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Transcript - November 3, 2006
BRANCACCIO: Now on PBS deep in the heart of Texas...A Democratic candidate asks military families for support.
MARY BETH HARRELL: They know that the civilian leadership has failed. Not the military. And certainly not our troops. But the civilian leadership, this administration, this rubber stamp Congress, has failed our troops, and failed our community, and failed our country.
BRANCACCIO: How will the Iraq war affect next week's elections?
MAJOR JERRY MORRIS: Everyday we're reading about soldiers from Fort Hood that are dying in Iraq or wounded in Iraq. So everybody here has felt the pain of what's going on.
BRANCACCIO: And conservative iconoclast Andrew Sullivan on whether this election will redefine the Republican Party.
BRANCACCIO: Welcome to NOW ... It is the final days of campaign 2006, and the war in Iraq is looming large in the minds of voters and politicians. The most immediate domestic political question is this: how will the war affect Tuesday's elections? We went in search of an answer in one of the most pro-war congressional district in the country... the Texas thirty first includes Fort Hood, often advertised as the "largest military base in the free world." Fort Hood is a final staging point for tens of thousands of soldiers bound for tours in the war zone, and almost everyone living in the district has a personal connection to the war. They're represented in Congress by a two-term Republican who's proud to stand with the President and the war. But as Senior Correspondent Maria Hinojosa and Producer William Brangham found out, the controversy over Iraq is producing some unexpected voices in even the reddest of districts.
HINOJOSA: In this country you can't get much closer to the war in Iraq than right here at the Fort Hood army base in Kileen, Texas.
TIMOTHY HIGGINS: I'm Timothy Higgins. I'm from Killeen, Texas. We're goin' to Baghdad.
PFC BRITNEY GRANE: My name is Britney Greene. I'm from Denver, Colorado.
CHRISTOPHER JEFF: Name is Staff Sergeant Christopher Jeff and I'm from Hazlehurst, Mississippi.
HINOJOSA: Since the war began, Fort Hood has sent tens of thousands of young men and women overseas to fight in Iraq.
GABRIEL FULLER: My name's Gabriel Fuller. I'm goin' to Iraq. It's my second time.
TYLER JENSEN: I went from nervous a couple months ago, to scared a month ago and now its just open minded.
BARBARA SALAS: I have my ups and downs, I have my moments, and I'm trying to stay busy.
HINOJOSA: The war 'surrounds' the base as well. The town of Kileen, Texas and its nearby communities are deeply connected to this war. As you drive around this area. Iraq is ever present. Everywhere you go... Every restaurant... Every business... You'll find people strongly supporting the soldiers. Yet even here, the coming midterm election has started a new debate over Iraq... Questioning the leadership of the war... But that's *not* what you hear most often. Republican congressman John Carter represents this area. The 31st Congressional district in Texas is solid Republican territory. In 2004, voters here went 3 to 1 in favor of George Bush... and they felt the same about Carter: he crushed his Democratic opponent in the last election. While many other Republicans on the campaign trail have run far *away* from the war... John Carter has done the opposite. He's a big supporter of the invasion. And of President Bush. He's called Iraq "a huge success." Carter says... Maybe the polls elsewhere in the country show that many Americans are fed up with the war... but not here.
JOHN CARTER: Actually, the Iraq war, in my particular district, is very—very supported by people. The present state of the war is 62 percent favorable in my district.
TRACEY BARNES: I think we need to stand beside our country, I think is very necessary either fight it over there or over here.
HARRIS CARAWAY: The news media might play it up as, boy it's really going bad and you know things are really not working out well for us over there. But if you actually talk to the solider that has been over there and served, he's telling you a different story.
MICHELE MCDONALD: It does bother me when people run down the military, or our leaders, or our president. It just um—it does bother me quite a bit. Because we have people everyday putting their lives on the line for us.
HINOJOSA: Mary Beth Harrell knows all about people putting their lives on the line for their country. Her husband, Bob, served 23 years in the U.S. army. Two of her three children also serve in the military... her oldest son, rob, and is currently in Iraq.
MARY BETH HARRELL: Something like this is on the front page of the paper everyday in our community so yeah this is our life.
HINOJOSA: But Harrell isn't just a military wife and mom.
MARY BETH HARRELL: Hey y'all. I'm Mary Beth Harrell. I'm running for the U.S. Congress.
HINOJOSA: Harrell is running for Congress against the incumbent, John Carter. In this conservative, pro-military district, she's a Democrat who's daring to run a campaign strongly critical of President Bush's war policy. Harrell says that from talking to voters, she believes a growing number of people have now turned against the war.
