Rep. Kendrick Meek responds

We received hundreds of comments and questions for Rep. Kendrick Meek (news, bio, voting record). Thanks to all for participating and to Rep. Meek for his responses.

Questions ranged over a wide variety of issues, but, more than with previous guests, the conversation was driven by recent events in the news. In particular, the unfolding House page scandal that forced the resignation of Rep. Mark Foley was a popular subject on the boards.  Similarly, a rash of violence in schools sparked questions from readers. Those topics and others framed the interview with Rep. Meek.

The interview took place in Rep. Meek's office on Capitol Hill. Talk to Power producer Ilyse Veron presented Yahoo! readers' questions to the congressman.

Below is a question-by-question breakout of the interview, with links to individual responses from Rep. Meek, followed by a transcript of the interview.

Thanks again to all the participants.

The Foley Scandal

Commenting on the page scandal in Washington, one reader succinctly wrote: "Do you think the Foley scandal should be a political issue?"

See Rep. Meek's response here, or read the full transcript below.

As the Foley scandal unfolded, a number of readers asked why Congressional Democrats were not pushing for the removal of House Speaker

Dennis Hastert.

See Rep. Meek's response.

A final question regarding the scandal centered on the upcoming election. Readers asked about the fairness of keeping former Rep. Foley's name on the ballot, and likely preventing  Republicans from posting signs saying that a Foley vote is a vote for his replacements.

See Rep. Meek's response.

Florida elections and vote-counting

The disputed vote count of the 2000 election, and Florida's central role in the dispute, concerned many readers. One person wrote, "What are Democrats in Florida doing to make sure the voters have total access and their votes will be counted?"

See Rep. Meek's response.

Education

As with previous guests on Talk to Power, education was a topic of interest to many readers. One reader wrote the following: "Why is it that the catholic school system can provide a very good education at half the cost of the public school system? ... What can be done to eliminate the tremendous amount of money spent on public education for a mediocre product?"

See Rep. Meek's response.

Veron followed up by asking for amplification about the question of school costs.

See Rep. Meek's follow-up response.

Race and prisons

A reader expressed concern about the high levels of incarceration in the U.S., and the high percentage of African-Americans in the prison population. "Do you have plans or ideas that you would like to implement that will address this problem?" the reader wrote.

See Rep. Meek's response.

School violence

A number of readers voiced concern about school violence. One wrote, "Rep. Meek, Thank you for your time in considering my question. In light of all the school shootings recently, do you feel there is anything that can be done to stop this carnage?"

See Rep. Meek's response.

Immigration

Immigration has been a persistent theme of Talk to Power.  One reader posed this question for Rep. Meek: "What are your views on immigration reform, specifically since you represent one of the leading states in agricultural production? Within the past year, legislation has been passed to penalize farmers for hiring illegal aliens, do you agree with this type of reform?"

See Rep. Meek's response.

Truth in advertising

A reader expressed frustration with negative campaigning and "stretching the record" in ads, and asked Rep. Meek if he would support the idea of a "political referee" to help people get to "the real issues."

See Rep. Meek's response.

Below is the transcript of Rep. Meek's interview.

*  *  *  *

MS. VERON:  Well, Congressman Meek, thanks for sitting down with me today to respond to Yahoo! readers' questions and comments.  Judy is sorry she could not be here.

Politics of Foley Scandal

I begin with a couple of questions about Rep. Mark Foley, your Florida colleague, who, as you know, was forced to resign for inappropriate e-mails to Congressional pages and has now checked into a place for rehabilitation.

This scandal and what House leaders knew about it was much on people's minds.  The NewsHour has noted the issue is already being used in campaign commercials.  You and other Democrats raised it in south Florida earlier this week. 

CONGRESSMAN MEEK:  Hmm-mm.

MS. VERON:  One visitor to Yahoo! wrote, and this is the question I want you to answer, Do you think the Foley scandal should be a political issue?

