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DNC Chairman Rendell: 'Our Convention is Going to be Based on Reality, Not Fantasy'

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BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: How about a bit of time for the other side now. Joining me, one man who is about as far away from being a Republican as you can probably get, at least removed from his tie anyway. Ed Rendell, the former mayor, Democratic National Committee chairman here, live in Philadelphia.

Good to see you.

ED RENDELL, DNC CHAIRMAN: Good to see you, Bill.

HEMMER: Politics is a strange game here. Here you are the Democratic mayor, recruiting all these Republicans, to take their money, and now they get to take the knifes in the back.

RENDELL: Absolutely, that's the way the game is played.

HEMMER: Fourth Republican tie of the week.

RENDELL: When we were making the bid, I told Jim Nicholson, the chairman, I said, Jim, if we get the convention, I will wear elephant tie every day of the convention. This is four now.

HEMMER: Where are you going tomorrow?

RENDELL: Back to basics.

HEMMER: Listen, let's talk about Dick Cheney's speech last night, firmly putting Bill Clinton and Al Gore in his crosshairs, I mentioned earlier today. If you are Al Gore, do you want that association necessarily with Bill Clinton throughout this entire campaign? or is it a bit of a catch-22 on this?

RENDELL: Well, I think you do. I think they are making a big mistake here attacking Bill Clinton. Number one, Bill Clinton remains a very popular president with a significant majority of Americans; and, number two, in the end, if we want this election to be a referendum on the Clinton/Gore record and what we've achieved for America, we will take that as the issue in a minute.

Because the country is doing better than it has in your lifetime, Bill, and in my lifetime, and that's not an accident. That is because of very tough political decisions made by the president and the vice president. HEMMER: Republicans will say the economic factors there completely out of the hands of anyone in the White House.

RENDELL: Except they are hoisted on their own petard, as Shakespeare would say, because in 1993, when none of them voted for the Clinton/Gore budget that began reducing the deficit, they said this budget is going to cause economic chaos and disaster in this country. Well, in fact, it caused the greatest economy we've ever had in America. And it is too late for them to have made those claims in '93, and now say it doesn't matter.

HEMMER: Let's talk about this convention. A lot of people have criticized it, say it is too nice of a package here, but wouldn't Democrats love to have a similar thing, this theory of unification in L.A. in a week and a half.

RENDELL: Understand, Karl Rove deserves the Academy Award for best production of a fiction event probably ever in the history of America. What went on in that podium isn't at all related to reality. Now, we are going to do an infomercial, just like they are, but our infomercial is going to talk about things that we've done, things that we have actually done, things that we stand for.

We are going, for example, describe the difference on prescription drugs. Our plans covers all seniors, theirs doesn't; our plan is a guaranteed benefit, their plan is if the HMOs decide to develop a prescription drug plan and the HMOs have said no.

HEMMER: Wish we had more time.

RENDELL: Our convention is going to be based on reality, not fantasy.

HEMMER: Have fun in L.A.

RENDELL: Thank you.

HEMMER: What's the best cheese steak, by the way?

RENDELL: Pat's and Gino's are about dead even.

HEMMER: A lot of folks going for Jim's too.

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