You sound like someone who could be held up as a liberal champion. Still, your position on guns is probably upsetting to doctrinaire liberals. How do you reconcile your position on gay marriage and gun control?

I don't need Washington, D.C., or the government in my private life. Period. I don't need them to dictate to my wife the decisions she can make with a doctor. I don't need a Washington politician to tell my neighbors what they can do in the privacy of their bedroom. And I don't need Washington politicians to tell me what guns to keep in my gun safe.

John Edwards' "two Americas" theory was central to the Kerry-Edwards campaign last year. After the disastrous response to Hurricane Katrina, do you subscribe to this theory?

I look at it like there's one America. We're all in the same boat. We all have responsibilities. Those of us who've enjoyed success in life have a responsibility to give back to this country. And we have a responsibility, frankly, in a Christian sense -- or, for that matter, in a Muslim sense or a Jewish sense -- to take care of those who are less fortunate and make sure they get by. If that's what Edwards means by "two Americas," yeah, I subscribe to that. I perceive the religious fanatics in the Republican Party as socially irresponsible in many ways and that's one of the ways they're socially irresponsible -- that they are unwilling to help those who are less fortunate.

What do you propose to help solve our looming energy crisis?

First of all, leadership starts at the top. I couldn't help but smile when I saw President Bush, with this great anguish and difficulty, asking Americans [in the wake of Katrina] to consider conserving their energy consumption. Conservation is a part of the solution. Also, we need to spend the money to fund the research to come up with an alternative source of energy to fuel our cars and electrify our houses, and our industry. That can be done. I'm not a scientist, but I have confidence in the United States. We had the Manhattan Project and we put a man on the moon; I'm absolutely confident we can come up with a way to reduce and eventually eliminate our dependency on petrochemicals. But until that happens, we should be asking Americans to buy fuel-efficient vehicles. And we should be asking the American automobile industry to produce fuel-efficient vehicles.

What about the environment?

First of all, I wouldn't drill in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge. That oil isn't even going to be online for another 10 or 11 years. And I would enforce all of the EPA laws this administration is working overtime to dismantle. There's a lot of money to be made in setting [good environmental] standards, in developing fuel-efficient vehicles and vehicles powered by alternative fuel.

What do you think of the drug war as it's been "fought" for the last 30 years? What would you do differently to deal with the drug problem?

Obviously the drug war is not working. With many Republican and Democratic administrations their solution is to build more prisons and put more people in jail. I'm not comfortable saying legalize it, but I think there needs to be an honest discussion about providing money to educate people and to treat people who have an addiction. Many Americans ask why we have to get touchy-feely about this. Well, I'll tell you why: because we're spending billions and billions of dollars to warehouse people in jail, and that ain't workin'.

You've described yourself as a fiscal conservative. How would you bring that to today's Washington?

We've got to cut the pork. There's some congressman up in Alaska who wants to build a $50 million bridge to nowhere. That's just one example of thousands. We subsidize large corporations, give them tax breaks, and they ship our jobs overseas.

Decrying bad spending is a favorite pastime in politics. Can you elaborate about what else you consider to be misspent funds?

Well, let's look at all the countries we spend billions to support who don't deserve our support. They don't deserve it because they're a threat to the United States -- their governments are dictatorships and they're not productive members of the world community. Take a look at Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and lots of others.

What do Democrats need to do to win and get the country back on track?

Stand up and fight for what they believe in and not be afraid of it. I think [there's been] a failure of ideas, a failure of leadership and a failure of having a message to convey. I'm harshly critical of the Democratic leadership to the extent that they stood by and had no critical comment or discussion leading up to their OK'ing the war in Iraq.

Does the Democratic Party stand for progressivism anymore?

There are pockets within the party that do. The constituents and the grass roots and the people out here in Ohio stand for that. I think they've been let down by their leadership.

Do you count yourself among the party's progressives?

Sure, if "progressive" means standing up for the things that made this country great. If it means fighting for working Americans, fighting for an economy that allows working Americans to survive and provide for their families, and if it means demanding a rational discussion about how our military is used or misused ... If that's what progressive stands for, yeah, you bet I'm progressive.

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