CROWLEY: For Republicans and for New Orleans, great expectations with many hurdles. I'm Candy Crowley and this is STATE OF THE UNION.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROWLEY (voice-over): This morning, we begin with Governor Haley Barbour, the man who led the Republican Party the last time it captured the House and Senate.

And a close look at the woman who has become the most electrifying Republican. Is she running?

Actor Wendell Pierce and producer David Simon, why a major television series about a disaster?

All from New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE) CROWLEY: And now, the chairman of the Republican Governors Association, Haley Barbour of Mississippi. We met him in the patio of a classic French Quarter restaurant, Broussard's.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY: Governor, a lot of what we heard at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference has been about how good it looks this November. How good does it look this November for Republicans?

BARBOUR: Candy, the political environment for Republicans this first half of April 2010 is better than it was the first half of April 1994 when we won 54 seats in the House, took control of the House, the Senate, and more than 30 governorships, so.

CROWLEY: You're going to take control of the House and Senate?

BARBOUR: We would today. The problem is the election is not today.

CROWLEY: Don't you wish.

BARBOUR: That's why I make the point. Today the environment is better than it was in '94, it developed later, developed in a little bit different way. The people in this country are very agitated. Republicans are energized. And independents are talking like, thinking like, and planning to vote like Republicans.

CROWLEY: The governor is going to stick with us for the next several minutes. We want to take a quick break. We will be back with more on politics with the governor of Mississippi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CROWLEY: We have a retirement on the Supreme Court, Justice Stevens is leaving. How does that fit into the fall campaign? We are already hearing some Republicans say the president better not do that, he better not do that. But this is a very hot issue for Republicans, is it not?

BARBOUR: Well, look, the president is going to appoint a liberal successor to Justice Stevens, who is one of the most liberal members of the Supreme Court. In fact, some feel like he has been the leader of the left wing of the Supreme Court for -- in recent years. And we...

CROWLEY: But the president gets to do that, does he not?

BARBOUR: But everybody here, everybody watching your show understands that the president is going to appoint the most liberal person he can that he thinks he can get confirmed. And that that person will be a liberal. That's just a fact. Do I think it will affect the election? Only to the sense that it reminds the American people of something they already know, that this is far and away the most liberal administration that we have ever had in the White House, and candidly in the Congress.

CROWLEY: And so you see that they can use that? I mean, obviously, it will probably be done by November. But this has always been a big rallying cry, I think, to get people to the polls, particularly Republicans.

BARBOUR: Yes. For both sides.

CROWLEY: And you -- right.

BARBOUR: On both sides. You know, the pro-abortion people have used the Supreme Court to stoke up their supporters. And the conservatives going way back to Earl Warren have made it a cause celebre for trying to energize their people.

The good thing for Republicans right now is we have got plenty of energy. The policies of this administration and this Congress has energized our people.

CROWLEY: What's the smart thing to do for the Senate? Do they push back no matter who this nominee is or does that just make them look more like the party of no that the Democrats are trying to hang on them?

BARBOUR: I am not worried about the party of no as long as we are saying no to what the American people know are bad policies. The American people will reward you for trying to stop something they think is bad.

But in this case, we don't even know who the president is going to nominate. We know it's going to be a liberal, but you can't decide what your reaction or response is going to be until you see who he nominates.

CROWLEY: One of the opening day speakers here was former Congressman Newt Gingrich. And I want you to listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRICH: The president of the United States, the most radical president in American history.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CROWLEY: Do you agree with that?

BARBOUR: But to the degree, is he talking about the most left wing? Most left-wing policies being pursued? There's no question, that's correct. If the issue is...

CROWLEY: But what in general? I mean, what makes it the radical president?

BARBOUR: Well, the most left wing, it's about spending. I mean, he has proposed a $3.8 trillion budget with a $1.6 trillion deficit. The whole budget in 1997 -- when Newt Gingrich was speaker of the House, the whole budget wasn't $1.6 trillion.

Yet they're proposing $1.3 trillion deficit, $1.4 trillion deficit, $1.6 trillion deficit in the first three years of the Obama administration.

CROWLEY: But, Governor, that's not all of his deficit. A lot of it came from George W. Bush.

BARBOUR: Yes, about $400 billion of it. If you look at what the deficit was for the first fiscal year, about $400 billion was run up during the Clinton administration -- I mean, the Bush administration.

And the other billion -- the other trillion, you know, Candy, it's hard for us normal people to talk about trillions, and we're -- they're spending trillions and trillions and trillions. This health care bill is going to be an enormously expensive proposal. And everybody in America knows it's not going to be budget neutral.

CROWLEY: Now you -- one of things I think that catches people's ear is the word "radical," Is that helpful to the kind of dialogue that should be in politics? And is it helpful to Republicans who still fight the image of being kind of mean old white guys?

BARBOUR: You know, in my life in politics, I've always told people to speak temperately and act boldy. I don't -- radical is not a term that I'd use very often to describe anything. But there is no question, it's a matter of fact, that the policies being pursued by the Obama administration are the farthest left.

It has been a gigantic lurch to the left. And I think that's what Speaker Gingrich was trying to convey. But, you know, the words I would use are the most left wing because that's what the truth is.

CROWLEY: Let me ask you about something else, just the -- kind of the tone of politics. Virginia Governor -- new Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell designated April as Confederate Month, something that his two Democratic predecessors had refrained from doing. This caused quite a stir, particularly because the governor did not even mention slavery in this proclamation. Was that a mistake?

BARBOUR: Well, I don't think so. BARBOUR: My state legislature has made a legislatively enacted holiday, Confederate Memorial Day, and done it for years under Republican governors, Democratic governors. And for seven years as governor, I have issued a proclamation because of what the legislature has done. My Democratic predecessors did so as well.

