Politically Incorrect Transcript For Thursday, March 14, 2002 (Alec Baldwin Makes A** Of Himself)

Bill: Good evening.
Welcome to "Politically Incorrect." Let me tell you who's on today.
Over here, Mr. Michael McKean who is Adrien Van Vorhees.

Bill: On the "Primetime Glick" show.
You make me laugh so much in that.
Your films coming up, "The Guru," and "Slap Her, She's French." I love that title.

[ Light laughter ]

Christianne Klein, you work for KNBN in northern California.
Conservative commentator.
Thank you for being here.
Frank Bruni, this is your book, getting a lot of press here.
It's called "Ambling into History." About George Bush, who I understand is now the president.

[ Laughter ]

And Alec Baldwin, one of my favorite actors.
"Paths to War," you can see that on HBO coming up in May.
Keeps insisting on caring more about his country than his career, against my advice.
Give a hand to this panel.

[ Applause ]

Speaking of that, you got yourself in a little hot water with the comments you made concerning 9/11.
I can't imagine what that's like.

[ Laughter ]

But I will say that the ability to think out loud is one of the great things about this country, even though it is under attack.
It was with political correctness before 9/11, and even more so now.
I would also say that's one of the things that separates us from the muslim world, where you can't really think out loud.
You can't go, "You know, maybe Allah isn't all --
" never mind.

[ Laughter ]

Bill: Yes, you can't get to the end.
That's, you know --
so you were musing about the 2000 election.
Why don't you summarize it? Because I'm sure you would rather do it then have someone else.

Alec: Well, I went down to Tallahassee for People for the American Way is conducting some election reform rallies and programs down there.
They arrived with a fine program, the election protection program.
And I said that I felt, prior to 9/11, the other catastrophic event was the election of 2000.
By that, I do not mean the outcome.
No one's disputed the guy, he's the president.

Alec: He's gonna sit in that office until the next election.
But what I was saying --
what I was implying was that something happened on September 11th, which was something that we had taken for granted for so long, which was that we would never be attacked on our own soil like that.
Something that we never believed was possible.
Something similar happened on November of 2000, which was an election would be awarded to somebody through litigation in a court.
But most importantly, I would never equate that event on September 11th with the election in terms of loss of human life or the misery and the sorrow over everybody that died there tragically.
That was not my intention at all.
And no one, I think, in their right mind, would make that --

Bill: Tell me why you're still upset about it because I think a lot of people were upset about what happened down there in Florida.
We didn't think everything was cricket.
I said many times I didn't think the Republicans stole the election, but it did fall off a truck.

[ Laughter ]

However, I brought in this "New York Times" from November 12th, 2001.
Okay.
And I remember this page one of the "New York Times." I guess the Letterman/Koppel thing was on a lull that day.

[ Light laughter ]

But when I read this, I kind of put it to bed.

Bill: "Would've won even if the Supreme Court would've allowed the state-wide manual recount."

Christianne: You can count those votes over and over it again until the end of time, and President Bush still would've won Florida.

Bill: So why is it still such an outrage? What is it about what went down there that still sticks in --

Alec: You're gonna have a guest on this show, I was told later on next month, named Greg Palast who wrote a book called "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy." And Palast will tell you that prior to the 1998 election when Jeb Bush was elected, the state of Florida would do a purge list of felons from their election rolls.
And they had an in-state contractor, I believe, who was hired for about under $6,000 to do this job.
As soon as Jeb Bush got in office, he hired --

Alec: Well, what you do is you go through the voter rolls and you purge people who are felons, because in the state of Florida, felons lose the right to vote, unlike other states, where they're allowed to vote.
And when Jeb Bush got in office, he and Catherine Harris --

Alec: So Jeb Bush hires an Atlanta-based company called DBT Technologies or services, or what have you, that's used by the FBI to conduct manhunts.
The pay them $4.3 million.
And they purge 57,000 voters from the rolls of felons.

Alec: An overwhelming majority of the people were not felons and should not have been purged.
What happened was if your name was --
if their name matched the felon who should've been purged --
so if Joe Smith goes to his precinct, and he goes to register to vote, and they look in the log, and they say, "I'm sorry.
You're not on the log.
You're not registered here." What recourse do they have? They leave.
Now People for the American Way is having a program where they're going to be distributing literature with an 800 number you can call to get legal counsel on the spot on election days.

