Verbatim transcript from tape:

REP. GREGORY MEEKS (D-NY): Now it's my pleasure to introduce to you U.S. Senator Evan Bayh. A leader of the New Democratic movement, he is dedicated to bringing commonsense and Hoosier values to our nation's capital. Elected to his first term in November of 1998, Senator Bayh brought with him a remarkable record of sound fiscal management and economic growth from his two terms as governor of Indiana in 1989 through 1997. Under his leadership Indiana had one of the strongest, most financially secure economies in the country. As governor he stressed fiscal responsibility, lower taxes, job creation and lean government. In Washington he has established himself as a leading mainstream voice in the Senate by working to put aside partisan differences and make real progress on a wide range of issues of importance to Americans. His signature legislative efforts seek to raise the performance of our public schools, encourage responsible fatherhood and provide tax relief for families struggling to afford the rising costs of college.

Senator Bayh counts as his most important role and greatest responsibility in a position he assumed in November 1995, that as proud father of twin sons. A joy he shares daily with his wife, Susan. Please join me in welcoming one of our nation's greatest leaders, past, present and future, the Honorable Senator Evan Bayh.

(Applause.)

SEN. EVAN BAYH (D-IN): Thank you. Well, thank you very much, everybody. It's good to be with you again. And, Greg, thank you for your very, very gracious introduction. I think Greg would make a wonderful vice president and vice presidential candidate.

(Applause.)

But, Greg, I only have one piece of advice for you. You've got to be careful what you wish for. You may recall the story of the mother who had two sons: one went to sea and one became vice president. Neither was ever heard from again.

(Laughter.)

You know, I think that may be particularly applicable to Vice President Cheney these last few weeks. I don't know, always in an unidentified secure location.

(Laughter.)

But I do appreciate your kind words very, very much. And our thoughts are going to be with you these next several months as we look forward to November. I think that the wind is behind our back, ladies and gentlemen. It looks like we have an opportunity here to really be in the driver's seat once again after this election. We're going to elect some great Democratic governors across this country. I see Kathleen Sibelius is with us from Kansas who'll be the new governor of Kansas.

(Applause.)

Bill Curry was with us from last night from Connecticut. We're going to elect Ed Rendell in Pennsylvania. We're going to elect a great New Democrat in Illinois with Rod Blagojevich, and we're going to elect one of three good Democratic candidates in Michigan once we get the primary out of the way. So we're going to elect a lot of good governors and chief executives across this country. Tom Carper and I still have soft places in our hearts for governors having labored in those vineyards. I predict we're going to pick up two, three, possibly more seats in the United States Senate to build on our majority there. Tom Strickland was with us last night. He's going to be a great new senator from Colorado.

And, Greg, I'm all building up to the crescendo here, folks. I think we have a chance to correct what I view as really one of the historic political mistakes our country has made in recent times, and that's when we turned over the reigns of power and a very important part of our government to Newt Gingrich and his crowd in 1994. We have a chance to correct that mistake and send Dick Armey and Tom DeLay packing and put Greg Meeks and his colleagues in charge of the United States House of Representatives once again.

(Applause.)

So our thoughts are going to be with you, Greg.

And I'd like to thank everybody from across the country who has joined us. You know, Al, it's been a pleasure for me. I've seen friends here I made in visits in Harrisburg and to Albany and to Columbus and other places across the country. As someone who is still very much a former governor at heart, it warms my heart to see people from state capitals and city halls and county buildings here because a lot of the great policy innovation is taking place at the grass roots level. The DLC is a unique organization in the respect that the first major campaign that we played a role in was electing a president of the United States. But we're now going to be both a bottoms-up as well as a top-down enterprise, and so we welcome our state and local officials, as Blanche so eloquently did, from across the country, you're going to be a very important part of maintaining the vibrancy of the DLC as we move forward.

I too would like to thank the hardworking staff of our organization. I'd like to thank my colleague and co-leader, Ellen Tauscher, who does a wonderful job on behalf of this organization, leading us day in and day out. I want to thank you.

(Applause.)

Antonio Riley from Wisconsin, Milwaukee is with us here. I want to thank Antonio. My friend, Antonio, thank you --

(Applause.)

