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Michael Reagan: This is an interview I tried to do earlier today with John McCain... It would be choosing the judges if John McCain becomes President of the United States, and will they be liberal judges, or will they be conservative judges? That’s an issue many people would like to get an answer to. Is Warren Rudman going to be the Attorney General? That would be a good question to ask. Why don’t we go now, Sen. John McCain. Senator, how are you?

John McCain: How are you?

Michael Reagan: I am just fine, thank you very much. Where are you, are you in Fresno?

John McCain: I’m on the bus, I’m on the way to Bakersfield, I’m headed through a lot of very beautiful fruit tree areas. It’s very pretty here in the valley.

Michael Reagan: Question I want to ask you, first of all, have you decided now to get into the debate that’s going to be taking place on Thursday night?

John McCain: We’re having the debate, will be done by satellite from, we’ll have to stop on our trip back to New York and we had to cancel some, some ah of our New York schedule, but we’ll be there by satellite.

Michael Reagan: All right, let me ask you this, because I think it’s an issue, just isn’t being played out within the campaign, there’s so many other things that are being talked about, but as President of the United States, one of the legacies you would leave would be the judges that you would appoint as President of the United States of America and there’s some great concern if Warren Rudman, who is your overall campaign chair, would be in such a position in a McCain administration to appoint judges like Judge Souter to the bench as was done during the Bush administration back in the 1980s.

John McCain: Ah, Warren Rudman did not appoint Judge Souter, President Bush did, remember he was the president.

Michael Reagan: Yes, but ...

John McCain: Second of all, Warren Rudman is a fine, decent man who served his country in the Korean War, Attorney General of his state, and a Senator who was highly respected. It was, it was President Bush that appointed Justice Souter.

Michael Reagan: Right, but Warren Rudman...

John McCain: Warren Rudman is 70...let me finish, please, could I finish? Ah, ah, Warren Rudman is 70 years old, he’s been, he had a serious illness. He’s not interested in playing any active role in a McCain administration and I resent enormously phone calls that were made by Pat Robertson saying that he was a vicious bigot. I think that one might be...

Michael Reagan: Senator, Senator, Senator, Senator, Senator...

John McCain (talking over Reagan): ...well worth talking about as well...

Michael Reagan: Senator!

John McCain: I’m not...

Michael Reagan: Senator!

John McCain: I asked you, Michael, if I could finish, can I finish?

Michael Reagan: But you did finish... [McCain interrupts]

John McCain: Can I Finish? Can I finish? Yes or no?

Michael Reagan: What else do you have to say?

John McCain: Can I finish or not, I mean otherwise...

Michael Reagan: Go ahead.

John McCain: Okay. I don’t appreciate having him being called a vicious bigot by Pat Robertson in personal phone calls to hundreds of thousands of Americans. He is a fine and decent man and he will play an advisory role to me because he is a fine and decent man who enjoyed a sterling reputation as United States Senator and Attorney General of the state of New Hampshire.

Michael Reagan: So...

John McCain: Now I’m finished.

Michael Reagan: Very good. And what I was trying to get to is the fact that, yes, Warren Rudman did not appoint him, Warren Rudman’s the man who sold [him] to John Sununu, who sold him to President Bush at the time, and what...

John McCain (interrupting): In other words...

Michael Reagan: I want to find out.

John McCain: In other words, in other words, in other words, President Bush and John Sununu did not have any minds of their own. That’s, I don’t think that’s the way it happened.

Michael Reagan: That’s, Senator, let me ask you this. There are, there are...

John McCain (interrupting): I don’t believe that’s how it happened.

Michael Reagan: Well...

John McCain: John Sununu knew Souter just as well as Warren Rudman did, they’re both from New Hampshire.

Michael Reagan (talking over McCain): The question is, the question is, what kind of judges would you appoint to the bench? Would they be Souter-like? Would they be judges in the make of a Bork, a Thomas? What kind of judges could we see from a President McCain?

John McCain: My record is very clear as to who I have supported and my record is very clear in public statements that Justice Scalia is a Justice that I admire very much. I also happen to admire Justice Rehnquist, Chief Justice Rehnquist, who is from the state of Arizona. And, ah, but Scalia I admire an enormous amount as well as others. My record as a conservative is very clear, my record on supporting people who adhere to the Constitution is very clear, and my record as a - 18-year record - of conservative positions both physically and others is also very clear.

Michael Reagan: All right. Next question, education. Big issue. I mean, compared to other industrial nations, we here in America, the children routinely test near the bottom. So what about your plan for a better-educated child here in America? What is the McCain plan?

John McCain: Choice, ah, by the way, before we go into that, ah, are you - it doesn’t disturb you that Pat Robertson would call up people and say that, that ah, Warren Rudman is a vicious bigot? I’d like you to talk about that a little bit.

Michael Reagan: No, Senator. No, Senator. No, Senator, because let me tell you, I think that gets off...

John McCain (interrupting): No, let me tell you, let me tell you, when the man’s name is maligned and his reputation is maligned then it ought to be talked about, okay? (inaudible)

Michael Reagan: Senator McCain, goodbye. (PAUSE) There you go, all he wants to talk about is Pat Robertson and bigotry. He doesn’t want to talk about education. Didn’t matter what question you asked him, he wanted, everything was an attack. Man does not have the temperament to be President of the United States. As somebody said, another hour of the show, said to me, you know, I know Ronald Reagan, Ronald Reagan’s a friend of mine, etc., You ain’t no Ronald Reagan. You ain’t no Ronald Reagan. In your dreams, Senator McCain. In your dreams. Only in your dreams. Let’s go to the phones, Mike, you’re up.