Transcripts For CSPAN Executive-Legislative Branch Relations

Transcripts For CSPAN Executive-Legislative Branch Relations Panel At William Mary 20240714

Ms. Compton thank you very much. We have an incredibly talented group of peo ective that you have not considered before on our topic today. Let me introduce them one by one. First, madam president of the National Conference of state legislatures representing illinois 47th district, senator tori hutchinson. [applause] former United States senator and former governor of the criminals of virginia, george allen. [applause] former governor of South Carolina, jim hodges. [applause] leader of they u. S. House of representatives, eric cantor. [applause] and finally, a former Senior Adviser and deputy chief of staff in the white house for george w. Bush, the amazing karl rove. [applause] ms. Compton doesnt always seem that the moment we are living in is the most chaotic, the most dysfunctional that we have ever seen in american politics . Though looking back in history, it is really not. What you all to explore what it is at the federal level and at the state level that has made this government so dysfunctional and so problematic, and how, looking forward, are there ways that all of you can help get past that . When i graduated from college in virginia, i went right into my first job. I covered the Virginia State legislature for Wdbj Television in roanoke. Talk about dysfunctional. The first republican governor had just been elected since reconstruction with a democratic attorney general who wanted to be the democratic governor. Richmond was a war zone, just to walk between the Attorney Generals Office and the governors mansion. End of the phone rang while i sat in the basement of the State Capitol in the press room, and it was abc news asking if i would come up and be interviewed to be in network correspondent. 1974, after just four years in virginia, i go up, and abc news sends me into the white house north lawn just weeks after president Richard Nixon had left on the south lawn, the only president in history to resign in disgrace. Talk about constitutional crises. When the American Fabric of our society has been torn apart with protests against the vietnam war, watergate, civil rights. So that we ask each of you not to come up with some ideas or some thoughts, and i will actually go out of order and start with governor alan sorry, governor hodges of South Carolina, because you come not a state that is now red, but also the democrat primary can be decisive for democrats. Talk about not only your experience as governor but also your experience on the National Stage as one of the cochairs of president obamas campaign. Mr. Hodges first of all, thank you for choosing beauty ahead of age rather than george. It is great to be here. I enjoyed last night as addition as well last nights presentation as well. As you pointed out, everybody believes the times they operated in were run better than what is currently happening. I imagine George Washington probably crossed Thomas Jefferson and talked about how bad things were with jefferson in charge, and it seems that different with people in political office. My observation growing up in a small mill town in South Carolina and seeing the changes that have occurred, i have an appreciation for why we have the trouble we have. You are in a country politically divided roughly 5050, when you look at elections. Generally every election, it is about 5050, which makes people have starkly different views on our country. When you think about it have been through in the past decade, you understand peoples lack of trust in our institutions. You have had the great recession, we have a situation where people over 60 were in jobs that they assumed were permanent and now they are not. We have moved from defined in a fit land to 401 k plans to sometimes no retirement at all. We have had people who havent had wage increases for periods of time, we have opioid problems, you go through the , theof things going on Rural Communities in our country suffered a great deal i think you begin to understand some of the issues out there and peoples lack of trust in institutions to salvage problems. Because they believe that whether it is Corporate America or banks, or elected officials like us, many of them believe they have been let down and they have a lack of confidence. Then you add to that i know this has been talked about here we used to have a watercooler conversation around the three networks, what they provided, or what the local newspaper provided in terms of news. Now we have this dispersed opportunity to get data that we want. We have the opportunity to shut out things you dont want to hear. And i think more more people are choosing avenues where their views are reinforced rather than being educated. I say that as a prelude to understand why things are harder now than they once were. When you stuck about on top of the system in washington that seems designed around keeping things from happening, rather than making things happening, it leads to frustration not only for policymakers like eric and others, but also for the american public. At the state level, i think there is good reason why things work better. One is that virtually every state has to pass a budget every year. You can jam a lot of things in the budget and you are doing things that affect teacher pay raises and the environment, criminal justice, things that are important, but you have to get it done. It makes states seem more functional. In many ways, they probably are because they have these impediments they have to get done to be able to keep things going. Ms. Compton your colleague, george allen, you are not only avernor, but you experienced republican government with a democratic legislature, but of course, you come up and you have the washington experience as well. You once compared the pace in the United States summit when you got there is moving at the sea slug. Wounded what . [laughter] allen it