E-mail a friendKen Mehlman
original airdate March 12, 2008
A skilled political strategist, Ken Mehlman formerly chaired the Republican National Committee and also managed the Bush re-election campaign. The Baltimore native and Harvard Law grad came to DC to practice environmental law, but quickly learned the ropes on Capitol Hill. In '00, he helped then-Gov. Bush earn his first crucial victory in the Iowa caucuses. Now in private practice, Mehlman serves on the MLK National Memorial Foundation executive leadership cabinet.
Former RNC chairman explains John McCain's broad appeal. (3:45)
Ken Mehlman
Tavis: Ken Mehlman is the former chairman of the Republican National Committee and campaign manager for the second Bush victory back in 2004. He is now a partner in the prestigious D.C. law firm of Akin Gump. He joins us tonight from Washington. Mr. Chairman, nice to have you back on the program, sir.
Ken Mehlman: It's good to be with you, I hope you're doing well.
Tavis: I am doing well, and yourself?
Mehlman: I'm doing great.
Tavis: Good stuff. Let me start by asking what advice you would have - you've been around long enough to have survived a number of political scandals here and there. How would you advise one Eliot Spitzer now about going forward? I ask that against the backdrop of the fact that Republicans in New York were quick to call for his resignation, which they now, of course, have.
Mehlman: Right. Well, Governor Spitzer did resign today, as you know. I think that what I hope he'll focus on is his family. Watching the press conference the other day, I looked at his wife and like so many other Americans, I'm sure they felt the same way I did. They felt very sorry for her, the poor daughters, and Governor Spitzer himself. So what I hope that they do is focus on what matters most in your life, which is your family and your friends and your faith, and the other things that you every single day wake up and thank god you're alive for.
And that's where I think he needs to focus. And if he gets that right and if he makes up for what happened and he earns their confidence back and he does penance for what he did that was wrong to his family, then the rest of it takes care of itself. But that ought to be his focus right now, it ought not be politics. It ought to be the people that he truly hurt the most, which are not the people of New York but the people that are closest to him, and he said that. He acknowledged that with his statement.
Tavis: That's great personal advice. On the political front, what does this say or do to Americans who in this election season no less are already cynical about the process? They're cynical about politicians; they think our government is dysfunctional because there are a bunch of dysfunctional folk running the government. What do you say to people who are more turned off to the political gain, for lack of a better term?
Mehlman: Well, I say I understand how you're feeling, and I don't disagree with you. I think what it shows is it shows unbelievable arrogance to think that laws that apply to everybody else that you make don't apply to you. And it shows that you think you're invulnerable. That's terrible. But here's what I hope everyone will stop and do.
There's plenty of scandals, but stop and consider this. In the last generation in this country, think of the things we've accomplished. If 35 years ago folks had said the Soviet Union would be conquered without a shot being fired, that we'd have economic growth that we've had, that today the most popular Democratic and Republican leaders in America, the most popular entertainers would all be African Americans, that civil rights would have accomplished what it's accomplished, that women's rights would have advanced as much as they've advanced, that our environment would be cleaner, which it is, that we would have seriously reduced the level of crime in our cities and the level of Welfare, the fact is our politics in terms of policy has worked in a lot of really important ways.
And I hope in the context of scandal and of disappointment, which we all have, people don't lose that confidence. And I hope they also don't lose the confidence that says that while there are clearly people - and this is an example - who let us down, there are a lot of really good people that they're both Democrats and Republicans, they work every single day, and we've got to keep helping them and working for them and stay involved in the process.
I've been very pleased to see the increased turnout that we've seen both in the '04 election and we've seen in this election. People ought to be involved.
Tavis: Before I talk about this election, Ken Mehlman, in just a second, since you went there, raising the notion of African Americans and those on the left and the right who are, in fact, serving honorably, what do you make of the fact that while this is a bad-news story, obviously, for Eliot Spitzer, it means that New York gets a new governor.
