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June 25, 2008

Fmr. Rep. Portman & Fmr. Sen. Hollings on "Hannity & Colmes"

Hannity & Colmes

HANNITY: Gas prices are a major concern for Americans and a hot topic on the campaign trail. Earlier today Senator John McCain told supporters that he wants Americans weaned off foreign oil by 2025.

Meanwhile, Senator Barack Obama says McCain is, quote, "full of gimmicks," when it comes to oil independence and his plan would do nothing to help Americans struggling with high prices and would, in fact, deepen U.S. oil dependence.

Joining us now is one of those rumored names out there to be on the McCain ticket, former Ohio congressman, U.S. trade rep, Rob Portman.

Good to see you, sir.

ROB PORTMAN, FMR. U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE: Great to be on here, Sean.

HANNITY: Anybody asked you about this VP job? Did anybody talk to you about it yet?

PORTMAN: I think it's a rumor you started in the FOX newsroom tonight, and I appreciate that, but no. No.

HANNITY: Nobody.

PORTMAN: It's.

HANNITY: If Senator McCain came to you and asked you to be his vice presidential running mate, what would you say?

PORTMAN: Oh gosh, Sean. By the way I'm with him tomorrow, he's in Cincinnati. I can't wait to see him. We're going to have a town hall meeting and a fundraiser for him.

HANNITY: And what would you say?

PORTMAN: And I'll be talking to him.

HANNITY: And.

PORTMAN: I'll be talking to him about the same things I talked to him last time I was here which is things like energy policy and economic policy so I don't expect to be asked. I really don't. I'm loving being home, too.

HANNITY: All right. But I'm not trying to pressure you here. I do that to liberals.

COLMES: Go after him.

HANNITY: But if he did, what would you say.

PORTMAN: I got to wait for Alan to go after me on this.

HANNITY: All right.

PORTMAN: You know, I would cross that bridge when I came to it. But, honestly, as you know, Sean, I got home less than a year ago. I was in Washington for 15 years in Congress being in the administration.

HANNITY: All right. You're not going to answer.

PORTMAN: Commuting back and forth. It's just great to be home with three teenagers and an elderly father and it's just.

HANNITY: Let me ask you this.

PORTMAN: It's not something I'm looking forward -- I'm looking to. I'm really not.

HANNITY: I will -- I'll let you off the hook. I know you don't want to.

PORTMAN: Thank you.

HANNITY: But here's what I want -- you know, Barack Obama has -- well, he has a lot of slogans, a lot of bumper stickers, platitudes out on the campaign trail, change, change, change. Yes, we can, yes, we can.

But really, shouldn't he be, as it relates to oil, the candidate, no, we can't? We can't drill. We can't build refineries. We won't cut the gas tax for the summer. You know, we can't expand coal mining. We will only attack corporations, which won't add one gallon of gasoline to anybody's tank.

Isn't he -- maybe he should change his motto to no, we can't. What do you think?

PORTMAN: Well, that's kind of his approach to energy. And it's interesting because it's such a hot issue right now. But when you look at it, it's pretty simple.

Senator Obama is saying we got to have more alternative energy. Great. Senator McCain has been a leader on that, as you know. Conservation -- Senator John McCain is all for that. In fact, he's led the Senate on efforts to increase the corporate (INAUDIBLE), fuel economy and so on.

And then he's saying, yes, let's raise taxes, which we should -- we've learned in the 1970s is not going to do anything to increase the supply of oil or reduce the cost.

COLMES: Congressman, you know.

PORTMAN: Senator McCain, on the other hand, is willing to go to the supply side, which is where most Americans are. You know most Americans agree we ought to do more in terms of alternative energy, we ought to do more in terms of conservation.

But we've also got to figure out a way to produce more. And that's.

COLMES: Congressman.

PORTMAN: . where Senator Obama will not go.

COLMES: Appreciate having you on the show.

PORTMAN: And he is saying no.

COLMES: Thanks for being here.

PORTMAN: Good to be on.

COLMES: No VP. I want to ask you about VP. What about senator, governor?

PORTMAN: Listen, I'm really delighted to be home. I do love public service, you know. I hope to get back into it some day. We'll see.

COLMES: You're very good in not answering those questions.

PORTMAN: We will see. We'll see.

COLMES: All right. Look, I keep hearing that Barack Obama wants to raise taxes. He would cut taxes entirely for -- elders making 50 grand or less. He would cut taxes for people 75,000 or less. He would reduce the -- he would rescind the tax cuts for 250 or more.

