Hitchens vs. Lehane on "Scarborough Country"

ROTFLMAO!

That is simply the funniest thing I have ready in a long, long time.

He looks kind of like this creature, eh?

Except, I actually think this like funny creature (of RatherGood.com and Quizno's sub fame) is actually funny, whereas LeHanious is just a little punk b*tch.

Sure. I've liked to have a good talk with Carville. But Mary M.is his redeeming factor. Even Begala would be a tempting target. But this Lehane doofus... This might be a watermark for the REAL campaign. Take no prisoners.

Hitchens looks pretty good. Sober. Nice jacket. Shaved. Hair combed back.

LOL! Only with Hitchens is this discription vital in understanding the nature of the debate.

Say what you want, Hitchens was awesome!

"Game, set, match...Hitchens."

That's usually the way it ends up in any debate featuring Christopher Hitchens. Liberal, he may be - but he is a giant as an intellectual thinker. His lightening quick delivery and acidic wit don't hurt either.

I think Carville's voice makes me go into seizures. The Forehead is another candidate to become a member of The Punch-Able. Lehane's smugness in his idiocy was really a sight though. It's all good though; they motivate me to put in those extra hours, donate a little more, make sure that my friends and family actually get out to vote.

"make sure that my friends and family actually get out to vote."

That's the bottom line.

I think many are in for a big surprise.

What I mean is that the American people will show how much they have been underestimated.

Bush will win at least 40 states.

I agree. I'm trying to convince my liberal friends that to vote they just need to send in their Fahrenheit 9/11 ticket stub. I figure if they're stupid enough to throw away $10, they're stupid enough to believe that.

Jeez. You mean you actually know people who have gone to see that sh#t?

Just kidding. I have family members who have seen it.

I'm just waiting for them to say something. Maybe they know better?

Yeah, going to school where I did it was inevitable I was going to pick up some liberal friends; oh well, they're good for a laugh. However, the two I've talked to about the movie were not really impressed. They were silly enough to believe Moore when he promised all this new info. Silly liberals, so easily manipulated.

Saw Hitchens on Dennis Miller last week. He was sober then too. Maybe he finally got off the sauce. I remember that whenever he was on Miller's HBO show he had a drink in his hand.

I guess he did come loaded--for bear! Good for him.

Here's the transcript:

MICHAEL MOORE, FILMMAKER: I am ready to debate any Republican, any right winger, any time of the day on this, and I‘ll take them on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCARBOROUGH: Yeah, right. Well, Michael Moore hasn‘t accepted our invitation to visit SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY yet, but the man who Moore hired to defend him and “Fahrenheit 911” from attacks, Chris Lehane, is here. And we‘ve got him here along with Vanity Fair‘s Christopher Hitchens, who‘s been waiting for the chance to share his views on Moore‘s movie with Chris Lehane.

Christopher Hitchens, now‘s your chance—go.

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS, VANITY FAIR: Oh, my god. It‘s my turn already?

SCARBOROUGH: Yes.

HITCHENS: Look, the film is, as they say in Latin, falso ununious, falso in omnium (ph). It‘s generally based on a lie that says that we‘re not at war with Islamic Jihad because they‘ve attacked us or because it hates us, or because it‘s a terrorizing medieval force. But we‘re at war with it because of private interests of the Bush family. That‘s a grotesque lie.

This lie is, furthermore, promulgated by Michael Moore, Mr. Lehane‘s new client, who takes the view, expressed repeatedly in public, that the war should be won by the other side. He issued statements of solidarity with the Iraqi so-called resistance, and compares them to the American Minutemen and to the American Revolution.

And then, if you move to the minor stuff of the distortions and defamations in the film, there‘s a mangled, and deliberately mangled, quotation from Condoleezza Rice, there‘s an allegation about a pipeline across Afghanistan built by Unocal that was abandoned in 1998. Where do you want me to stop with this?

SCARBOROUGH: Chris Lehane?

CHRIS LEHANE, CONSULTANT TO “FAHRENHEIT 9-11”: Well, look, at the end of the day, this movie is fundamentally about asking questions about why our young men and women in uniform are on the ground in Iraq today—questions that, frankly, should have been asked over the last several years and haven‘t been asked.

Now, I know Mr. Hitchens is an apologist for the Bush administration. He‘s someone who‘s supported this war. But at the end of the day, what this movie does convey, and conveys in a very compelling and provocative way, is that President Bush took us to war based on distortions, based on misrepresentations, and there‘s no way around it.

There was no plan to win the peace. The WMDs didn‘t exist. There were no ties to Al Qaeda. Those aren‘t things that are just in our movie. Those are points that have been made by the 9-11 Commission and by others. And as for the Saudi claim, you know, just yesterday, on the front page of The New York Times, there was a major story raising some serious questions about what the Saudi influence was in a prisoner swap that occurred, which we still haven‘t had answers to.

Literally, every day something happens that raises serious questions. And my question is this. If, after the Timothy McVeigh Oklahoma City incident, if a member of the McVeigh family had called then President Clinton and said, “Look, we want to get our family members out of the country. Can you help us,” people would have raised all sorts of questions.

