DemocraticCommittee Chair Talks to Spectator

Democratic National Committee Chair Terry McAuliffe was on campus to speak with the College Democrats on Monday morning. After his speech he sat down for a few moments with the Spectator.

Spectator: Are you having any trouble recruiting candidates to run for House or Senate races in light of Bush's popularity?

McAuliffe: I know that the Senate campaign committee said they wanted Governor Kitzhaber in Oregon to run, and he decided not to. I didn't think he was ever going to run, to be honest with you, in the first place. But he announced around this. Dan Glickman announced he is not going to run in Kansas. So I think it may have affected some of our candidates. However, I will make the argument that Erskine Bowles, who had decided not to run for Senate in North Carolina, after Sept. 11 decided to run. So I think you can look at it both ways. I think it's a call to action to get people involved in the democratic process and to run for office. And I can tell you what my ultimate responsibility is--to run the campaign for president and the election of the president. I know from the people who are interested in running that not one of them has changed their minds. I believe we're going to have a large field running for president. I think it's very good to have eight or nine candidates putting the Democratic message out there, so I have not experienced any of it.

Spectator: You talk to President Clinton pretty consistently. Does he feel personally responsible at all for what happened on Sept. 11 in terms of not taking enough action to combat terrorism while he was president?

McAuliffe: Well, I would make the argument that he did more.

Spectator: But does he make that argument? How does he feel about it?

McAuliffe: He's very proud of the efforts. As I say, he's very proud that he stopped 15 terrorist attacks. He tried to get Osama Bin Laden, he launched attacks against him--we never had conclusive proof, and we missed him by several hours apparently at one base--he did everything he possibly could, and he's very proud of his efforts. You know, these things are going to occur in the world. Let's not kid ourselves. We will never eradicate terrorism as long as you have somebody who wants to kill himself, who fundamentally believes we are evil. You're never going to stop it. You do the best you can to prepare yourselves for these types of things, but we're going to have it for an awful long time. There are people around the world who resent our freedom of speech, who resent our freedom of religion. We're going to do the best we can to combat it, but this is not a blame game of any form. We've got to look forward. I don't blame anybody for anything. I think we've done everything that we possibly can and that President Clinton stopped many attacks--him and Vice President Gore--and I'm proud of what they did.