is true, i did say that. Generally, i look at our history in our society from where i grew up as a family. Where we ought to have a meritocracy regardless of race,nes background, ethnicity, whatever, has the opportunity to succeed on a level playing field. As governor, i made more decisions in one morning than you do in one week in the senate. In fact, my first made in speech in the senate was on behalf of a judicial candidate, Roger Gregory, who was in your Previous Panel on the judiciary, he is now chief judge of the Fourth Circuit court of appeals. Mike thomas and i met with him right after i got sworn in, and he had been nominated by president clinton right at the end of his term. Typical of the senate, it was held up and nothing happened, but he was on the bench. The republicans were in control of the senate. President bush was soon to be inaugurated. Mike and i, i think that is you over there, chief justice that is you, good, thank you judicial recognition. Anyway, i talked with the candidate to see what his judicial philosophy was. I was so proud to listen to him today and so glad to see everyone applauding to his commitment to the constitution and our Representative Democracy. Wented up thinking, when i in to see judge, i was skeptical that you were a clinton appointee but i got to see his qualifications and capabilities, and my first speech of the senate floor was above my colleagues to go all it takes and process and so forth, and look at judge gregory as an individual. I sawmber karl rove said, the speech you may down there, what do you think of it . I said, i may be wrong, but my point of view is that you all ought to interview him as well and i think he will be just as impressed as i was. I just took forever. So president bush renominated him along with about a dozen other judges, and it took forever to get the senate to vote for him, and the most opposition was from fellow republicans. I was getting more aggravated, i said, it doesnt matter, we have him. H votes for on one of them said, i am still upset, president clinton nominated him. I said, i do care, just vote, darn it. And we finally got the vote. Justice Roger Gregory is the first africanamerican to serve on the Fourth Circuit court of appeals. Cochrans desk for the final vote. His desk, as everyone knows it, as jefferson daviss desk. And there was a young person, bill thomass son who was a page, africanamerican. They always ask senators, do you want a drink of water, i said, sure. I said, by the way, i will give a speech and will finally get the vote to have the first africanamerican, on the Fourth Circuit court of appeals and i will give the speech on jefferson daviss desk. Young mr. Thomas said, thats really cool. [laughter] that is how the senate operates, slowly. They need to set priorities, they need to have the governor not only pass a budget, there needs to be a balanced budget. You set priorities. You cant say yes to everything. I think the states are going to be the way we repel the federal government to finally have a balanced budget. Secondly, they need to get back to basics. It is awful. Susan and i watch people when the Government Shutdown because the did not pass the budget, government workers, i am thinking, oh my goodness. In the real world, if you dont get your job done, you dont get paid. I think members of congress, their salaries ought to be withheld if they dont get Appropriations Bills done on time and get back to basics. [applause] we needthe state level, redistricting reform so we have more fair, compact districts, rather than these maps that look like somebody flung spaghetti at the state map. I think voters ought to be choosing their leaders rather than politicians picking their voters. [applause] ms. Compton will thank you, governor. Lets before over to the white house. And onou are the all new this panel who as far as i know has never run for office, but boy, demonstrating my superiority over my colleagues. [laughter] ms. Compton but when you look at the balance between the tension between the legislative and the executive from your at the white house all those years and our campaigns, what do you blame for the dysfunction . Mr. Rove festival, thank you for having me. Second of all, i will do great damage to governor hodgess reputation by agreeing with him. We are in a disruptive moment in american politics where the two parties are at each others throats, where washington doesnt seem to work, where we are going through a populist moment. The good news is, we have been here many tens before. The first time there was a physical altercation on the United States congress was in wentwhen two congressman at each other with hand irons. Out of the fireplace in the representative chamber. We have had populist moments before. My sense is governor yardley avidly went home after the first meeting in the house of burgess and probably said to his wife, honey, you cant imagine what a bunch of morons with have in the house of burgess. This hasnt happening continually. If you think it is bad today, there are times they are worse. The gilded age makes today look like everybody is sitting around the fireplace singing kumbaya. 1890, the opening 5. 