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• Sen. Salazar's official site
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Tavis: Senator Ken Salazar is serving his first term in the US Senate, from the state of Colorado. Prior to politics, his diverse career included jobs as a rancher, a lawyer, and small business owner. He also served as Colorado's Attorney General. Senator Salazar joins us tonight from Washington. Senator, congratulations on your election some months back. And nice to have you on this program for the first time, sir.

Sen. Ken Salazar: It's good to be on, Tavis. Thank you very much.

Tavis: I pray it won't be the last. Let me start with what happened in the Senate earlier this week. Let me just tell you. I have never seen, maybe never is a strong word, but it's been a long time since I've seen Republicans as mad. I mean, fire-breathing mad as you all made them this week with this showdown and this closed door session. What happened?

Salazar: You know, Senator Harry Reid, under a rule in the Senate, decided to bring the Senate to a closed session to decide how we were gonna move forward on the intelligence, responsibilities of the Intelligence Committee. The main concern is that for 20 months we have not had answers to some very serious questions that we ought to have answers to. The US Senate, through the Intelligence Committee, exercises oversight responsibilities over what's happening with national security and intelligence.

20 months ago, the chairman of the committee promised that we were going to have answers to questions such as, what intelligence was available to the United States before the invasion of a war - of Iraq? What intelligence did we have about how post-invasion Iraq would look like? And none of those questions have been answered. What intelligence supported the statements that were made by the President of the administration?

For 20 months the majority has basically held the door closed on the answers to those questions. As a result of yesterday's altercation, if you will, the Republican majority has agreed now to put together a committee and to develop a timeline on how and when we're gonna get an answer to these questions.

Tavis: The chairman of that committee, the chairman you referred to, of course, is Senator Pat Roberts out of Kansas. Let me ask you whether or not in the opinion of this one Senator from Colorado. It is your opinion that what has not transpired with regard to information and answers, is that about foot dragging and malign neglect, or is it about the process just taking longer than it needs to take? Deliberate or unintentional here?

Salazar: You know, I think it's deliberate, and I think it goes way beyond the Intelligence Committee. I think the fact of the matter is that Washington and our nation today are controlled by one party. And I think when the keys to the kingdom are all given over to one party, essentially now controlled by the White House, you don't have the kind of oversight or the kinds of investigations of government that you should have. I mean, the most recent disaster, Katrina tells us that four years after 9/11, we are nowhere near prepared to deal with homeland security.

America deserves a lot better than what we're getting, and yet we're seeing tremendous foot-dragging on the part of the administration, on the part of the leadership and the Congress to do an independent commission to review what happened from Katrina. Right? I think that the American people deserve a lot better, in terms of knowing what went wrong with respect to homeland security and the response to Katrina so that we can do better in the future.

Tavis: Before I move on to Judge Alito, one other question about this particular showdown earlier in the Senate this week. Now that you have extracted what you all wanted - you know, the Washington spin is always at work. Democrats are saying we extracted what we wanted. You laid that agenda out earlier what you all got out of this meeting.

Republicans said that we didn't agree to anything that we hadn't already agreed to. So let me ask, with that said, whether or not you are hopeful that this closed door session, this major moment that got the Republicans so rankled, will actually yield something? Is something good gonna come out? Is the information going to be forthcoming now?

Salazar: Well, I sure hope so, because for 20 months there had been no answers to these very important questions. The American people deserve to know the truth. They deserve better than what they've gotten, which is essentially smoke and mirrors, set of issues and description of intelligence. We need to know what that intelligence was that the President had prior to making the decision to invade Iraq. We need to know what it was that they anticipated would be the conditions in Iraq after the invasion.

With the President, I take him at his word, when he flew to the carrier, and he basically said, mission accomplished. At the time we had 300 casualties. I think he thought the mission was over. Well, somebody made some major mistakes in terms of predicting how long we were gonna be in Iraq and how costly the war was gonna be. You know, he said, the cost of the war was gonna be $30 billion. Well, now we're at $300 billion.

So major mistakes have been made all along, and I think that part of what we see here in Washington, DC is that because there's no effective oversight of the executive branch of government through the oversight responsibilities of Congress, the American people are not getting the whole truth, and the American people deserve better.

Tavis: Forgive me for lying. I said one more question on that matter. Please allow me one more. Given what you've just said now about what's happening in Washington about the scene inside the beltway, I wonder whether or not you think the environment in Washington now, namely what's happened to Scooter Libby, Mr. Rove, of course not yet charged, but still under - not indicted, but still under investigation.

I wonder about whether or not you think that that environment, because clearly this case of who leaked what, is connected to the spin, the cover, the rationale that the White House was offering for why we got into Iraq. I wonder whether or not you think that this environment makes it more difficult for you all again to get the information out that you think the Republicans have not been forthcoming with.

Salazar: You know, I hope that what happens is that Patrick Fitzgerald continues to do his job, and I think that in the prosecution that's upcoming, we don't know whether Scooter Libby will be found guilty or not. But I think through the prosecution process that more will come to light in terms of what was happening with respect to the spin that was going on in the White House and in the Vice President's office.

