pbs高端访谈:弗吉利亚检察长在新书中批评联邦政府

 　　GWEN IFILL:Next tonight: the debate over the role of the federal government.

　　The issue was a central focus of last year's presidential campaign, and it is at the heart of a new book by Ken¹ Cuccinelli, Virginia's attorney general and a candidate for governor.

　　Judy Woodruff talked with him recently.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, thank you very much for talking with us.

　　ATTORNEY GENERAL KENNETH CUCCINELLI, R-Va.: My pleasure.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:So, the book is "The Last Line of Defense²: The New Fight for American Liberty."

　　Your main theme is about how the federal government has overstepped its authority, that it's taken liberty, it's taken freedom from the American people. And you say this goes back over a long time. So, who's responsible?

　　KENNETH CUCCINELLI:Well, you can't lay this on one person.

　　This has been a growing process. And we have reached a point in this particular administration where it's happening faster and more brazenly³ than in my lifetime and your lifetime ever before across the administration. But it isn't new. And we point out in the book Republicans have done this, other Democrats⁵ have done this.

　　It's a continual tension between the federal government, typically the executive branch of the federal government—though, with health care, you had them all engaged—and everybody else, typically represented by the states. But also, if you look at something like the first NLRB case with Boeing, that's ...

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:This is the National Labor⁶ Relations Board.

　　KENNETH CUCCINELLI:That's right—between an agency and a company. And the states can't step in there. They have got to fight for themselves.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:You start—you actually go all the way back to the founding fathers, and you write about how they struggled about this balance between power at the center ...

　　KENNETH CUCCINELLI:Right.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:... the federal government vs. the power of the states, the people.

　　KENNETH CUCCINELLI:That's right.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:And you make a case for how they didn't quite get it right.

　　If you could have gone back and looked over their shoulder, what would you have had them do differently in the beginning?

　　KENNETH CUCCINELLI:Well, I was having a similar conversation yesterday.

　　And the two things I would do differently if—or I think the founders⁷ would do differently, put more accurately⁸, if they could have looked ahead, were they wouldn't have done lifetime tenure⁹ for judges. They would have had long terms, but not lifetime. And I think they would have done term limits. But those sorts of things ...

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:You mean for members of Congress?

　　KENNETH CUCCINELLI:Of Congress and the Senate, yes.

　　And those sorts of things are pretty fundamental. And they're not going to happen now or, at least they're very unlikely. But the kinds of balance of power we're talking about really was much more gradual. If you look at one of those two changes, it's the lifetime judges, actually, because, gradually, in the end of the 19th century and as we moved into the 20th century, the court, particularly in the New Deal era, really opened up the power of the federal government relative to what it had been perceived to be for the 150 years before.

　　And that opened the door to much more expansive executive power. And we have seen that continue to happen and to grow. And what we talk about in the book is example after example where they're breaking the law, or where they're trampling¹⁰ the Constitution. And the states have a role to play. And I'm obviously an attorney general. I represent a state.

　　And we pushed back. And the founders expected us to do that. That part is working.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:You mentioned health care just now.

　　KENNETH CUCCINELLI:Yes.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:And you spent a lot of time in the book on health care.

　　KENNETH CUCCINELLI:Sure.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:You, as the attorney general of Virginia, want to—were the very first to sue the Obama administration over health care reform.

　　KENNETH CUCCINELLI:That's right.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:Well, now fast-forward a couple of years. A number of Republican governors around the country are saying they are going to go along with the administration's Medicaid expansion.

　　KENNETH CUCCINELLI:Right.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:How do you see that?

　　KENNETH CUCCINELLI:Well, first of all, it's worth remembering that, in that health care case, there were four constitutional arguments. The smaller-government side won three of them. We won three of them.

　　The only reason the law is still standing¹¹ is because the chief justice read the taxing power what was considered by any of us to be incredibly expansively, and upheld the law with four other votes.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:And, in fact, you say he may have done irreparable harm to the independence of the court.

　　KENNETH CUCCINELLI:I think that he did. I think that—I suspect—and I'm speculating here and not applying motives¹² -- I think he was very concerned about the view of America of the Supreme¹³ Court.

　　And in his desire to have the court be viewed favorably by America and Americans, he overthought where this ought to end up, because really what a judge ought to do is walk through a process of how to analyze¹⁴ it, is it constitutional or isn't it on any of a number of bases. And I think what he ended up doing was doing great damage to the view of Americans of the court.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:Global warming, though, you say in the book you believe there is such a thing as global warming. You just question how it's being addressed.

　　KENNETH CUCCINELLI:I have serious concerns about how it's being addressed.

　　The proposed reactions—and, by that, I mean government policies—are phenomenally expensive. They're phenomenally restrictive of opportunities in the economy. They make poor people poorer. And if you go down to Southwest Virginia with me, you will find one industry, the coal industry.

　　It's Appalachia. It's probably the poorest part of America. This administration is attacking that industry and that region of Virginia. Those are the poorest people in Virginia. And when you have this kind of incredible cost—and there are times when huge regulatory costs properly should be absorbed, but we need to be sure before we do that, because these have crushing effects in real people's lives.

　　And they're not rich people. They're poor people. Poor people are hurt first and worst by this sort of regulatory onslaught. And those are the people I'm fighting for.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:You're running for governor of the state of Virginia.

　　And a number of mainstream¹⁵ Republicans, I guess we will call them, have looked at the results of last year's election and they have said the party has got to focus on expanding its appeal to voters ...

