Speaking with the former Speaker of the House and now Minority Leader, I was wondering how best to bring up the topic of campaign finance reform, but she beat me to it.
We spent a fair bit of the afternoon with her today, and she came out blazing, saying how the Democrats will “outspend out-position and out-redistrict them.”
And, coming from the highest-ranking female politician in American history, I was pleased to hear her say that majority of the seats that they intend to win back will be women. “Women will take back the House.”
On the Republican Presidential candidates: “You don’t have the A team or the B team. They want to save their bid for the next election where they might win. You have a C-team of candidates.”
Then the open-ended question: what will the policy agenda be for the next four years? We spent 1.5 hours on this topic, but she started with one and only one imperative: election reform. I told her it was on my mind having just read Lessig’s book.
“The three steps are Disclose, Reform, Amend. 1) Disclose. Federal elections need to disclose the donors, like we do in California. 2) Reform and 3) a Constitutional Amendment to overturn the Citizens United Supreme Court case (whereby corporations were ruled to be like people in their ability to donate to campaigns as an expression of free speech, but bizarrely, they are unlike people in that they are not limited in the size of those donations and can remain anonymous.)”
“This will be the greatest change for our country.”
“Many Republicans will try to block it. They spent $75M trying to defeat me last time.”
“It’s for America. If the Republicans took it on, we should support them.”
And then in a sweet and kind voice: “I have to walk in their shoes, so I can fight them better.”
“In December 2004 I met with Steve Jobs and asked ‘Can you help us rebrand the Democratic Party?’ He replied ‘You can’t brand yourself when you don’t know who you are.’ He later offered “Energy is an issue you can work around. But you have to get private sector advice. No political branding people.’”
“Intel CEO Craig Barrett was emphatic – if you have one issue, it has to be energy.”
“Then Bush won and we had an ethical issue – corruption, cronyism and incompetence. They hired their friends. It was a cash and carry operation, pay to play. Then came Katrina.”
“Our message will be Rebuilding America, and the more specific the better. It will be broadband, water systems, and reigniting the American Dream.”
“For the Republicans, ‘it’s faith or science, take your pick.’ For us, it’s science, science, science, science. For healthcare, for the economy, for the environment, for education, it’s science. Anna Eshoo expressed her exasperation ‘You wouldn’t believe it. We are dealing with people who don’t believe in science.’ With the COMPETES Act, they fought it with tears in their eyes. This was a commitment to science in education. The Republican leadership opposed it.”
“The coal patch is the worst. They deny science.”
“We have smart kids who are undereducated. Nothing, nothing brings more money to the U.S. Treasury than education of the people. From early childhood to K-12 to adult reeducation and lifelong learning.”
“I was with Obama and pointed to Lincoln on the wall. ‘Public sentiment is everything’ he famously said. You have to explain what you have accomplished to the people.”
“The Republicans say there is no government role in clear air, clean water, public education, public safety, public health, Medicare, or social security. You need a public role to get that done for all. This particular breed of cat is not the Republican you know as your neighbor; this particular breed is dangerous to children and other living things.”
And that was the end. On the way out, I showed her the space artifacts in my office and she particularly liked the Apollo Fuel Cell =)
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