Jake Tapper: Commentary on political and entertainment news

Jake Tapper is the Washington correspondent for Salon.com. Before joining the Salon team, Tapper wrote for The Washington City Paper. He is the author of "Body Slam: The Jesse Ventura Story" and has written for publications such as Entertainment Weekly, GQ and The Washington Post. Tapper joined the CNN.com chat room from Washington D.C.

CNN: Thank you for joining us today, Jake Tapper, and welcome.

JAKE TAPPER: Hello, audience! Thanks for joining me today.

CNN: A proposed congressional redistricting plan may give Rep. Condit a district with a greater Democratic edge. How might this affect his political future?

TAPPER: Well, I think the feeling by the California Democratic Party was that before the recent scandal, Gary Condit, as a seven term Congressman in a fairly conservative district was a uniquely appropriate match for his Congressional district, a conservative Democrat with whom the voters of that district felt a distinct bond. Now the California Democratic Party is preparing for a scenario where Condit is no longer in the picture. Should he resign, or should he lose a re-election contest in 2002. So, they've made the district more Democratic as a contingency.

RESOURCES Message Board: The political spectrum

CHAT PARTICIPANT: Jake, what do you think should happen to Republican Rep. Bob Stump of Arizona who hasn't voted in his own district for 41 years?

TAPPER: Great question. This is one of the weirder little stories to emerge this summer. Congressman Stump is of course a very respected member of Congress, and Chairman of the House Armed Services committee. It is nothing short of remarkable that he has not actually lived in his own Congressional district for dozens of years. The director of the Arizona elections department has called this a "serious allegation," as well as one that's unprecedented. Congressman Stump owns property in his district, but actually lives 17 miles away. I'm not quite sure what should be done. Obviously this is for the people of Arizona to decide. But if I were one of his constituents, I would not be happy.

CHAT PARTICIPANT: There is some confusion over where Social Security surpluses are used. Didn't Congress authorize them for debt reduction?

TAPPER: Congress has been using the Social Security surplus for debt reduction. I'm 32 years old, and I'm scheduled to turn 69 years old in 2038, which is when, unless serious reforms are enacted, is when Social Security is set to explode. I feel very strongly that Social Security money should go towards Social Security, and nothing else. I'm disgusted at the way politicians in Washington, both the Democrats and the Republicans, have behaved so irresponsibly on this issue spending money in an out of control fashion, money that's not theirs to spend.

It wasn't as bad when the money was at least going towards debt reduction, but now we find that the money in President Bush's budget in 3 out of the next 4 years, social security dollars are scheduled to be spent on neither social security nor debt reduction, but on general government activities. It's all offensive, and my generation is going to end up getting cheated.

CHAT PARTICIPANT: I know Gary Condit's son resigned his state job with the governor of California, but do you think possibly Chad Condit might run for the seat in his dad's place?

TAPPER: Anything is possible, but having watched the interview with Chad Condit on Larry King Live, it didn't seem he was eager to have any member of his family subject to media scrutiny at any time in the future.

CNN: A report in TIME magazine says that Castro is thinking about sending Elian to a UN conference on children. How might he be received?

TAPPER: With a lot of anger. The Cuban-American community has a large, vocal component that most recently, in Miami, was so eager to protest, that organizers of the Latin Grammys pulled their ceremony from the city, and relocated it to Los Angeles. If that's how they greet the Latin Grammys, which had no scheduled Cuban performers, and only the risk of possibly a Cuban band winning the award and thanking Castro from the stage, you have to conclude that this activist community would be enraged by the notion of Castro sending Elian to the US. So, I think if Castro does follow through with his plan, it will become a huge issue, and a media fracas.

CNN: The last original episode of " Mr. Roger's Neighborhood" is airing today. Does this tell us anything about how children's television is changing?

TAPPER: Mr. Rogers is 73 years old, and has been doing this since 1967. So, the guy is entitled to take a breath, but you're right, children's television is very different from Mr. Rogers. It's moved beyond the style of a Mr. Rogers type show, which to television experts, looks very dated. With the advent of Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel, children's TV is much faster paced, much more high tech, and I think in many ways, less effective than the children's television I had the privilege of being raised on, which included "Sesame Street," "Mr. Rogers Neighborhood," "The Electric Company," and "Zoom." Those shows focused on people in intimate situations quite often, and on education, including psychological education, and not so much irony, cleverness and hipness. I know I sound like a fuddy-duddy, but I think the stuff that PBS was doing in the '70s is far superior to what a lot of other children's programming is doing today.

CHAT PARTICIPANT: Jake, your panel last Saturday was not in favor of advertisements on teachers' cars. What about the soda machines and fast food restaurants that are in our schools?

TAPPER: Thanks for watching. I differed from the other panelists on the show on that topic, and I agree with you, there are a whole bunch of commercial images that kids are bombarded with every waking hour. I personally find it distasteful that a teacher would be advertising a sugar cereal on his or her car, the way that the Minneapolis school teacher we discussed is doing, but I find it far more distasteful that our teachers are paid so little. When athletes and celebrities endorse products because they're paid millions of dollars, I daresay they influence kids much more so than a school teacher whose Hyundai has an advertisement. So, I think I agree with you, or at least the premise of your question.

CHAT PARTICIPANT: Jake, do you have any thoughts on Wrangler Jeans using "Fortunate Son" to sell jeans?

TAPPER: Just another misuse of an otherwise poignant and provocative song, this one obviously dealing with the fact that individuals who didn't have rich fathers to pull strings for them to get them into the National Guard often were sent off to Vietnam where they died. It's not unlike Nike and their sneaker ads using the Beatles song "Revolution." Nothing is sacred.

CNN: Do you have any final thoughts to share with us?

TAPPER: I think we have a good show tomorrow night. We have Jay Carney and Chris Caldwell, who are both fascinating and interesting guests, and the lovely Michele Cottle is back from her vacation. We'll be talking about the politics of the economy, Congressman Condit, Castro and Elian, Mr. Rogers, and several other interesting issues of the week, and I hope you all can join us.

CNN: Thank you for joining us today

TAPPER: Thank you very much.

Jake Tapper joined the CNN.com chat room by telephone and CNN provided a typist. This is an edited transcript of the interview which took place on August 31, 2001.