CD: But it also strikes me that his work with senators such as Lieberman or Ted Kennedy often angered conservatives, while his stance on the Iraq war and support for president Bush angered liberals. Is it possible to really work together on these issues in a way that doesn’t alienate one side or the other?

BROWNBACK: I think so. As a matter of fact, I think it’s what people want us to do. They want us to believe strongly in our topics, but they also want us to make the government work — work for the people. That’s what John has done, and continues to do, and I think that’s what he can do as president.

CD: You mentioned the Iraq war earlier, and one issue surrounding that came up in a June 2007 meeting between President Bush and Pope Benedict XVI in which the pope expressed his concern for the safety of Christians in Iraq. What do you feel can be done to address this issue?

BROWNBACK: It’s something I’ve been very concerned about. You’ve seen a lot of ancient Christian population fleeing out of Iraq. I think some are starting to come back, and I think they’re a canary in the salt mine witness as to your security environment overall. And if the security environment overall improves, they’re less vulnerable and they’re more able to be there. I think that’s why you’re seeing some starting to move back. We’ve just got to maintain and help with a strong stable security environment. That’s first and foremost in Iraq. The place can rebuild itself once it can reestablish security, and that security exists for Muslims, Christians, people of all sorts of faith.

But that’s been a terrible situation, and unfortunately that’s been a terrible situation in much of the Islamic world, where Christian populations have been driven out, persecuted, killed, to the point where your percentage of population that has been Christian in many Muslim countries has plummeted over the last 20 years. I’ve held hearings on this, and I think it really hurts the Islamic world, too, because it says that others who don’t act or believe as we do aren’t welcome, and that hurts a country, it doesn’t help it.

CD: Do you see McCain as being able to take action to change this situation?

BROWNBACK: I do, from the standpoint that he is for a strong, secure environment and that’s going to be the best ticket to deal with that problem of people being persecuted for their faith.

CD: Do you think his current support for President Bush, despite widespread disapproval of the way in which Bush has handled the Iraq war, will hurt or help him in his effort to earn the nomination?

BROWNBACK: Up until the last couple of months, it was a great hindrance, but I think, to me, the sense was that amongst the American people they didn’t want to lose in Iraq, but they didn’t see us on a track to win. I think now more people are saying, ‘I can see a way we can win this from the standpoint of a stable Iraq.’ And so I think it becomes more of an asset, now, particularly in people that might vote on security issues. This is an unstable world — Benazir Bhutto was just assassinated in Pakistan — you want somebody that’s strong on foreign policy and strong on military leadership, and John McCain is the strongest in the field.

CD: You mentioned his years of experience. He’s now 71. If nominated and elected he’d be the oldest person to become president. Do you think this puts him at a disadvantage?

BROWNBACK: I think it’s an advantage. He’s got a high energy level. He’s got a wealth of experience, and people that he knows around the world, and people know him. I think it’s an advantage for him. Maybe I look at it differently than others, but after that amount of time and the experiences that he’s had, you tend to have figured out what you are and what works and what doesn’t, and I think you’re better able to do things that work. Ronald Reagan was an older man when he was elected, but people entrusted decisions [to him]. They know that the experience is there and the experience is deep and the experience is rich.

CD: Now you yourself have been fairly vocal about your own faith experience and its effects on your life. What role if any do you feel an individual’s faith should play in politics?

BROWNBACK: Well we all have values, and I see no reason that those values that shape my faith shouldn’t be brought into the public square and debated and discussed and presented and decided upon. As a matter of fact, I think it’s the best place for us to get a basic set of values. It’s very consistent with the American experience, where our founders and leaders since have been people with a deep sense of moral conviction and faith, seeing the Judeo-Christian ethic as an ethic on which you can build a very strong, open, free-oriented country. I think what I bring forward is just the way we’ve basically been as a country for most of our history. It’s only been recently that we’ve been trying to throw faith out of the public square. Up until the 1960’s or 70’s, it was a vibrant, central [part], and I contend it still is.

Let me tell you, a guy at the airport grabbed me just before I got on this last flight and he was working for the airlines and he was just saying to me, ‘I don’t care how a person believes, at all, but we built a country on an ethic. And you don’t have to believe in the faith or anything but on the values of it — that you respond and you support life and you believe in liberty and freedom, you believe in justice — and that these are things that we then build a strong country around that ethic.’ You don’t have to believe the faith, but the ethic is what we built this nation around, and I think that’s true and I think that’s something we ought to continue to do.