Description: The special interests have too much influence, McCain says.

Question: Who really has the power in Washington?

Transcript: I’m sorry to tell you that there’s too much power in the hands of the special interests. There’s too much power by people who are lobbyists, and campaign contributors, and members of Congress who are beholden to the special interests, which has given us the iron triangle, and given us a situation that Dwight David Eisenhower warned us about many years ago in his farewell speech. And that is the military industrial complex and their influence and control over policies as well as the use of taxpayers’ dollars. So I would have to say that the special interests have too much influence.

The real power still will reside in the President of the United States if that president can maintain the approval of the American people. If that president can do that, that president can be the most powerful person in Washington and in the world.

Question: If you were president, how would address this?

Transcript: Well I would expose every pork barrel bill that came across my desk. I would make the authors of it famous. I would point out who the special interests are, and I would hammer them on a daily basis. And I would break their grip, and I would start acting in the interests of the American people who don’t have paid lobbyists here in Washington, or the influence that . . . that some special interests have. And finally I would restore trust and confidence in government so the people would believe me when I could tell them what wasteful, and unnecessary, and even corrupt spending is.

Recorded on: 11/20/07