[Crowley:] It's April but the White House and lawmakers on Capitol Hill are in a November state of mind. Earlier I spoke with the two men responsible for getting members of their party elected. Congressman Steve Israel, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and Congressman Greg Walden, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. I asked Congressman Israel about the near unanimous belief that Democrats are going to take a hit in November.
[Israel:] I'm a baseball fan. You never predict the ninth inning in the first inning. And as a Mets fan, you don't predict the ninth inning in the ninth inning. Things change.
[Crowley:] I want to put up this is a "CBS News" poll, are you excited about voting in November? Republicans 70 percent of Republicans said they're excited. 58 percent of Democrats said they were excited. Independents, 47 percent.
[Israel:] First, on that poll, the two most important words were in November. It's not November. We're the Democratic National Campaign Committee, not the climate committee. We don't worry about the climate. We build out campaigns. There is unquestionably going to be an issue of voter drop-off, there always is and we're using every tool in our toolbox, accelerating our investments in the field, putting people on the ground, 33 districts covered with staff in order to deal with the drop-off. And secondly, it is true that the president's numbers may not be where the president wants to be wants them to be but we're running against a Republican Congress whose job approval is a fraction of that. There's a new history being written in this midterm, the least popular Republican Congress in history.
[Crowley:] Which takes it right off of my statistics and to you, Congressman Walden, and that is the Republican brand is certainly at one of its lowest points ever if not the lowest point. You have interparty warfare going on.
[Walden:] Yes. And our job is to elect Republicans to office and make sure that there's a check and balance on the Barack Obama administration in Washington. And we're focused on jobs and the economy, trying to grow both. We're focused on energy development and energy export. We're focused on the things that really when you get home people care about, solving problems, trying to grow the economy. Because the economy under President Obama has not been that stellar certainly we had one of the worse recessions but one of the slowest recoveries out of it. And people are really concerned about the future of the country.
[Crowley:] Yes. But people don't much like Republicans these days.
[Walden:] Well you know, remember Congress is controlled also in the Senate by the Democrats. So when you talk about Congress approval ratings, remember you have got Harry Reid and the Democrats running the Senate. And the bills that we've passed in the House some of which by the way been on they're pretty big bipartisan margins to create jobs in American and to develop energy in America languish in the Senate. And that's unfortunate because we should work together to solve these problems, to grow jobs in America, and actually deal with the things people at home care about. They don't care as much about one party's image or another. They care about the price of gasoline going in the van when they're taking the kids to soccer and ballet. They care about whether their hours going to be cut back as they are being cut back under Obamacare as employers go from 40 hours to 30 hours. And that really hurts and hurts people
[Israel:] I have to say the Senate passed unemployment insurance extension. Republicans House members will not pass it. The Senate passed a comprehensive immigration bill. Republican House members will not pass.
[Crowley:] I have to say that the Republicans will also say, well here is what we passed on the House and it dies on the Senate. So it sort of boils down to
[Walden:] jobs and the economy really matter to people at home. That's what they care most about.
[Israel:] 200,000 jobs gained last month, 800,000 jobs lost in the last month
[Walden:] Fewer people working in America since the 1970's, more people in poverty, more people suffering.
[Crowley:] I don't think you guys are going to agree on this but let me
[Walden:] Our job together should be, how do we raise people out of poverty, how do we create better paying jobs in America.
[Crowley:] Let me ask you about a couple specific issues. The first is that, as you may know, Attorney General Holder went off script at an event this week where he said that he believes that the treatment he has been he has received in the House, particularly during a hearing this week would not have happened if he were not African-American. That he believes it's racism. He believes the opposition to the president has been based on racism. And I wanted to play you something that Nancy Pelosi said when she was asked about this.
[Rep. Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader:] I think race has something to do with the fact that they're not bringing up an immigration bill. I've heard them say to the Irish, if it were just you this would be easy.
[Crowley:] Do you agree with that?
[Israel:] The American people want solutions in Congress. They want people to oppose certain policies for the right reasons
[Crowley:] This is about racism. Do you think your Republican colleagues are racist?
[Israel:] Not all of them, no, of course not. But to a significant extent the Republican base does have elements that are animated by racism and that's unfortunate.
[Crowley:] Even the president has said, look, I think some people oppose me because of race but I think some people support me because of race.
[Israel:] That's true.
[Crowley:] And so this you know, between the war on women and the Republicans are racist or blanketing all of them if this were Irish, they would have passed immigration by now. Looked very much like election year strategy, trying to get your base out.
[Israel:] Well look, we don't need to get our base out because frankly we're ready to pass an immigration bill. And we'd rather pass an immigration bill than worry about the election. We have got 190 Democrats ready to vote on a comprehensive immigration bill today. We can do it today. And we know that not every Republican is going to agree with us on that. It passed the Senate with 67 bipartisan votes. All we need is 20 Republicans, just 20 to vote for that bill and it will be law and we don't have to have this debate anymore. We will have
[Crowley:] But you know how you know how the House works. You're in the minority and that's you know, the rules are the rules.
[Israel:] You don't even have to vote for it. The American people want us to at least vote.
[Crowley:] I want to get to your reaction to Nancy Pelosi's suggestion that she does think that race is holding up
[Walden:] That is both wrong and unfortunate. You know, there have been a lot of executive overreaches by this administration. We see the latest with Lois Lerner and the whole IRS scandal. We're now finally getting to see the email traffic back and forth. The American people just want to know the truth. They want to know the truth about what really happened and the targeting of conservative groups by the IRS. They want to know what happened in Benghazi. They want to know answers and that's all that we're trying to do. Just give us just cooperate with the Congress. Cooperate with the investigations. Give us the information we've requested so our constituents can know the truth.
[Israel:] Fewer witch hunts, more solutions would be good for America right now.
[Walden:] This is not a witch hunt when you're trying to find out why the IRS whether it's Republican or Democrat, I don't want the IRS targeting any group, whether it's liberal or conservative. And if they have, somebody should be held accountable, and that's what we're trying to do.
[Crowley:] We'll have more of our my interview with Congressmen Walden and Israel in the noon hour of this program but when we return I'll ask my next guests what they think about the 2014 strategies you've just heard and if Kathleen Sebelius' departure means a reset for Obamacare.
[Kathleen Sebelius, Former Health And Human Services Secretary:] This is the most meaningful work I've ever been a part of. In fact, it's been the cause of my life.