Better than ABC-7 News' Andy Shaw w/Sen. Meeks and Jesse Ruiz: Berkowitz w/16th CD Abboud on War and the Economy, cable and streaming
Jeff Berkowitz: There’s certainly a heck of a lot more democracy now in Iraq than there was under Saddam Hussein. Agreed?
Robert Abboud [16th CD Dem. Nominee (Barrington Hills)]: I’m not-
Jeff Berkowitz: You’re not sure?
Robert Abboud: I’m not so sure of that, to tell you the truth.
*********************************
Jeff Berkowitz: Okay. Right now you think there should be a date certain for withdrawal from Iraq?
Robert Abboud: I believe that there should be a plan to conclude our activities in Iraq. It’s time for Iraq to take over their own country.
**************************************************
Jeff Berkowitz: Does this bill make it worse or better? Would you have voted for that three hundred billion dollar bailout of the mortgage industry?
Robert Abboud: I think that this bill temporarily improves the situation, but we’ve got a long way to go.
********************************************
Tonight's Chicago and Aurora editions of Public Affairs airs in their regular Monday night slots: Through-out the City of Chicago at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21 and in the City of Aurora and surrounding areas at 7:30 pm on ACTV-10. Go here for a partial transcript of the show, more airing schedule details, show topics and information about our guest.
****************************************************
Posted on our Youtube page is tonight's Chicago and Aurora edition of "Public Affairs," featuring 16th Cong. Dist. Democratic Nominee, Robert Abboud. You can Watch the show with Abboud here.
***************************************************
Yet another partial transcript of tonight's show is included directly, below.
*************************************************
It's the War, Stupid.
Jeff Berkowitz: Let’s shift over to the war. A lot of people say it’s still a major issue, if not the major issue. Some would say, “It’s the war, stupid.” You’re now running, would you say, as an anti-war Democrat?
Robert Abboud, 16th CD Dem. Nominee (Barrington Hills): I’m running as a Democrat that is a candidate that wants to get foreign policy moving forward. I don’t think-
The 2002 Iraq War Powers Resolution vote
Jeff Berkowitz: If you were in Congress in 2002, would you have voted against giving the President authority to take military action in Iraq? 2002. How would you have voted then?
Robert Abboud: I was not in Congress.
Jeff Berkowitz: But if you were.
Robert Abboud: I’m not even going to argue the thing.
Jeff Berkowitz: Not argue. It gives us an idea of your thought. You want to-
Robert Abboud: This is a problem. For whatever reason, I did not buy the intelligence.
Jeff Berkowitz: Did you take a position then? Were you talking about it?
Robert Abboud: Yes.
Jeff Berkowitz: Were you taking a position then?
Robert Abboud: I didn’t buy the intelligence. I didn’t see-
Jeff Berkowitz: You thought it was a bad idea. Were you doing what Barack Obama was doing, going around telling people that we shouldn’t take military action in Iraq?
Robert Abboud: No. And the reason is, when you’re in Congress, you have access to intelligence that the average citizen does not have.
Jeff Berkowitz: Which you didn’t have.
Robert Abboud: Which I didn’t have. I was a village trustee at the time. I didn’t see the intelligence that the Congress had.
Abboud's decision in 2003-04 on the War.
Jeff Berkowitz: When did you decide, publicly, that it was a bad move to be in Iraq, and that we should make efforts to withdraw?
Robert Abboud: I think as time progressed, and our own government-
Jeff Berkowitz: Can you put a year on it? 2003, 2004?
Robert Abboud: Probably in that range.
Time for the U. S. to get out of Iraq?
Jeff Berkowitz: Okay. Right now you think there should be a date certain for withdrawal from Iraq?
Robert Abboud: I believe that there should be a plan to conclude our activities in Iraq. It’s time for Iraq to take over their own country.
Important to win in Iraq?
Jeff Berkowitz: Is it important to win in Iraq? Some people say the Democrats don’t want to win, they just want to-
Robert Abboud, 16th CD Dem. Nominee (Barrington Hills): I don’t know. Tell me what “win” means.