That governor happens to be a man who happens to be African American, a man who has been legally blind for his entire life. Basically, what a story in David Patterson becoming the new governor of New York next Monday, officially.
Mehlman: It's a great story. I don't know now-Governor Patterson, but it's an amazing personal story. It's something we should all admire. His example is something that hopefully will motivate not only African Americans but people that are blind or people that are deaf to understand that anything is possible.
The great thing about our country, Tavis, if you think about America, what makes us different than any other place in the world is so many other countries - who gets to be the elite? Who gets to be really successful is narrow. In this country, it's broad. And if you think about it, in addition to the moral reason, one of the most important reasons that we all should be in favor of making sure that African Americans and that Jews and that Christians and that Muslims and that women and the blind and that everybody is welcome is because if more people are participating, that means there's more scientists inventing things.
And there's more creative people coming up with things, and there's more hard-working, productive people adding. So what I hope happens is that more folks who think maybe I'm down on my luck or maybe I don't have a chance think that they have a chance too, which will mean in the future that there are more things being invented, more products being created, more people working hard, and the result is that this great nation that brings so many people from so many places together to create and invent and build and dream will be a better place.
Tavis: Well, speaking of having the chance, I can't imagine that John McCain, some years ago, sitting as a POW, would ever think that he might one day be his party's nominee for president, and yet he is the guy. Let me start by asking whether or not he is the right guy. Did the Republicans choose the right guy for this contest in 2008?
Mehlman: I absolutely think we did. I think Senator McCain is a great candidate. We had a number of good candidates that were running. Mayor Giuliani, Governor Huckabee, Governor Romney. These are all friends, these are all great leaders. I think we chose an outstanding leader in Senator McCain. He's someone that has a great record; he has an incredible record of accomplishment, of serving his country.
He's proven not just through rhetoric but in h is actions and ability to bring Republicans and Democrats together on important legislative issues. He's also someone that I think will have strong appeal to independents and to Democrats, and he's already said he is not taking a single vote for granted. He is going to go everywhere to campaign for the vote, to reach out for the vote. Go to every ghetto, go to every barrio, go to every poor rural community and say, "Here's my vision for working together for a better America."
Tavis: I guess the question, Ken Mehlman, is which John McCain is going to show up? John McCain has been regarded by folk on the left and the right as a straight-shooter, as a maverick - that maverick notion or maverick nature, as you know, has gotten him into trouble at times with members of his own party, we'll come back to that in just a second.
But whether it's tax cuts, immigration, there are people starting to hear him say things that are a little bit different now than what he has said in the past. Can John McCain sell that?
Mehlman: I think Senator McCain is going to appeal to both conservatives and to independents. He's going to first appeal on the basis of his character, what you identified. An incredible hero, someone who has committed his life to public service, someone who believes that honor and duty and country is a lot more important than political party.
Secondly, look, the message - and when I've been on your show and I've talked about it before, in my opinion, being in favor of lower taxes and less regulation and tax cuts, it's not important for the rich folks who are hanging out at the country club. They're doing great.
But what about the folks at Sam's Club? What about the folks that aren't successful? We're right here in Washington, D.C., and in a lot of this town there's incredible success, but right across the river over there in Anacostia there are a lot of folks that would love better jobs.
One way you create better jobs is to make it more affordable to employ people. And so when he talks about tax cuts, he's talking to them as well as talking to conservatives. When he talks about his ideal in healthcare, which is to make it more affordable and available by treating the consumer, the patient, as the person with the power, think who that helps.
Conservatives love that idea. That also sounds pretty good to folks who change jobs a lot and are afraid they're going to lose their healthcare every time that they change that job. So in my opinion, the message of capitalism and of freedom and of more choice, when I used to go around and say, "Give us a chance and we'll give you a choice," the folks who live in the suburbs and are in the country club, they have a healthcare choice and an educational choice, and they already decide how they want to prepare for their retirement.
