NEAL CONAN, host:
And we turn now to political news from around the country, or more political news, that might be appropriate to say. In Florida, a new opinion poll shows the once maligned Katherine Harris, now within nine points of the incumbent, Democratic Senator Bill Nelson. In Ohio, Iraq War veteran Paul Hackett has dropped out of the campaign for United States Senate, saying he was pressured to do so by Democratic Party leaders. And here in Washington, Vice-President Cheney faces an embarrassing hunting accident. We turn now to NPR's political junkie, political editor Ken Rudin. Nice to have you here in Studio 3A.
Mr. KEN RUDIN (Political Editor): Thanks Neal.
CONAN: Let's start with that news from Florida when Katherine Harris announced that she was going to be in this race, Republicans threw up their hands, said this was a disaster. Now she's getting a little closer.
Mr. RUDIN: Well, a little closer, certainly. What happened was that Katherine Harris is such a polarizing figure when she was Secretary of State of Florida and responsible, as so many Democrats feel, for the Bush election victory in 2000, a lot of Republicans said, look, you know, thank you Katherine Harris, thank you for all you've done, but running as a Senate candidate you'll be too polarizing and you'll bring out more Democrats than you'll probably bring out Republicans. So, we don't really want you as a nominee. So, Governor Jeb Bush and everyone down, everybody on down from Jeb Bush tried to get a different Republican to run against Bill Nelson, who's a first term Senator, who barely was elected in 2000.
So, anyway Katherine, nobody else would say yes. Everybody else said no, no, no. So finally there seems to be a coalescing among Republicans around the Katherine Harris candidacy. Jeb Bush said the other day that he will actively campaign for her. Now, they were never close, even though there were rumors that they were part in parcel of a conspiracy, but they were not. But so again it's nine points, a month ago, that same poll that has it 49-40, had Bill Nelson with a 23-point lead. So again, you know, will Katherine Harris win in November? It's hard to say but it's certainly closer than it had been. More Republicans are coming on board.
CONAN: But you wouldn't think her problem was name recognition?
Mr. RUDIN: No, no, no from both sides exactly.
CONAN: I think that's right. In another much watched Senate race in the State of Ohio, the incumbent there is Mike DeWine, Republican. Paul Hackett, who did so well in a special election for a Congressional seat in Ohio, not all that long ago, has now dropped out of the race for the Senate seat.
Mr. RUDIN: This is a very fascinating story. Republicans are in big trouble in Ohio...
CONAN: Oh, yes...
Mr. RUDIN: Governor Bob Taft, who's term limited, was indicted on some misdemeanor charge. There's a big scandal involving money futures and coins...
CONAN: Coins...
Mr. RUDIN: A guy named Noe, who has basically been indicted. And this really could affect the entire Republican ticket in Ohio. And Ohio has been solidly Republican for the longest time.
CONAN: Mm-hmm.
Mr. RUDIN: All statewide candidates, officers are Republican, both Senators are Republican, DeWine and George Voinovich. Anyway, so the Democrats were, because Hackett ran such a nice, a good campaign, a very close race in a solidly Republican district last summer, they said look we need you to run against Mike DeWine. So he got in the race and blah, blah, blah. Then after a couple of months, Sherrod Brown who earlier had said he would not run, got into the race. Sherrod Brown is much more well known longer. He's been in Congress for a long time. He has been the Secretary of State, so he has run statewide in the past. And he's raised a ton of money, far more than Paul Hackett ever will or could raise.
So basically, the same Democrats who wanted Paul Hackett to get in the race and save the party said, thanks Paul, but if it's okay with you, please leave, because we want to unite against somebody who probably could win. And that's Sherrod Brown. It reminds me basically what happened to Howard Dean in a way in 2003 when he was, you know, he was the guy who was challenging Bush on the war. He was the one who was coming out with the strong statements that was rallying the anti-war constituency of the Democratic Party, and he's made a lot of headlines, but then as he got more and more controversial, maybe they thought he couldn't win, it was really the Democrats that said well maybe he's not the guy we want. Maybe it's John Kerry, John Edwards, or whoever, but not Howard Dean. And Paul Hackett basically got the same kind of treatment.
CONAN: We're talking with NPR's political junkie, editor Ken Rudin. You can read his column if you'd like at our website NPR.org.
Mr. RUDIN: Even if you don't like it.
CONAN: Right. You're listening to TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. And let me ask you, you say, they asked him to get out of the race. Who is they? And how, in these days when there's party discipline such as it exists at any time in the Democratic Party, but these days, how do you tell somebody to get out of a race?
