(Note: Congressman Roy Blunt, running for Minority Whip, held a conference call with bloggers: Mary Katharine Ham of Townhall.com, Quin Hillyer of the American Spectator, Ragnar Danneskjold of the Jawa Report, Jon Henke of QandO, Kim Priestap and Lorie Byrd of Wizbang, and Howard Mortman of Extreme Mortman and Robert Bluey of Human Events.)

Congressman Blunt: First of all, I’d refer you to the speech I gave last week at The Heritage Foundation. I’d hope to give that speech while we were in a reduced, but still the majority because either way we had lessons we needed to learn, and I think that speech is about the lessons we need to learn – how we need to get back to taking advantage of this opportunity to be more of who we’ve always been, who we are, what brought us into politics. I don’t think our ideas lost on Tuesday, we did. The election demonstrated in many ways the American people believed we strayed too far from our values, and it’s time for Republicans to start acting like Republicans again. We can’t be the defenders of business as usual. We have to always be trying to define a smaller government that does whatever only the federal government can do better and as well as it can possibly be done. When we pursue a values agenda, it needs to be not about politics, but about those things that we really need to be sure we’re doing for the future of the country and defending those values. Too often I think, particularly in that case, we allow the media to characterize our votes on values issues as things we’re just doing for politics rather than because they were the right thing to do. Of course, a lot of the main stream media would want to see it that way, but we can’t continue to let anybody believe we’re for what we’re for because it’s on some kind of list of what we’re supposed to be for, but we’re for it because it’s what’s best for the country. I’m not going to defend a lot of mistakes we made in the past; I think we ought to see what happened Tuesday as a time to learn lessons, to regroup, to be better. The significant silver linings here is, just like 1964, 1976, 1992, all appeared at the moment to be devastating losses, they, in every case, gave conservatives a chance to reinvigorate the message that we have for the country, and the country came back dramatically stronger, and the conservative movement dramatically stronger because of that. We have to ideas and we have to have people that are willing to move forward on those ideas. We say we want to cut spending; we will cut spending. We say we want to reform the welfare state by empowering people to make their own decisions, and we will continue to reform the welfare state. We say we want to defend traditional American values, and we will do that. We say we want to confront and defeat totalitarians who threaten on our freedom, and we will do that as well. Last Tuesday was really a significant call to arms for the future of our country. I think we have to communicate to the American people what direction these Congressional Democrats will be taking our country, and a lot of what Congressional leaders need to be focused on in the coming weeks and the coming months and the coming two years as we return, I believe, to the majority in 24 months, is defining the Democrats for who they are. Looking for those amendments, looking for those votes for putting the alternatives out there, that the Democrats who for years have run at home as Republicans, either have to stay with us and see Nancy Pelosi lose, or they have to vote for Nancy Pelosi’s agenda and identify themselves at home for as to what they’re really for. Of course, for that to work, we have to, as much as we can, have the kinds of things offered on the floor that our members can be for so that Democrats don’t have the luxury to be out there letting their members to continue to have one message at home and in every crucial test, have another message in Washington. Our sites are really to move the country forward, and your sites, your sites that you work on every day, are the most active window right now for our conservative movement, and they going to play a continued, intricate role, a bigger role all the time in our future success. I’m glad to see the relationship between me, between the whip’s office, and between all of you improved pretty dramatically over the past few months, and I look forward to seeing that continue to improve in the years ahead. The source of information that you provide is not provided anywhere else, and I’m grateful to you for that.

Question: You voted for the Medicare drug bill, the No Child Left Behind Act, The Farm Bill and The Highway Bill. Meanwhile, your opponent, Congressman Shadegg voted no on all those bills. You also voted against Congressman Blake’s earmark amendment whereas Congressman Shading voted in favor of that. I’m just wondering how can any conservative support you with that record that you’ve compiled on the legislation I just mentioned?

Congressman Blunt: Well of course, a lot conservatives wound up for those issues. The one of those that I take the most exception with my own vote on, and have for several years now is No Child Left Behind. Now my view is that any time you can solve the problem closer to where the problem is, you’re going to have a better solution. Particularly with elementary and secondary education, the focus ought to be on moms and dads and local school districts if kids are in public school, not on Washington D.C. or even in state capitols. You need to be always looking as to how you have those decisions closer to home. On the overall scoring of voting records day in and day out, I’m consistently one of the more conservative members of the House and have been all ten years that I’ve been here. I think you have to look at the overall record. A lot of things we did, the Medicare Bill, it might have been done better if I’d have been doing them by myself, from a more competitive, trying to change the structure system. There are some good things there that really do reform Medicare for the first time with private sector competition and thing that I suggest conservatives should be looking at as we look at bigger reforms in Medicare in the future.

