Fritz Is Getting Out Of Dodge - May As Well...

TRANSCRIPT: Hollings Not to Seek
Re-Election in 2004

August 4, 2003


Ernest F. Hollings Advocacy Center, Columbia, SC

HOLLINGS: "With all of this attention, radio, tv and press, I'm constrained from changing my
mind. I want to confirm what you have all suspected, that I will not be opting for re-election this
next year. I say what you all suspected in that I indicated that last year, and we haven't had any
fundraisers in this state for four years. It's not that we are quitting; we have a good year and a
half worth of work. "I'm truly worried about the country's direction. And a friend just mentioned
you never hold back, but 'now you're leaving and not running, you're going to say anything and
everything.'

"I said no I can tell you this categorically, we've got the weakest president and weakest
government in the history of my 50 years of public service. I say weak president in that the poor
boy campaigns all the time and pays no attention to what's going on in the Congress. Karl Rove
tells him to do this or do that or whatever it is, but he's out campaigning. And I really don't think
our friend Mark Sanford likes the job. As a result the state and the country – your state, my
state, our country – is headed in the wrong direction with respect to our finances.

"You can see it at the state level. They are firing a thousand teachers.

"And at the national level, we've got Enron accounting galore. The President said two weeks
ago on page one of his budget report that we have a $455 billion deficit at the end of next
month; that's when the end of the fiscal year terminates. The truth of the matter is, you turn to
page 57 of the report and you'll see it's $698 billion. And he admits to a $700 billion deficit, so
you can see why the market goes down. Everyone sees who invests that there's no reason to
invest because the interest rates are going up and you can't carry your investments.

"Otherwise, riding up here, I saw this state could care less. I just saw Carolina license plates,
Tiger paw license plates, they just can't wait for the kick-offs here at the end of the month. They
just don't worry about the 60,100 textile jobs alone we have lost since NAFTA. We always
brag on BMW in Spartanburg County. Ten years ago we were down to 3.2 percent
unemployment there, and now we're at 8.5 percent unemployment. And in the country this is
endemic. In the country itself, we don't make anything any more.

"I had to make a talk on trade last week, and I looked it up and found out that at the end of
World War II we had 40 percent of our workforce in manufacturing. And now we're down to
10 percent. We've got 10 percent of the country working and producing, and we've got the
other 90 percent talking and eating. That's all they're doing.

"And we're eliminating jobs – hard manufacture, service, high-tech – all except the press and
the politicians. They don't import us. If they'd imported us, they'd get rid of us, too. I can tell
you that right now, because we're not making anything any more.

"I'm still working around the clock for the next year and a half, and of course after that I'll be
looking for a job. But you can see it's not easy to get one, by the time I go out and work and
make a living.

"Let me answer some of y'alls questions. Y'all have been courteous and considerate, and
everything else of that kind. I argued all last week -- I got the best staff and my staff is my best
friends. And they wanted to have a more formal occasion, and have all kinds of crowds around
me, to see if a thousand people would be there. But you see there's a thousand on the other
side, y'all are so happy that I'm getting out.

"We're going to put out a list of accomplishments. The people of this state have been unusually
good to me since I started up in 1948, and I've been elected seven times to the United States
Senate. Now it's time for someone else to take over."