. Yet the goals we seek may require us to find ways to work together.
Please note the situation she describes. To those of us who are committed to non-violent revolutionary change, Aung San Suu Kyi is of the stature of a Gandhi or a Martin Luther King Jr. Her commitment to her nation and its people cost her greatly: she would have been allowed to leave the country to attend the funeral of her husband in Britain, but then she would have been permanently barred from returning. Even when the military finally relented and allowed for free elections that they knew her party would win, they barred her from running.
The opening to Burma/Myanmar was important. That Secretary Clinton was able to find a way to cooperate with Sen. McConnell, without whom completing that opening would not have been possible, demonstrates a critical kind of leadership. I would suggest that Sec. Clinton’s well-known skill of listening to and really HEARING what others say played a major role in this.
Before I delve into her discussion of education, I thought this was worth sharing.
Peace.