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Posted on 10/02/2002 4:12:25 PM PDT by nutmeg
Baghdad Jim McDermott on CNN's Crossfire NOW!
From what I see so far, McDermott is acting quite empowered, whereas this afternoon he was backpedaling all over the place!
Any other FReepers out there watching Crossfire?
Novak: "Just to get the record straight... with all due respect... you were a psychiatrist at the Long Beach, CA naval station, am I right?"
McDermott: "Yes.."
Novak: "So you didn't hear any shells... see any combat..." *I missed the rest*
This is my paraphrasing... will look for a transcript of this later.
Strange....I would think that Paul "the forehead" Begala could look The Devil himself in the eye and maintain with a straight face that he doesn't belong in Hell.
Oh, brother . . . A he was a Navy shrink in Long Beach. And he and his scummy rat pals try to pass him off as some kind of Vietnam war hero! The dishonesty of these leftwing slime is breathtaking. Someone who knows Hannity, please call him before his show starts; Colmes was in on this outright lie from the start.
Aired October 2, 2002 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: CROSSFIRE. On the left: James Carville and Paul Begala. On the right: Robert Novak and Tucker Carlson. In the CROSSFIRE tonight: He's getting what he wants.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A bipartisan resolution is clear, and it is strong.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: They've gotten themselves in trouble and accused of everything from bad timing to treason.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JAMES MCDERMOTT (D), WASHINGTON: We went to Iraq because we care about what happens to Americans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Tonight, fresh from Iraq, Congressman James McDermott steps into the CROSSFIRE, along with Armed Services Committee member Senator James Inhofe . . .
. . . BEGALA: Well our president has apparently decided to beat the war drums in the rose garden this afternoon. It was billed as a bipartisan exercise. But, as Bob pointed out earlier, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, perhaps our nation's leading Democrat, was not included.
Well, the White House may be trying to stifle (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and dissent at the rose garden, but here at CROSSFIRE we love it.
So stepping into the CROSSFIRE tonight, Washington Congressman Jim McDermott, who just returned from Iraq, and Republican Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
(APPLAUSE)
NOVAK: Congressman McDermott, there was a notorious disreputable visit to Hanoi during the Vietnam War by the actress Jane Fonda, saying when she got on a communist gun and said she wished she could shoot down some American planes. And I would -- there's a picture of her right there, Hanoi Jane, it really disgusted Americans.
And I wonder if you thought of that when you went to Baghdad and before -- from Baghdad last Sunday you said this, and let's listen to what you said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCDERMOTT: I think the United States is simply trying to provoke. I think the president would mislead the American people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOVAK: Do you think there's something wrong going to Baghdad and that dictatorship and saying there that the president of the United States was trying to mislead?
MCDERMOTT: Well, Bob, I didn't know we had gone to war with Iraq. Had we declared war, as the Vietnam situation? I mean had you repealed the first amendment?
(CROSSTALK) MCDERMOTT: Wait a minute, I'm talking to him.
NOVAK: I didn't know we had claimed war against Vietnam.
MCDERMOTT: Well, we never did, you see, but we were at war. We had soldiers going in at that point. There were no soldiers yet. We were trying to make peace.
And I'm willing to go over there and talk with them. Nobody else seems to be willing to talk to them. But if we don't negotiate we are going to have war.
NOVAK: Congressman, I don't have any problem, some people do. Senator Inhofe might have problems with you going over there. But did you weigh your words that you are standing there in Baghdad and in fact calling the president of the United States a liar? Do you think that might have been inappropriate.
MCDERMOTT: Do you think that if a press asks you something you should answer it? I mean would you answer the press? I've never stopped you before.
NOVAK: No, I don't answer the questions, I ask them.
MCDERMOTT: I see, you ask the questions.
NOVAK: Exactly.
(CROSSTALK)
BEGALA: Would you answer the congressman's question?
SEN. JAMES INHOFE (R), OKLAHOMA: Oh, yes, absolutely. I wouldn't be there in the first place. I don't think it's appropriate to go over there and aid and comfort the enemy when he says, well, we're not at war.
That's kind of a technicality. That's semantics. They were shooting down -- trying to shoot down our pilots at the time he was over there. And I think that's outrageous.
So the answer to the question is, no, I wouldn't have.
MCDERMOTT: You mean the planes that were bombing them, they were trying to shoot them down?
INHOFE: No -- bombing them in a no-fly zone? They had...
(CROSSTALK)
MCDERMOTT: I was in the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) airport and saw the damage done by the planes.
INHOFE: I can't believe this. I can't believe this.
MCDERMOTT: Well, I mean you've got to admit that we're bombing in Iraq, don't you?
INHOFE: I don't have to admit that we're bombing in Iraq. We're trying to take out surface to air missiles that are shooting at our pilots.
MCDERMOTT: And so we're doing it, what, with powder puffs and marshmallows? What are we using? We're using bombs, man.