Frank: When you talk about this, it's not just here.
But in other situations, when I've listened to you, I get the sense you think only Republicans are up to monkey business when it comes to trying to get a favorable outcome.
I mean, if you remember back to November of 2000, Gore only initially wanted recounts in four counties.
And those were heavily Democratic counties.
I mean, this was a free-for-all in which everybody was trying to get the outcome they wanted.
And I don't think either side was too concerned with what preserves the integrity of the democratic process.

Frank: No, we should absolutely have election reform.
But we should recognize that just because Bush won the election, doesn't mean that Gore, necessarily, was this pristine bystander and his people didn't do just as much and work just hard to try to make it happen.

Alec: I don't think, by the way, that Gore's people did just as much as the Bush people.
I mean, think I'm an apologist --

Michael: I don't think the Democrats had the power of the Supreme Court to the same extent that the Republicans.

Christianne: They had the power of the Florida Supreme Court.
Which is why it drug on for so long.
Instead of actually having the recount start from the beginning, all of the counters in Florida --

Michael: But the recount was stopped.
The recount was stopped by the United States.

Alec: But what's happening is people are sidetracking the conversation, as I hoped they wouldn't, with being hung up on the outcome.
No one's disputing the outcome.
They are saying that we need to have election reform.
You need to have provisional balance in a state like Florida.
You need to have provisional balance in Florida like you have, at the very least, in California where, if you go to a precinct, and you go to vote, and they look at the log and you're not registered, you can still cast a provisional ballot, and they'll go find your precinct.
And if the ballot you cast provisionally matches identically your ballot in your precinct, they count the ballot.
With redistricting, they change people's polling places at the 11th hour.
In many, many states, not just Florida.

Christianne: They have a lot of scantrons, especially in California.
A lot of things are happening because of what happened in 2000.

Christianne: I don't think we're ever going to see a situation like that ever again.
Because, if you look around, and you listen --

Alec: I think if Jeb Bush has his way, you would see a situation like that again.

Alec: The state of Florida promised --
Bush and Catherine Harris promised that they would spearhead election reform in Florida.

Alec: Right.
They've only spent the 12.
And the other 12, the Republican controlled state Senate and legislature is holding back on the second $12 million.

Alec: You don't think so? You have some sources that told you about that down there in Florida?
[ Laughter ]

You have your finger on that pulse when someone tells you down there that they're gonna spend the $12 million? I'm asking you.

Alec: What are you basing that assumption on that they're going to spend the other $12 million?

Christianne: Because it would be ridiculous for a governor of the state and the brother of the president to do something that was that obvious.

Alec: I agree with you.
That would be ridiculous.

[ Laughter and applause ]

And we'll still be waiting for that $12 million.

Alec: We're still waiting for that $12 million for education and election reform.

Bill: Boy, you wouldn't want to get in fight with him around a kitchen, would you?
[ Laughter ]

Michael: It would also be ridiculous for a sitting president to suddenly reseal documents concerning the Republican administrations of Reagan and Bush.

Michael: Oh, that's right.

[ Light laughter ]

That's right.
I thought I dreamed it.

Bill: All right.
We got to take a commercial.
We will be right back.

[ Applause ]

Bill: Well, President Bush once again has used the phrase, "Plenty hot."
[ Light laughter ]

This time he described his feelings about the bureaucratic snafu that had the two dead 9/11 hijackers getting their student visas in the mail the other day.
And if that wasn't outrage enough, now it's coming out that they're also being credited with their frequent flyer miles.

[ Laughter ]

Bill: Well, bad news.
The anthrax scare may be coming back.
Now, it is Hispanic organizations that have been targeted.
I don't know why, but Hispanic activists are being warned to take every precaution --
screen correspondents, don't touch foreign substances, and if at all possible, fry your beans a third time.

[ Laughter ]

[ Applause ]

All right.
Let's talk about the president, since we all agree that he is the president, and you say he's going to be there until the next election.
And I got news for you --
he's going to be there after the next election --

Bill: That's not an endorsement from me.
It's just, you know, come up to reality here.
I mean, who do the Democrats got that's going to be the guy with an 80% approval rating? I mean, that's literally --

Michael: Do you remember 1991? Late '91, things started to kind of pale a little bit for --

Christianne: The difference is that his son has a lot more charisma than his father did.

