CELESTE HEADLEE: Senator Robert Menendez from New Jersey has a new book out &mdash it's called, "Growing American Roots: Why Our Nation will Thrive as our largest Minority flourishes," and the largest minority he's talking about are Latinos. Menendez argues Democrats should reach out more to Latinos, because they're a secret weapon as a voter population. He joins us from Washington. Thanks for joining us, Senator. Let' start with health care, because there's a very rancorous debate going on about whether the plan is going to cover illegal immigrants. You make the point in your book that many illegals pay taxes that they don't ever see the benefits from, but you also point out that people seem to be unfairly connecting the Latino-American community to immigrants.

SEN. ROBERT MENENDEZ: Well, there's a broad brush being painted, here, and one of the things that I try to do in our book is to talk about the community in our country, the Latino community in America, and establish the fact that we have been here since before the country was founded. And we have actually fought for the country from its birth, when Bernardo de Gálvez, the governor of Louisiana, helped stop the British advance on Washington, or Cuban women have, at Valley Forge, to help Washington in the desperate times. Admiral David Farragut, Farragut Square here in Washington is named after him, he was the first Admiral of the Navy fighting on behalf of the Union to the Korean War, where you had the 65th Infantry Division, an all-Puerto Rican division, one of the most highly decorated in the country, and the list goes on and on. We have been here since before the founding of the country, and so these suggestions, that, number one, that we are recent arrivals, number two, that even those who are undocumented in the country get cast in a negative light, when overwhelmingly they are seeking to pursue the American dream, and where Americans of Hispanic descent often get caught up in immigration raids, as U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents, is simply unacceptable. So we try to create a little bit of the history in this book, to set the record straight in terms of how much we've contributed to the country; how we have been here since before the founding of the country, and how we continue to offer opportunities for prosperity.

HEADLEE: You know, your daughter wrote, in a quote, "The GOP doesn't care about Latino voters." I'm wondering if you agree with your daughter.

MENENDEZ: Well, they can't possibly have a real commitment to Latino voters, when you look at the policies of the last eight years of the Bush administration, when they have policies that strike at the very heart of the progress of the Latino community, you can't come courting them at election time when eight years of Republican policies hurt them.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY: Let me ask you a question about health care, since the Senate Finance Committee is going to vote this week on, finally, the Max Baucus bill. You voted, if I'm correct, against the amendment that would have actually reduced the cost paid to pharmaceutical companies for individuals who qualify for both Medicaid and Medicare, a savings of something on the order of about $108 billion, is that right?

MENENDEZ: I did, and the reason I did is because, number one is, the pharmaceutical industry has already anted up $80 million dollars here, for closing the doughnut hole by half, and the fact of the matter is President Obama struck a bargain with a series of entities in the health care industries who are ante-ing up, and my concern is that we undermine the whole nature of that agreement and have zero for the doughnut hole.

HOCKENBERRY: Except one could also make the argument that the reason you voted against it is because Baxter, Abbott, ImClone, Merck, Becton Dickinson, Johnson & Johnson are all headquartered in your state of New Jersey.

MENENDEZ: Well, look, I could say that about any senator across the country on any given issue. There are industries unique to a state; that doesn't mean that that's the only driving issue, the reality is ...

HOCKENBERRY: So you represent them?

MENENDEZ: ... is that other entities throughout the health care system are contributing towards the overall payment of health care insurance, and at the same time, we want to make sure that we can move forward. If you get that coalition that comes apart, you won't get the type of health care reform we all want.

HEADLEE: We spoke with somebody from the Equity for All organization, which is representing African-Americans and Latinos in the health care debate, and Dr. Smitherman said he can't imagine how better to serve minority communities than with a public option. I'm wondering, do you support a public option in health care?

MENENDEZ: I do, and I was one of the strong voices in the Finance Committee for a public option. I supported both provisions: Senator Rockefeller's and then Senator Schumer's, that fell just two votes short of having a pass. I'm an advocate that it be included in the melded bill that will take place on the Senate floor, and if not, I will join others in pursuing an amendment. And I think we still have a good road here, with a good opportunity to have a public option in the final bill, which I think is eminently important, because it ultimately is a real competition controlling costs and a non-profit, self-sustaining, premium-driven public option is going to make all the difference in the world in controlling health care costs and giving people real choice.

HEADLEE:Senator Menendez, thank you for joining us.