Real Clear Politics Interview with Sam Brownback

From The RealClearPolitics Blog:

I sat down with Senator Brownback in his office last Wednesday. You can read the full transcript of the interview below the jump, but let me offer a few quick observations about why Brownback is such an intriguing candidate.

Obviously, he's a hero to cultural conservatives, but Brownback is also taking the lead in the Senate on comprehensive immigration reform and he's the only Republican in the current field who came out against the President's surge in Iraq (though Chuck Hagel might be getting into the race today).

Another interesting piece of Brownback's profile that is sometimes overlooked: he grew up on a farm and was elected the youngest Secretary of Agriculture in Kansas history. When it comes to retail politics with Republicans in Iowa, he's basically one of them. How well can Rudy stand on a farm or in a local town hall meeting and talk "ag" issues? What about McCain? And how much will it even matter?

***
RCP: What's the most important issue in the 2008 race, for Republican voters and for you?

BROWNBACK: Well, most important issue for me is rebuilding the family and renewing the culture. That may seem a little out of step, but it's just...it's like you've got a football team that's got a great quarterback, great defense, great running back on and no line. And so you're looking at it and you're always saying, "we've gotta have our quarterback performing and he's not performing so well." Why isn't he? Well, he doesn't have any time to throw the ball. You gotta build the line.

And that basic family unit has been under enormous pressure and difficulty for a long period of time. It then creates problems in the education system; it creates problems in the prison system. And we've gotta rebuild that.

If you're out there traveling right now the top issue is Iraq and immigration, as far as what people are asking about. They do recognize the inherent problems and the long term difficulties that our families and the cultural structure have been in.

***
RCP: ... what's the one thing you'd like people to know about you that you don't think they necessarily do know at this point?

BROWNBACK: Well, most people generally don't know I had melanoma in '95. Not that I'm asking for sympathy or that it's any great task - it's simple cancer and we caught it early - just that it had a big change in my life. It caused me to look at the end of life, particularly in those periods when you're not sure how much, how far this thing has gone. And it's really made me look at the end of life and ask, "was I pleased with how I was doing in my life?" And I wasn't.

It made my faith real, changed my perspective, got me working on a lot of issues; human rights, human dignity, life questions that before I'd been supportive of but I hadn't been dedicated to. It made me really try to focus on what are the key things: Fighting for life, fighting for marriage, fighting for the child in Darfur, the person that's trafficked.

It got me involved in the basics, what were the core issues. And there are a lot of issues, but at the end of the day the fact that we abort nearly a million kids a year, that you've got a genocide going on in Darfur, that you've got hundreds of thousands of little girls aged ten to fifteen being trafficked into brothels or forced prostitution in the world. You gotta do something about that.

[For full text of interview]