MARY BETH HARRELL: A lot of people who live in this community, they know that the civilian leadership has failed. Not the military and certainly not our troops. But the civilian leadership, this administration, this rubber stamp Congress, has failed our troops, and failed our community, and failed our country.
HINOJOSA: Her one TV ad goes straight to the point: If Harrell beats the odds and somehow topples john carter, she'd be the only mother in Congress with a child currently fighting in Iraq.
MARY BETH HARRELL: I'm not special. I know an awful lot of mothers like me. If I'm the only woman serving in the U.S. Congress who has a son or daughter serving in Iraq, then that's a sad commentary on our Congress.
MARIA HINOJOSA: There might be some people who say that the fact that you're critical of the war in Iraq will be interpreted, particularly in a district like this that includes Fort Hood, as being disrespectful to the troops.
MARY BETH HARRELL: Oh. You know, I have yet to have one person respond to me that way. This administration has tried to equate criticism of the Iraqi war with some kind of a—failure to support our troops. But you know what? The people in this community, the people who see 1st Cav going over for the third time, 4th Infantry going over for the third time, they know the reality. They know that the poor prosecution of this war, and criticizing the poor prosecution of this war, is completely unrelated to our support for the troops.
HINOJOSA: When she's not in campaign mode, Harrell's a lawyer in private practice... She used to be a city prosecutor. This is her first run for public office. For his part, Congressman Carter has little to say about Harrell. He won't publicly debate her... Or the other candidate in the race, libertarian Matt McAdoo, whose position on the war is quote "pack up and leave." Carter said "people earn the right to debate me." When asked what would qualify someone, the former district-court judge said "credibility." Carter argues that the war in Iraq is vital to America's future... And he says it's just one part of a much bigger fight.
CONGRESSMAN JOHN CARTER: And, you know, this is not a war in Iraq, this is just a battle. It's the battle for Iraq in the 'war on terror.' And there's a battle brewing in Korea, and there's a battle brewing in Indonesia, and there's a battle brewing in Africa. And I honestly believe that taking the war to the enemy is better than fighting 'em in Galveston. So I honestly believe that. And I and I honestly believe that my evidence is in a big hole in New York City. So we didn't attack them. They attacked us.
MARIA HINOJOSA: So when you hear people, including your opponent, saying "Perhaps we need to rethink what's happening, perhaps we need to rethink strategy," you say?
JOHN CARTER: I have no problem with questioning. I will question it. But at the present state of affairs, I think we should stay the course. Anything short of staying the course right now, and withdrawing only on our own terms, would be a—will be a defeat, which I think will bring disaster to the United States.
HINOJOSA: Just this week, while stumping for Republicans in Georgia.. And here in Texas... President Bush went even farther, saying that opposing his policy was akin to surrender. Harrell says these comments are nothing but election eve scare tactics. And she doesn't think they're gonna sway voters.
MARY BETH HARRELL: I think the folks who support the war and the way it's currently being prosecuted are definitely in the minority in this country. I mean we're spending half a trillion dollars a year. We have Americans dying every day. We have death squads going around killing Iraqis in Iraq. People understand this. They understand that something has failed in Iraq, or someone has failed in Iraq, and has failed on an egregious level.
HINOJOSA: Across the nation, the polls show most Americans are right in line with Harrell's message but here in central Texas, her actual campaign for Carter's seat is considered a long shot. The cook political report categorizes this district as quote "strongly republican." She's also trailing her opponent in fundraising. And the national Democratic Party hasn't seen fit to send money her way. But there have been some recent bright spots:
KEN STEWART: You sitting down? National magazine, Esquire, just endorsed Mary Beth.
HINOJOSA: Esquire endorsed Harrell but more importantly two local papers including the widely read Austin American Statesmen chose Harrell over Carter citing among other things her stance on the war in Iraq.
MARY BETH HARRELL: If the kids who are in uniform right now who are on the ground in Iraq had the freedom to talk to you, they would tell you how terribly frustrated they are. Because they are not enabled to get the job done.
HINOJOSA: Harrell says she heard this same frustration when her son called home from Iraq.
MARY BETH HARRELL: He had just gotten back from Falujia. It had been an especially bad day they had found 30 or 40 bodies that morning—from the death squads. My son said "You know I feel so bad because I can't stop this. I can't stop the death squads... we feel like we're failing because we can't protect the Iraqi people from this." It's not that our soldiers are failing. Our soldiers are dedicated. Our Marines are dedicated. They wanna get the job done. They wanna protect the Iraqi civilians. They wanna see the Iraqi government serve. It's just that the strategies over there are not achieving that end.
