E-mail a friendSenator-elect Claire McCaskill
original airdate November 27, 2006
Two years after narrowly losing a gubernatorial bid, Claire McCaskill became Missouri's new U.S. senator. She was previously a two-term state auditor, county prosecutor and, at age 29, state representative. McCaskill is a 4th-generation Missourian, who worked her way through school and, except for three years in private practice, has worked in the public sector since graduating from law school. The embryonic-stem-cell research issue in her election campaign generated national attention.
Senator-elect Claire McCaskill
Tavis: Senator-elect Claire McCaskill will be heading to Washington in January as the newly-elected Democratic Senator from the Show Me State of Missouri. The former prosecutor and state representative beat once-popular incumbent Jim Talent on election night in a campaign that attracted a great deal of national attention. She joins us tonight, well, she's already in Washington. Senator-elect McCaskill, nice to have you on the program, and congratulations.
Claire McCaskill: Thank you so much, Tavis, it's great to be with you.
Tavis: So I assume that you're in Washington already, what, learning your way around?
McCaskill: I am. I'm interviewing staff, kind of trying to find a place to live, doing all the things, and feeling really - it's amazing, when I look at that building and what it represents, and what it should mean to all of America, I am so honored to have this opportunity. I feel a little like Tammy the Tourist. I have some goosebumps when I look at the building. I'm very excited.
Tavis: Tell me why you think, we all have our own ideas about this, but this race, as I mentioned earlier, was very, very much a race to watch. All the networks were covering what happened in Missouri. You beat, as I mentioned, the incumbent, Jim Talent. Why, from your perspective, was this race such a hot race to watch?
McCaskill: Well, you said in the intro, 'Missouri is the bellwether.' We are really like America. We are divided. Our races are close in Missouri. And what really you saw in this election all across this country was that grand and glorious middle said, 'We want a change. We think the war in Iraq is a mess, we think Washington has lost its way in terms of taking care of our money.'
The middle class is kind of getting kicked to the curb, whether it's being able to afford to send your kids to college, or being able to see the doctor you wanna see, and being able to pay for your medicine. People really are worried about what's been going on in this country, and it really was about change. And people in Missouri, just enough of them, said, 'We want to hear a different voice. We want some independence. We want somebody who's not gonna rubberstamp the president.'
Tavis: Speaking of Iraq, I mentioned earlier that you are on the powerful Armed Services Committee. That's not an easy thing to do, to get to Washington and immediately find yourself placed on a very, very powerful committee. And it's also not altogether usual to find yourself in Washington on a committee like Armed Services in the midst of a war. What do you make of that?
McCaskill: Well, I'm honored that the leadership has chosen to put me on that committee, along with the Commerce Committee, two committees, I think, are tremendously important to what's going on in this country. And also looking after Homeland Security and government reform. I'm thrilled with all three of my major committees I received.
Armed Services, I talked a lot in the campaign about the Truman Committee. I am gonna be taking Harry Truman's Senate seat. And as people may remember in World War II, he spoke up under a Democratic president and said, 'We gotta do something about war profiteering.' And we've got that going on right now. We have people getting rich off this war while we can't get the right armor to the men and women who are serving.
So, I talked about bringing some accountability to the process during the campaign. I have a background as a prosecutor and an auditor. And I think Senator Reed realized that I could contribute on the Armed Services Committee, and I'm looking forward to asking some of the questions that haven't been asked over the past few years.
Tavis: Part of your claim to fame in Missouri, as you mentioned a moment ago, as auditor, has been to find money that was being misspent, taxpayer monies not being appropriately or adequately applied in certain instances. The numbers in Washington, though, respectfully, are a little bit bigger than the numbers in Missouri, and I suspect that the stuff that you wanna uncover might be a little bit more difficult to find. They're pretty slick in Washington. So, how does that background, that experience of asking those right questions end up yielding in Washington the right answers?