The hardworking staff -- Bruce Reed who is one of the policy drivers, Will Marshall who I haven't had a chance to say hello to yet. Will, I want to thank you. And of course, Al From, our leader, our mentor, our muse.

(Applause.)

That must be a first, Al. We in Indiana have -- I was telling Al earlier, we ranked sixth in the country in terms of export growth over the last several years and we export a lot of things. We have a vibrant manufacturing sector, we have a strong agricultural economy. We've also been privileged to share with the rest of the country some prominent citizens from our state. Abraham Lincoln is claimed by Kentucky where he was born and by Illinois where he became an adult, but he lived in Indiana in those formative years, from age 7 to 14, so we'd like to think that Abraham Lincoln's values were formed in Spencer County, Indiana.

(Laughter.)

Larry Bird learned how to shoot a basketball in French Lick. You'll find in Indiana a saying about French Lick: a nice place but not as interesting as it sounds.

(Laughter.)

And to all my friends watching at home, French Lick is very interesting. I want to get that on the public record. Michael Jackson learned to sing in Gary, Indiana. He learned those other things someplace else.

(Laughter.)

And we'd like to think that Al From had his roots and his values formed in South Bend, Indiana, so we're proud to claim him and share him with the rest of the country. Let's give Al a big round of applause.

(Applause.)

Let me reflect just for a few moments upon where we've been these last 12 months since we had the privilege of gathering in my town of Indianapolis, Indiana. As I look back on it, it's really hard to believe. It almost seems as if we were gathering there in a different era or a different time. So much that we took for granted in those days seems to have been swept away. So much has changed in such a few short months.

The national security that we used to count on as the world's only super power is now called into question. Who could have envisioned an attack upon this great financial center, costing us more than 3,000 lives? Nobody in those days. And yet today we're constantly reminded by periodic warnings about the possible imminence of terrorist attack and the possibility of weapons of mass destruction used upon our homeland, chemical, biological ?? dirty nuclear devices is regularly discussed in the popular press.

How much has changed. The prosperity that seemed so effortless and so easy. The American model for economic advancement that was the sole model for the world that we were exporting around the globe. Our currency and markets served as refuges for investors from abroad because everybody knew that America wasn't subject to the turbulence and the volatility that those other countries experience. Just think about what's happened in the last 12 months to that. As Greg mentioned, more than $7 trillion of American prosperity up in smoke in just the last few months.

Twelve months ago in Indianapolis few were talking about the integrity and the honor and the trustworthiness of some of our basic institutions and pillars in this society. And our accounting system, our finances, the transparency of the economics of the United States was considered to be one of our competitive advantages in the global economy, not one of our Achilles' heels. How much has changed so quickly and that's just the beginning, my friends.

Globalization continues its rapid pace, bringing our economic competitors and even those who would do us physical harm closer to our shores. The technological revolution is accelerating even faster than before, affecting every aspect of America's life. And even some of the basic building blocks of American society, our families and others, are continuing their evolution with more single-parent families, more two income earner families with all the profound challenges that that confronts folks with young children. How do we fulfil our most important obligation, as Greg was mentioning, raising our children to be successful, prosperous individuals with the right kind of values that we'd like to see them inherit from us. All these things are in play today.

So as I look back on the last 12 months, in some ways in microcosm they almost seem to encapsulate the challenges of our time and serve as a metaphor for what we need to do moving forward, because it's become crystal clear during these last 12 months that what America needs today is not the complacency of the recent past. What we need to today is not the rigid ideology too often offered up by the current administration. What we need today is not the gridlock that too often prevails in Washington DC. But instead, my friends, what we need today, what America cries out for, is new leadership and new ideas to meet the challenges of these changing times, to ensure the physical and economic security of our country, the opportunity that ought to be birthright for every American and a new era of responsibility to ensure that our prosperity and our security are imbued with the values that we hold dear.

And I can't think of a better organization, the kind of leaders that we've been blessed to have, to provide these new ideas and this new dynamic leadership than the Democratic Leadership Council.

(Applause.)