CONGRESSMAN MEEK:  Well, I think it will be a political issue if Democrats or Republicans want it or not or don't want it.  I believe it goes to the very judgment of the House leadership on how they handled this whole situation of knowing that Congressman Foley had a problem in dealing with the some of the young pages that are in the custody of the U.S. House of Representatives.  Some of the conflicting stories that, that not only the Speaker, but the Republican, I mean the majority leader, and also the head of the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee and their example of they did, or what they knew, is very conflicting. But I think the good thing that has happened now is that we have a bipartisan ethics committee that's looking into this matter.  I believe that it will continue to be a political issue because it's something that's not controlled inside what we call the House of Representatives at this point.  We have former pages, we have staffers that knew information.  There are even members of the House that had information as it relates to this issue.  And I think it will continue. 

If I believe it should be a political issue this upcoming November?  My only reference to that would be the judgment of the present leadership, of how they've handled this situation because they are making decisions on behalf of not only our country, but also the entire world.  You have the Speaker of the House, who is third in power as it relates to the President of the United States.

Fallout from Foley

MS. VERON:  Do you agree that the Speaker should resign or do you think the investigation and whatever recommendations come from it will be sufficient?

CONGRESSMAN MEEK:  I think that we need to wait and see what the investigation reveals - who knew what, when?  And then that will be a decision that the Republican Conference is going to have to make, or we call it the conference - it's basically the Republican Caucus.  As a Democrat in the minority, we obviously vote for, we would vote for Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record) to be the Speaker of the House.  That's up to the Republican Conference on if Speaker Denny Hastert continues to stay as Speaker.

Foley on Florida Ballot

MS. VERON:  Yahoo! readers also questioned the election law keeping former Representative Foley on the Congressional ballot and likely preventing Republicans from posting signs saying a vote for Foley is a vote for his replacement.  Do you think the election rules are fair?

CONGRESSMAN MEEK:  I think they're fair, and they've been used in several other instances where we've had death of an individual that was running.  That's happened a couple of times, a couple of times in recent U.S. Senate races.  The law does not prohibit Republicans in the Foley district from mailing literature or passing out literature as people going to the polling place, saying that a vote for Foley is a vote for this other, alternative candidate that they've come up with.  But what the Florida Republican Party is asking is for supervised elections, and the taxpayers of the state of Florida pay for such a publication to be handed to the voter before they go to the voting booth.  That's against the law, and it's also against the spirit of the law in the state of Florida.

Election reform

MS. VERON:  Another question regarding elections and vote counting.  The disputed vote count of the 2000 election, and Florida's central role in the dispute, continues to be a concern to Yahoo! readers.  One person wrote: "What are Democrats in Florida doing to make sure the voters have total access and their votes will be counted?"

CONGRESSMAN MEEK:  In Florida, many Democrats, independents, and I would assume some Republicans have great concern about the manipulation in, of the Florida voting process.  You have Governor

Jeb Bush that appoints the Secretary of State now.  That person actually works for the governor.  That Secretary of State is responsible for carrying out, monitoring and administering the voting process in the state of Florida, along with 67 Supervisors of Elections.  The Florida Democratic Party works with other groups, outside groups, that are out monitoring the voting process.  They call it "voter protection," and that program is up and running to protect individuals from being disenfranchised or being denied the opportunity to vote.  This is a very tedious process. 

I strongly support a paper trail so that we'll know.  If there's a crime, there's evidence of a crime as it relates to any vote, voter tampering or foul play.  We're trying to build confidence in the Florida voting process, and we'll continue to try to do so, but I think that the general public has to stay in tune, focused on that issue, for it to become a reality.

Public or Private Schools

MS. VERON:  Congressman, education was a theme of many comments.

CONGRESSMAN MEEK:  Hmm-mm.

MS. VERON:  One person wrote: "I am a Mexican-American who is a product of the Catholic school system."  And he went on to say that he knew very little English when he first went to school, but he said that he had a very successful experience in parochial school.  "Why is it," he asks - actually, I don't know if this is a man or a woman - so why is it, this person asks, "that the Catholic school system can provide a very good education at half the cost of a public school system?"

