NJ: Saul, thanks for joining us today.

Anuzis: Great to be with you, thank you.

NJ: Sir, I have to ask this right up front. Why would anyone want to lead the Republican Party in this environment?

Anuzis: Well, I think it offers us a tremendous opportunity to basically bring this country back and bring the party back. I might be one of those kind of old-fashioned guys who believes in Ronald Reagan's concept of American, you know, exceptionalism. I think that we are one of the greatest countries in world and that there is tremendous opportunity here and the Republican Party is the right party with the right ideas, and so I think this is a great opportunity to kind of regroup, bring things back and move us forward in the 21st century with new ideas, new solutions for problems facing the people of America.

NJ: What do you have to do to do that in places like Virginia -- maybe North Carolina? Does the Republican Party need to broaden its reach? Do you need to tinker a little bit around the edges? Do you need big changes? What's involved?

Anuzis: I think we need some big changes, but most of those changes are moving forward with a common-sense conservative agenda. I think if you take a look at America in general, I do believe that we are a center-right country. I believe that most Americans share the values that the Republican Party espouses. Part of our problem is we lost credibility with respect to the American people and the ability to deliver on those changes.

So when you take a look at where we are, and if you take a look at where we need to go -- I mean, you know, we voted for the bridge to nowhere, we voted for bigger deficits, we voted for, you know, excessive spending. And all of that basically ruined the party's brand -- not to mention getting caught up in the [Jack] Abramoff/[Mark] Foley/[Duke] Cunningham scandals -- so, you know, the American people lost trust in the party. And the politicians, certainly those in Washington, no longer represented the party as America knew it. And therefore when it came time to throw the bums out, unfortunately I think we had become the bums.

NJ: Saul, that sounds like a pretty big order to fill. Do you have a timetable for returning Republicans to majority status in the House and Senate? Obviously then the next step down the road is 2012 and the White House.

Anuzis: Well, I think first things first. You know, obviously the congressional races will be coming up here in two years. There's a lot of U.S. Senate seats up that are very important. And at the same time I think the greatest opportunity and excitement for us is with the governors. We have over 30 governor races that will be up, and I think those races really give us a unique opportunity to define the party. This will be an incubator for Republican ideas and Republican leaders for the future. So I think more than anything you are going to see -- a lot of the ideas and a lot of the movement coming forward will be coming from our candidates for governor across the board.

NJ: Let's rewind to November for a second. You were clearly disappointed when John McCain gave up on Michigan before Election Day. Do you think that hurt him outside of your own state's borders?

Anuzis: I do. If you take a look at it, it was a leading story on probably all the network news that night. It was also front-page coverage of some 300 papers around the country, and it was the first public announcement that McCain was kind of scaling back the operation. So I think it was a huge tactical mistake. You could have argued the strategic benefit of consolidating forces and dollars, and pulling in and out of Michigan, but the idea that they publicly announced it and they did what they did, I think it was potentially the beginning of the end, at least publicly, with respect to where the Republicans were going, and I think it was a horrible move on their part.

NJ: In 2012, can Mitt Romney win your party's nomination?

Anuzis: Possibly, but I think we are going to have Mitt Romney and a lot of other good candidates. I mean, this is going to be a very open process. I think it's going to be a very healthy process for us. I would encourage and I would argue that -- as a party leader -- that it is our role to make sure that as many candidates as possible actually run for office, that we give them an opportunity to run for office. And I would like to see, and I think we're going to see, a lot of new, young faces emerge in the party here.

NJ: Is there a role for Sarah Palin?

Anuzis: Absolutely. I think -- I'm looking forward to actually getting a chance to find out who she really is, not necessarily under the wing of John McCain and the national campaign. So she's going to get a chance to define herself, people like Governor Bobby Jindal and Governor [Tim] Pawlenty and [Rick] Perry and [Mark] Sanford and Romney and [Mike] Huckabee -- I mean, we've got a great bench out there, and I'm extremely excited. I think we're going to have some very, very good opportunities and some great candidates that will draw a tremendous contrast with Barack Obama and the Obama administration.

NJ: Hindsight of course is perfect, but was Sarah Palin the right choice this time?

Anuzis: I think she was a good choice. I mean, you know, again, as you said hindsight is 20/20. You can argue whether one candidate or another would have made a difference. I think given what happened -- the odds are that no other candidate would have done any better or worse given what happened on the national climate. So I don't think you could say that it was a bad choice in any way, and I think she clearly motivated the base, she excited a lot of new people that came to volunteer at her offices and participate in the campaign across the board. And obviously it exposed a new future leader to the American people and the Republicans nationwide.

NJ: OK. Here's the question everybody wants to hear you answer. If you become chairman of the Republican National Committee of the Republican Party, will you try to change the primary election schedule -- in terms of presidential elections, obviously? In other words, will Iowa and New Hampshire still go first?

Anuzis: Well, first of all, the rules are already set for us -- so 2012's rules are already in place. We passed them at the convention, so there won't be any changes for 2012. But what we did do is establish a new commission that would study the rules and further expand and find out whether or not we can change the timetable and the way we nominate our candidate, so obviously I am obliged by rule to move forward on that process and I think it is a healthy process. I was involved in the rewrite last time around, and I think there will be a lot of interest in coming up with a better kind of mousetrap to make this thing work. But for 2012 the rules are basically set; the only thing we really changed was we moved the timetable from starting this process in February to starting it in March, and otherwise for 2012 basically it's going to be a pretty similar process.

NJ: But beyond that, what do you see? What makes the most sense to you?

Anuzis: Well, I thought that some kind of rotational regional primary made a lot of sense, and I supported that, and I think that that's something we're going to have to, you know, take a look at. And I'm not sure exactly how that will play itself out over time, but that's probably what makes the most sense.

NJ: Should states like your own be punished for trying to go early enough to be relevant in this process?

Anuzis: Well, they are, and they have been. I mean, I think we lose half of our delegates, and...

NJ: But should they be?

Anuzis: Well, yeah, they should. I mean, if we actually set rules and determine we should follow them, then there should be some type of price to pay. But then at the same time, when you know what the price is, you can make a calculated decision whether it's in your best interest or not. Now I can tell you from Michigan's standpoint, this ended up working out very well for us. We had all the presidential candidates in early. We held a presidential primary debate, and it worked out very well. So from our standpoint it was a good thing. Now how it will move from here -- hard to tell. And the circumstances and the candidates will change.

NJ: How is your campaign going?

Anuzis: I think going very well. I'm very excited. I'm one of the first candidates to actually announce some public support, and we're going to continue moving forward.

NJ: OK. Saul Anuzis, he's the chairman of the Michigan Republican Party. He's a candidate for chairman of the Republican National Committee. Thank you for taking time to chat.

Anuzis: Great to be with you. Thank you.