you win by offering a specific plan about how you put the rnc back on financial track and how you keep the party together, not just in 2012, but in 2011. how you harness all of the energy available for conservative change in the country? >> you talk about this organization of the rnc -- disorganization of the rnc. do not bear some responsibility for that to? >> folks at the rnc, not just me, built a great deal of knowledge, both economic and practical, about how to run outstanding programs. the 72-hour program focuses on

election day turnout, but as elections change around the country, how republicans run a top rate absentee and early voting program as well. those were sitting on the shelf this year, not just for the rnc, but state parties funded -- but state programs anfunded by the rnc. >> you had resources to send money to wall and the virgin islands. -- to guam and the virgin islands. >> which was entirely inappropriate. and i have said so. that is why and telling our members that we need new leadership. >> you sent a letter that was harshly critical of chairman

steel and some of what had gone on in the building itself. you have been known for your discretion. you do not talk to a lot of reporters. you do not talk to a lot of folks outside of your immediate circle. but within hours, the letter was circulated widely and made news on its own current do you regret how you left the rnc? >> i spent a great deal of time thinking about what my responsibility was to our members. i certainly knew that it would make its way to the press, but i did not provide it to the press. i provided it to just members of our executive committee at the rnc. what i witnessed over the course of the summer and fall, particularly over the fall, when we return to deploy resources out into the field, members had not been given the facts about the leadership of the rnc. a lot of coverage says that my

letter was critical of german steel. but it looks flat -- but it looked at how much money was spent and how we spend those dollars, not just in the last cycle, but in several non- presidential cycles. i was very careful in that letter to just stick to the facts appeared to admit -- to the facts. i think you will find that, for all the folks who said perhaps you should have left it differently, none of them have been able to refuse any of the facts that i laid out in that letter. over the course of the fall, it became clear that members of the rnc had a sense that not all was well. they were being told by the

chairman that we had raised a record amount of money and that we had a lot of cash on hand. we passed out a lot more cash to state parties that we had before. i knew it was not all true. my career has been spent working quietly within the organization. i felt it was my responsibility to members to make sure that someone who has seen behind the court and, so to speak, had told the truth -- behind the curtain, so to speak, had told the truth. that is why i sent the letter. >> there are millions more in unpaid bills. some speculate that the debt might be higher than $20 million or even higher than $25 million. that is for you to take over the moment you get in there. you're one of the top campaign operatives in the country.

why do you want this job? why not head a presidential campaign? >> that is tempting. like many republicans and with many republican operatives, my chief objective, among others, is to win the white house back, to add to our house majority, and the majority in the senate in 2012. but i came to the conclusion, having seen a number presidential campaigns from the inside, if we did not put the rnc back on track, winning ticket -- winning a presidential campaign would be much harder and maybe not possible. seung-hui has to go in and do that job. -- somebody has to go in and do that job. the next chairman has the challenging immediately. historically, we find that the chairman in rnc history who has been able to meet those kinds of challenges with a the shortest

learning curve for people to come out of a professional political background, people who have run and one campaign, not just in the good suttles, but in the testicles over the course of a -- good cycles, but in the cycle's over the course of a variety of states. i was uniquely positioned between the professional background and also been close enough to enough committee members that i would get a fair hearing at least as a candidate for chairman. >> talking to rnc members, there is a feeling that they want of their own. they want one of their 68 to run through the committee in this upcoming cycle. that will be crucial to the party. why not elect one of their own? why bring you in? why bring someone who does not have a vote in the committee into the fold? >> there is a real hunger for

confidence. committee members are tired of being embarrassed. they're tired of being underfunded. >> are using the chairman still was not confident? -- german steele was not confidence? -- chairman steele was not confidence? >> the mission of the first -- the first mission of the next chairman is that there is a clear political statement and that they are funded. there is a hunger among membership to turn that around. my sense is that there is a real openness to hire the best person for the job, whether that is me or someone else. some members like to have emoting member of the rnc. -- have a voting member of the rnc.

i have a long and very positive relationship with many committee members. i am not a stranger to them and i have had a successful working relationship. there is a real hunger to get this right. i think people understand that, if we do not put the rnc back on track, we will not be part of putting the country back on track. more than any one other qualifier, people want some who can do the job and they want the best person to do the job. i think have been able to make that argument. >> one of the of the big changes this last year, citizens united, did that ruling and these outside interest groups really not to devalue the role of the

rnc in midterm presidential elections? >> not at all. those outside groups can raise and spend a different kinds of money. they are largely unlimited. the rnc is very limited. it results in not as much competition as some have suggested. federal law provides very specifically that the rnc and the dnc on the democrat side can do things that these other entities can do and that other committee parties cannot do. the court needed funds that can be spent on behalf of the presidential campaign, that is up to $50 million. at the national convention, it can only be organized as a coordinated turnout program, the party organization, and the party campaign. none of those things can be done by third-party groups or even by

other party committees. in a presidential cycle, the role of the national party has not been diminished. but you talked a lot about raising money and how important it is. some suggested that the next cycle will be a $300 million cycle for the rnc. you have never been a fundraiser or professional who pulls any money depots in the money -- who pulls in the money as a campaign operative. >> a commitment to go sell to investors a political plan and a business plan to put the party back contract -- i did have quite a bit of experience with that this fall. it was clear that the rnc was not raising the major donor resources needed. i found that the first problem is that they simply had not been asked in 2009-2010.