CONGRESSMAN MEEK:  I would assume any private school, even outside of the Catholic school, they don't have the same requirements that public schools are mandated to carry out, need it be standardized testing, need it be paying teachers a certain wage and staff.  It could also be the fact that many of the public schools are quite large and have after-school components to them.  There are a number of factors that I know that drives the cost up of a public education. 

In many parts of the country, you have opportunities for people to attend private schools, and they have opted to do so with public assistance, and other parts, mainly among those that have kids with special needs and learning disabilities, what have you, when the public schools cannot meet the needs of those students. 

In Florida I have worked very hard in passing a constitutional amendment with a number of other Floridians to make class sizes smaller so that, hopefully, we'll be able to provide a small class size for all children because that's mainly the reason why many kids go to the private schools - for smaller classrooms and also for an opportunity for them to learn better and also for teachers to teach.

Public or Private Schools

MS. VERON:  This person asks what can be done to eliminate the amount of money spent on public education for "a mediocre product."  It sounds to me like you wouldn't want necessarily to spend less money.

CONGRESSMAN MEEK:  I would like to spend less money, and I would like to be more efficient as it relates to public education, but as it relates to the federal support that we provide states and local districts, mainly states that then pass it on to the local districts, school districts, is very dismal at best.  We're not even meeting our commitment to leave no child left behind.  There are many states - which is the federal education plan - there are many states, red and blue states, that have sued the federal government for a lack of funding or withholding funding or under-funding of that initiative and not following through the full federal commitment.  Making class sizes smaller is very, very important throughout the country, but it's not the silver bullet to education, but it's to make sure we get a good, that we are able to educate our children in a way that will prepare them not just to compete with the school down the street, but to compete against a school, need it be in another state or need it be overseas. 

We have to prepare our future workforce, and you can't do that with a nickel.  Some may say we want to continue to cut dollars.  That's fine.  I would like to see that too, but I would also like to see our next generation educated in way that they should be educated, because people are being taxed for it and they deserve to see a good outcome measure, and that's a good education for our children.

Prison population

MS. VERON:  Another question was about convictions, really, of African Americans.  A reader wrote, "We have the largest prison population per capita in the world, with most prisoners being minority, and the largest percentage of that being" African - they call it "Afro-American." "Do you have plans or ideas that you would like to implement that will address this problem?"

CONGRESSMAN MEEK:  There are a number of issues that should take place, that need to be re-implemented.  We had our community policing initiative that came out of the Clinton Administration, called "COPS."  Sheriffs, city police officers, local officials, and communities enjoyed that program because it was about prevention.  Right now, we're building prisons at a very fast rate.  We're focused on arrest and writing reports versus focusing on early childhood education, focusing on prevention programs, and focusing on those efforts that we've had in the past that would allow opportunities for young people.  Many young people that are growing up not only in urban, but rural America, are challenged by a lack of activities and a lack of direction.  Yes, a lot of it has to happen within the home, and I try to do it with my family, my 9-year-old son and my 11-year-old daughter.  My wife and I work very hard to bring them up in a way that we would all like for them to be, and we would like - and we bring them up in a way that they'll be productive citizens in the future. 

But I think it's important that the government also puts forth the same effort, with the same intensity as we build prisons, to be able to build bright minds and to be able to allow young people to pursue their endeavors without getting in trouble.  So, education has a lot to do with that too.

School Violence

MS. VERON:  Congressman, a number of Yahoo! readers voiced concern about school violence as they were hearing of three deadly school shootings occurring in one week.  One person wrote: "Representative Meek:  Thank you for your time in considering my question. In light of all the school shootings recently, do you feel there is anything that can be done to stop this carnage?"

CONGRESSMAN MEEK:  This is a very, very unfortunate, well, a very, very unfortunate topic, and it happens within our country and in other parts of the world.  Definitely, these individuals that are carrying out these school shootings, need it be a child or need it be an adult, they're in some sort of mental health crisis.  And we have to be able to identify these issues before they happen.  School counselors are important.  They play a very important role.  Training for teachers to be able to identify students that may need this intervention, parents watching out for unusual activity of their children and making sure that they receive the proper mental health counseling. This is almost, in a way, hard for government to guarantee a full prevention of this kind of activity from taking place, but local school districts and also all of us have to work together in trying to identify these individuals that have extreme mental health problems and to be able to deal with them more sooner than later, because we can see what the later brings to our society and also to the whole environment of education.  We should - children should not have to go to school thinking, "Will someone come to my school with a gun?"

