There are few watching this year’s Congressional races closer than White House Political Director Sara Taylor. Taylor, a top strategist for Bush-Cheney ’04, is a key leader in the effort to hold Congress in what has proven to be a difficult political environment.
Some polls show GOP candidates surging in the last days, fueled by grassroots conservatives that have recognized the catastrophe a Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid could be for the conservative movement.
In an exclusive interview, Taylor spoke with Townhall.com to discuss the stakes of this election and what a Democrat majority could mean.
Q: The biggest story in the news right now is John Kerry’s remarks. What do his remarks about our troops say about Democrats and their ability to lead in a post 9/11 world?
ST: With all this focus on Kerry, I’m having flashbacks to ’04. His comments were insulting to our troops. Just look at the Democratic Party to see how unfortunate they were. Their leaders called on Kerry to apologize. You now have candidates around the country canceling appearances with Senator Kerry.
Q: Besides national security, what would an America with Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid look like?
ST: We know a couple things for starters. Just given the way the big issues in this election have played out. You have candidates on both sides of the aisle who have been vocal on the most important issues facing our country: the war on terror and the economy. And in most cases, those candidates have very different views. Just consider what Democrats have done this year alone. You have Harry Reid who bragged about killing The Patriot Act. You have large numbers of Democrats in both caucuses, in the Senate and the House, having voted against the CIA interrogation program, House Democrats having voted against the Terrorist Surveillance Program. Most Senate Democrats have voted to block or kill The Patriot Act at one point or another. And so, certainly they have a very different approach to the war on terror. It suggests they don’t understand the fight we’re in.
Furthermore on the economy, most of the candidates and many of their colleagues in the Democrat Party have come out against keeping the tax cuts permanent. We know that the economic growth we’ve enjoyed the past several years has been certainly in part, if not largely driven by the tax relief, and they will eventually raise taxes and they’re not really shy about it. Their desire not to make the tax cuts permanent will be a pretty steep tax increase on American families. But, certainly on those two issues they have very different philosophies than our party and would take the country in a very different direction.