i braced myself as i went on the road for the response. i was surprised with the they are "where have you been" response. when i was able to go out and make the case, i was a success. i had a job. i was not doing it full time. but it was a significant introduction to national finance and a very successful one. if there is nothing to invest in, major donors will not come back to the party. so the next chairman very quickly will have to be able to articulate not only how you win in 2012 at the presidential level, how do we maintain a majority in the house and add to the senate, but how do we keep the party together in 2011? how do we make sure that all of

this energy anin the grass roots of the party and outside the party does not get splintered into several pieces? how do we win the candidacy in 2012? that, if you find go back in rnc's, people who have successfully run campaigns through the course of their career have made the best rnc chairman. it prepare them to sell its plan to investors and i am prepared to do that. >> listening to this and the recent conversations, there is not a real difference between what all of you are selling. what is the biggest difference between you and your competitors for this position? >> shorsure. >> it depends on what competitor you're talking about. the principal differences, while others have been around politics in various capacities in one state or another, over

the course of my career, i have consistently made a career out of winning and winning elections in a variety of states, in a variety of cycles, many of them in the last several cycles. for example, you go back over the last two presidential cycles and you find three positive anomalies. in 2004, there were two states in 2007 bushm door to bouch in 2004. -- in 2000 to bush in 2004. in 2008, i was responsible for the midwest for senator mccain and governor palin.

like i owe the four years earlier, missouri was a state that had a history of voting not for the republican, but the winner of the presidential election, regardless of party. it went from a governor -- it went from a republican governorship to a democrat governorship. i have a consistent background on the presidential level on how to win tough campaigns. " we certainly have a qualified candidates, i don't think -- while we certainly have qualified candidates, do not think we have anyone else who shares that background. >> there is more on the democratic side than on your side. what worries you more with regard to the house and senate races? >> on the house side, you have to worry about is redistricting.

it is something you have to get on top of very quickly, to make sure the rnc is healthy enough to provide redistrictors enough resources to have a successful redistricting. we have more than a dozen and a half chamber pickups in the 2010 cycle. but to take advantage of that, the rnc has to get its financial house in order and do that very quickly. the first concern from a political view that i have is in 2011, not 2012. with respect to the house, while we had a great year in 2010, just like the other party saw in 2006 and 2008, we won a lot of swing seats. we will have a lot of freshmen incumbents running in what could be a different kind of cycle in

2012. they had the wind in their sales and had a more positive political environment then they will it in 2012. they're doing their work at home, putting together good campaigns, getting started on that early. that would be my chief concern as i look at the congressional races heading into 2012. >> i want to take a step back here and talk about the timeline. you resign from the rnc on november 16. the committee that you are using to raise money was filed by one of your allies on november 9, the week before. finally, you were meeting with top donors around the country before the election actually happened. how did you make this decision -- talk about the timeline.

>> with respect to the timeline, on the filing of the committee specifically, i have a longtime friend and i was who -- we had discussions about who the next rnc chairman should be. he consistently encouraged me to make a run over several weeks. i indicated to him that i wanted to keep the option (he went ahead and filed -- keep the option open. he went ahead and filed. it had always been my intention to elect a republican president. + republican operatives share that. most republicans share that. as the questions unfolded about

how do we put the rnc back on track and what are my responsibilities with respect to making sure that our members had all the facts and figures that they needed to make a good decision, the conversation shifted late in the fall from do we need to do something to eat, yes, we clearly need to do something. what is that something? as we look back at rnc history, we found that the people who had become the most successful chairman with the people who had a background professionally running and winning elections all over the country into of cycles. the challenge for candidates like that is that most of them, not all of them, have been appointed by presidents, confirmed by the committee, and not necessarily elected in their own right. as we started looking around the country at who share that

professional qualifications, there are a number people who do. we also added in the other criteria. who is close enough to the committee and has a long enough relationship with the committee, a positive enough relationship with the members to have a fair hearing is not be successful in a campaign? we came to the conclusion that i am uniquely positioned at the intersection of those two requirements. it was a decision that i did not arrive at lightly. i think that the next rnc chairman will have enormous challenges on his or her doorstep on the one. the first debt payment, the first $5 million debt payment for the new chairman comes into europe, just a matter of weeks after the -- comes in february, just a matter of weeks after the

election. how you prepare the ground game of the convention in 2011 so that, by we havthe time we havea nominee in the spring, it will not be a long learning curve? >> what worries you most? >> i think the party has to be worried about either scenario. either one draws from not lead the basis of conservative support, but from the growing base of no-party and independent people who view the republican party and our nominee as a more viable and more preferable

alternative to president obama and his liberal policies. i think a third-party candidacy, regardless of whether it comes just to the right or just to the left our nominee, it will pull more votes from our base than president obama. i think that there is a huge amount of energy in the country. frankly, our party did not behave itself very well the last six years or eight years that we were in the majority. so we have to re-earn suntrust. i think that that is legitimate. people be watching how we perform as a majority and as a party. are we providing ways 40 party activists, for example, regardless of personalities, be part of the national contract.

