Transcript: House Majority Leader Candidates on FNS

"FOX NEWS SUNDAY" HOST CHRIS WALLACE: President Bush's agenda and the fate of House Republicans in the fall elections could be determined by a fight on Capitol Hill. It's the battle to replace Tom DeLay in the very powerful post of House majority leader.

There are three candidates and they're our exclusive guests today, acting majority leader Roy Blunt, Congressman John Boehner, and Congressman John Shadegg. Congressman Blunt did what most frontrunners do. He insisted on being interviewed separately.

U.S. REPRESENTATIVE ROY BLUNT, R-MO, ACTING MAJORITY LEADER: Good to be here, Chris.

WALLACE: You put out a statement yesterday that you now have the votes to be elected majority leader. Is this race over and in the interest of Republican unity, should these other two fellows drop out?

BLUNT: No, I don't think these other two fellows should drop out. They're both good friends of mine. They're both important members of the Congress, and they're going to be important to the future of the Congress.

Shadegg is a piece of work:

WALLACE: Congressman Shadegg, we've been talking about your two rivals' history with lobbyists. Frankly, you have a history, too, and let's put that up on the screen, if we can.

You've returned $6,900 in campaign contributions from sources connected to Jack Abramoff. You held fund-raisers at sporting events in suites provided by an Abramoff associate. And in 2002 you wrote to the interior secretary taking a position that benefited Abramoff's Indian tribe clients.

Question, are you the man to clean up the House?

SHADEGG: Well, my record is dramatically different, quite frankly, than theirs. That number for me is a fraction of what it is for either one of them. But I never took a dime from Jack Abramoff.

What happened in my instance was there was one individual who happened to have previously worked for the House who came to me and proposed each of those events. I had no idea that Jack Abramoff was involved in any way, shape or form. And more importantly, the minute I discovered last year, in December, that there were links to Mr. Abramoff, long before he was indicted, I returned all of that money either to the tribes that were involved or gave it away to charities with regard to the money that came from Abramoff's associates.

Neither of my opponents have returned all of that money. And indeed, you know, I believe my record in terms of the level of taint that's there is dramatically different from either of them.

SHADEGG: I think that we are not conveying our ideals. We're sent there to accomplish two reforms, shrink the size of government and make it more responsive, and return authority to the states, and also clean up the back room deals in Washington, not have it be what it had been under the prior team that was in power.
I don't think we have gone far enough to deliver on either of those, and I think the American people are questioning, you know, did we change Washington or did Washington change us.

You sure haven't. Not by a long shot.

I think Shadegg is right on the money about his Washington comment....the Repubs have gotten too comfy in their position and need to come down a notch or two. The Abramoff situation is more of a Republican scandal, let's face it. The question is, can they appear to be the reform party on this lobbying scandal. If not, they are in serious trouble in November.

The question is, can they appear to be the reform party on this lobbying scandal. If not, they are in serious trouble in November.

They will be do some "lobby reform" this year. Of course if the new Majority Leader were to get pinched in the Abramoff thing that would be catastrophic.

Also, I totally agree with Shadegg that they came in '94 to cut government but got sucked into the Washington culture. We need new blood and Blunt, while I like him, isn't it.

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