Interview with Steve Hildebrand; Steve, Did you tell Progressives to Shut the F Up?

Rob: I think, though, that what people read into what you wrote was that progressives shouldn't be discussing his appointments.  Sort of, shouldn't be saying that they want him to appoint liberals or progressives to the remaining ones and that they shouldn't be complaining about the ones that he has appointed.

Steve: My point is that, people can complain if they want, but it's probably not helpful to solving the big problems that we face in this country.  You know, people can do whatever they want to do.  No one's going to sit around and just suggest that, you know, this kid from South Dakota is going to tell them what to do.  All I'm suggesting is that we've got some big problems and  a better way to solve them is to try and work together.  You know, I'd like to see Barack Obama succeed as president - not because I think the world of the guy but because if he succeeds, this country will succeed - and I think it's also a little bit disingenuous for people to over-generalize that his Cabinet choices to date are middle-of-the-road. A lot of these folks are not middle road - Bill Richardson is not - Tom Daschle, who I worked for, for a long period of time was thrown out of office by the voters here in South Dakota, because they thought he was too liberal. He had a liberal voting record when he was in the Senate.  Eric Holder is a very good progressive –to serve as attorney general and so you know most of the people frankly that President-elect Obama has surrounded himself in the White House with very progressive people.  David Axelrod, Rham Emanuel, Pete Rouse, Valerie Jarred.

Rob: whoa, whoa, whoa - I have a hard time thinking of Rham Emanuel  as progressive.

Steve: Of course he is.

Rob: my perspective of him is he's a guy who has on a number of occasions helped fund more conservative primary candidates - Democratic primary candidates who were running against progressives who were doing pretty well. 

Steve: well, Rob you gotta look at his voting record - you know he had a very progressive voting record in the House

Rob: okay well you must know that he, amongst a lot of progressives, he's looked at as a very conservative guy - don't you think?

Steve: That may be a perception that some people have; it certainly is not mine.

Rob: Okay well that's fair - one of the readers on my show, OpEdNews.com, asked this question and you already answered half of it, from his recent votes to his choices for Cabinet - she says - Jersey girl says "the man has not shown one iota of progressive bent –What are some tidbits of reality that I may be missing here?"  What has he done that's progressive, since he's begun this transition process, and I'm glad you listed that list of appointees, 'cause that's helpful.

Steve: well, first and foremost he has focused, very specifically on beginning what likely will be a long process of putting our economy back on track. Again, as I said the people that are going to benefit most are the working people in this country, who will be able to keep their jobs, or get new ones. They will be able to either keep their health care or get a new job and get health care – that's pretty progressive. He has you know forwarded Tom Daschle as a person to lead up an effort to provide healthcare for all people.

Rob: I was going to ask you about - what do you know about Daschle's attitude about universal health care or in general.  The way that healthcare is moving here – you've worked with him extensively.

Steve: I know a lot about him.  You know, he recently wrote a book that was published and sold all around the country on, on getting healthcare for all-- - it's not exactly the Obama plan. – But I have no doubt that the two will work closely together to come up with a very progressive piece of legislation that I think can be successful if people will rally behind him.  And I do think that there's a lot of people that are ready to go and make this a reality for once and for all.

Rob: that would be beautiful.

Steve: in terms of Tom Daschle - There are very few people that are more passionate about the healthcare issue than Tom Daschle and he was an unbelievably good choice for this position at health and human services.

Rob: and from what I hear the reason is he knows how to get things through the Congress.

Steve: that's one of the best reasons.  He's damn good at it, and Rob just to go back to a quick point on Rham Emanuel-- thanks to the Internet and quick access – Tom - he voted with the Democratic Congress 97% of the time.

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