i think those are key questions will have to worry about and the next chairman will have to be prepared for them on a 1. >> we talked about the connections and relationships with the committee. talk about the strategy of this particular race. you have just two public supporters and your opponents have more than 10 public supporters. how many people do you have to have publicly on your side to show that you are a viable candidate? >> first of all, i have officially been in the race for a shorter time than those other candidates. officially, the campaign is quite young. we have been to 20 states and we have had a very warm response. i think the vast majority of members, something like 120 to

100 -- 7 like 120 of this -- something like 120, are very positive. each week as we go forward, starting last week, we have another call with 58 members, as many of them that care to join tomorrow night. tomorrow, we will be rolling out a full finance plan. the response that i have gone from members is that that is the kind of leadership we need. we want to see what you roll out. we want to see what those plans look like. that is the majority of members, by a very wide margin. we had the holidays to see what kind of plants i roll out and to see if there any candidates to roll out specific plans.

just after the holiday season, i think you will see a lot of movement. >> how do you keep the tea party in the republican fold without appearing like you're trying to coopted to? >> number one, the next chairman of the rnc has to be absolutely serious about not practice it paying in primaries. -- not participating in primaries. that commitment ought to be made by every candidate for chairman and ought to be respected once we have the new chairman. as i travel the country and hear from people, particularly folks who are part of the tea party movement, that was one of the chief criticisms coming out of the tea party, of the party

apparatus itself, in 2010. secondly, probably more importantly, there are nearly two dozen states in the country that allow for a petition-based ballot initiative and referendum to be put on the ballot. what i propose is that we, at the rnc, leading a campaign to put referenda on the ballot to repeal obamacare. what that does is prepares us for 2012 from a turnup perspective. in 2011, it gives some constructive positive place for all of the energy that exists in the grass roots and in the tea party for conservative change someplace to go. it gives it something to do so that we're not talking about personalities. we're not simply sitting on the sidelines while the presidential nominating contests is going on. we are preparing shared mission

and shared principles to do something before the country as well. those are the kinds of things that the next rnc chairman can do. >> michael steele is one of those personalities. let me conclude with this question. why is he not suited to be rnc chairman for two more years? >> i think the past is prologue. it shows us clearly that among his strengths are not relationships with major donors, funding the party, resourced in the turnout programs that so critical to winning the white house. he is a good and decent man and has always treated me personally very well. but from that perspective, he has not been a good chairman. for that reason, i think the rnc needs new leadership in 2012.

>> thank you for being with us here on c-span. >> thank you. >> democrat russ feingold and republican bob bennett are veterans who lost their bids for fourth terms. this is about 10 minutes. mr. harkin: mr. president, with the closeth congress the senate will lose to retirement senate russ feingold of wisconsin, a proud progressive, a fearless reformer and a genuine mavrick in the very best sense of that much abused term. senator feingold has been a worthy successor to another great progressive reformer from wisconsin, senator robert "fighting bob" lathola, at whose desk i'm proud to sit here in the united states senate and who's por rate is -- portrait is in senator feingold's office.

it's not enough to have our hearts in the right place. progressivism by it's very nature is a fight against entrenched corporate interest, entrerched economic, and entrenched political fire. we haveo know how to fight and willing to fight. as our colleagues here in th senate know veryell, senator feingold is equally skilled at building bridges across the aisle and carrying the fight those who would -- we witnessed these tall enters during feingo's relentless campaign to pass the landmark 2002 bipartisan campaign reform act better known as the -- as the mccain-feingold law. senator feingold and his legislative partner, senator mccain, championed this legislation for nearly two years, overcoming stiff resistance from both parties as

well as powerful interests outside the senate. they faced countless obstacles. they refused to give up and they won. again in 2007 in the wake of the abe a.m. office scandals, -- abram office scandals, senator feingold pushed through a tough ethics and lob which aring reform bill, which had closure requirements and a crackdown on abusive practices by lobbyists. as chair of the judiciary committee's constitution subcommittee, senator feingold cast the senate's lone vote agait the u.s.a. patriot a. mr. president, for nearly two decades in this body senator feingold has been an outspoken champion of working americans fighting for safer workplaces, right to organize, better public schools, better access to higher education and health care. he has always stood up for wisconsin's