I'm hopeful that the efforts of the Intelligence Committee here in the Senate will also shed some more truth about what was known and what was anticipated and what calculations and miscalculations were made. I think this is probably the most important national security issue of our times. So reaction to 9/11 and the war in Iraq, and the whole future of what happens in the Middle East and the war on terror, we at least need to know the facts and the truth, and I think that this is a positive step in the right direction.

Tavis: Let me switch gears now to Judge Samuel Alito, Jr., of course the nominee to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the US Supreme Court. Earlier today the 'Gang of 14,' of which you are a member. Again for those who may have just tuned in, the 'Gang of 14' is that group of moderate Senators in the US Senate who are key, crucial, to what happens with regard to the outcome of a vote on Samuel Alito.

So, I'm not gonna get into asking questions I know you won't answer about what happened in that, behind the closed door meeting, but tell me what your sense is as a member of this 'Gang of 14' of Samuel Alito. Certainly three members of that group have already come out and said at the moment they don't see any reason for a filibuster. What's Ken Salazar's take?

Salazar: Well, Tavis, let me say that I am very proud of what that group has done because it does show that there are moderate Democrats and Republicans that can come together and help us work on the business of the people. And since we put together that agreement some months ago, we have passed an energy bill, and we've passed a transportation bill, and there's a lot more work to be done. With respect to the question on Judge Alito, I think that it's much too early to prejudge what, exactly, is going to happen with Judge Alito.

We don't have access yet to the information of thousands of pages in the Reagan archives that we will be getting. Those documents all need to be reviewed in terms of what it is that Judge Alito said in his history when he was working in the Reagan administration. There are tens of thousands of pages, literally, of documents related to the opinions that he authored while he was on the third circuit. Those all have to be reviewed.

The FBI background check needs to be completed, and that's extensive. So I think for anyone to be prejudging at this point, one, how they're gonna vote, two, whether or not the 'Gang of 14' will be able to figure out some way of keeping civility in this process. I think it's much too early to tell.

Tavis: I don't ask you to speak for these three other Senators who have come out and said at the moment they don't see reason for a filibuster, but if you're right about the fact that it's too early to tell, how, then, can they make a judgment that there will not be a need for a filibuster?

Salazar: When we wrote the agreement, and when all 14 of us signed it, we were very clear that every Senator is elected for the purpose of representing his or her own state. And so every Senator will make his own individual determination. In my view, it's important for all Senators to exercise their constitutional responsibility in making sure that we're doing the right thing in terms of the confirmation process. I, for one, am very disappointed with the President in that he did not nominate a woman to be on the Supreme Court in the 21st century, given the advances that have been made in the last 100 years in America for women.

I think it is a very, very negative statement about our US Supreme Court when we have eight men and one woman on that court. And that's essentially what will happen if this confirmation is successful. I think that's wrong. Secondly, I don't think the White House did what it should have done here, which is to reach out to the Senate and engage in consultation with the US Senate about the upcoming nominee. Having said that, I'm not the President. He is the President.

He made his decision. And now we need to move forward with this process in the US Senate. And that means taking a very careful and thoughtful review of this nominee, trying to go through a civilized process, and then casting our votes with respect to either his confirmation or not.

Tavis: Before I let you go, I heard you when you mentioned your disappointment with the President for not appointing a woman, for not reaching out to the Senate. Is there a third thing on your list? Might you also be also disappointed that he's now had two or three opportunities to appoint the first Hispanic to the Supreme Court and has not seen fit to do that, either? Does that bother you? Does that trouble you?

Salazar: You know, it troubles me because I think that we've come so far in a country that has recognized that it's important that our most important institutions look like the face of America. I happen to be the first Mexican American in the history of the United States of America ever elected outside of the state of New Mexico. I think that's good for our United States Senate because I bring that heritage, and I bring that perspective. I'm a proud American. I'm a 12th-generation American, and I'm very proud of that fact.

But I think my presence as someone from a diverse background helps enrich the institution of the US Senate, along with my colleague Barack Obama from Illinois. Along with my Republican colleague Mel Martinez, a Cuban American from Florida. So I think that as a nation that embraces diversity and recognizes that those are the times that we're in, it's important for the President to do the same thing.

Tavis: Finally, any predictions about what happens in this Alito nomination process?

Salazar: You know, it's gonna be a tough process. Yeah. The President wants to get this all done relatively soon, before the end of the year. You know, it's gonna take a long time to get all the information together, and then for the Judiciary Committee to have hearings, and then to have the debates on the floor. So I don't know whether it's gonna happen before the end of the year. You know, I think it's gonna be a tough and contentious battle.

Tavis: Senator Ken Salazar, Democrat of Colorado, making his first appearance on this program. I promise not the last, unless I've said something to offend him. Senator, nice to have you on the program.

Salazar: Thank you, Tavis. It's good to be on.

Tavis: Glad to have you here. Up next on this program, best-selling author Vince Flynn. Stay with us.