I can't believe the Obama administration almost hired this guy. John King allows Judd Gregg to blame Republican obstruction on the 24/7 news cycle and when asked if he's worried about Republicans being seen as the party of no he replies blames it on this centrist administration he almost worked for moving too far to the left.
GREGG: Well we do and we need to when we're confronting things that are very bad for our country either fiscally or from a standpoint of policy. I do not want to see this country move down the road of Europeanization of our nation and basically you've got a government now that's moving to the left. I think the fundamental area that this administration --
KING: That far left? You came pretty close to joining this --
GREGG: Yes, I did and that was my mistake. But the -- all American politics is historically played between the 40 yard lines. But this administration came in with what was essentially super majorities in the House and Senate and they decided to govern like a parliamentary system and they went down to the 20 yard line or the 15 yard line on the left and they basically moved very aggressively out on an agenda --
This kind of thing is just so irresponsible but we see it out of these guys day after day after day. I would love to see an honest debate about just what the "Europeanization" of our country would actually mean and see how many people would not like it if the issue was debated honestly. Shorter work weeks, more vacation time, universal health care, education paid for through college in many countries, more unionization... the horror. How could the people ever survive something like that happening in America?
Of course we're not going to get any push back from the likes of John King. I'd like to see this clown have to debate Thom Hartmann. He wouldn't let Gregg throw "Europeanization" out there like it's a dirty word without challenging him on specifically what he thinks is so bad about it.
But then, that's why Gregg is a guest on CNN and not the Thom Hartmann Show. Hartmann would chew him up and spit him out in a debate. Hell, he could barely hold his own debating a 94 year old woman. No, instead we get softballs from John King who just allows him to spew his talking points.
Full transcript below the fold.
KING: We're back with Republican Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire. You are unique -- not totally unique but special in the idea that you're not running for re-election, so this is your last year, which I assume gives you the freedom, is this correct, to just maybe be a little bit more honest, a little bit more --
GREGG: You'd like to think you were anyway.
KING: Yes.
GREGG: But there's no question there's a certain relief from the day- to-day necessity of nuancing things. You just basically -- I was not much of a nuancer anyway --
KING: Third term in the Senate -- came here in 1992. Lived through the polarization of the Clinton days, the polarization of the Bush days, candidate Obama said Washington was going to be a very different place. I'm not assigning any blame. I think it probably shared on both parties but it's not -- Washington is not a very different place. Why?
GREGG: I think there are a lot of factors. But if I were to pick the number one factor, I believe it's the polarization that's the result of -- I hate to say this -- the 24/7 news cycle where hyperbole is the watch word of the day. And as a result, instead of having substantive thoughtful discussions everybody is trying to get the one-liner that gets them on the news or that makes them -- or that creates an event that's coverable.
And because the news cycle is such that everybody who is doing the news has to basically create attention, you don't get the in-depth sort of substantive thought process or analytical process that you used to have. Now, that may be just a perception we have because we live today. If you go back and you read what happened during Lincoln's day, I mean the vitriol was much worse than ours. I just completed a book on Andrew Jackson and the vitriol was incredible.
I mean the Senate even censured him -- never happened before, never happened since, so maybe it's just that in this moment in time we think it's worse than any other time but maybe it really isn't. Maybe it's just --
KING: What is possible -- what is possible in the rest of this year, midterm election year where everybody has pretty much already gone into their camps, everyone is thinking about raising money. We're going to have a Supreme Court nomination, for example. Do you expect partisan Armageddon there or do you think the president is going to bring Republicans down to the White House, try to have a little meeting of the minds, maybe some sharing information beforehand? Might that be an exception to the current climate?
GREGG: I would hope so. I mean there is certainly a lot of good people out there that he could nominate that wouldn't necessarily be of my philosophy but I'd vote for. I voted for Judge Sotomayor, for example, but as a very practical matter it's going to depend on who he decides to nominate and how he decides to vet that person with members of the Senate before he moves the name forward so that there's a feeling of inclusion as versus exclusion, which is very important.
KING: There's a debate in your party some people say especially in this midterm election year. It's not a national election. You're not pushing a presidential candidate or a big national agenda that say it is safe to be the party of no because people are skeptical of the Obama administration. People are in a bad mood because of the economy. People maybe don't like some parts of the health care bill which is part of the midterm election debate.
Some people say just be the party of no. Your former speaker on the House side Newt Gingrich yet again today said this at a speech here in Washington. "You can't govern by saying no. Imagine we won a huge victory. Imagine that John Boehner is the new speaker -- he's the House Republican leader right now. Imagine that Mitch McConnell, your leader at the moment, is the new majority leader. What's their agenda? It can't just be yelling no." Does your party yell no too much right now?
GREGG: Well we do and we need to when we're confronting things that are very bad for our country either fiscally or from a standpoint of policy. I do not want to see this country move down the road of Europeanization of our nation and basically you've got a government now that's moving to the left. I think the fundamental area that this administration --
KING: That far left? You came pretty close to joining this --
GREGG: Yes, I did and that was my mistake. But the -- all American politics is historically played between the 40 yard lines. But this administration came in with what was essentially super majorities in the House and Senate and they decided to govern like a parliamentary system and they went down to the 20 yard line or the 15 yard line on the left and they basically moved very aggressively out on an agenda --
KING: Did they earn that with their super majority? They won big in 2006 and 2008 --
(CROSSTALK)
KING: They could make the argument we won the election.
GREGG: They had the right to try it but we also have the right and the responsibility to try to resist it. And I don't think the American people are there. America is a center right government, center right people. They want government but they don't want it to be excessive. They want it to be affordable. And most importantly what Americans want is to pass on to their next generation their children a country that's better, stronger and more vibrant and more prosperous. What we're looking at now because of the debt that's being run up in this country is that we're going to be the first generation to pass on to our kids a country that's less prosperous where their standard of living goes down.
That's not fair and it's not right and it's really a function of excessive government, a government just simply growing too much and spending too much. And when you pass something like the health care bill, which is the single largest expansion of the government really in my experience and probably in the last 50 years and you couple that with a nationalization of the student loan program, you couple that with the taking over the automobile industries, you couple that with very significant aggressive procedure, proposals in the area of just general spending on the discretionary non-defense side, you're seeing a government that's just growing beyond our capacity to pay for it and our children are going to end up with a debt which is going to saddle them and make their lifestyles much less viable than ours as far as quality of life.
KING: There is a different perspective of course at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and your Democratic colleagues in the Senate, but we will bring them in to give their perspective on this (INAUDIBLE). We thank you for --
GREGG: Thank you, John. I appreciate the time. I love the set.
KING: I appreciate it. Thank you.