Question: Just as a follow-up, President Bush said last week he want to re-authorize No Child Left Behind. Are you saying to today that you’d oppose a re-authorization?

Congressman Blunt: Oh, I wouldn’t look at what the President is actually trying to do with No Child Left Behind, but I’ve said many times before today, in the election 2 years ago and I think in the election 4 years ago, that the one vote that I’ve cast here that I’d had the most second thoughts and would cast differently was No Child Left Behind. So the President’s going to have to really be much more willing to figure out how to do want he wants to do at the Federal level that involves moms and dads instead of bureaucrats if I’m doing to be for any proposal they have in the future.

Question: I think most people believe you’re very effective at the day-to-day functions for which you’re running. I think the main problem people have is the appearance of the old guard staying in control, the ideological concern. They want a complete change of direction. Why would you be better in that roll from that perspective?

Congressman Blunt: Well John, I thank you for the positive part of that question for sure. I think that when you look at what we’ve done in the majority, the one leadership function that’s virtually never been in question the past four years is the job the whip did of both trying to find ways that our members could do for things that met our standards. We’ve done that and we’ve done that effectively. I do think there’s a difference in the majority whip’s role and the minority whip’s role, but I don’t know that the skill set is all that different. I don’t know that the background to prepare you for the role as a Republican whip is that different than the good preparation that I think that I’ve had and the good results we’ve shown in the majority whip’s office. In so many cases, what we’ll need to do is define the democrats in the next two years. Now, a lot of people can stand up on the floor, including me as whip or not, and try to verbally try to draw those contrasts or try to be the bomb thrower or whatever you need to have. You certainly don’t need to be elected into leadership to do that or to get attention for doing that, as a matter of fact. But, only the whip at the end of the day has the responsibility to know our members, to know what they can do, to hold them together, so that the Democrats have to function like Democrats. That’s how we’ll beat these Democrats. From the whip’s perspective, we’re not going to beat them by how many verbal onslaughts you throw every day not nearly as effectively as we are by making the Democrats be Democrats. You know, the Ched Edwards Democrats that have run as a conservative-Democrat in their home district forever need to be faced day after day with amendments that are troublesome, with motions to recommit that are troublesome, with alternatives that are troublesome that are either going to let them be part of defeating the speaker’s agenda, Nancy Pelosi’s agenda, or defining who they are as real Democrats in Washington. That’s how we beat the Ched Edwards: A budget fight that really does make Mr. Spratt, for the first time ever, a stand up and say where he is on taxes, where he is on budgets. Vote after vote creates problems for somebody like Heath Schuler, who just defeated Charles Taylor by being more conservative and more Republican than Charles Taylor. We can’t allow him to be that here unless he actually wants to become a Republican, and I don’t think that’s going to happen. I think you have to look at the job that needs to be done and realize that our best opportunity to take back the majority is in the first re-election of all these Democrats who ran effectively as Republicans and the many Democrats who’ve been for some time, who since they’ve never been in the majority, have always been able to avoid taking the tough vote, we need to make that life difficult for them by the Republican whip doing the job that only the whip can do on the floor every day.

Question: How would you get around the appearance of non-change that your leadership would mean over time?

Congressman Blunt: Well, you know, I’ve been a university president, I’ve been the first Republican elected to a Statewide office—the Secretary of State’s office—in our state in 52 years when I ran on that job some time ago. And I’ve had the opportunity to be a manager—to try to make things work—and I do know you want somebody at the table that brings a perspective of the good things we have done in the past, plus an understanding of the mistakes we have made. The Speaker is gone, the conference chairman is gone, and of the six elected officials, four of them are going to be new. In any case, having to defend that you want absolutely everyone on the table to be new, instead of four out of six people to be new, is a short sided way to take the majority back.