McCaskill: Well, I understand. I'm not naïve about this. I realize I'm one of a hundred. But there needs to be some voices speaking out. And I do know what questions to ask. I understand I'm gonna spend a lot of time working with GAO, which is the federal auditing agency. They do a lot of great work, frankly, that's ignored by Congress. I'm not gonna ignore it.
I'm gonna be looking at their audit work, I'm gonna be asking those questions on the government reform committee. I'm gonna be saying hey, wait a minute. Why is it that we can help big corporations to the extent we are, and that we can do no-bid contracts, while we've got people that are losing Medicaid coverage, and while we've got kids that are losing Pell grants to college?
This ought to be about making sure that every child in America can go to college. That should be a huge priority of the Congress. It hasn't been. And if we do a little bit better in keeping track of the money out here, we can find the money to educate our kids.
Tavis: Tell me how happy Democrats should be, or whether or not you wanna keep this in check, given that Democrats control not just the House but the Senate, which many people did not think was possible?
McCaskill: Well, I have said publicly since the election, I wanna try to help take the swagger out of the step of Democrats in Washington. This was not a mandate. This was a very close election, and we need to treat it that way. We need to quit this business of, 'Hey, we won, we're the good guys; you're the bad guys.' It can't be about the blame game anymore.
We can't just focus on trying to make Republicans look bad. We've gotta come together and find some common ground. And I'm gonna work hard at that. There are Republicans that wanna work with Democrats to solve the problems that American families are facing, and I wanna work with those Republicans, as well as my Democratic colleagues.
But we should not be walking around like we own the world at this point. It was a close election, and if we don't treat it that way, the voters will let us know in two years that they're not pleased.
Tavis: Rush Limbaugh, I'm not telling you anything you don't know. Rush Limbaugh made you a poster child for everything wrong with the Democratic Party. Michael J. Fox, the great actor, came to your state and did a commercial supporting you and your issue of stem cell - the issue, rather, of stem cell research. Mr. Limbaugh didn't like that, made a caricature out of Michael J. Fox, said some things that were rather unkind. As I said, made you a poster child. What'd you make of that whole notion of Rush Limbaugh taking you on?
McCaskill: Well, in many ways, I need to thank Rush Limbaugh, because we raised a boatload of money (laugh) after he did that. His mocking Michael J. Fox, and by the way, I respect people who disagree with Mr. Fox and me, in regards to stem cell. There are people that have a principled view of it that is different than my view. And we need to respect each other's opinions on these things.
But to mock Michael J. Fox the way Rush Limbaugh did, it really infuriated a lot of Americans, and I was blessed to receive a lot of - and by the way, Tavis, most of these contributions were small. Twenty-five, $50; from all over the country. Hundreds and thousands of dollars. And by the way, we needed the money, too. We were running against an incumbent, and we were not rolling in dough.
So those contributions really helped us in the closing weeks of this campaign compete on television in a way that we needed to compete. So, in the long run, I think that I'll be a strong advocate for stem cell research, and I know Michael J. Fox is pleased about that. And in some ways, Rush Limbaugh helped that happen.
Tavis: I got just 30 seconds here to go. The numbers not nearly what they ought to be, but women are picking up steam in the U.S. Senate, yes?
McCaskill: Yeah, we're up to 16. We're a long way from representing the number of women there are in America, but we're making progress. And by the way, because of that, we've gotta focus on making progress for all Americans. Especially the minorities that have not been represented in our government. And I think women who have made it into positions like the U.S. Senate were particularly sensitive to that.
So I look forward, I've never known the secret knock to the big back room. It looks like to me maybe I've kind of pushed that door open. I wanna make sure I keep it open for others to walk through, too.
Tavis: She is the Senator-elect from the Show Me State of Missouri, Claire McCaskill. Senator, nice to have you on for the first time, hopefully not the last.
McCaskill: Thank you so much. It was great to be with you.
Tavis: Glad to have you on. Take care.
McCaskill: Okay.
Tavis: Up next, actress Kate Winslet. Could she be up for a fifth Oscar nod, nomination? We'll talk to Kate in a moment. Stay with us.
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