I don't know what you would say about slavery, but anybody that thinks that you have to explain to people that slavery is a bad thing, I think that goes without saying.

CROWLEY: But the sensitivity of it, because we heard from a number of African-American politicians and just people on the street that were interviewed in Virginia going, this is offensive to celebrate something that really was about slavery and have absolutely no mention of it. What do you do in your state?

BARBOUR: Well, maybe they should talk to my Democratic legislature, which has done exactly the same thing in Mississippi for years. And as far as I know, the Democratic legislature -- we have a majority, both houses are Democrats. I'm unaware of them being criticized for it or them having their supporters feel uncomfortable with it.

CROWLEY: You know what I'm trying to get at here is that there is sort of feeling that it's insensitive, but you clearly don't agree.

BARBOUR: To me, it's a sort of feeling that it's a nit, that it is not significant, that it's not a -- it's trying to make a big deal out of something doesn't amount to diddly.

CROWLEY: I wanted to ask you about health care reform, which you mentioned a little earlier. Part of this is going to include an expansion of Medicaid. How are you going to pay for that in Mississippi?

BARBOUR: Well, that's the problem. It's going to -- if, in fact, this becomes law and goes into effect in -- out in the four, five years from now when it's supposed to go into effect, it's going to cost the Mississippi state government $150 million to $200 million minimum, and we don't have that money. It is in fact a...

CROWLEY: Would you have to raise taxes?

BARBOUR: It is in fact a tax increase on the people of Mississippi and virtually every other state. States like California in the billions of dollars per year, for us a couple of hundred million dollars a year. And the fact is we don't have the money.

And expanding Medicaid -- we're going to expand it by about 50 percent in my state. We're going to go from about 650,000 people on Medicaid to more than a 1 million people on Medicaid.

Candidly, Candy, if somebody had proposed last year, self- standing, without any other legislation, hey, I got a great idea, let's put about 15 million people on Medicaid, what would the American people have said? That's the craziest idea I ever heard of, Medicaid is always in financial trouble, it is not like government -- it's not like the federal employees health benefit plan, I can tell you that.

CROWLEY: What's the most realistic way? You have joined forces with those who think we are going to go to court on this. We think it's unconstitutional. Is that the way to go at this or is it more, like Senator McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, saying, look, this is about repeal and replace, because so many people have said this lawsuit is going nowhere.

BARBOUR: Well, there are those of us in a number of states that believe the Constitution, when it says it's limited government, that the powers of the federal government are limited by the Constitution.

And there is nothing in the Constitution, including in the commerce clause, that gives the federal government the power to force individual citizens to buy any product, a product called health insurance that has to be designed just like the federal government wants, or any other product.

Suppose, Candy, that we conservatives said everybody in America needs to buy a gun because national security and homeland security would be clearly better if our policy was adopted and that's the policy, you have to buy a gun. Now, what would the liberals say to that?

CROWLEY: I know that you have said that you're not going to criticize Michael Steele. You yourself were in his position during the very advantageous time for Republicans when you -- the last time they won the full House and the Senate. But do you think, looking at the situation around Michael Steele, that he can survive as head of the party?

BARBOUR: I expect him to be head of the party for the rest of his term.

CROWLEY: 'Til -- not one of those let's just keep him through the election and, you know, at the end he really ought to go?

BARBOUR: Well, I mean, his term ends in January of next year. You know, I was chairman of the RNC, I served two two-year terms. There were people critical of me, that's part of it. But no, I expect that Michael Steele will serve out his term.

CROWLEY: One of the things that the chairman said when he was talking on another network was that he thought he was being held to a higher standard because he's black. Do you think that's true? BARBOUR: No. That's like me saying I think I'm held to the higher standard because I'm a fat redneck with an accent like this. The fact of the matter is in that job, people are judged by results and that's just the way it is. It's the way it was for me, it's the way it was for everybody since then.

I do think it's not right for a former chairman to critique his predecessors -- I mean, his successors. I just don't think that's something that I ought to do. I kind of feel the same way President Reagan was about future presidents. He just did not -- he just didn't think it was right for him to critique them or criticize them. CROWLEY: What about Sarah Palin? She electrified this conference, and yet when you look outside of the sort of totality of the country, she really stirs up a lot of negative emotions as well. Do you she's qualified to be president right now? Do you think she has had the background and the experience if she does run, to be qualified for the job?

BARBOUR: Well, because I didn't think President Obama had the background experience to be qualified, so the fact of the matter is, she is legally qualified, and after that it's up to the American people. Just like it was for Senator Obama, now President Obama.

CROWLEY: Have you ever felt this sort of angry kind of country that we now -- you can feel it when you're out there, I think you see it with -- on both the left and the right. Is this reminiscent to you of any period in time that you've sort of lived through as a politician?

BARBOUR: Yes. There is a history in this country of people being vehement sometimes to the point of being terrible, awful, indefensible, stupid, so that has gone on in this country long before Haley Barbour was around and since then.

People today, though, more than any time that I've ever seen in my political career, are scared. They're scared that the policies of this administration and Congress are going to keep their children and grandchildren from having the opportunities they had.

And people are genuinely scared of that. That is no excuse for being uncivil, much less threatening somebody.

CROWLEY: Governor, I can't thank you enough for coming by. It seems a little weird to come to Louisiana to talk to the governor of Mississippi. But we're awfully glad you came. Thank you.

BARBOUR: Hey, it was tough to be in Broussard's without a Bloody Mary, I can tell you that.

CROWLEY: I know. Well, let me see what I can do.

(LAUGHTER)

CROWLEY: Thank you very much.

BARBOUR: Thank you, Candy.