Question: You said mistakes have been made and I wholeheartedly agree with you. I don’t think that we have a problem on our end with Republicans that are saying the wrong things. All of the Republicans that we’ve sent to Washington say the right things. They have always been on the position we need reform, they have always been on the position we need to cut spending; they are consistently that way. If they were not, they would not be a Republican candidate. We understand that words are easy to come by. Looking at six years of leadership, what reassurance do we have there’s going to be a change if we put the top two guys back in there?

Congressman Blunt: Well, I think you have to really evaluate what’s the best team you put in place that creates problems for the Democrats and opportunities for us, including opportunities to touch those markers again that are truly what we’re really all about. The federal government, as I said in my speech at The Heritage Foundation the other day, does what it does well and doesn’t do what it’s not its job to do. We need to ask those questions more often. Anytime you become more in control of something, you tend to forget about challenging the status quo every day. I think that what’s our majority, to some extent, forgot about, challenging the status quo. They became too content on nipping around the edges of the status quo. Immigration’s a good issue, where as a leader, not only did I step out as that time I was leader and whip for a few weeks or a few months and insisted it was time to bring an immigration bill to the floor even though The White House wasn’t for, at that time, was for what we wanted to do. We were for what we wanted to do, and the country was for what we wanted to do, we made the case. We’ve got to get better about, in these next two years particularly, establishing a real demand in the country that only Republicans can do. We did that exactly right in welfare reform, setting up and understanding a problem, a real desire to solve a problem, coming up with a unified solution. In the Deficit Reduction Act that we passed last year, we cut the growth in 13 different federal programs by $40 billion, a significant thing to do, but we really didn’t get much out of it. It was incredibly hard to do because instead of looking at overall significant reform, we just kind of nipped around the edges of the growth programs and didn’t set the ground work like we need to be doing in the next weeks and the next months. There’s a significant change in leadership, of the combination of leaders no matter what happens. Leadership in a body where everybody gets there the same way is sort of the combination of forces coming together. As I said, the speakers decided to leave; our majority leader Mr. DeLay left a year ago, Mr. Bader’s been there only a few months. I’ve become the number two Republican instead of the number three Republican. The important obligation to figure out every day is how to put the Democrats on the spot and define the difference in us and them, and I think we’re ready to do that. Again, ’64, ’76 and ’92 all created momentary disappointments that turned out to be silver linings for the conservative movement. I’m ready to be part of that future, and I think given the opportunity over the next few months, as you and I work together and talk together, you’ll see that we’re getting that done in the whip’s office and in our conference.

Question: You mentioned your speech at Heritage last week. I wasn’t there, but Bob Novak wrote a column, and he noted that at the speech you delivered a defense of earmarking. Of course, it’s also been brought up that you did not support Jeff Flake’s moves on those accounts this past year. Even Democrat Bill Natcher back in ’93 and ’94, old bald Democrat, was determined to completely eliminate earmarking. Why do you think earmarks are something that should still be defended and heavily used?

Congressman Blunt: Well, that’s not what I said in that speech at all, and I read the one sentence out of the speech and Bob Novak’s column. I’d encourage you to look at the speech and read the next sentence which suggests that reforming the programs is what we need to focus on rather than thinking that the panacea is just deciding on who gets to spend the money. Reform ought to be our mantra. I’m very open on whatever earmark reform is out there that ought to be talked about; I’m more than willing to talk about it. We did some legislation that I sponsored this year that the President signed in on; transparency on how the administration spends its money. I think ultimate transparency is the best solution to the problem of whoever spends this money, whether it’s the administration or the Congress. I think we ought to minimize earmarking. But, you know, if some member comes to me and says, look, we’ve voted to authorize the building of this border fence, and the administration is just refusing to do it. We can’t get it in any budget, and we can’t get it done any other way. Would you be in favor in pursuing the specific direction that this part of the fence in this highly vulnerable part of the border, go ahead and be built? I don’t think we’d want to deny ourselves, out of hand, the ability to do that. I do think reforming the system, making the system more open, being sure that we’re not abusing the system, is important. You know, something that hadn’t been mentioned on this call is in the very hard work every year of the budget. The whip, more than anybody else except the budget chairman’s responsible for passing, I’ve always voted for whatever was the most conservative budget alternative out there. Sometimes there were 70 of us, sometimes there were 80 of us, I think once we got as high as 102, but I’ve always been there with the most fiscally conservative folks in the Congress willing to go home and say, “I’m willing to spend as little money as anybody’s willing to propose at the Federal level, but I want to be sure that what the Federal government does, it does well.” Continued...