Mr. RUDIN: Well, what you do is if you're Charles Schumer and you're the Chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, you tell the Paul Hackett financial givers, say, stop giving to him, because Sherrod Brown is our candidate. So basically, there were a lot of tremendous pressure from the Democrats in Ohio and Washington, and Hackett said look, I want to fight Mike Duwine and the Republicans. If I'm going to spend half my time in fighting the Democrats, it's not worth it.
CONAN: Now he, as you mentioned, ran a very close race in that Congressional district, the woman who did win that seat, Jean Schmidt, then made the embarrassing comments on the floor of the House of Representatives about one of her colleagues John Mertha, saying, well, I've just heard from one of my constituents who says that Marines never cut and run, and impugned his patriotism, not apparently realizing that he'd been a longtime member of the Marine Corp.
Mr. RUDIN: Democrats would've loved for Hackett to have a rematch against Jean Schmidt. They felt that he could've beat her. Her numbers are really not that strong in that district. Even though, as I said, it's a solidly Republican district, the suburbs of Cincinnati. But Hackett promised the Democrats who were already in that Congressional race, I give you my word, I'm running for the Senate, I will not come back and run for the House. And when Hackett dropped out of the Senate race today, he said, look, I will not go back on my word, it means too much to me, and I'm not going to run for the House. I'm dropping out of politics altogether.
CONAN: One more Senate race, and again we're focusing on these in part as the Democrats have a hope of taking back control of the United States Senate, they would have to win Florida, hold that seat there, win in Ohio, and Pennsylvania, they have a chance of a pick up there.
Mr. RUDIN: They certainly do. They need six altogether to win the Senate. In Pennsylvania, Rick Santorum, who's a two-term Senator, very conservative, a leader in the pro-life faction Republican Party. He is running double digits behind Bob Casey, the state auditor general, state treasurer, the son of a former governor who is much beloved, who died, a pro-life Democrat. What is ironic about this seat, well first of all, trivia story is that no Republican Senator has been defeated in Pennsylvania since 1956.
That's fun for we junkie types, but what's interesting to me is that the Democrat, perhaps the Democrats' best shot in a Senate race is a Democrat in Pennsylvania who's not only pro-life, but pro Samuel Alito. He said he would vote for Alito if her were in the Senate. So, it's interesting that Democrats tried to portray themselves as completely different from the Republican Party, but here you have Bob Casey in Pennsylvania with a good shot at winning, I'm not saying he will win, but he has a good shot, someone who's certainly very culturally conservative on these issues.
CONAN: Yet, at the same time, a Democrat say, well, a lot of people say Democrats can't win if they have a litmus test on these questions, on abortion for example, and Senator Casey, if he gets elected, would be their outstanding example.
Mr. RUDIN: That's exactly right. And that's really the fight that's going with the Democratic Party. It's one thing again to say that we have to take on Bush and these pro-life conservatives in November, but if some of the best candidates the Democrats have are pro-life conservatives, it certainly makes it a little blurring of the lines.
CONAN: And one other story, and that's of course is the hunting accident the Vice President had over the weekend. Well, his companion, I guess, had the accident, and this of course if you've been incommunicato the last couple of days, this was a quail hunt, and Vice-President Cheney accidentally shot one of his companions. He's now back in intensive care after suffering a mild, what's described as a mild heart attack, and well, I guess last night a lot of the late night comedians had a good time with Vice-President Cheney. Not so funny.
Mr. RUDIN: No, not funny at all. Matter of fact, not only were the late night comedians, this is not something you should do on radio, but I'm holding up a copy of today's style section of the Washington Post that has bird shot all over the Style section as a joke. Even Presidential Spokesman Mark, Scott McClellan said today, that the reason that University of Texas Longhorns, which were honored today in the White House, the reason they were wearing orange is not because of, because they were hunting partners of Dick Cheney. So everybody is making these jokes, and then suddenly when the hospital announces that the bird shot has spread to his heart, and he suffered a mild heart attack, the jokes go away and then you wonder about you know, not only the severity of the incident, but where is Dick Cheney?
You talk about those who maybe incommunicato since the accident? Well, where has Dick Cheney been since Saturday? We have not heard him. He was meeting yesterday with the president and Kofi Annan, and as soon as the press was about to come in, he slipped out a back door. So, you know, again, we were prepared to do all these funny jokes, but, first of all, you have the life of a 78-year-old man, certainly in jeopardy, and you wonder again about the accountability about the Vice-President of the United States.
CONAN: Ken Rudin, thanks as always.
Mr. RUDIN: Thanks a lot Neal.
CONAN: NPR's political junkie Ken Rudin. Again go to our website NPR.org. By the way our earlier discussion about the Patriot Act, there's more on that at our website as well. I'm Neal Conan you're listening to TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.
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