A Conversation with Ed Gillespie

CBS News' Brian Goldsmith talks with veteran GOP strategist Ed Gillespie

(CBS)  Political Players is a weekly conversation with the leaders, consultants, activists and individuals who are shaping American politics. This week, CBS News' Brian Goldsmith talks with Ed Gillespie, a veteran strategist and current chairman of the Virginia Republican Party.

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CBSNews.com: Mr. Gillespie, what's your reaction to the Scooter Libby verdict this week?

Ed Gillespie: I feel awful for Scooter. It's our justice system, and I accept it. But I have a hard time making sense of it, to be honest with you.

CBSNews.com: Turning to presidential politics, something that you're better at making sense of. You helped former Virginia Sen. George Allen in his re-election campaign. Is there anyone in the current field you're learning towards supporting?

Ed Gillespie: I am currently serving as the chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia, partly as a result of my experience in watching Sen. Allen's campaign. And, in that capacity, I am neutral in the presidential primary process.

CBSNews.com: You worked so hard for President Bush in 2000 and 2004. And yet he's now facing questions, not just about his judgment, but also about his competence. Has his performance in office gone as well as you'd hoped when you were working for him in those campaigns?

Ed Gillespie: Obviously, he's had a lot of challenges. I have great faith in the president and great affection for him, and I believe that he is strong for America. But these are challenging times. I wish they weren't so challenging, but they are.

CBSNews.com: Do you think that the Bush presidency has weakened or strengthened the Republican brand?

Ed Gillespie: Well, I think the Iraq War, obviously, was a factor in the elections that probably did not help Republicans. But I think there were other things as well. I mean, our brand was hurt in terms of fiscal responsibility. We have to reclaim that.

I saw one survey that showed in 12 critical swing House districts that more voters thought the Democrat candidate would be more likely to cut taxes for the middle class. More voters thought the Democrat candidate would be more likely to rein in federal spending, and more voters thought Democrat would be more likely to reduce the deficit. That really hurt us with independents. We have to reclaim that part of our brand in terms of fiscal discipline. I think the president, putting forward a budget that balances by 2012, without raising taxes, actually goes a long way in helping us in that regard.

CBSNews.com: But do you think the president, in not vetoing any of those spending bills that really outraged a lot of fiscal conservatives, bears some responsibility for that?

Ed Gillespie: I would have liked to have seen a veto of at least one bill. But I understand the president's point, which is this is a Republican House and a Republican Senate that had sent him the legislation. And so, you know, there's responsibility to go around in that regard.

CBSNews.com: Since 2000, a big part of Republican campaign strategy has obviously been energizing and turning out the party's base. And yet, in 2006, which ushered in Democratic control of Congress, the base turned out but you lost among independent and moderates. What do you think you can do to simultaneously keep the base excited and win back voters in the middle?

Ed Gillespie: Well, the extent to which Republican campaign strategy has relied on base turnout only has been largely exaggerated. I make this point in my book. The fact is, in a country this size, neither party is going to get a majority or win elections nationally by getting only its base.

You have to get your base and a lion's share of the voters in the middle. In the case of the '06 election, the independents broke dramatically against Republicans. And part of that is, I think, if you look through the cross tabs, apart from Iraq, there was frustration over ethics in Congress and the view that we were not doing a good enough job policing our own.

With the independent voters, there was a lot of frustration over fiscal responsibility. In the polling data I cited earlier, independents were a large part of those voters who came to the conclusion in the last election that a Democrat may be more likely to cut taxes for the middle class, or rein in spending, or reduce the deficit. So I think addressing those fiscal issues would be helpful. Doing a better job of policing ourselves when it comes to ethics would be helpful with those independents.

[kaliveotin]

SEE, FEW ARE EVEN MOVED TO COMMENT. yAWHNNHWHN

[forthepeaple]

i wouldn't trust him with any child thats for sure...

[energyecon]

The guy that helped George Allen elect Senator Jim Webb - thanks!

[bluestardad]

Ed Gillespie What a stooge He has no credibility, he helped Virginia Sen. George Allen in his re-election campaign. He is also still in denial about the War being the main reason Republicans lost the 06 elections. Is he a member of AIPAC and does he take Saudi and Israeli money! That says it all!

[kaliveotin]

I'm not even moved to respond, except to say why would CBS waste thiere space and our time. I find it very difficult to believe that there is nothing more newsworthy. Is the war over? Have all the Katrina victims been up-righted? Do we
nothing more to say about the thousands of recent storm victims, including the scores of americans killed and injured, or left without homes or power. Ed Gilepsi? Really? CBS chooses this as the best,most important story to report?

[clemenhagen1]

Ed Gillespie: "I feel awful for Scooter. It's our justice system, and I accept it. But I have a hard time making sense of it, to be honest with you."

Remember, these are the folks who claim, with tears in their eyes, to support the troops. The Bush administration, through the active efforts of Libby, Rove, Armitage, etc. aggressively spread the name of a CIA operative around the town. Novak then takes the bait and prints not only the name of a CIA NOC (non-official cover) Valerie Plame, but he exposes an entire CIA front-company, Brewster-Jennings. These people are risking their lives on the front line of this war trying to find intelligence and what does our government do? Sell them out! Betray them in a heinous act of treason! When they printed the name Brewster-Jennings in the paper, any CIA operative or informant who had ever associated with the company found their identity and safety compromised. And this clown "feels awful" for Scooter and "has a hard time making sense of it." All I have a hard time making sense of is how you can't feel "awful" for Plame and the other agents who had their lives and livlihoods jeopardized by Cheney's petty and pointless act of political revenge.

[randalds]

Looking closer at his picture there really is a darkish streak on his upper lip that's not a mustache. A permanent sh*it stain perhaps? It's even Texan grey (by way of connecticut of course) too.

[randalds]

I'm surprised Gillespie can talk at all with his lips so firmly to Bush's as*s. To say nothing of slurring his words from all of Bush's sh*it on his tongue. This guy is a total political hack. Pay him enough money and he'd start telling you how much affection he has for mass murderers and child molesters. He has no soul. He's a hollow receptacle that you fill with money and then order him to spit out bulls*hit.

[frankly6]

A balanced budget by 2012? Can you say "stay the course"? Pie in the sky in the great by and by. Talk about Voodoo Economics.

[dallison7]

SLIGHTLY OFF-TOPIC:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Slapped even by GOP allies, the Bush administration is beating an abrupt retreat on eight federal prosecutors it fired and then publicly pilloried.

Just hours after Attorney General Alberto Gonzales dismissed the hubbub as an "overblown personnel matter," a Republican senator Thursday mused that Gonzales might soon suffer the same fate as the canned U.S. attorneys.

A short time later, Gonzales and his security detail shuttled to the Capitol for a private meeting on Democratic turf, bearing two offerings:


President Bush would not stand in the way of a Democratic-sponsored bill that would cancel the attorney general's power to appoint federal prosecutors without Senate confirmation. Gonzales' Justice Department previously had dismissed the legislation as unreasonable.


There would be no need for subpoenas to compel testimony by five of Gonzales' aides involved in the firings, as the Democrats had threatened. Cloistered in the stately hideaway of Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy, D-Vermont, the attorney general assured those present that he would permit the aides to tell their stories.