And that's basically it. But he would not raise taxes for most Americans. So that's just not accurate. And he would do, you know, Republicans have not promoted alternative energy, conservation. That's not been on the Republican agenda at all. Shouldn't it have been?

PORTMAN: Well, it has been on the agenda. I mean the Congress and administration have supported unprecedented amounts of money, your taxpayer dollars, to help incentivize alternative fuels and also in terms of conservation we've made some recent strides with the recent energy bill.

Senator McCain has been out front on that. In fact he's wanted to do even more in terms of alternative energy and conservation.

COLMES: What have Republicans done on that?

(CROSSTALK)

COLMES: What have they done on hybrid cars? What have they done on ethanol? What have they on alternative wind energy and solar?

PORTMAN: Well, in the hybrid cars -- there's a tax credit on hybrid cars. I took advantage of it myself when I got a hybrid car a few years ago. I mean it's ridiculous to say we haven't done. We've done some things. But Alan, we haven't done enough. And then that's clear. And with $4 gasoline it's time for us to do more.

And what I was trying to say earlier is that Senator McCain has all the proposals, basically, Senator Obama does in terms of these issues. But then he goes much further and says let's do increase oil and gas production. We're going to need it during the -- before these other technologies can come.

COLMES: But our own energy department says drilling will not lower the price.

PORTMAN: And let's go ahead with nuclear power.

COLMES: The issue has been lowering the price and we keep hearing from conservatives drill, drill, drill. It's going to lower the price. Our own energy department says it would not lower the price.

PORTMAN: Of course it will lower the price.

COLMES: . in any significant fashion.

PORTMAN: Of course it'll lower the price. If you have increased supply, it's going to lower the price. The demand continues to increase. The supply is restricted. We're the only major oil-producing country in the world that limits our oil and gas production as we do. It will help. It's not the silver bullet. There is no silver bullet. But it's a comprehensive approach and Senator McCain has that comprehensive approach, including nuclear power.

COLMES: Congressman, we.

PORTMAN: . including using coal which is our greatest natural resource here in terms of energy.

COLMES: We're just out of time, sir. But we thank you very much for coming on the program.

PORTMAN: Thanks, Alan.

COLMES: Any announcement you want to make, come on back Thanks for being here.

PORTMAN: I appreciate it. Thanks, guys.

COLMES: By the way, a blast from the past as we welcome a guest you never thought you'd see on HANNITY & COLMES. Long time Sean Hannity rival Earnest Fritz Hollings joins us coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

COLMES: And we're now just 132 days away from November 4.

Our next guest no stranger to elections. Earnest "Fritz" Hollings has had a wonderful career in public office, having served for than a span of 56 years. And joining us tonight, his first "Hannity & Colmes" appearance, to talk about his book, "Making Government Work," former South Carolina Senator Earnest Fritz Hollings.

What took so long, Senator? Good to have you on the show tonight.

EARNEST "FRITZ" HOLLINGS, FORMER SOUTH CAROLINA SENATOR: Well, I just wrote the book. It came out last week. I really appreciate it, because this is the first show I've been on.

COLMES: Appreciate it very much. Now you said you didn't want to talk about your World War II hero. You want to talk about growing up in a log cabin. You wanted to talk about your failures, you said, in this book.

HOLLINGS: Well, that's the -- that's the fact. What we did, early on, when I was first in state politics in 1948 and on up to 2005, it really worked. And at the federal government it worked. But, it doesn't work anymore now. They're in gridlock up there, and what we're doing is the national parties have sort of taken over.

And we, in turn, are working around the clock. The Senate is the hardest working group in the entire world, but they're working on the campaign and raising money. They're not working on the needs of the country. And that's our problems.

COLMES: You say we're in constant campaign mode. It's one constant campaign. It didn't used to be that way as a six-year-term Senator, or six years per term Senator, correct?

HOLLINGS: Well, that's what old Dick Russell used to say. They gave you six years in the United States Senate, two years to be a statesman, two to be a politician and then the last two years to demagogue. We spent all six years raising money.

COLMES: You said you urged the public, you were the first person that court-ordered integration of public schools and get Harvey Gant as the first black student at Clemson. You -- you were very active there.

Earlier Slate magazine reported that you had a short time as a segregationist and Howard Raines of the Times, when he asked you about that, you said you didn't know it was wrong just after the fact, that you knew it was wrong back at the time. Is that an accurate quote?