5 months of the 1889 legislative session, the house of representatives does not pass a single drill because the democrats in the minority announced they would not answer the rollcall, and by doing that, they would deny the house warm to conduct business. This they would deny the house the quorum to conduct business. T took the Supreme Court so look, this is continual. We will have to work our way through this. Unfortunately, one of the things required to work our way through it is leadership at the white house that basically rises above the normal knickknack back and forth. In 2001into office under slightly difficult circumstances, there was this little thing called florida, you may remember it dimly. As a result, bush felt compelled to make certain that his colleagues on the democratic side of the aisle understood he was the president of everybody. So the first member of the u. S. House he met with was george miller, ranking democrat on education and labor, to talk about education reform. The first member of the senate he talked to was not the republican leader, senator lott, it was senator kennedy, because he wanted to send a signal. One thing i learned was that personal relationships between the president and the congress, even with members, and most importantly with members of the opposition have to be aimed at cordiality. The president cannot get drawn into this. He has to rise above it and be the adult in the room and take whatever is thrown his way hannity of massachusetts said on july 4, 2003, bush lied about wmd in iraq. He looked at the same intelligence, came to the same conclusion bush had, gave a speech and said, we need to use diplomacy and not force. He was the guy who picked it off. That did not keep bush from holding his tongue, trying to set the record straight and working closely with kennedy from 2000 52007 on immigration reform. The president has to be the person, and it is not an easy job. I remember one time i got a call from harry reid who said, i gave a speech, i didnt read it before hand, i just wrote it, and i called bush a liar and a loser, and i didnt mean to call him a loser. [laughter] will you to whom i am sorry . Asaid, senator, i have schedule that year, he is in the oval and he doesnt have anything on the schedule. What did you apologize yourself . Click. [laughter] whether a president like it or not, personal relationships matter. I cant tell you how many people, to me, i see representative goodlatte here, and some of his colleagues said, if you had told me i would have spent more time at the white house under a republican president that a democratic president , i would have laughed at you, but i did. That was because bush understood simply being able to look at somebody as a human being, not as some cut out that you bought on amazon of your political opponents so you could take it around to the town Hall Meetings and berate them to your face. That is important. Ms. Compton it is not often i get to say madam president. Let them president , tori hutchinson, also senator hutchinson of eleanor, you are here representing state legislatures. There is a sense among many people that maybe states work a lot better in terms of bipartisanship than the federal government. What have you seen, how do you in the state legislature and also in the National Conference of state legislatures, what is the secret sauce. Ms. Hutchinson if i had a icret sauce i could sell, wouldnt be doing this. The National Conference of state has 7300res legislatures across the country. The interesting thing is you can have a conversation with someone for 10 minutes and then go, or you d or r . Goopposed to if you across the country, if you cross the middle of the street, you might be libertarian, we look at almost everything for partisan lens right now. States, one in the of the think the governor mentioned, we have rules and procedures put in place that you cant go around. A budget has to be done at a certain time. There are constitutional things that say you have to do x by this time, and that requires conversation, participation in a way that we dont see when it is constant like a rolling calendar that never ends. In those moments, you get to think what does you get to what we are alluding to, relationships you get to what we are alluding to, relationships. In our body politic, i know who just got a baby, who just got new grandchildren who just got diagnosed with cancer. It is difficult for me to call you a liar when i disagree with you, because i know you. So we are missing personal relationships with people. People talk about the old days reagan, about how ronald and tip oneill would fight it out on the floor and then have a drink afterwards. Our Senate President makes it a point to have a dinner with all the democrats and all the republicans during a session. Every night, we have a dinner. First thing we kick off is a joint dinner between republicans and democrats, the first thing we do after we settled offices. When we add the fact that we are not talking to each other and we are living in a place where everyone is screaming at each other as opposed to talking to each other, and that is exacerbated by this socialmedia ecochamber, it bleeds into our elections to where we never stop campaigning. And if you never stop campaigning, it is almost impossible to govern. What were seeing is an endless loop, almost selffulfilling, although we around. States do operate different than the federal government, one home,e we are closer to two, because we have procedures in place that make us have to reach certain deadlines. The other thing is that 90 , most state legislators across the country will tell you, 90 of the bills on the floor fly out unanimously, no big issues, very quietly. There is not a big partisan wrangling. You kind of understand that if you have a problem in a district, if it is a water problem in a district, it is not republican water or democrat water, it is just water. If you meet somebody at the Grocery Store and they stop you d, you know what, i heard when you know youre going to have those conversations, you try to elevate. It doesnt mean that the 10 of things we do that are partisan are significantly partisan. And they are so because so many haver National Issues nationalized state politics at the local level. There is a danger to that because all of a sudden, things we never used to fight about we fight about. Such as, infrastructure. It is hard to be exceptional without infrastructure. Those other things that did not used to be partisan. So this endless loop we are in right now, i think there are state legislatures across the country determined to know their colleagues, have to compromise and work with your colleagues. Also, understand that you can be polari

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