Same-Sex Marriage Unconstitutional; UAE Vuvuzelas Banning
YELLIN: Of all of the tea party backed candidates in the country, Mike Lee may have the best chance of becoming a U.S. senator. He is the Republican nominee in Utah. And while he faces Democrat Sam Granato in November, Utah voters have not sent a Democrat to the Senate in 40 years. A little bit about Lee, he clerked for Justice Samuel Alito. His father was Ronald Reagan's solicitor general and he favors a return to the principles in vision by the Framers of the Constitution. Mike Lee joins us from Salt Lake City. Thank you for being with us.</s>MIKE LEE, (R) UTAH SENATE CANDIDATE: thank you.</s>YELLIN: It is as you know day 81 of the Gulf oil spill. Now, we know to date one of the things, Mr. Lee, that the government has done is establish a $20 billion escrow fund for people impacted by the spill. Do you think that was the right thing for President Obama to do?</s>LEE: Well, I think there are certainly more drastic measures he could have taken. And I think this is a measure that BP has been willing to go along with. And BP has agreed that it will continue to pay those claims as long as it needs to and that it's neither a floor nor a ceiling. So, I think it's good to have BP and the government working hand in hand on this issue.</s>YELLIN: Do you think the Obama administration has done enough to stop the spill?</s>LEE: I think it's done everything it can do. I don't agree with the six-month categorical moratorium, but that is what it is. And I hope that the events of this weekend will result in plugging the hole.</s>YELLIN: All right. Moving on to some of your other issues that you've talked about, you said in the campaign repeatedly that you want to restore constitutional government. Now, some of the ways that you want to do that are a little unconventional. For example, you said you'd like to repeal the 17th amendment to the constitution just as a reminder to our viewers that gives voters instead of state legislatures the power to elect U.S. senators. So, given that the tea party is all about empowering the people, why shouldn't the people elect senators?</s>LEE: The tea party movement is all about empowering the people in part by empowering the states. When the constitution was drafted back in 1787, it was written in such a way as to make sure that the power of the federal government was always checked by the power of the states. And anything that can restore power to the states will help protect us against the incremental encroachment of federal power. And that's something that we face. That's something that we have to face today. We have a national debt that's approaching $14 trillion and many Americans are required to work three or four, five months out of every just to pay their federal tax bills. So, anything that we can do to restore power to the states is something that will help control the power of the federal government and thereby protect individual liberty and property interest.</s>YELLIN: So, you as a senator, would push to repeal the 17th amendment?</s>LEE: That isn't realistic. And that's never been something I would focus on. I do think the 17th amendment was a mistake. I do think that we lost something when we adopted it, but I don't think that in our lifetime, we're going to see any movement of what to do that.</s>YELLIN: OK. You've also across the board as we've just heard been a fierce supporter of states rights. You said everything from abortion rights to legalizing marijuana should be left to the states, but you do want a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Why does the issue of same-sex marriage merit federal intervention?</s>LEE: Actually, what I've said on that is I support the defense of marriage act, which was an appropriate act by Congress under the full faith and credit clause that leaves this issue squarely in the hands of the states, and should that be upheld, I wouldn't advocate on behalf of anything else at the federal level because I think this is an issue for the states.</s>YELLIN: All right. You predict a major shift in November thanks in part to the growing popularity of the tea party, but Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has said, quote, "the tea party is just unsustainable because they can never come up with a coherent vision for governing the country. It will die out. Who's right?</s>LEE: I respectfully disagree with Senator Graham on this issue. You know, the tea party movement isn't new. Remember the tea party isn't a party. It's not even a single organization. It's not even represented by a single leader. The tea party represents a political phenomenon that takes place whenever people start reading that 223- year-old governing document that established Congress and placed important limits around its power. And it's something that is deeply embedded within many Americans who are reading the constitution, many of them for the first time and realizing that Congress was never supposed to be all things to all people.</s>YELLIN: And if I can ask you to answer this one quickly. On military spending, two pillars of the tea party movement, Sarah Palin and Ron Paul disagreed. Ron Paul wants a drastic reduction in military spending. Sarah Palin does not. Who's right?</s>LEE: I don't think we ought to be reducing military spending. One of the few things the federal government was supposed to do and is supposed to do properly is provide for our national defense and so I think we certainly ought not be cutting back on military spending.</s>YELLIN: All right. Mr. Lee, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it. And we like giving people an opportunity to get to know some of the candidates around the country. Good to have you on the show.</s>LEE: Thank you. It's good to be here.</s>YELLIN: Next, I go one-on-one with Peter Sagal of NPR's, "Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me." I ask him what he thinks about Sarah Palin's call for an uprising of pink elephant.