Frank: Well, I don't know if that's the difference.
I think part of the difference is --
I mean, September 11th is so monumental.
It just stayed much longer.

Frank: He also seems to be catching a break on the economic cycle, you know, in a better way than his father.
A lot of the stuff is beyond anyone's control, and if it turns around now, he's --

Bill: Let's be honest.
The war is good for the presidency.
I mean, you remember the song "War, what is it good for"? Well, it turns out being president.

[ Light laughter ]

People say it's a tremendous burden for George Bush.
It's no tremendous burden.
It made his job so much easier.

Michael: The only way you can really blow that is to hide under the desk and cry, and he hasn't been doing that.
I mean, that's literally --

Alec: Well, the difference, I think, is what kind of war is it? The Vietnam War really did become an unpopular war, and this war, clearly, everybody is behind this war.
Even the people who I know, who are pacifistic by nature, know this is something that we need to do.
And I think you're right.
He's got a tremendous amount of energy in his direction because this war is so clear cut.

Michael: But it's not a pr war.
I mean, it's not --
it doesn't feel like it's designed that way, but it's certainly taking an opportunity and running with it, you know?

Bill: Well, I mean, the problem I have with all that is that when anyone else makes a criticism, you're a traitor.
When they forward their agendas, especially their pre-9/11 agenda, you can't say anything because you would be a traitor to criticize the president in a time of war when we have soldiers in the field.

Alec: Well, we have to criticize --
I think we shouldn't criticize the president for this particular war.
I mean, this is all opinion.
I happen to agree with what he's doing there, but we do have to criticize the president, whatever party he's in, if you disagree with his domestic policy.

Bill: Tell that to Tom Daschle, and people who actually have opened their mouth --

Frank: I think it's more important to criticize them.
I mean, a wartime presidency can get so powerful with his approval ratings and all that.
You can feel like you have a real long leash and a lot of slack, and I think people need to ask tough questions.
But that's a war effort, too --
not about the fact of it, but about the prosecution of it, about the decisions being made.
I mean, I think it's incumbent to --

[ All talking at once ]

Christianne: That's what makes --
that's what makes America a great country is because you can do that, and you wouldn't be able to do that in other countries.

Bill: --
As we have found out, as many people have found out.
You can't just do it.
You really got to fight to do it.
And when the Senate majority leader just says, "Hey, you know what, I'm the guy who the Constitution says controls the purse strings," I'd just like to know where this war is going.
And he gets shouted down as a traitor --
that's not what America is about.

Bill: He says --
I loved this.
He said, "The Bush I knew --
" this is you because you were on the campaign trail with him day in and day out.
He was giving you noogies, right?
[ Laughter ]

What was your nickname?

Bill: Wedgies, whatever.
He had many nicknames.

[ Laughter ]

You said he pressed --
he pressed his forehead against you or something.

Frank: He was a very touchy guy.
Very touchy guy.
I should hasten to average --

[ All talking at once ]

[ Laughter ]

Bill: Basically, if Clinton was the alpha male and Gore was the beta male, this guy's delta --
I mean, that's really what you're saying --

[ Laughter ]

--
Is that he's very much --

Bill: Okay.
So --
and also very culturally adrift.
I remember when he said that he liked the Beatles up until their weird psychedelic period.

[ Laughter ]

Bill: Yeah, up until that crap.

[ All talking at once ]

Oh, man, did they pull off the edge there.

[ Laughter ]

He didn't know who Leonardo DiCaprio was.
He didn't know what a vegan was.
He had never heard of "Sex and the City."

Bill: And about Al Gore, he said, "The man dyes his hair.
What does that tell you about him?"

Frank: I don't know for a fact, by the way, and I don't know that he knew for a fact that Al Gore dyes his hair.
It was kind of a curious thing, and I once pointed out that we did know that Ronald Reagan dyed his hair, and that kind of --

Michael: Yeah, I'm sorry --
I'm sorry to break it to you.

[ Laughter ]

I just thought he was prematurely orange.

[ Laughter ]

Bill: But if a guy doesn't know what so many people in America are aware of, is that just charming or is that --
?

Christianne: Those are very pop culture kind of things.
That's not fair to say because he doesn't know about Britney Spears, which was another issue --

Alec: But wait a second.
But what is your point, though, because there was a lot of other things prior to the election he didn't know, either?

