Germond Addresses GOP Legislative Strategy

Aired May 10, 1996

NATALIE ALLEN, Anchor: If the presidential election were held now, two states that might get a lot of attention would be North Carolina and Pennsylvania. As a matter of fact, the president was in Pennsylvania, as you saw today. Jack Germond also spent some time in those states this week. He joins us now from Washington with some tidbits on how the presidential race and the issues stack up there. Hello, Jack. Thank you for being with us.

JACK GERMOND, Political Analyst: How are you, Natalie?

ALLEN: Fine. The GOP leadership in Washington is formulating a budget and legislative strategy now. How is it playing?

GERMOND: Well, what is really striking here is that the Republicans here inside the Beltway seem to have no connection to what's going on outside the Beltway, in places like North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Republicans are still talking about an austere budget for the next six years. The fact is, they've lost on this issue. The Medicare issue is hurting them very badly - the picture of them as cutting education hurting them very badly. They ought to drop this thing, soft peddle it, get it behind them, because it's not helping them. And you hear that not just from Democrats but from Republicans outside of Washington.

ALLEN: The price of gasoline is something that's on everybody's mind, in and outside the Beltway. Bob Dole and the GOP seem to be banking on a lot on the repeal of the gas tax. Is there support on the hustings?

GERMOND: Well, I mean, everybody wants the gas tax to be cut, everybody wants to pay less for gasoline. What you don't hear is anybody blaming Clinton or praising Dole on this. I mean, this is not a partisan issue, it is not an issue in which one side is for higher gas and the other side is against it. Both sides are against higher gasoline, and I think it's a very short-lived issue, particularly compared to things like the concern over Medicare and jobs, education, things like that.

ALLEN: Our latest CNN\Time poll shows the Democrats leading by seven points in the generic ballot question, `Who is your choice for Congress?' What do Republicans have to do to turn that around?

GERMOND: Well, I think they need- I think they need to recognize that this is a presidential year and that the whims of the 73 freshman in the House- Republican freshman in the House are secondary- and those of their leaders are secondary to getting some kind of a united party agenda behind the presidential candidate. You're not having that, and that is affecting both Bob Dole - that's why he's so far behind in so many of these states, and that's what you hear in both states, and the Congressional candidates themselves. I mean, Dole is not going to win as long as people are worried to death about what the Republican Party might do to them. If they're afraid of them in Congress, they're not going to want them in the White House.

ALLEN: Jack Germond with The Baltimore Sun, thanks for being with us today.

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