INHOFE: Then I think everyone would agree this is a war after all.
BEGALA: Well let me ask you about...
INHOFE: It's not a declared war.
(CROSSTALK)
INHOFE: You liberals are always that way. You say, well, if it's not officially a declared war -- I can go over there and I can be nice to these people. Here's a guy that tried to murder our president, a guy that murdered 5,000 of his own citizens in one day. A guy that right now is shooting at our pilots that are flying legally in a no-fly zone patrolling it.
MCDERMOTT: There's no legal no-fly zone.
INHOFE: Oh yes there is.
MCDERMOTT: Under what? You tell me the law...
INHOFE: Under U.N. resolutions that he agreed to.
MCDERMOTT: No. There's no legal resolution -- no, there's no resolution for the no-fly zones.
BEGALA: Let's just take this just one at a time. I'm going to remind you, Senator Inhofe, about some words that you spoke the last time America was going into war. That war was Kosovo. And there is a startling, striking resemblance to exactly what Congressman McDermott said.
This is your words in the "Wall Street Journal" on March 5, 1999. Our president was leading us to war against an equally genocidal maniac. I agree with every word you said about Saddam Hussein. They also apply to Slobodan Milosevic.
This is what you said: "President Clinton's word means nothing." You called our president, sir, a liar as he was leading us into a war against a genocidal maniac. Would you like to retract that?
INHOFE: Oh yes, I certainly would. A totally different situation. At that time, Kosovo was no threat to the United States of America, right? It was -- we went in there for more humanitarian reasons. At that time, our president, Bill Clinton, had cut down our end (ph) strength and our modernization to the point where we were spread too thin and we were totally dependent on guard and reserve. We had to do something about it.
And yet we were spreading these guys first in Bosnia, then in Kosovo. And I don't think it was appropriate at that time. They were no threat to us. Iraq say threat to us.
NOVAK: Congressman McDermott, I'd like you to listen to what Senator John McCain said. Senator John McCain has a hell of a war record. I think you'll agree.
MCDERMOTT: Yes, he does.
NOVAK: And I don't think he's a very partisan Republican. I think you'll agree. Let's listen to what he said about you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: These are members of Congress. If these members of Congress want to go to the floor of the House and criticize the president of the United States until the cows come home, fine with me, but don't go overseas. Don't go to Baghdad and question the credibility of the president of the United States.
That is not appropriate behavior and I don't think it will be very well received by the majority of the American people. It's totally inappropriate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOVAK: I don't think Senator Inhofe went to Belgrade when he criticized Bill Clinton either.
MCDERMOTT: You know what, these guys want to shift the emphasis. The question here is whether we're going to have disarmament or we're going to have war. And they are wanting to have a war.
They want to go to war. Otherwise they would be talking about having the inspectors come in and the inspectors would go to work and do a professional job.
But, no, what the -- what Colin Powell said this morning on NPR was: I don't think these inspections should go on until we go back to the U.N. and we get some more -- they want to make them fail. That's why the British diplomat said...
INHOFE: That's not true.
MCDERMOTT: ... they're trying bring a war resolution rather than...
INHOFE: It's regime change that he wants. He wants to get rid of a very dangerous terrorist who wants to kill Americans. Is there something wrong with that? This is our president.
NOVAK: Congressman McDermott, Senator Inhofe, we have to take a break.
In a minute we'll ask our guests if the U.S. should get back into the business of trying to assassinate leaders we just don't like . . .
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NOVAK: Welcome back to CROSSFIRE.
White House Spokesman Ari Fleischer got himself in hot water yesterday by suggesting it would be a lot cheaper to assassinate Saddam Hussein than to fight a war against him. The U.S. took assassination off its list of diplomatic options back during the Ford administration. Is it time to reconsider?
In the CROSSFIRE, Democratic Congressman Jim McDermott from the state of Washington, and Republican Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma.
BEGALA: Senator Inhofe, let's take a look at our White House press secretary. Put him on the big screen right here behind you. He spoke yesterday, as you know. Oh no, wait. That's a Mafia (UNINTELLIGIBLE) from "The Sopranos" ordering a hit.
I'm sorry. It's the wrong piece of videotape. It's an HBO show also owned by our network. Let's see if we can find Ari Fleischer.
INHOFE: Well let's watch the rest of this first.
BEGALA: But this is the same thing Our spokesman, he speaks for all of us. He's not partisan. Ari Fleischer called for something that sounded like (UNINTELLIGIBLE), if we can switch the tape to Ari Fleischer. Let's see.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I can only say that the cost of a one-way ticket is substantially less than that. The cost of one bullet, if the Iraqi people take it on themselves, is substantially less than that. The cost of war is more than that.
QUESTION: I'm asking you if you intend to advocate from that podium that some Iraqi, you know, person, put a bullet in his head.