HINOJOSA: But will this message take hold here in Texas? At a gathering of a local motorcycle club, some people we met felt the war had reached a tipping point.
MAJOR JERRY MORRIS: We've got so many people close to us that have been touched by either a death or an injury. Everyday we're reading about soldiers from Fort Hood that are dying in Iraq or wounded in Iraq. So everybody here has felt the pain of what's going on.
HINOJOSA: Jerry Morris was a major in the US army now retired... His son-in-law just did two tours in Iraq... his nephew also just got back. And a close friend (his next-door neighbor) was just killed over there, leaving behind a wife and a baby boy.
MAJOR JERRY MORRIS: So I think people here are more willing to say, maybe we need to rethink what we're doing. So I think you can do that here as long as you're not directly critical of the military or of President Bush, I think you can say, maybe we need to look at what we're doing.
MARIA HINOJOSA: A year ago if you said "I think we need to rethink what we're doing," do you think that would have been taken definitively as an unpatriotic thing to say?
MAJOR JERRY MORRIS: It might have been. I think a year ago it would've been challenged a little more. Now I think people are sayin', hmmm, maybe I'll think about it too.
STEVE PETERSON: I'm a Republican. I've always been a Republican, I've always voted Republican. This year, I'm not sure that I'm going to do that in the local elections.
HINOJOSA: This isn't an easy thing for Steve Peterson to admit. He's also retired military. A sergeant major who served for 24 years.
STEVE PETERSON: I'm one of the ones who believed we needed to do this I'm just not sure we've followed the right path, uh, throughout the conflict. We're kind of in a quagmire now, and uh, I'm just, I'm not sure the right people are calling the right shots that's all.
HINOJOSA: Karen Endicott is one of those people who've already been won over by Harrell. She and her teenage son Jesse run two family businesses in Kileen—they build custom trailers in this shop... the other, is a used car dealership. Endicott has to manage both jobs, because her husband Ted is serving in Iraq.
KAREN KAY ENDICOTT: Normally we vote um...more towards a Republican perspective. We are very conservative. This is a time that as a registered Republican I will be voting for a Democrat. She represents my morals and my principals.
HINOJOSA: Endicott says those principals have convinced her that the invasion has been terribly handled... She says at first, she and her husband were strongly in favor of the war... But the execution of the war has changed her mind completely...she says this isn't an easy position to take... but she's convinced she's not the only one who thinks this way.
KAREN KAY ENDICOTT: I believe that people are going to fear that to outwardly criticize the war because of the repercussions they may suffer whether it's economically or socially. But I believe that once they get inside that voting booth and there's no one there to judge them but themselves that they will be voting towards a change.
HINOJOSA: No one can say for sure what's going to happen in next week's election. One thing that is certain. At least for the near future. More young men and women will board jumbo jets. Bound for the Middle East just this week several thousand more troops left Fort Hood for the war in Iraq.
BRANCACCIO: There's more to the story of the Iraq war and Texas.... The state has eight veterans running first-time campaigns for Congress. All but one are "fighting Dems", as they call themselves, opposed to the Iraq war. Hear from one of them and from the Republican vet who supports the war in our web-exclusive story at www.pbs.org. We move now to talk about what's going to happen in the last few days before the election. Andrew Sullivan has some thoughts on all that. He's a maverick conservative. He began by supporting President Bush and the Iraq war. He now opposes both. His new book is titled "the conservative soul: how we lost it; how to get it back," Andrew thanks for joining us.
SULLIVAN: You're welcome.
BRANCACIO: What is a nice conservative like you doing telling your friends and your readers to abstain from voting next week or worse?
SULLIVAN: I've done more. I've said vote Democrat. Look. I'm an old-fashioned conservative. I believe in small government. I believe in low taxes. I believe in balanced budgets. I believe in individual liberty, personal responsibility, states rights and a strong competent defense. So, on all those issues, I have no choice but to oppose the President. The only way to get him to—acknowledge reality and grapple with reality is by backing the Democrats.
BRANCACIO: But you've—thought this through. I mean, you've, like, sat down and really contemplated the notion of Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, noted liberal and not exactly a fanatic when it comes to small government.