HOLLINGS: I think it is accurate. The truth of the matter is, I went up on the arguments of Brown against the Board of Education. Actually, the leading case was Briggs against Elliott before the United States Supreme Court. That's the one Thurgood Marshall argued.

And when I heard Gabby Hayes, one of the African-American attorneys say, "Look, we fought in the front lines in Europe, and then we come home and we have to sit in the back of the bus," I knew it was wrong.

And we had quite a to-do when we first allowed blacks to vote in South Carolina under the case of Brown against Baskin. And we had a meeting of all the delegations. And some actually quit. They said they weren't going to solicit the black vote. I argued otherwise. And later on, I survived.

HANNITY: Hey...

HOLLINGS: Yes.

HANNITY: Hey, Senator, in light of what you just said, let me just do a follow-up question to that. By the way, it's your favorite conservative, Sean Hannity. And welcome to the show.

But in light of that, a serious question. In light of what you're just admitting to, what you're saying, in light of the fact that, you know, Senator Robert Byrd had a former association with the Ku Klux Klan. And, yet, he became the leader for the Democrats in the United States Senate.

And yet Trent Lott says a few nice things about Strom Thurman on his 100th birthday and look what happened to Trent Lott? Do you think there's a double standard with Republicans and Democrats on this issue?

HOLLINGS: Well, everybody is all wrapped up tight, particularly you folks in the media.

HANNITY: You folks?

HOLLINGS: I mean, give me a break. Trent Lott was a bum rap. I mean, he was just trying to make a senator, a senior senator, an old senator, feel good. And that's all he was saying. And then it was racial.

And then, for example, I was amazed when my friend, President Bill Clinton, said after the defeat, Hillary's defeat there in South Carolina that next morning. He said, "Well, after all, Jesse Jackson carried it in 1988. But Obama ran a good race." I said what's racist about it? That's the fact. I voted for Jesse Jackson in 1988.

I finally saw in the London Economist that said the only logic was that a black couldn't win. A black just won in South Carolina overwhelmingly. Everybody in South Carolina thought they were voting for Obama.

HANNITY: Let me ask you this.

HOLLINGS: The racism is on -- in the media's part. Give me a break. I'm glad you asked the question.

HANNITY: All right. To follow up on something Alan said, and you said this more specifically about George Bush being the perpetual candidate and that that's the state of politics today and that it's hurting politics.

And you spoke specifically about the issue of Iraq and, quote, "They have no idea how to put a team on the field to win."

And then you said the following. You said, "Obviously, I was misled by our commander in chief. I didn't make a mistake. I cast the right vote in light of the president's description of the threat facing us." You assume responsibility.

Here's my question for you, because Bill Clinton made the exact same arguments in 1998. And you didn't bring that up. And my question to you is this. Did you read the National Intelligence Estimate yourself? Did you do your own homework or did you just listen to what other people were saying?

HOLLINGS: You're -- you're really reasoned around a lot of the facts. The fact is that Bill Clinton did say that in 1998, and we responded and passed a unanimous resolution in the United States Senate with Teddy Kennedy and Bob Byrd voting for it, because it said under no circumstance it authorized military action.

HANNITY: But wait. December 19 -- December 1998, he said the same thing.

HOLLINGS: ... sanction. That is in 1998. Now, wait a minute. On October the 7th, 2001, he said -- it was in 2001 out in Cincinnati, he said facing clear elements of peril. We cannot wait until the smoking gun is a mushroom cloud.

HANNITY: All right. We're running out of time. One last question.

HOLLINGS: Any time the commander in chief says that, he's got my support, whether he's Republican, Democrat, or libertarian.

HANNITY: Do you agree with Harry Reid in his characterization the war is lost? And I ask you once again, did you read the National Intelligence Estimate?

HOLLINGS: Bologna with the National Intelligence Estimate. I've been on the Hoover Commission investigating that intelligence. I know it from A to Z. And I can tell you now only the president gets actionable or the real intelligence.

HANNITY: So you didn't read it?

HOLLINGS: If they knew where Saddam was they -- I read it, but it's not conclusive. I can tell you that right now.

COLMES: Supporting the president, left, right, or in the middle. Senator, let's not wait so long before your next appearance on "Hannity & Colmes," sir.

HANNITY: Thank you, Senator.

HOLLINGS: What's that?

HANNITY: Thank you for being with us.

COLMES: I hope you come back soon. Come back and see us. Thanks you very much, sir.

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