The Republican Nightmare

This idea that when the Iraqis stand up, we'll stand down? Their government has no intention of standing up. We're propping up that government and American men and women are doing the fighting.

It irritates me no end when Republicans say that all the Democrats can do is complain about what is out there—like that's difficult to do right now. But what I am saying is that while it is egotistical to think one person has the answer or that any answer will be a quick and easy fix, I do think there are some solutions out there. [Former Carter administration National Security Advisor Zbigniew] Brzezinski talked about a regional security force that is still willing to do that, whether it is the Egyptians or the Jordanians. We could start to bring them in and pull us back to Kuwait.

My fear is that if you just leave immediately—and there are a lot of people who want that—I am not convinced we are not going to see some type of genocide. The way I look at it, it is our responsibility. I know that is not the answer people want to hear.

CP: The First District runs along the entire border of southern Minnesota and is viewed as being socially conservative. There is a reference to your "Catholic values" on your website. Are you pro-choice or pro-life on abortion?

Walz: I am pro choice, openly pro choice. And the reason for that is that if our goal is to get women true opportunities, true choice, and to reduce the number of abortions, criminalization is not the way to go. That is just based on fact. The second part is the privacy issue: me extending my values and my beliefs into somebody else's values and beliefs on something as personal as that. Guess the Catholic values thing was more the social justice thing. When I went to the CYO camps, the message always was, Don't be too big for your britches; look out for people less fortunate because it could be you. There was a real sense that we are all this together. I reference those values because I feel strongly about it.

On the abortion issue, reports show that 71 percent of women who have abortions one year later say it was strictly because of economic means. So in the Clinton years when we were having the ability to provide health care and the ability to provide daycare and food, the WIC program, and those things, the abortion numbers went way down. And in the Bush administration they have gone way up. I think there are some people who are maybe searching for a little personal salvation on this and I know they feel really strongly about it. But I say, if you really want to reduce the number of abortions you make sure there are opportunities for women and that our education system is strong.

CP: Do you worry about being too socially liberal for your district?

Walz: No. Because I think I am consistent on the subject of personal freedoms and where the line of government ends. I am a strong advocate for people's right to hunt and own guns. It is a state's rights issue for one thing—Guiliani and the Republicans are the gun-control people in New York. I am about government doing the things that we can't do alone; it is an extension of things we can best do together. But when it comes to those personal freedoms, I am very much conservative in saying hands-off those things.

I never really saw how it was a conservative value for people to let government reach in and change your positions on health care. My wife and I spent many years having this little girl and that was a decision made at the fertility clinic and Mayo between my wife and myself and I don't want the government involved in that—no more than I want them to control my hunting decisions.

CP: Fiscally, if you want to spend money to improve education, the tax cuts can't be locked in the way Bush is now proposing, can they?

Walz: I will not be nearly as willing to give tax cuts to that top percentage of people. We've got a war going on, energy prices as high as they've been, 46 million Americans without health care. And what did the U.S. Senate do this week? They debated a bill on the inheritance tax that affects 0.27 percent of the population—80 percent of that in 18 families. Those 18 families won't be helping me or supporting me, because I think there needs to be a sense of progressiveness in our tax code.

I think there are ways to save money that we are wasting. I think the $9.8 billion that disappeared in the provisional authority in Iraq might be something to look at. Because if they did that, they could bring special ed funding up to where it nearly needs to be. I am a stickler on waste. I am the guy who still uses the same textbook in my classroom that still has the Soviet Union in it because I can supplement it with new things from the computer and GIS programs. You don't need to spend $45,000 on those new textbooks.