Jeff Berkowitz: I think having a stable democracy there that’s able to defend itself.
Robert Abboud: Okay. And whose democracy?
Jeff Berkowitz: Iraq democracy. People have free elections, and they are then a potential ally, or more likely [to be]. The U.S. says, in general, democracies are better, or more likely to be, allies than totalitarian regimes…
Robert Abboud: I think you have to be careful about the word “democracy,” because in the Middle East—and, you know, half my family comes from the Middle East-
Jeff Berkowitz: That would be from Lebanon?
Robert Abboud: That would be from Lebanon. We’re Lebanese Christian. When you look at the Middle East, you have to understand that, first off, the Middle East is made of many, many different cultures that have been put together over a long period of time. They don’t view democracy in the sense of the Magna Carta, in the sense of the [U.S.] Constitution, in the way that we do.
Jeff Berkowitz: Okay. But they view-
Robert Abboud: When we talk about democracy-
Jeff Berkowitz: They had elections in Iraq. People were elected. They’re now talking about parliamentary elections and so forth.
Robert Abboud: That’s correct.
More democracy now in Iraq than there was under Saddam Hussein?
Jeff Berkowitz: There’s certainly a heck of a lot more democracy now in Iraq than there was under Saddam Hussein. Agreed?
Robert Abboud: I’m not-
Jeff Berkowitz: You’re not sure?
Robert Abboud: I’m not so sure of that, to tell you the truth.
Jeff Berkowitz: Right now, in Iraq-
Robert Abboud: I mean Saddam Hussein’s a bad guy. I’m glad he’s gone. Let’s make that clear.
Jeff Berkowitz: But you’re not sure there’s more democracy now than there was under Saddam Hussein?
Robert Abboud: When you talk about democracy, and you say, does the average person on the street have the ability to affect the future of their government, the future of their country-
Jeff Berkowitz: More so than they did before.
Robert Abboud: More so than they did before. I’m not so sure of that.
Did the Surge work?
Jeff Berkowitz: Did the surge work?
Robert Abboud, 16th CD Dem. Nominee (Barrington Hills): It depends what “work” means. If you say, “all we wanted do is to stop”-
Jeff Berkowitz: Are civilian deaths down in Iraq?
Robert Abboud: Sure. Absolutely.
Jeff Berkowitz: Are suicide bombings down?
Robert Abboud: On that level it worked.
Jeff Berkowitz: Are casualties for the Iraqi military down?
Robert Abboud: On that level it absolutely works.
Jeff Berkowitz: Casualties for the U.S. down?
Robert Abboud: Absolutely.
Jeff Berkowitz: All of those things.
Robert Abboud: But that’s not working.
Jeff Berkowitz: The administration argues fifteen of eighteen milestones-
Robert Abboud: That’s fine.
Jeff Berkowitz: Including political milestones, have now been adequately met.
Robert Abboud: Here is the—what is it you’re trying to do?
Jeff Berkowitz: You disagree with that.
Robert Abboud: I disagree with their analysis.
Jeff Berkowitz: Okay.
What does it mean for the Surge to have worked?
Robert Abboud: What does “working” mean? What working means is that Iraq moves forward in its ability to be self-deterministic and to have its own government. They have a long way to go before doing that.
Jeff Berkowitz: But they’re on the road.
Robert Abboud: And at fifteen billion dollars a month.
Jeff Berkowitz: Has the surge made it better? Has the surge made it better?
Robert Abboud: I don’t believe that the surge has been successful in doing what it is we originally set out to do.
Jeff Berkowitz: So you agree with Barack Obama, who says the surge didn’t work? You agree with Barack?
Robert Abboud, 16th CD Dem. Nominee (Barrington Hills): I generally agree with Barack. That’s correct.
Jeff Berkowitz: On that?
Robert Abboud: Yeah.
Jeff Berkowitz: As well. Okay.
