TONIGHT

• Home
• Video
• Podcasts/RSS 
• Local Showtimes
• Past Shows
• Blogs
• About the Show
• Tell Tavis
• Features
• Mobile

RELATED LINKS

• Gov. Warner's official site
• Q & A with Gov. Warner
• Article on Gov. Warner

E-mail a friend

Tavis: Mark Warner is the Democratic Governor of Virginia, and up until this past summer, served as chairman of the National Governors Association. In Virginia, he is prevented by law from running for a second consecutive term, which has caused a good deal of speculation about his future plans, plans that could include a run for the White House in 2008. The Governor joins us tonight from Washington. Governor Warner, nice to have you on the program, sir.

Mark Warner: Tavis, thanks for having me on tonight.

Tavis: Glad to have you. Let me start by asking you to explain these rules in Virginia. How can a governor not run for a second term?

Warner: It is crazy. It is the last state in the whole country that has a one-term gubernatorial restriction. Course, they don't put the same restriction on the legislature. They can run forever. They've got no term limits, but the governor's got a term limit. Makes no sense at all.

Tavis: What was the rationale for doing that?

Warner: Well, you know, I think a lot of southern states, 50, 100 years ago, had this rule. Everything in Virginia takes a little bit longer to change. And, you know, if the legislature has to approve the change, why would they want to give up the power to let the governor have a second shot?

Tavis: We'll talk more about your future plans in a moment here. Let me get right to Hurricane Katrina. The big news, of course, this week, yesterday, certainly, Michael Brown resigns as the head of FEMA. What did you make of that? Was it just about right on time, or too little too late?

Warner: Well, I've gotta tell you, Tavis, I think, like most Americans, have watched what happened - watched that whole tragedy unfold. Matter of fact, I remember two days after the hurricane, I got so frustrated with seeing those people down, particularly at the Civic Center, at the Superdome, not get buses, that I sent my chief of staff down to Louisiana, and he's been working out of the governor's office for the last two weeks, trying to help other states get relief in there.

And I can tell you as somebody who had a hurricane during my tenure, FEMA is always a little bit bureaucratic, and slow to respond. And at some point, my hope is that this investigation, now that Mr. Brown's gone, that's maybe one step, but we need to - not leave it there. We need to find out what went wrong in this tragedy.

Tavis: When you say a little bit bureaucratic and a little slow to respond, this was far worse than that, though, was it not?

Warner: Amen. Listen, my guys down there have told me - give you an example. They asked for a hundred cots from FEMA. They end up with a hundred cots. They don't get pillows; they don't get blankets. They don't get anything else in terms of sleeping. This is an organization that is only geared to respond, not geared to be proactive. And in the case, I know Governor Blanco, she asked for additional federal help to come in before the storm hit, and, you know, this is America.

This should not be happening here. We're looking at something that looks like it came out of a third world country, not the United States. And my hope and prayer is that while we need to still make sure we take care of the evacuees, we've got 3,000 alone in Virginia at this point, and we're ready to take many more, but my hope is we're gonna make sure this never, ever again happens in this country.

Tavis: Let me go back to the question I raised in the open here, and that is how much any governor, and in this case, Kathleen Blanco in Louisiana, should be blamed for what has gone wrong here. Clearly, she is not to blame for the storm, per se, and I suspect in the coming days we'll learn more about this. But there have been a lot of stories written about what kind of control she wanted, that she wouldn't yield to the White House, other stories that she asked for support that didn't come. What's your sense of how much this governor or any governor is, in fact, responsible for what happens after a natural disaster?

Warner: Well, one of the things that, whether it's Governor Blanco, Governor Barbour of Mississippi, you know, FEMA says we're gonna be there to help. But what we found, and I can tell you again, we only had to deal with a class one hurricane two years ago. You assume FEMA's gonna come in and take things over and pick up the pieces, but they don't. Too often the case is they will send somebody in and then they set up a whole series of bureaucratic hoops and forms you've gotta get through.

And they assume the state is gonna bear most of the responsibility. There needs to be a much clearer definition about what's FEMA's responsibility, what's the state's responsibility. I do know we should have had, somebody should have had buses down into that city quicker than what took place. And I think at times what you've got now is some finger pointing back and forth. My hope would be we'd make sure that all of these people who are evacuated can get the kind of housing they need, the support they need. And my hope would be we'd focus on the blame a little bit later. Right now let's just take care of these people in need.

Tavis: I'm glad you raised that, though. Let me ask you this question on the heels of that comment, whether or not you think, though, there is a time to literally point fingers at people. I raise that because, for me, this is just my own commentary, which probably doesn't belong here, but what the heck. I'm tired of hearing people say that, you know, we don't need to pass blame, we don't need to finger point. Here's what I'm trying to figure out.

How do you ever stop something like this from happening again, if at some point you don't literally start pointing fingers, holding people accountable, making somebody responsible? What is all this political talk that we get all the time after something goes wrong, that we shouldn't be pointing fingers, let's just do X, Y, and Z?