FLEISCHER: Regime change is welcome in whatever form that it takes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BEGALA: A two-part question, Senator. First, the wisdom of the strategy of assassination. And second, the wisdom of publicly calling for it. If you're going to do it, do it for goodness sake. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) on national television.
INHOFE: Yes, all right. He said that and I know that that's a lot of fun to play with. But the reality is, we're talking about something here, Paul, that is very serious. We're talking about a threat. Our president is looking and thinking he's got to do everything he can before we have some weapon of mass destruction on a nuclear warhead coming to a major city in America.
As we watched what happened on the 11th of September, we saw the planes going into the towers. If that had been the weapon of choice of the terrorist, which would be a nuclear warhead on a missile, then there would be nothing but a piece of charcoal left.
And I just think we need to remember what Secretary Rumsfeld says. He says that the consequences of making a mistake now relative to what it was back in conventional warfare, we're not talking about losing 100 or 200 lives. It would be 200,000 lives. And it's a very serious thing.
Liberals don't like to believe that there's any threat out there. The threat is there. He's made that statement. He wants to kill Americans and he's developing the technology to do it.
NOVAK: Congressman McDermott, last night we were talking about you. I hope your ears weren't burning. And your colleague, Congressman Fattah from Pennsylvania was defending you. He kept referring to you as a war veteran who had risked your life for the American people.
And I just want to get the record straight. With all due respect, you were chief psychiatrist at the Long Beach naval station with the rank of Lieutenant Commander. You never heard a shot fired in anger, did you?
MCDERMOTT: No.
NOVAK: OK. I just wanted to get the record straight. So you don't get a pass to go to Baghdad and call the president a liar because you were some kind of war hero.
MCDERMOTT: You know what I did do, Bob, I sat and dealt with the casualties that came back. If you ever saw the movie "Apocalypse Now" those kids were the ones I saw. I saw the Marines, and I know what happens when you send kids to war in a war where the government is not clear about what they are doing, in which they are not backed up.
Those kids came home confused and upset. And here we are going to a war with everybody saying we know what we're doing. We don't have any idea.
First the president says, oh, it's al Qaeda we're after. Oh, well no, it's after weapons of mass destruction. No, it's al Qaeda. What are we doing? He says it's all so sure.
BEGALA: Senator Chuck Hagel, who is a decorated combat veteran and a conservative Republican, said almost the same thing in the "New York Times" today. Let me put it on the screen and read it to you.
He said, "There's a thing that's rumbling around, I think, in the country and the world and that's the credibility of the argument here. The danger is if the credibility of the argument continues to be stretched and pulled, and one week it's this and this and next week it's that." What happens? This is Chuck Hagel...
INHOFE: Well, first of all, just because he's a Republican, there's difference of opinion on the Democrat side and the Republican side. There are some very liberal Democrats over in the House of Representatives, some of your best friends, who are really on our side of this issue. But when you were getting a quote from John McCain, you didn't give the rest of it.
He said: In one respect, what McDermott did over there is worse than what actress Jane Fonda did -- Hanoi Jane back during the time that John McCain was a prisoner of war -- because at least she was a young troubled actress and members of Congress are supposed to be grown, mature individuals. That's coming from a guy who was actually in prison at the time that Hanoi Jane was over there.
BEGALA: We are out of time. Actually, one last thing for me. I'm from Texas. You're from Oklahoma. My Longhorns are going to play your Sooners in about 10 days. I bet you some Texas barbecue -- I don't know what they eat in Oklahoma, I guess they eat liberals, but (UNINTELLIGIBLE) make a bet. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma. Thank you for joining us.
Congressman Jim McDermott from Washington, thanks. Thank you all both very much. We appreciate you coming.
Bob Novak brought it up first. Check out this little exchange (I added the bold formatting):
NOVAK: Congressman McDermott, last night we were talking about you. I hope your ears weren't burning. And your colleague, Congressman Fattah from Pennsylvania was defending you. He kept referring to you as a war veteran who had risked your life for the American people.
And I just want to get the record straight. With all due respect, you were chief psychiatrist at the Long Beach naval station with the rank of Lieutenant Commander. You never heard a shot fired in anger, did you?
MCDERMOTT: No.
NOVAK: OK. I just wanted to get the record straight. So you don't get a pass to go to Baghdad and call the president a liar because you were some kind of war hero.
MCDERMOTT: You know what I did do, Bob, I sat and dealt with the casualties that came back. If you ever saw the movie "Apocalypse Now" those kids were the ones I saw. I saw the Marines, and I know what happens when you send kids to war in a war where the government is not clear about what they are doing, in which they are not backed up.
Those kids came home confused and upset. And here we are going to a war with everybody saying we know what we're doing. We don't have any idea.
First the president says, oh, it's al Qaeda we're after. Oh, well no, it's after weapons of mass destruction. No, it's al Qaeda. What are we doing? He says it's all so sure.
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