But this is exactly what—no, no, let me finish—this is exactly what occurred on the night of September 11, which is the United States White House got a call from the Saudi Embassy asking for help in removing some Saudi citizens from the United States, including members of the bin Laden family.

(CROSSTALK)

SCARBOROUGH: Christopher, respond to that. Christopher, respond.

HITCHENS: Do you agree, Mr. Lehane—can I just cut to the chase...

LEHANE: Well, I‘d like you to explain whether you‘re an apologist for the Bush administration. Isn‘t it true that you supported this war? Yes or no?

(CROSSTALK)

SCARBOROUGH: Hey, Chris, Chris, Chris Lehane, listen buddy. We invite you on here so we can have a discussion. I‘ll ask the questions. Christopher Hitchens, go ahead.

LEHANE: He can‘t answer the questions. That‘s the problem, Mr.

Scarborough.

HITCHENS: I was a member of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq and a public advocate of regime change in Iraq when George Bush was governor of Texas, and when he was running against Al Gore against nation building.

LEHANE: But did you support the Bush war?

(CROSSTALK)

Did you support the Bush war this time around?

HITCHENS: I‘ve been in favor of regime change in Iraq longer than...

LEHANE: So you did support the war.

HITCHENS: I think I‘ve just been saying that to you, Mr. Lehane.

LEHANE: And so you are...

(CROSSTALK)

SCARBOROUGH: Stop right now. Stop right now. Hey, Christopher Hitchens, please stop for a second. Chris Lehane, Chris Lehane—guys, please stop. Please stop for a second. Chris Lehane, we‘re going to have an intelligent debate here.

HITCHENS: No, we‘re not. I‘m sorry, Congressman, we‘re not.

SCARBOROUGH: You can jabber all you want. We‘re going to go back and forth, and each one of you are going to have your chance to talk.

HITCHENS: But would you stand out of my way, Congressman, for a second?

LEHANE: But Joe, you‘ve been doing this for a couple of weeks now without really giving people an opportunity to respond.

HITCHENS: I can‘t compete against both of you.

SCARBOROUGH: Go, Christopher.

HITCHENS: Yes, I‘m for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Yes, I was for the overthrow of the Taliban, both of which Michael Moore opposed violently and publicly. And I will repeat this question to you, Mr. Lehane, until I do get an answer, because I think you now owe me one after that amazing demonstration of hysterical rudeness.

When Michael Moore says that he thinks that the forces of Islamic Jihad are the moral equivalent of the America founding fathers and the Minutemen, is that your view? Is that your view, excuse me?

LEHANE: Are you going to let me answer, or are you going to continue with your horrible screeds that you seem to like to engage in on a constant basis?

HITCHENS: Oh, please.

LEHANE: Here‘s a very simple answer, which is that George Bush had no plan to win the peace in Iraq.

SCARBOROUGH: Answer the question.

(CROSSTALK)

Hold on. Chris Lehane, I‘m going to show you this quote, and I want you to respond to it.

LEHANE: Are you going to let me answer that question or not, Joe?

SCARBOROUGH: Yeah, I will. Actually, I‘m going to read this quote, and then you‘re going to answer the question.

LEHANE: But see, you asked me if I was going to answer that question, and you don‘t give me the opportunity.

SCARBOROUGH: Cut his mike off for a second. I‘m going to read this, and then I want him to respond to the question. Michael Moore said this on people killing American troops in Iraq. “The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not insurgents, or terrorists, or the enemy. They are the revolution, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow, and they will win.” Do you agree with that statement, Christopher Lehane?

LEHANE: If you look at the entire context of what Michael was talking about, he was making it very, very clear of the perceptions of the Iraqi people with regards to the situation on the ground in Iraq, a situation that the Bush administration fundamentally failed to analyze. That‘s why we have no plan to win the peace.

They greatly exaggerated the actual facts on the situation there and had no real comprehensive understanding of the how people of Iraq would respond to opposition forces going into their country.

(CROSSTALK)

SCARBOROUGH: So is Zarqawi a Minuteman?

LEHANE: So the issue is, how do the Iraqi people view the insurgents?

That‘s the real issue that‘s going on here, and that‘s what Michael is talking about.

HITCHENS: I think it‘s how Michael Moore views the insurgents. But look, I mean look, this is either way a degrading—I feel sorry for you, Mr. Lehane. One minute, you‘re organizing for some guy to spread sexual rumors about John Kerry, then you have Terry McAuliffe and Michael Moore in front of a cinema just think, “What‘ll work now? What‘ll get attention this week? Why don‘t we just say that people who are murdering Iraqis, and murdering Kurds, and murdering American and British and coalition soldiers are Minutemen?”

It‘ll work for now—whatever. That‘s your life. And I think you‘ve said enough. I don‘t have any further questions.

SCARBOROUGH: All right.

HITCHENS: So I think we can go to Moveon.org or “Michael Moron dot org” and leave this for now. I mean, I‘m completely satisfied that Mr. Lehane has made the point he came on to make, which is that he and his client are on the Jihad side in this war, and they‘ve made a film that is itself a lie, and it‘s full of individual falsehoods, and it‘s a disgrace.

SCARBOROUGH: Thank you, Christopher Hitchens. Thank you, Chris Lehane.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5386176/