AstroTurf Chairman Is Offended Pelosi Is Using His Product to Insult Heath Care Protestors

This is a rush transcript from "Your World With Neil Cavuto," August 6, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I think there are AstroTurf — you be the judge, carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on health care.

This initiative is funded by the high end. We call it "Astroturf," it's not really a grass roots movement. It's AstroTurf by some of the wealthiest people of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: Now it's war, a turf war. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi throwing out this term "Astroturf" to put down protesters. My next guest is put off. We thought we would kind of get a different angle on this and talk to someone who is in the AstroTurf field. So this guy is the biggest in it. Michael Dennis is the chairman of Astroturf, which invented Astroturf, and is the premiere maker of Astroturf.

• Video: Watch Cavuto's interview

You look at this dude, you try calling him phony. OK. That's all I'm saying. I will just leave at that.

What do you make of all of this "Astroturf" stuff?

MICHAEL DENNIS, CHAIRMAN, ASTROTURF: Well, Neil, we are a little disappointed in the misuse of our brand. We are very proud of our brand, and the AstroTurf brand was recently re-launched at the end of 2006 with our spokesperson being Archie Manning.

And we have had a very successful run over the last few years. And it seems that politicians are misusing our brand, Astroturf.

CAVUTO: Astroturf, just to help people, it's a substitute for grass so that you can play in all types of weather, it holds up better than the real stuff. But it is not the real stuff, and that is what they are getting back to, Michael, that you're fake — not you, because I can say this via satellite, because I know you'd beat me up otherwise, but there they're saying that AstroTurf is fake, and that these rallies are — and these forums and this protest, it's all fake. What do you make of that?

DENNIS: Well, Neil, my opinion on that is I think our politicians would be better served coming together to solve some of the economic problems we have in our country. People need jobs. People need opportunity just to put food on the table for their families. And we need to be less divisive and come together and try to fix some of these problems that we have in common in our country right now.

CAVUTO: You know, Michael, when I hear Nancy Pelosi, and the San Francisco district, an area that she covers — do the 49ers and do the Giants, do their stadiums have Astroturf?

DENNIS: No, not currently. The Buffalo Bills use our AstroTurf product. And we recently closed a nice win with the St. Louis Rams. The New York Giants used a competitor's product and the San Francisco 49ers use synthetic grass.

CAVUTO: OK. Because you.

(CROSSTALK)

DENNIS: . natural turf, sorry.

CAVUTO: I got you, because the purists come back and say, I remember the day before this fancy-schmancy fake AstroTurf came along, when you judge the quality of the play by real grass, real mud, real dirt.

And that is kind of what these politicians are saying, right? That's the real stuff. The stuff that has come on since, like Astroturf, like what you're doing, is kind of like what these guys are doing. It ain't the real thing. How do you answer that?

DENNIS: Well, synthetic turf serves very purposes as it relates to student athletes, parks and rec, and then at the high-end in Division I and professional football. It is, you know, very important to put surfaces in place that are safe.

CAVUTO: Right.

DENNIS: It's very important to allow athletes to get more play and, you know, that's the drive behind synthetic surfaces.

CAVUTO: Would you ever want to wrap these politicians in Astroturf?

DENNIS: No, that is not my job.

CAVUTO: OK.

DENNIS: My job is to develop state-of-the-art products and, you know, be in a scenario where we are providing great service for the industry.

CAVUTO: All right. You are classier than they, Michael. We will have more after this.

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