Over to the Housing Crisis
Jeff Berkowitz: Let’s go quickly over to the housing crisis, the mortgage crisis, whatever you want to call it. Big bail-out now—actually President Bush has signed on to it, many Republicans have, more so Democrats have signed on to this bill. Some would characterize it as a three hundred billion dollar bailout of a lot of irresponsible lenders, including Countrywide, [also] bailing out in a sense, FreddieMac and FannieMae. As we said, your family knows something about banking.
Robert Abboud: A little bit about banking.
Jeff Berkowitz: Your father knew a great amount, and I imagine as his son you know a fair amount.
Robert Abboud: That’s right.
Jeff Berkowitz: What do you think?
Banking regulations changed in mid-90s in a way that changed bank lending strategy
Robert Abboud, 16th CD Dem. Nominee (Barrington Hills): I think you have to go back and look at where this starts from, and it starts from two basic predicates. First, that the economy has lost one of its underlying foundational components, and that’s manufacturing. Second, that we changed banking regulations in the mid-90s, right during the term of my opponent, and he supported these changes, to where we changed bank-lending strategy, from an individual risk-management approach, to a commodities approach. And those two fundamental things have come together to form the crisis that we have today.
Jeff Berkowitz: Does this bill make it worse or better? Would you have voted for that three hundred billion dollar bailout of the mortgage industry?
Did the bail-out make the situation better or worse?
Robert Abboud: I think that this bill temporarily improves the situation, but we’ve got a long way to go.
Jeff Berkowitz: But you would have voted for it.
Robert Abboud: I probably would have voted for it. [Candidate Abboud make clear, in a subsequent conversation with the host, that what he meant when he said he would have voted for such legislation is that he would have offered amendments to give the government, i.e., taxpayers, some equity interest in the receiving entities in return for the bailout, and he would have supported such bailouts only if his amendments had been incorporated in the legislation]
*************************************************
Thanks to "Public Affairs," intern Amy Allen for preparing a draft of the above partial transcript of tonight's Chicago and Aurora editions of "Public Affairs."
*************************************
Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com. You may watch "Public Affairs," shows with Presidential Candidates Obama and McCain, this week's Chicago Metro suburban edition of Public Affairs w/Senator Barack Obama, Gov. Sebelius (D-KS), DLC Chairman Harold Ford, Cong. Rahm Emanuel (D-Chicago), Attorney General Madigan, WTTW's Carol Marin, Real Clear Politics' Tom Bevan, Sun-Times Abdon Pallasch and much more, Tonight's City of Chicago and Aurora edition of Public Affairs w/16th CD Democratic Nominee Robert Abboud(Barrington Hills Village President), last week's Chicago and Aurora edition of Public Affairs with Cook County Cmsr. and Republican State's Attorney Nominee Tony Peraica and shows with many other pols (including some archived as far back as 2005 at www.PublicAffairsTv.com
*************************************************************
Recently posted shows on the Public Affairs YouTube page include this week's Chicago Metro suburban edition of Public Affairs w/Senator Obama (D-IL), Gov. Sebelius (D-KS), DLC Chairman Harold Ford, Cong. Rahm Emanuel (D-Chicago), Attorney General Madigan, WTTW's Carol Marin, Real Clear Politics' Tom Bevan, Sun-Times Abdon Pallasch and much more, Tonight's Chicago and Aurora edition of Public Affairs w/ 16th CD Democratic Nominee Robert Abboud, who is taking on 16 year, 16th CD Republican incumbent, Cong. Don Manzullo; last Monday night's Chicago and Aurora edition of Public Affairs with Cook County Cmsr. and Republican State's Attorney Nominee Tony Peraica, and other recent shows featuring the Real Clear Politics' Tom Bevan , 13th CD Demoratic Nominee Scott Harper,State Rep. Candidate Tim Stratton (R-Glencoe, 58th Dist.), Sen. Kwame Raoul(D-Chicago), Senator John Cullerton (D-Chicago)- ; State Rep. candidate Joan Solms (R-Aurora), Comm. Forrest Claypool (D-Chicago) on the Obama Presidential campaign and shows with many other pols.