SULLIVAN: Yeah, I know. I'm not happy. I don't—it's not because I believe or agree with the Democrats on a whole range of issues. The only way to get through to Bush will be, unfortunately—to see someone like Nancy Pelosi elevated to Speaker of the House. I'll have to live with that, okay. But this Republican Congress has increased spending faster than any Democratic Congress since FDR. I mean it is the debt of the next generation will have to pay off was 20 trillion in 2000. By 2004, it was $43 trillion. You tell me. Could the Democrats be any worse?
BRANCACIO: You could vote from your perspective, for the Democrats as a protest. But do you see them as offering a real alternative? Or do you see them more as kind of a—a vector to express the anger of voters—your anger?
SULLIVAN: It's enough right now to express anger. It's enough to stay stop. It's enough to say use what the founding fathers gave us, which was a system of checks and balances. I don't think it's healthy right now, given the record of this Congress and this President, to have them control all the levels of government, and I think conservatives and liberals, we can join hands in this—to try and drag this country back to sanity and the center. That's what this election is about to me.
BRANCACIO: So, you actually think that if the Democrats came to power in one or both houses after this election, it would be the wakeup call that the Republicans would need to—get back to their roots as you see it?
SULLIVAN: I think that's exactly what the Republicans need and the conservatives needs to—to have a real debate about what on earth being conservative means. My book is an attempt to argue for the old-time conservatism, for Goldwater/Reagan/Thatcher conservatism. Yeah, I think it'd be good for Republicans to lose; somebody has taken over the Republican Party. Whoever it is, they're not conservatives on fiscal matters. And they have quite obviously screwed up this terribly important war in Iraq by not sending enough troops, by not having a plan after the invasion, and by refusing to change when they got there. I was pro-war. Supported them, gave them every benefit of every doubt I possibly could. But I can't do it any longer. I think it would be good for Republicans to lose. Sometimes, you have to lose in the short-term to win in the long-term. And conservatives have so lost their soul, so lost their principles that they need to lose to regain them.
BRANCACIO: But here's the thing. Let's say it—your—your strategy works, and enough people listen to you, and—and the Democrats maybe take the House or—or perhaps the Senate, we'd have to see. But then you have divided government. It might reign in the excesses of single-party rule as (UNINTEL). But, you know, you have a lotta threats out there. I mean, it really is al-Qaeda. There really are economic challenges. Can we afford, do you think—a lack of leadership that divided government might imply?
SULLIVAN: Well, as a conservative, I always believe that if you jam up government, it will do as little harm as possible. I think the great period recently was the Clinton-Gingrich era where the government did not do too much harm, in fact got out the way and let Americans remake their own country. Look, there are terrible enemies out there. But can we risk enabling a man who thinks that Donald Rumsfeld has done a fantastic job? Richard Perle, the most ferocious pro-war neo-conservative, two days ago said that this administration is quote, unquote, dysfunctional. We're talking not so much about an election anymore, we're talking about an intervention. We're talking about getting these people to recognize reality.
BRANCACIO: Now, we'll have to see if there are enough people like you—who are voting for a change. I look at the numbers and see, what shall we call it, economic determinism here. If you look at a so-called toss-up race, there's a Senate race out in Missouri, Claire McCaskill, the Democrat, against Jim Talent, the Republican. Talent has $4.2 million left in his campaign war chest, when last I checked. And Claire McCaskell's, like, got about a 16th of that, a quarter of a million dollars. The Republican dollars are gonna win in the end, aren't they?
SULLIVAN: I don't know. I believe in a free country. People can spend money as they want on advancing their own point of view. That's what freedom means. All this means is that the Democrats need to get their fundraising up and—and do better at it. And I'll tell you this also. The internet has created a whole new media in which paid media, commercials, are not quite as powerful as they might once have been. This is really the first election in which the blogosphere is really playing an important part. And it may, in fact, help counter some of the money advantages of various party machines. I mean, money isn't everything in politics. You know, if you really do not have an argument, a case, that's persuasive to most people, and people aren't crazy, they know what's happened. They'll make up their mind. This is Democracy. And let's say—if they decide to reelect these people, then they'll get the government they deserve. And that's what Democracy's about as well.
BRANCACIO: Well, Andrew, thank you very much.
SULLIVAN: You're very welcome.
BRANCACIO: Andrew Sullivan is a conservative, a blogger, and author of the new book "The Conservative Soul."
BRANCACCIO: And with the election only days away, I want to remind you to check out our special "elections insight" page over on now's website, pbs.org is the jumping off point for that. Next week on now, we'll be looking at the deeper meanings of Tuesday's results, including the issues and races we've been covering over the past few months. And that's it for now. From New York, I'm David Brancaccio. Remember to vote Tuesday, and we'll see you back here next week.
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