But if you live paycheck to paycheck, if you're talking about a single mom who works at the airport who's got three little kids at home and she lives paycheck to paycheck, she doesn't have a lot of choices in her life. And so when we talk about cutting taxes and giving her healthcare power and letting her have a personal retirement account and giving her educational choice, that is a message that may appeal to conservatives, but the folks it really helps are folks today who don't have all the opportunities that you have and that I have.
Tavis: Let me give you a couple of reasons, and you tell me why I'm wrong about this, and I'm just playing devil's advocate here. A couple of reasons why John McCain can't win. Number one, he, through the end of January, through the end of January, had raised a grand total, John McCain, of $55 million. Barack Obama raised, as you know, $55 million in one month.
Argument number one, money: is he going to have it? Argument number two, whether you have Hillary or Barack or Hillary and Barack or Barack and Hillary, to your earlier point, the Democrats, not the Republicans, have turned out voters in massive numbers in this primary process. Clearly, they're exciting people in the Democratic Party. Those two reasons, take me apart on them.
Mehlman: Well, on the first reason, if money were the definition of who was going to win, first of all, George W. Bush would have lost in '04, because when you look at the outside spending and the inside spending, the Democrats outspent the Republicans by $125 million, yet the president still won. If money was the reason of who the nominee was going to be, McCain never would have been nominated in the first place.
In a world of YouTube, in a world of the Internet, in a world where there's all these different stations, the ability to buy television ad time, while important, is a lot less important than the media you earn and the ability to get a message out, which McCain is very good at.
On the second point, there's been a lot of focus on Senator Obama's ability to reach out and attract independent and Republican support, and there ought to be. It's impressive that he's done that. Even more impressive, if you look at almost every national poll, the level of Democratic support for McCain is about twice as much as the level of Republican support for Obama.
So if you have McCain versus Obama, you got two folks who are very good at attracting support on the other side, except McCain is even better. And so I think those are very important attributes he brings to the table.
Tavis: Finally and ultimately, when all is said and done, is he going to be able to bring together that conservative part of the base and to say nothing of the conservative part of the base, he's still got to wrestle with Hannity and Laura Ingraham and Rush Limbaugh and others tearing him apart every day.
Mehlman: Well first of all, I don't think that's what they're doing. I think what conservatives - and I'm a proud conservative - are going to say is we want lower taxes, not higher taxes, we want healthcare that the patient controls, not healthcare that's bureaucratically driven, we want to make sure that in the war on terror we're strong and we are defending freedom by taking the battle to the enemy, not surrendering in important fronts in this war, and we want to make sure the judges are not the ones that decide legislative issues, but legislatures do.
Those are four areas where John McCain has a strong conservative voting record. He has a strong, consistent record of being in favor of less government, of less spending, taking the battle to earmarks. I think those are all important issues.
When politicians say it's about appealing to the base or appealing to the middle, my answer is two words: Ronald Reagan. Conservative president, appealed to lots of folks in the middle. A lot of people called themselves Reagan Democrats. It's because he spoke common sense. And so what I hope Senator McCain will do is take the message of his record of service, his commitment to duty, honor, and country, his patriotism, his commitment to really change things up and reform how Washington works, and take it to every community.
Bring it on to this show. A good friend of yours, I know he likes you a lot, Tavis. Lincoln talked about the right to rise. The right to rise: the ability of working people to improve themselves. When Senator McCain was the chairman of the commerce committee, one of the big things he focused on was more minority media ownership.
He can talk about that. He can talk about so many things, and that, I think, attracts more support for him.
Tavis: We will look forward to talking to him. As a matter of fact, we're working with his staff now to get him on this program in a couple days, so we'll let you know about John McCain when he appears on this program. In the meantime, though, we thank the former chairman of the Republican Party, Ken Mehlman, for coming on. Ken, thank you for -
Mehlman: Thanks for having me.
Tavis: My pleasure.
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