*******************************************************
Robert Abboud [16th CD Dem. Nominee (Barrington Hills)]: I’m not-
Jeff Berkowitz: You’re not sure?
Robert Abboud: I’m not so sure of that, to tell you the truth.
*********************************
Jeff Berkowitz: Okay. Right now you think there should be a date certain for withdrawal from Iraq?
Robert Abboud: I believe that there should be a plan to conclude our activities in Iraq. It’s time for Iraq to take over their own country.
**************************************************
Jeff Berkowitz: Does this bill make it worse or better? Would you have voted for that three hundred billion dollar bailout of the mortgage industry?
Robert Abboud: I think that this bill temporarily improves the situation, but we’ve got a long way to go.
********************************************
Tonight's Chicago and Aurora editions of Public Affairs airs in their regular Monday night slots: Through-out the City of Chicago at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21 and in the City of Aurora and surrounding areas at 7:30 pm on ACTV-10. Go here for a partial transcript of the show, more airing schedule details, show topics and information about our guest.
****************************************************
Posted on our Youtube page is tonight's Chicago and Aurora edition of "Public Affairs," featuring 16th Cong. Dist. Democratic Nominee, Robert Abboud. You can Watch the show with Abboud here.
***************************************************
Yet another partial transcript of tonight's show is included directly, below.
*************************************************
It's the War, Stupid.
Jeff Berkowitz: Let’s shift over to the war. A lot of people say it’s still a major issue, if not the major issue. Some would say, “It’s the war, stupid.” You’re now running, would you say, as an anti-war Democrat?
Robert Abboud, 16th CD Dem. Nominee (Barrington Hills): I’m running as a Democrat that is a candidate that wants to get foreign policy moving forward. I don’t think-
The 2002 Iraq War Powers Resolution vote
Jeff Berkowitz: If you were in Congress in 2002, would you have voted against giving the President authority to take military action in Iraq? 2002. How would you have voted then?
Robert Abboud: I was not in Congress.
Jeff Berkowitz: But if you were.
Robert Abboud: I’m not even going to argue the thing.
Jeff Berkowitz: Not argue. It gives us an idea of your thought. You want to-
Robert Abboud: This is a problem. For whatever reason, I did not buy the intelligence.
Jeff Berkowitz: Did you take a position then? Were you talking about it?
Robert Abboud: Yes.
Jeff Berkowitz: Were you taking a position then?
Robert Abboud: I didn’t buy the intelligence. I didn’t see-
Jeff Berkowitz: You thought it was a bad idea. Were you doing what Barack Obama was doing, going around telling people that we shouldn’t take military action in Iraq?
Robert Abboud: No. And the reason is, when you’re in Congress, you have access to intelligence that the average citizen does not have.
Jeff Berkowitz: Which you didn’t have.
Robert Abboud: Which I didn’t have. I was a village trustee at the time. I didn’t see the intelligence that the Congress had.
Abboud's decision in 2003-04 on the War.
Jeff Berkowitz: When did you decide, publicly, that it was a bad move to be in Iraq, and that we should make efforts to withdraw?
Robert Abboud: I think as time progressed, and our own government-
Jeff Berkowitz: Can you put a year on it? 2003, 2004?
Robert Abboud: Probably in that range.
Time for the U. S. to get out of Iraq?
Jeff Berkowitz: Okay. Right now you think there should be a date certain for withdrawal from Iraq?
Robert Abboud: I believe that there should be a plan to conclude our activities in Iraq. It’s time for Iraq to take over their own country.
Important to win in Iraq?
Jeff Berkowitz: Is it important to win in Iraq? Some people say the Democrats don’t want to win, they just want to-
Robert Abboud, 16th CD Dem. Nominee (Barrington Hills): I don’t know. Tell me what “win” means.
Jeff Berkowitz: I think having a stable democracy there that’s able to defend itself.