I say that for a couple of reasons: first, the DLC is the very embodiment of that restless experimentation and intellectual ferment that has always been the hallmark of good policy innovation. We have a strategic sense about where the country needs to go and, most importantly, have shown the willingness to dispute the stale orthodoxies of both the left and the right when we felt that it was in the national interest. And most importantly, as Al and Bruce and the others will tell you, we've been there before and we've done that, providing the kind of ideas and leadership from the Democratic Party that America needed the most.

We are willing to stand shoulder to shoulder with the president of the United States when it comes to ensuring the physical national security of this country. No one will advocate more forcefully for the kind of military and intelligence and other capabilities that we need to protect the security of America's people. One of the good things that's happened since September the 11th is the growing awareness that there is a lot that actually unites us in this country. We have a tendency to focus too much on our differences, but when it comes to national security and protecting our country, there are no Democrats, there are no Republicans: only patriotic Americans.

As patriotic Americans we will stand with this president and members of the other party when it's important to protecting this country. But as someone said recently, patriotism does not compel silence. And so as patriots, when we have new and different ideas about how to do an even better job of defending this country, we're going to offer them up to the American people because that too is a part of our obligation and responsibility.

It's become painfully obvious in the course of the last 12 months that disengagement from areas of vital interest to the United States of America does not enhance our national security, it imperils it. The problems neglected, like the Middle East, all too often don't go away, they only get worse and that a more proactive approach to defending America is required. It's become crystal clear that if we're going to win the war against terror in the long run that we must prevail not only through the force of our arms but also through the power of our ideas.

I'm just recently back from the Middle East and had the opportunity to visit Egypt and Syria and Lebanon. You know the majority of the population in many of these countries in the Islamic world, the majority of the population is under 25 years old. There' s a demographic time bomb ticking there, my friends. They don't have democracy. All too often they don't have economic hope and they've been imbued with a warped sense of their own religious convictions and they're being directed -- their animosity and their frustration is being directed outward and too often it's been directed misguidedly at us.

And if we're going to turn that around and not have a protracted struggle with a whole new generation in that part of the world, we're going to have to very aggressively not only advocate what we are against, extremism in the Islamic world, we're going to have to just as forcefully advocate for what we are for: democracy and tolerance and pluralism and prosperity based upon education and open markets. That's ultimately how we're going to win the war against terrorism.

(Applause.)

And while we're working with anyone that we can to help protect this country's national security, we're also going to do what it takes to protect our economic security and foster opportunity here at home.

I've got to confess I have a tremendous sense of deja vu when it comes to this, Al. It's hard to believe 12 years ago Bill Clinton and I were governors during the last recession, working to create new investment and attract jobs and balance budgets and do all those kind of things to help provide our people with opportunity. And you know at that time there was a George Bush in the White House. Then, as today, we had growing deficits and national debt. Then we had a stagnant national economy. Then the welfare rolls were rising. Then the social fabric was beginning to fray.

But the DLC stepped forward and provided a compelling agenda to try and turn the economy and the fiscal condition of this country around, and in so doing fostered one of the most remarkable transformations in the economic and fiscal history of this country. Just think about it. From skyrocketing debt and the largest deficits in the history of the country, we actually began to get worried about paying off the debt too quickly. From unemployment and a stagnant economy, economists actually began to debate about how low the rate of unemployment could sustainably go. And from the lowest rates of productivity growth in 100 years, we fostered a renaissance in productivity gains that created the highest increase in the standard of living for the American people in generations.

My friends, a lot like the workers in the circus, the DLC knows how to clean up a mess left by elephants and we're prepared to do it again following the election in November.

(Applause.)

The elements are there. The elements are there: fiscal responsibility to free up capital for investment in the private sector and keeping interest rates low. Education to give every child -- and Greg's done such a wonderful job of this with young people in his own district -- every child growing up in every community the skills and talents and the ability to be economically self-sufficient in the economy of the 21st century. Open trade to open up new markets for our goods and services and the businesses of tomorrow. And, of course, investment in research and development to accelerate the process of innovation creating whole new industries for our children and for our grandchildren.