　　KENNETH CUCCINELLI:Absolutely.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:... who didn't vote Republican last year ...

　　KENNETH CUCCINELLI:Right.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:... minorities, women. And they say extreme views are not the views that are going to—that are going to appeal.

　　How do you look at that argument? What do you say?

　　KENNETH CUCCINELLI:Well, first of all, in the context of what I have done as attorney general, or what I am most known for—there are a lot of other things I have worked on, whether it's mental health, whether it's protecting the elderly—but what I'm known for as attorney general is pushing back on the federal government.

　　And there are—because that's a confrontational¹⁶ undertaking¹⁷, there are people who view that uncomfortably in the Republican Party, some of the folks that you mentioned. But the fact of the matter is, of our three lawsuits¹⁸ with the federal government, two of them have had Democrat⁴ co-plaintiffs. We just won one last month with Fairfax County, the largest county in Virginia, run by Democrats, saved them about $250 million dollars by beating the EPA.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:So, you're saying—you're saying you're not out of the mainstream?

　　KENNETH CUCCINELLI:Not at all.

　　In fact, Pew Research last—at the end of January, had their first ever poll with a majority of Americans saying that they thought the federal government was a serious threat to their rights and liberties. Now, that means we're right in the mainstream.

　　That's not just Republicans. That—independents were in a majority, and almost 40 percent of Democrats said that. So, I think there's a serious concern that Americans have woken up to in terms of the role of government and how far it should go and how far it shouldn't go. And I have been active in pushing back on an expansive federal government. And I think that's actually being favored—more favorably viewed today than it has in recent years.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:Well, we are going to continue this interview online.

　　For now, let me thank you ...

　　KENNETH CUCCINELLI:Well, good.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF:... Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.

　　KENNETH CUCCINELLI:Thank you, Judy.

　　GWEN IFILL:And, as Judy mentioned, you can find more of that conversation on our website, including Cuccinelli's views on Medicaid expansion.

　　Also online, a different perspective, courtesy of former Vice¹⁹ President Al Gore²⁰, who joined us recently to discuss his new book, "The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change."

1 ken   

n.视野，知识领域

参考例句：

• Such things are beyond my ken.我可不懂这些事。
• Abstract words are beyond the ken of children.抽象的言辞超出小孩所理解的范围.

2 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

3 brazenly   

adv.厚颜无耻地；厚脸皮地肆无忌惮地

参考例句：

• How dare he distort the facts so brazenly! 他怎么敢如此肆无忌惮地歪曲事实！ 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• "I don't know," he answered, looking her brazenly over. “我也不知道，"他厚颜无耻地打量着她。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

4 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

5 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

7 founders   

n.创始人( founder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was one of the founders of the university's medical faculty. 他是该大学医学院的创建人之一。 来自辞典例句
• The founders of our religion made this a cornerstone of morality. 我们宗教的创始人把这看作是道德的基石。 来自辞典例句

8 accurately   

adv.准确地，精确地

参考例句：

• It is hard to hit the ball accurately.准确地击中球很难。
• Now scientists can forecast the weather accurately.现在科学家们能准确地预报天气。

9 tenure   

n.终身职位；任期；(土地)保有权，保有期

参考例句：

• He remained popular throughout his tenure of the office of mayor.他在担任市长的整个任期内都深得民心。
• Land tenure is a leading political issue in many parts of the world.土地的保有权在世界很多地区是主要的政治问题。

10 trampling   

踩( trample的现在分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯

参考例句：

• Diplomats denounced the leaders for trampling their citizens' civil rights. 外交官谴责这些领导人践踏其公民的公民权。
• They don't want people trampling the grass, pitching tents or building fires. 他们不希望人们踩踏草坪、支帐篷或生火。

11 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

12 motives   

n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• to impeach sb's motives 怀疑某人的动机
• His motives are unclear. 他的用意不明。

13 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

14 analyze   

vt.分析，解析 (=analyse)

参考例句：

• We should analyze the cause and effect of this event.我们应该分析这场事变的因果。
• The teacher tried to analyze the cause of our failure.老师设法分析我们失败的原因。

15 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

16 confrontational   

adj.挑衅的；对抗的

参考例句：

• Fans love rappers partly because they strike such a confrontational pose. 乐迷热爱这些饶舌艺人一定程度上是因为他们所采取的那种战斗姿态。 来自互联网
• You prefer a non confrontational approach when it comes to resolving disputes. 面对争端，你不喜欢采用对抗性的手段来解决。 来自互联网

17 undertaking   

n.保证，许诺，事业

参考例句：

• He gave her an undertaking that he would pay the money back with in a year.他向她做了一年内还钱的保证。
• He is too timid to venture upon an undertaking.他太胆小，不敢从事任何事业。

18 lawsuits   

n.诉讼( lawsuit的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Lawsuits involving property rights and farming and grazing rights increased markedly. 涉及财产权，耕作与放牧权的诉讼案件显著地增加。 来自辞典例句
• I've lost and won more lawsuits than any man in England. 全英国的人算我官司打得最多，赢的也多，输的也多。 来自辞典例句

19 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

20 gore   

n.凝血，血污；v.（动物）用角撞伤，用牙刺破；缝以补裆；顶

参考例句：

• The fox lay dying in a pool of gore.狐狸倒在血泊中奄奄一息。
• Carruthers had been gored by a rhinoceros.卡拉瑟斯被犀牛顶伤了。