Immigration Reform

MS. VERON:  Congressman Meek, a two-part question regarding immigration.  I note there are nearly 5.2 million immigrants of various national and ethnic origins in the United States between the ages of 18 and 25, according to a study by the Pew Hispanic Center.  That's 12 percent of Generation Next, which is essentially our audience.

"What are your views on immigration reform, specifically since you represent one of the leading states in agricultural production?  Within the past year, legislation has been passed to penalize farmers for hiring illegal aliens.  Do you agree with this type of reform?"

CONGRESSMAN MEEK:  Well, I agree with, well, as it relates to immigration, I would first think that we need to secure our borders, and also dealing with the 11 or 12 million undocumented individuals within the United States, deal with some sort of earned citizenship or earned residency here in the United States.  Being on the

Homeland Security Committee, I can tell you the law enforcement agencies and even the federal law enforcement agencies will not be able to round up 12 to 11 million or, some may say, 15 million, undocumented workers, but we have to stop undocumented individuals coming into the country. 

I also think it's very, very important that we understand that undocumented workers have been in our country and will be in our country, if we like it or not, for some time to come, and they are part of the economy of the United States of America.  And I think it's very, very important that we come to grips with that. 

I think it's very, very important that we leader up, and those of us that are elected, even those of us in local communities, and work out ways for us to allow these individuals to receive some sort of status.  Many undocumented workers are tax-paying, kids are in school - tax-paying individuals, they're children are in school, some of them are valedictorians of their class, of high school classes, and even summa and magnum cum laude in many of our institutions of higher learning, something that we are going to have to continue to work on here in this country, and I know that it's to be continued as it relates to this issue of immigration.

Truth in Advertising

MS. VERON:  Final question, Congressman, to get back to politics, specifically truth in advertising.  I read the comment of another person, who wrote in on Yahoo!:  "In Florida, there has been a record amount of money spent on commercials for the upcoming elections.  Ninety percent of those are nothing more than smear tactics and mud-slinging on both sides and also from a few independents that are running.  With this kind publicity there appears to be NO WAY to tell who is telling the truth on either side.  Voting might as well be a coin toss because there is no such thing as an ‘informed decision'" - they put that in quote - "anymore.  Would you support a plan that would help the people get to the real issues?  Maybe a sort of political referee.  That would regulate what politicians and parties do, and perhaps penalize them for ‘stretching the record' in both their advertisements as well as the job post after the election?"

CONGRESSMAN MEEK:  This is something where the voter has the power.  The McCain-Feingold legislation tried to address this in many ways, saying that one has to say, well, "I'm Kendrick Meek and I approve this ad," to bring about some level of accountability in the message to the voter, that if there's a negative ad, then the individual that's carrying out that negative ad is going to have to identify him- or herself.  If it's a 527, they have to - which is a political committee - would have to identify themselves. 

It's kind of hard because it is politics, and until negative campaigning no longer is beneficial to the individual that's running, then I think you'll continue to see it.  So much mud-slinging takes place during election seasons through - election season throughout the country, and I think it's important that the individual voter has to not only read, but pay attention to how one votes and how they carry themselves and what kind of leadership qualities. 

But many - it's almost like a schoolyard fight.  I mean, well, "He hit me first."  "No, she hit me first."  And you have to respond, because what has been found in political atmosphere is that, if you don't respond to a negative ad immediately, you will find yourself defined in the way that they wanted to define you, and it continues. 

Debates are good to watch and pay attention to, because nine times out of ten, they're done by learned journalists or individuals that are in the field of academia who can ask precise questions where you'll a clear response.

MS. VERON:  Congressman Meek, on behalf of Judy Woodruff, MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, and Yahoo! News, I appreciate your time.  Thank you for responding to these questions this morning.

CONGRESSMAN MEEK:  Thank you.

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