Robert Abboud: Okay. And whose democracy?
Jeff Berkowitz: Iraq democracy. People have free elections, and they are then a potential ally, or more likely [to be]. The U.S. says, in general, democracies are better, or more likely to be, allies than totalitarian regimes…
Robert Abboud: I think you have to be careful about the word “democracy,” because in the Middle East—and, you know, half my family comes from the Middle East-
Jeff Berkowitz: That would be from Lebanon?
Robert Abboud: That would be from Lebanon. We’re Lebanese Christian. When you look at the Middle East, you have to understand that, first off, the Middle East is made of many, many different cultures that have been put together over a long period of time. They don’t view democracy in the sense of the Magna Carta, in the sense of the [U.S.] Constitution, in the way that we do.
Jeff Berkowitz: Okay. But they view-
Robert Abboud: When we talk about democracy-
Jeff Berkowitz: They had elections in Iraq. People were elected. They’re now talking about parliamentary elections and so forth.
Robert Abboud: That’s correct.
More democracy now in Iraq than there was under Saddam Hussein?
Jeff Berkowitz: There’s certainly a heck of a lot more democracy now in Iraq than there was under Saddam Hussein. Agreed?
Robert Abboud: I’m not-
Jeff Berkowitz: You’re not sure?
Robert Abboud: I’m not so sure of that, to tell you the truth.
Jeff Berkowitz: Right now, in Iraq-
Robert Abboud: I mean Saddam Hussein’s a bad guy. I’m glad he’s gone. Let’s make that clear.
Jeff Berkowitz: But you’re not sure there’s more democracy now than there was under Saddam Hussein?
Robert Abboud: When you talk about democracy, and you say, does the average person on the street have the ability to affect the future of their government, the future of their country-
Jeff Berkowitz: More so than they did before.
Robert Abboud: More so than they did before. I’m not so sure of that.
Did the Surge work?
Jeff Berkowitz: Did the surge work?
Robert Abboud, 16th CD Dem. Nominee (Barrington Hills): It depends what “work” means. If you say, “all we wanted do is to stop”-
Jeff Berkowitz: Are civilian deaths down in Iraq?
Robert Abboud: Sure. Absolutely.
Jeff Berkowitz: Are suicide bombings down?
Robert Abboud: On that level it worked.
Jeff Berkowitz: Are casualties for the Iraqi military down?
Robert Abboud: On that level it absolutely works.
Jeff Berkowitz: Casualties for the U.S. down?
Robert Abboud: Absolutely.
Jeff Berkowitz: All of those things.
Robert Abboud: But that’s not working.
Jeff Berkowitz: The administration argues fifteen of eighteen milestones-
Robert Abboud: That’s fine.
Jeff Berkowitz: Including political milestones, have now been adequately met.
Robert Abboud: Here is the—what is it you’re trying to do?
Jeff Berkowitz: You disagree with that.
Robert Abboud: I disagree with their analysis.
Jeff Berkowitz: Okay.
What does it mean for the Surge to have worked?
Robert Abboud: What does “working” mean? What working means is that Iraq moves forward in its ability to be self-deterministic and to have its own government. They have a long way to go before doing that.
Jeff Berkowitz: But they’re on the road.
Robert Abboud: And at fifteen billion dollars a month.
Jeff Berkowitz: Has the surge made it better? Has the surge made it better?
Robert Abboud: I don’t believe that the surge has been successful in doing what it is we originally set out to do.
Jeff Berkowitz: So you agree with Barack Obama, who says the surge didn’t work? You agree with Barack?
Robert Abboud, 16th CD Dem. Nominee (Barrington Hills): I generally agree with Barack. That’s correct.
Jeff Berkowitz: On that?
Robert Abboud: Yeah.
Jeff Berkowitz: As well. Okay.
