The Hill News

Hutchison said that those Tea Party supporters who have derided her from earmark spending had misrepresented her record.

 

Retiring Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), appearing on ABC's “This Week” on Sunday, insisted that they would have won tough re-election fights and that they did not shrink from battle.

Lieberman denied that he decided to retire last week because of the difficult campaign he faced, while Hutchison said that those Tea Party supporters who have derided her from earmark spending had misrepresented her record.

“I believed I would have won re-election. Obviously, it would have been a tough campaign. But, you know, as I said, so what else is new?” Lieberman said.

“I think the Tea Party has done a good thing in awakening America to the problems that we are facing and saying we can do something about it. And I appreciate that. I think that, if I had run, I would have won. It would have been a tough race, for sure, but I thing I would have won,” Hutchison said.

On her record on earmarks, she said: “And, yes, there are people who think that maybe I fought too hard for Texas in spending areas, but I think I'm elected to support my state, and I have supported every spending cut, every overall spending cut.”

Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said on the show that the last election resulted in many defeats for Democrats because the public was overwhelmed by all the new policies coming out of Washington.

“What I hear all across my state are three words: Enough is enough. When you put together TARP, of course, which was done under the Bush administration, but it sort of all runs into the same reaction by people, and you add stimulus, and the auto bailout, and the health care bill, it just struck people that there was too much coming from the federal government, and so people wanted to make a change,” he said.

He was not asked on the show why he is retiring. Conrad has said he wants to focus on his role as Senate Budget Committee chairman in order to reduce budget deficits without being distracted by campaigning. He has also acknowledged that the retirement of his best friend, former Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), and recent electoral defeat of close buddy Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.) also played a role in making the job less attractive.

 

Lieberman praised Obama for moving to the political center since the election.

 

“Elections have consequences. And since then, he has really reconnected to the vital center of American politics and, I think, to the American people,” he said.

He said that the State of the Union should focus on jobs and the national debt.

“I hope the president will really be hands-on and say he's ready to take political risks if we are to get America's books back in balance for the sake of our children and grandchildren,” he said.

Hutchison said that she hopes Obama will announce he is willing to change “Obamacare” and scale back regulations.

Conrad said the speech should be about jobs, the debt, and reducing dependency on foreign oil.

On the debt, he said “there needs to be leadership to help the American people understand how serious this problem is and that it's going to take a lot more than cutting foreign aid and taxing the rich. You're not going to solve the problem that way.”

He said America has to wake up to the fact that cuts to entitlements and defense spending need to be on the table to get the U.S. fiscal house in order.