Bill: I can accept not knowing Britney Spears if you're like an egghead, if you're like a Harvard professor, who's got his mind on really important matters.
If you're figuring out the theory of relativity --

Christianne: How's being governor of the state of Texas not as important as --
?

Bill: He's willing to be the leader of the American people.
Isn't it important to at least know what they're connected to?

Frank: The point isn't whether he knows these particular things.
The point is the measure of his curiosity or lack thereof.
That's why I put it in there.

Bill: And I think it is important because I think this is a president who does not get globalism which is now, after 9/11, so important.
And I hate to tell you who really got globalism.
It was Mr. Hmm-hmm.

[ Laughter ]

Christianne: I think he does --

[ Laughter ]

I think he does have a very good sense of America's place in the world, and we wouldn't be doing what we're doing now if we didn't.
He might have come from a different background, and I think that's the reason why a lot of people appreciate him is because he is a decent individual.
You know when you watch him on television --
when you watch him on television, you know that what he's saying is sincere.
It comes from a place --

Alec: Whatever this conservative spokesperson academy you've gone to is amazing to me.

[ Laughter ]

This boarding school you went to --

[ Applause ]

Words like decency --
I mean, we all know what you're referencing to.
Getting off that subject for just a minute.
I believe that anybody who had this job for some rare incident --
Democrat, Republican, man, woman, black, white, old, young --
any of them would have risen to the occasion under these given circumstances.

Bill: Yeah, when people say act, thank God --

[ All talking at once ]

As if Gore won, we would be reading the Koran now.

[ Laughter ]

Alec: If you watched Fox and all those other fascists over there, that's exactly what they would have had you believe.

Bill: All right, hold your power drive.
We'll take a commercial.

[ Applause ]

Bill: Okay.
In the time left, I want to talk about this ad that Bill Bennett took out.
It's called "Americans for Victory over Terrorism." Controversial title.
I'm with him on that.
I'm an American.
I'm for victory over terrorism.
Where it starts to get a little dicey is where he mentions that we have enemies both without --
that's the terrorists --
and within, and when it comes to within, he talks about those who would blame America first, which is code for if you criticize or dissent in any way, you are blaming America first, and that is not what we are doing when we criticize or dissent.
We are not blaming America first.
We have not lost perspective that we are still the good guys.
But we are not perfect, and when Mr. Bennett says, "We are a target not because of anything we have done," well, that's not entirely true.
We didn't deserve what happened, but we are not perfect, and if we don't use this horrific event to look at ourselves --

Michael: This guy is like --

[ Applause ]

He's like America's assistant principal, you know? He's like this guy that really doesn't have much to do.
No one in government ever gives him a job or anything, but he always --
he copyrighted the word "virtue" for himself.

Michael: Yes, so this is after he was --
disastrous educations are, disastrous drugs are, and he's become an anthologist who thinks he is a rewrite man, you know?

Frank: You almost get the sense that he feels like we're on the precipice of dissent, you know, thundering and undercutting all the effort.
If anything, there's been a deficit of dissent, and I guess I really would like to know why he felt this was so urgent.

Michael: I don't know.
I think it might be a distracting --
a way of distracting.

Alec: I think he wrote this right after the attack, and he was expecting the dissent, but he paid for the ad, so he ran it anyway.

[ Laughter ]

[ All talking at once ]

Christianne: Well, another thing that they do talk about is that --
in the actual ad is that he has an 80% --
now it's 80%, it was 81% --
approval rating.
That's gone on for a very long period of time, and you know, when you --

Michael: That's not what the ad is really about, though.
The ad is --
the real nugget in there is --

[ All talking at once ]

Christianne: It is important to stand by and wait for the length of period of time that this is going to take because it's not going to be --

Frank: I mean, this almost seems to be predicated on the Vietnam era.

[ Applause ]

Bill: Frank Bruni --
the Brunmeister, the Brunilator.

[ Laughter ]

That is your book --
"Ambling into History." Alec, stay out of trouble.

[ Applause ]

You need to have provisional balance in a state like Florida.
You need to have provisional balance in Florida like you have, at the very least, in California where, if you go to a precinct, and you go to vote, and they look at the log and you're not registered, you can still cast a provisional ballot, and they'll go find your precinct.
And if the ballot you cast provisionally matches identically your ballot in your precinct, they count the ballot.

Apparently Phallic Baldweenie has learned a new term, "provisional," and uses it over and over and over again.

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