Over to the Housing Crisis
Jeff Berkowitz: Let’s go quickly over to the housing crisis, the mortgage crisis, whatever you want to call it. Big bail-out now—actually President Bush has signed on to it, many Republicans have, more so Democrats have signed on to this bill. Some would characterize it as a three hundred billion dollar bailout of a lot of irresponsible lenders, including Countrywide, [also] bailing out in a sense, FreddieMac and FannieMae. As we said, your family knows something about banking.
Robert Abboud: A little bit about banking.
Jeff Berkowitz: Your father knew a great amount, and I imagine as his son you know a fair amount.
Robert Abboud: That’s right.
Jeff Berkowitz: What do you think?
Banking regulations changed in mid-90s in a way that changed bank lending strategy
Robert Abboud, 16th CD Dem. Nominee (Barrington Hills): I think you have to go back and look at where this starts from, and it starts from two basic predicates. First, that the economy has lost one of its underlying foundational components, and that’s manufacturing. Second, that we changed banking regulations in the mid-90s, right during the term of my opponent, and he supported these changes, to where we changed bank-lending strategy, from an individual risk-management approach, to a commodities approach. And those two fundamental things have come together to form the crisis that we have today.
Jeff Berkowitz: Does this bill make it worse or better? Would you have voted for that three hundred billion dollar bailout of the mortgage industry?
Did the bail-out make the situation better or worse?
Robert Abboud: I think that this bill temporarily improves the situation, but we’ve got a long way to go.
Jeff Berkowitz: But you would have voted for it.
Robert Abboud: I probably would have voted for it. [Candidate Abboud make clear, in a subsequent conversation with the host, that what he meant when he said he would have voted for such legislation is that he would have offered amendments to give the government, i.e., taxpayers, some equity interest in the receiving entities in return for the bailout, and he would have supported such bailouts only if his amendments had been incorporated in the legislation]
*************************************************
Thanks to "Public Affairs," intern Amy Allen for preparing a draft of the above partial transcript of tonight's Chicago and Aurora editions of "Public Affairs."
*************************************
Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com. You may watch "Public Affairs," shows with Presidential Candidates Obama and McCain, this week's Chicago Metro suburban edition of Public Affairs w/Senator Barack Obama, Gov. Sebelius (D-KS), DLC Chairman Harold Ford, Cong. Rahm Emanuel (D-Chicago), Attorney General Madigan, WTTW's Carol Marin, Real Clear Politics' Tom Bevan, Sun-Times Abdon Pallasch and much more, Tonight's City of Chicago and Aurora edition of Public Affairs w/16th CD Democratic Nominee Robert Abboud(Barrington Hills Village President), last week's Chicago and Aurora edition of Public Affairs with Cook County Cmsr. and Republican State's Attorney Nominee Tony Peraica and shows with many other pols (including some archived as far back as 2005 at www.PublicAffairsTv.com
*************************************************************
Recently posted shows on the Public Affairs YouTube page include this week's Chicago Metro suburban edition of Public Affairs w/Senator Obama (D-IL), Gov. Sebelius (D-KS), DLC Chairman Harold Ford, Cong. Rahm Emanuel (D-Chicago), Attorney General Madigan, WTTW's Carol Marin, Real Clear Politics' Tom Bevan, Sun-Times Abdon Pallasch and much more, Tonight's Chicago and Aurora edition of Public Affairs w/ 16th CD Democratic Nominee Robert Abboud, who is taking on 16 year, 16th CD Republican incumbent, Cong. Don Manzullo; last Monday night's Chicago and Aurora edition of Public Affairs with Cook County Cmsr. and Republican State's Attorney Nominee Tony Peraica, and other recent shows featuring the Real Clear Politics' Tom Bevan , 13th CD Demoratic Nominee Scott Harper,State Rep. Candidate Tim Stratton (R-Glencoe, 58th Dist.), Sen. Kwame Raoul(D-Chicago), Senator John Cullerton (D-Chicago)- ; State Rep. candidate Joan Solms (R-Aurora), Comm. Forrest Claypool (D-Chicago) on the Obama Presidential campaign and shows with many other pols.
*******************************************************
Labels: *
<< Home