JOHN KERRY

HARDBALL WITH CHRIS MATTHEWS - Interview
February 10, 2004

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEWS:  Senator, I understood you had a long conversation tonight with General Clark.  Has he told you that he‘s going to drop out yet? 

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE:  No, not at all.  The general just—we had a very—very nice conversation.  It was very respectful.  And it was—you know, I‘m genuinely grateful to him for his telephone call.  But he didn‘t give me any indication. 

I think he‘s—and I don‘t know what he‘ll decide to do or where he‘ll be. 

MATTHEWS:  Let me ask you about another candidate.  I talked tonight with Governor Dean of Vermont.  And he was talking about the evils of special interest candidates.

And I said, who do—what do you define as a special interest candidate?  And here is what Howard Dean said when I asked him that. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOWARD DEAN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE:  The kinds of things that are disturbing are taking money from people like Johnny Chung and his clients and then calling the SEC to see if his clients can get favorable treatment, taking money for an insurance company—from an insurance company and then acting to help them in some matter.  That‘s the kind of thing that really gets concerned about. 

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MATTHEWS:  Well, he‘s talking about you, Senator.  What do you make of that?  That‘s Howard Dean tonight. 

KERRY:  Well, that‘s just inaccurate.  It‘s inaccurate.  That‘s what I make of it.  And it‘s unfortunate, but it‘s inaccurate. 

You know, sometimes, in the course of politics, somebody might have contributed to you.  You have no control over it.  You learn subsequently that there‘s a problem and you return it, which is exactly what I did.  And I think, of all the people in Congress, people who know me know that I have spent a career trying to get rid of the money in American politics. 

I have written the most far-reaching campaign finance reform bill with Paul Wellstone.  Paul and I wrote a bill called Clean Money, Clean Elections, which is a public finding mechanism.  In addition to that, I‘m the only United States senator who has been elected four times, currently serving, who has not—voluntarily has not taken one dime of political action committee special interest money in any of my races. 

The only people who have contributed to me are individual Americans.  And I‘m very proud of that record, because it distances you from the money and from the special interests.  I‘m also proud of the fights I‘ve taken on.  I‘ve taken on insurance companies.  I took on Newt Gingrich and stopped the Clean Air/Clean Water Act destruction he tried to accomplish. 

I took on the oil companies and stood up against the drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge.  I think I have a proud record of fighting against the kind of interests that really bother people, and I will continue to do that. 

MATTHEWS:  What do you make of the rhetoric of John Edwards‘ campaign, Senator Edwards, your colleague?  We‘ve all heard the speech.  Those of us on television have watched it many times.  It‘s basically the same stump speech over and over again about the two Americans.  In terms of education, taxation, and other matters, health care, there‘s two Americas.  Is that the kind of populist rhetoric that you would be comfortable with yourself? 

KERRY:  Well, Chris, there are two Americas with respect to education. 

I‘ve said that many times personally. 

In fact, I have talked about the separate and unequal school system that we have in America.  The fact is that, when you have a property-tax-funded school system and you have a lot of communities that have no property tax base, they have a complete unequal school system, unless the federal government or the state makes up for it.

And, in so many cases in America, that‘s not happening.  So,millions of children are, in fact, being left behind every single day in the United States.  The fact is that we have the wealthiest people in the country getting yet another tax break, which doesn‘t come out of a surplus.  It comes out of Social Security.  It‘s being transferred from the payroll tax of most average Americans to the wealthiest people in the country.  I don‘t think that makes sense, as we go deeper and deeper into deficit. 

So, I intend to continue to talk about fairness as a critical component of the fabric that holds us together as a nation.  We need that fairness.  And we need a president who fights for fairness. 

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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