I'm afraid that our current President Bush has offered the American people not an economic strategy but an ideological agenda. He's abandoned fiscal responsibility, mortgaged our future and in so doing runs the risk of fraying the social fabric. The economic team that he's gathered around him is a pale comparison to Bob Rubin and Larry Summers and Gene Sperling and Bruce Reed -- (Applause) -- who inspired confidence in good times and bad. I'm afraid this crowd today occasionally inspires more confusion than confidence with adverse consequences to American workers and small businessmen.

So we're going to continue to advocate for economic security and growth as the engine that makes everything else possible in this society. But one of the things we've learned in recent months is that even with the right kind of policy, even with the right kind of leadership there's another element, elusive but important to building the society and making our economy grow. Somebody once said that character is destiny. They were right. Not only about individuals but about nations. We've learned that honesty and integrity and trust are as important to the efficient functioning of free markets and the growth of our economy as they are to any other relationships in life.

And so the Democratic Leadership Council is going to build upon our traditions and insist upon a new era of responsibility for all of us. Corporate responsibility, government responsibility, personal responsibility and civic responsibility. We're going to insist upon corporate responsibility and ask the captains of American industry to live up to their obligations to all of the stakeholders in our society: shareholders and employees and customers and society at large, because not only is it about appropriate accounting, not only is it about economic growth, at the heart of some of the problems that we've seen at Adelphia and WorldCom and Enron and some of the other headlines that we've seen, it's about our most basic values. It's about the kind of behavior we reward and the kind of behavior we won't tolerate. And, it's about ensuring that the United States of America continues to be a land of opportunity for those who are willing to work hard, play by the rules and have ability, not for those who look to cut corners.

So we're going to insist upon corporate responsibility and it's important for the vast majority of businessmen and women who do the right thing every day, because we're not against business and success, we're against those who try and cut corners and engage in inappropriate activity. We're going to insist that government live up to its responsibilities too because we don't seek to replace the markets, we seek to improve them. And the answer to the problems of today is not -- the excesses of the marketplace is not excessive government. So we're going to insist that government get its books in order and not do it through accounting chicanery or gimmicks or cutting corners.

And we're going to build upon one of the hallmark successes of the DLC in the Clinton administration: welfare reform, by saying to everybody who wants to work hard and get ahead, we're going to give you a helping hand, but we insist you do your part too. You know, the first wave of welfare reform fell disproportionately on women, as Tom Carper could tell you about. Ninety-eight percent of custodial parents are women. But what about the men? What about the men who bring children into the world and then just walk away leaving the mothers and the taxpayers to pick up the pieces? Don't they have their responsibilities too? Of course they do.

(Applause.)

So we're going to extend the helping hand of opportunity to every American who wants to work hard and get ahead but say that when we do, we expect you to play by the rules and do right by your children, men and women alike.

Finally, we want to build upon one of the hallmark accomplishments of the DLC and that's public service. AmeriCorps is one of the great legacies of the Clinton administration. He had to fight off some folks who claimed to embrace it now but in fact were trying to undo it then. And I've been privileged along with the DLC and Senator McCain to pick up that banner. Our proposal would call for a five-fold expansion of AmeriCorps so that every four years we would call forth to serving our country one million Americans, young and old, rich and poor, rural and urban, black and white. One million of our fellow citizens forging a common bond to service to a common idea so that we can translate the good intentions that have flowed from 9/11 into concrete results that will benefit our country for years and years to come.

And I am confident that we can meet these challenges. National security, economic and corporate and other responsibility arena, even though they may seem daunting at times. I'm confident because we've been here before and the American people call out for action. New leadership and new ideas to meet the challenges of our time. We may be out of political power but as long as we're not out of ideas we're not out of hope. Because with the right ideas and the courage of our convictions, we together can forge the moral authority that can shape our own destinies. Someone once said it was Pharaoh who had the power, but Moses who had the moral authority. It was the British Empire that had the power, but Gandhi that had the moral authority. It was apartheid South Africa that had the power, but Nelson Mandela had the moral authority.

And so if we are true to our ideas and have the courage of our convictions and continue to advocate what is in the national interest regardless of party or personal interest, then come next January and in January of 2005, we will have both the political power and the moral authority to make it meaningful, and in so doing have an opportunity to build both a better America and a better world. And that is what the Democratic Leadership Council and this meeting are about and I'm privileged to play a small role in making it so.

Thank you for being here today.