mr. updegrove: mr. president, how should we view the muslim brotherhood? pres. carter: i have known members of the muslim brotherhood because when i go to egypt and other places, i try to meet with all the political people. and they have played a small role -- they are well organized. they have ties to hezbollah in lebanon and also to hamas, whose headquarters are in syria and damascus, but who also have ties with gaza, they control gaza. i think that the muslim brother hood are not anything to be afraid of in the upcoming political situation or evolution that i see as most likely, because they will be subsumed in the overwhelming demonstration of desire for freedom and true democracy. and i would say a secular or nonreligious government that we saw in the demonstrations in the last three weeks. and although the muslim brotherhood might put together a party, public opinion polls that i have seen show that only about 15% of egyptians would support the muslim brotherhood. so they'll be one of many parties

mr. updegrove: mr. president, how should we view the muslim brotherhood? pres. carter: i have known members of the muslim brotherhood because when i go to egypt and other places, i try to meet with all the political people. and they have played a small role -- they are well organized. they have ties to hezbollah in lebanon and also to hamas, whose headquarters are in syria and damascus, but who also have ties with gaza, they control gaza. i think that the muslim brother hood are not anything to be afraid of in the upcoming political situation or evolution that i see as most likely, because they will be subsumed in the overwhelming demonstration of desire for freedom and true democracy. and i would say a secular or nonreligious government that we saw in the demonstrations in the last three weeks. and although the muslim brotherhood might put together a party, public opinion polls that i have seen show that only about 15% of egyptians would support the muslim brotherhood. so they'll be one of many parties

mr. updegrove: mr. president, you mentioned something that bears repeating, and that is that you had the best legislative batting average among modern presidents with the exception of lyndon johnson. pres. carter: yes. mr. updegrove: you also talked about the divisions in washington. pres. carter: yes. mr. updegrove: can they be repaired, in your view? and if so, how? pres. carter: i don't know. i think one encouraging factor that you might be surprised at this is the taking over of the house of representatives by the republicans. because, i'm speaking as a completely objective democrat. [laughter] in the last two years, in my opinion, the republicans have been completely irresponsible because they didn't have any responsibility. in the white house, the senate, or the house. and now they do have a major part of the political responsibility. that is how they run the house of representatives. so i see in in the future maybe when there are serious disagreements that obama will make his proposal, it'll go t