Warner: Well, Tavis, I think what we've got to do is while we've still got folk that need housing, while we've got folk that need to get back to their home, need a job at some point, let's take care of those folks first. Let's - yes. Do I agree with you we need to find who was in fault and make sure it never happens again? Amen to that. And if there's not going to be an appropriate congressional commission, there needs to be an independent commission.

I wanna make sure that none of this gets covered over, because what happened two weeks ago in Louisiana and Mississippi, could happen next year in Virginia. It could happen in an earthquake in California, and too much is at stake not to find out who is to blame and hold them accountable.

Tavis: You said...

Warner: But first things first, first things first, though. Let's make sure - I keep thinking about these folks who are living at the Astrodome. You know, how long are people gonna be willing to stay in that Astrodome? We've gotten accommodations that can house families. We've got either privately or in church camps, other situations. We need to make sure that those people are accommodated over the next few months in certain cases.

Tavis: All right, fair enough. First things first. But at some point there has to be an investigation to your earlier suggestion...

Warner: Yes, sir.

Tavis: ...of what happened here. When that investigation kicks up, tell me whether or not you believe that a congressional inquiry, which in this administration, given the way Congress is set up now, given who the majority is - a congressional inquiry, I suspect, would be run by Republicans. Tell me whether or not you think that the politics associated with this tragedy would allow Congress to investigate what happened here. Or whether or not you believe, as some do, that there has to be an independent 9/11-style investigative hearing.

Warner: I tell you, personally, I'd feel more comfortable if it was an independent commission. You know, we see too many things happen on Capitol Hill right now, that it's all about partisanship; it's all about gotcha stuff. I think we need to make sure that the people, 'cause ultimately, the people who are gonna decide whether this was the straight story, are gonna be the people of America.

And having an independent commission, I don't think it ought to just be Congress people. I think, honestly, there ought to be some governors involved, because governors, time and again, are where the buck - stops. So whether it's state officials involved, whether it's local, whether it's just regular folk involved, there needs to be an independent commission and not something that's hand picked by a certain congressional leadership.

Tavis: You are the governor of Virginia. As I mentioned earlier, you were formerly the head of the National Governors Association. President Bush was, obviously, once a governor in the state of Texas. As a governor now, and the guy who ran the Governors Association, since we're talking about the blame and responsibility that governors bear, assess for me how President Bush has done here in this particular tragedy, given that the guy used to be a governor of a state.

Warner: Well, I believe there should have been a much faster response, federal response. There should have been troops on the ground; there should have been buses; there should have been the kind of assistance, actually pre-deployed. It wasn't like we didn't know this hurricane was coming. I remember watching on the television as people were leaving, that there was plenty of warning ahead of time. So I think there should have been and could have been a much faster federal response.

Tavis: So, governor, tell me more about these 3,000 evacuees that you have in your state of Virginia right now.

Warner: Well, we took in folks as they came up in families, as they drove through. We've got 3,000 people registered with FEMA. We've also set up a National Guard base, and a number of our churches have really stepped up in a major way. We've got a Methodist church, a Baptist church camp, where we can accommodate people for months on end. What I want to make sure is if people come to Virginia that we can not only find them a place to live, but a place to live where they can have some privacy and, in certain cases, jobs, if they decide to stay for a number of months.

Tavis: So let me ask you about your plans. I started this conversation by having you explain to us why a governor of Virginia, the commonwealth of Virginia, cannot run for a second term. So what's that mean for a guy like Mark Warner, who's a very popular governor, but has nothing else to run for except the White House?

Warner: Well, I do wanna be part of the debate. I wanna be the part of the debate that says how does the Democratic Party once again become the majority party in this country? And, as you continue to see, I think, to a degree, a failure of competence coming out of the administration, when you see the fact that the right wing of the Republican party controls more and more of the agenda of this country, I think a progressive voice that can recapture that center. There is room and an opportunity for Democrats.

Tavis: So, Governor, to your point, is there room for a true progressive in Democratic party politics these days, and what's this 'move to the center' stuff?

Warner: Well, I believe you can be progressive and still reclaim the center. The fact is, we need to have a Democratic party that's gonna be competitive in all states. We can't continue to write off the South. We've gotta be willing to step up on fiscal responsibility. We've gotta be willing to step up on issues of poverty that have not been addressed for a long time in this country. And I believe, when you match what the Democrats could do versus this current administration, that we've got unlimited opportunity, but we've gotta seize that opportunity.

Tavis: So when might you make an announcement about your future plans?

Warner: Well, Tavis, I gotta finish this job. I'm very, you know, I'm pleased with how we're going in Virginia, but I got four months left in this job, and at some point, over the coming months after that, I'll decide what, if anything else, I do in politics.

Tavis: Democratic Governor of Virginia Mark Warner. Governor Warner, nice to have you on the program, sir.

Warner: Thank you, Tavis.

Tavis: Up next on this program, from 'The West Wing', four time Emmy-winning actress Allison Janney. Stay with us.