Campaign 2002: Senator Bob Smith

By G. Rollo Begley | Friday, March 1, 2002

Senator Bob Smith of New Hampshire is nearing the end of his second term and is facing a fierce race for his seat. He is one of twelve senators who has a 100% rating from the American Conservative Union and is the only senator with an A+ rating from Gun Owners of America. The Senator is the ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee and also serves on the Armed Services Committee and the Strategic Forces, Acquisition and Technology, and Seapower Subcommittees. He sat down with The Dartmouth Review last week for an interview.

The Dartmouth Review: You're one of about ten senators with actual combat experience. Does that bother you at all?

Bob Smith: I wish that there were more members of Congress who had military experience. I think it would be helpful to understand some of the problems that men and women in the military experience: things like op tempo, being separated from your family, sacrifices that are made, the need for the most modern equipment, and good pay and benefits for the sacrifices they make. I'm not saying that if you haven't been in the military, you can't understand it; I just think that you're better able to understand it if you have been.

TDR: As a fairly conservative senator, how did you become so vocal on environmental issues?

Smith: Well, I was made chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee by, essentially, my seniority. You get on a committee and then people leave committees, move on, pass away, change committees and so forth. Next thing you know, you're chairman of the committee. You really can't always predict what your chairmanship might be on these committees.

I never changed my positions. I believe that to be pro-environment is conservative. Conserving our resources for our future generations is conservative, by its very definition. Teddy Roosevelt was a visionary in environmental matters, and he was a great conservative President and a Republican. So, I don't think there's any inconsistency at all in conserving our resources, whether you're a guy who likes to hunt, or somebody who likes to hike, or somebody who likes to fish, or somebody who enjoys the scenic beauty of America, or the world for that matter. Conserving our resources is consistent with a conservative message. Our conservative ideology is about conserving our values, conserving our heritage, conserving our Constitutional values, conserving the right to life, conserving the right to own a gun, conserving the right to have a strong military, conserving our nation with that strong national security. And the environment is all part of that. There's no inconsistency. We've let the Democrats, the liberals, take this away from us, in my view, unfairly, and all I've tried to do is take an issue I think brings us together and turned it into what could be a very successful thing for the Republican party: to be more competitive on environmental issues.

TDR: It appears as though you will face a primary election against Congressman [John] Sununu, and then face Governor [Jeanne] Shaheen in the general election. Will having to face two elections against fairly formidable opponents effect your campaign?

Smith: Well, it effects it in the sense that it makes you sharper. You have to be on your game. This is a republic, and in a republic, people are elected to represent other people, and everyone has a right to run, and I respect that. I believe I have a good record of standing up for conservative values over almost the past two decades. When it came time to lead on the right to life, I was there. When it came time to lead on the second amendment, I was there. I've led on national missile defense; I've led on support for our troops and security for our nation; I've led on cutting taxes and cutting spending, and I have all of the awards from all of the conservative organizations to prove it. I think my record is good, and I view [the election] as an extension of a contract. Do you want to extend my contract because you agree that I've done a good job and I can continue to do a good job, or do you want to try somebody new? If you've done a good job, I think people are fair and will return you [to office]. You just have to show them what you've done. You can't ignore people.

TDR: You recently returned from Afghanistan and the surrounding areas. Can you give us a sense of the level of stability that Hamid Karzai's new government is providing?

Smith: I was very impressed with Hamid Karzai. He spoke perfect English, and he had actually been to this state. In the 1980s, he had gone to the Keene Sentinel for an interview and he remembered it and he told me about it. The first thing he said to me was 'Oh, you're from New Hampshire? I was at the Sentinel. Say hello to the guys at the Keene Sentinel.' But, in any case, I'm optimistic. I don't think Karzai has any personal ambition. I think his ambition is to have these tribal leaders unite for a strong Afghanistan. But he's got his work cut out for him, and he's going to need a lot of help from the West, and I think we should help him. There's so much at stake here. We don't want to go in, expend our treasure, our blood, and our resources to free Afghanistan from the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and then let it all happen again. That doesn't make any sense. I think that the West, through sharing the resources, can help Afghanistan get back on its feet. I think Karzai's motives are good. I think he has a better than fifty-fifty chance to succeed, but I think he has to do it soon. The government has to get in control, so the people of Afghanistan will quickly gain confidence that the government is viable. If this doesn't happen, I would say, within the next three months, you could see this thing go back to tribal warfare again — province against province, leader against leader, tribe against tribe, and it will fall right back into chaos.

TDR: You sponsored a recent bill to allow airline pilots to carry handguns. How long might it be until we actually see armed pilots?

Smith: Well, I wish it would happen soon. We had another incident a couple of weeks ago, where a guy kicked the cockpit door down, and the co-pilot had to take him out with an ax that was in the cockpit so the pilot could cut himself out in the event of a wreck. So, fortunately for the pilot and the passengers, there was an ax in there, but that's not the way to do it. It's much more efficient to be able to stop that person with a handgun, so I wrote the legislation; it was put in the bill; it was passed by the house, passed by the senate, signed by the President; it is law, and it says that the Transportation Department, with the support of the airlines, can arm their pilots. It's not specific as to how, but it's in there, and I believe that we should do it. If we want to restore fully the confidence of passengers to fly again and not worry about somebody getting in the cockpit of an aircraft and making it a weapon of mass destruction then I think pilots have to have that ultimate last resort to take out the person who can get control of the plane, and a handgun is the best way to do that.

TDR: Finally, what else needs to be done in terms of homeland security?

Smith: Well, it's almost a moving bogey in that there's never enough that can be done. I mean, you could go on and on and on about it. How heavily do you fortify nuclear power plants? Do you fortify all of our public buildings? Do we have to have armed guards around our churches on Sunday morning? To make a long story short, you can't protect everything in a free society, so I think the best thing we can do is to hunt down the Al Queda and the terrorists wherever they are throughout the world, especially here in America. Get rid of them, get them locked up, thrown out, whatever it takes. That, to me, is the best guarantee for homeland security.

Campaign 2002: Senator Bob Smith

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