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June 14, 2006

Special Report Roundtable - June 14

FOX News Special Report With Brit Hume

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: Do you believe that there needs to be a reduction in violence for U.S. Troops to begin to draw down?

QUESTION: How concerned are you about the U.S. image abroad?

QUESTION: Is there a threat that inflation is going to derail the economic expansion?

QUESTION: Even if Karl Rove did nothing illegal, I wonder whether you could say now whether you approve of his conduct in this CIA leak episode.

QUESTION: Do you have a moment where you feel this just won't end well, that no matter how many Zarqawi's are killed, the insurgents are never going to give up?

QUESTION: Are you concerned that republicans will lose control of Congress in November?

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Listen, the elections are a long way off. What's going to matter is who's got the plan that will enable us to succeed in Iraq and keep the economy growing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUME: Well, we couldn't kind of resist that. The president, today, in a news conference in the rose garden, and he got the kinds of questions that presidents get, particularly this president and this Press Corps. Some analytical observations on all this now from Fred Barnes, executive editor of the "Weekly Standard"; Mort Kondracke, executive editor of "Roll Call"; and Mara Liasson, national political correspondent of National Public Radio, FOX News contributors, all.

Well, what'd you make of the news conference today, Mara? That was the president, that was the press. How's the public likely to receive this sort of thing?

MARA LIASSON, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO: Well, I don't thing the -- well, if - - the public often looks at the press and press encounters with the president and doesn't like the press as a group, but I didn't think he was any more contrary or negative than they are in general. I mean.

HUME: They're no worse than unusual?

LIASSON: No, I really don't. And it's often the role of the press to be contrary and I think the question about inflation was perfectly legitimate. You know? There are concerns about it. Whether you lose both Houses of Congress, you know what, a lot of republicans are worried they might lose the House of Congress. I didn't think it was -- it wasn't like when did you stop beating your wife? I didn't think it was that level. I thought the press conference was interesting. I mean, the president is doing everything he can to call Americans' attention to the good news that he sees happening in Iraq, his new focus on it, the fact that there's a new government over there, he didn't have to have this press conference. He could have let his remarks on the plane stand, but he came right home and jet lagged as he was, came out and gave a pretty spirited, animated defense of what's happening there. And towards the end, especially, really engrained the democrats on what the next step should be.

MORT KONDRACKE, "ROLL CALL": Well, I mean, it is the role of the press to ask challenging questions of the president. I thought he, in general, he handled them -- he handled them feistily (ph) and, you know, for somebody who's jet lagged and all that, rather more feisty than usual, even. What's interesting, though, is that there was hardly any question, critical question from the right, which you might call the "Weekly Standard" side of the fence. For example, this deal.

HUME: Let me ask you a question about that. And which news organization has been there everyday represents the "Weekly Standard" side of events?

KONDRACKE: Well, I don't think there is one. So, but, for example, I mean, critics say that the deal that you're offering Iran on nuclear weapons is a lot like the deal that Bill Clinton offered to North Korea and he got taken as a result of it. Some critics say that, you know, 7,200 American troops engaging in this cleansing operation of Baghdad and Ramadi are not enough, that sort of thing.

FRED BARNES "WEEKLY STANDARD": Mort, you say that.

KONDRACKE: You say you'll -- me too. You say that you'll -- that you're listening to General Casey. Well, you know, what about Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill? They didn't always follow what the general said, et cetera. Not question about that.

BARNES: Mort's exactly right, but those were informational questions where you're trying to get the president to explain and defend the policy. Most of these questions are -- well, the reporters know they aren't going to get an answer. When you ask the president, Mr. President, your polls are terrible, tell us all the things you should have been doing that wouldn't have put you in the situation with bad polls. What do you expect him to say? He's not going to answer that.

(CROSSTALK)

That's not an informational question. No, we don't need to go back to the White House. These questions tell you what reporters are interested in and not what is really important or what the American people would like to hear about. I like all of Mort's questions, but when you ask the president, you know, I mean, we know the Press Corps is hung up on the most? Trop pullouts. So, that's the question. The president just went on a trip to Iraq to demonstrate that he's not pulling out the troops right away. If you couldn't realize that's what that trip was partially about, you're an idiot, yet the first question was about a troop pullout. The second question was about get out of Guantanamo and then, I mean, it just went on and on.

Two questions about Karl Rove. Karl Rove has just been vindicated and these questions were, Mr. President, now really, now he may not be indicted but he really did bad stuff, right? Tell us about it. You know, come on. This is - these are obsessions of reporters that don't match the feelings of the American people.

KONDRACKE: Look, I do think they do represent the concerns of some American people. They just don't represent the concerns of all the American people and the press is not, as you might say, fair and balanced. I mean, there was Bret Baier and Jake Tapper asked straightforward informational questions. The rest of them were (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

LIASSON: Which, unfortunately, at least one of the questions Jake Tapper asked, which I was interested in the answer, too, and he didn't get one. Which was what do you think about the plan of the new Iraqi government to offer some kind of amnesty to insurgents. That's an interesting question and as a matter of fact, Bush said that's an interesting question, then he proceeded to talk about de-baathification which is related, but not the same.

BARNES: But Brit, you didn't have the best "gotcha" question, there, that was about, Mr. President, didn't you insult the new Iraqi prime minister by not telling him well ahead of time that you were coming. I mean, what do you expect the president -- I mean, that, look, that is -- it's the question that matters to the reporter, it has nothing to do with any answer that the president's going to give. It's preening by some reporter with a gotch question. Ridiculous.

HUME: When we come back with our panel, we'll be talking about James Webb's senate primary victory in Virginia and what it means. Will that be a battleground state now? Is George Allen in trouble? Stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES WEBB (D), VA CANDIDATE FOR U.S. SENATE: They want a leader who will not just make empty promises and follow this administration blindly, but who's capable of independent thought of taking a hard stand when the stakes are high. They want a leader who will give them a voice in the corridors of power rather than parroting a political machine or a special interest lobby. And if I'm elected, I can promise you that I will be that leader.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(APPLAUSE)

HUME: James Webb. Vietnam veteran, Navy secretary under Ronald Reagan, now turned democrat, claiming victory in the Virginia Democratic Senate Primary to run against the incumbent republican George Allen, a state which has been a pretty solid state for republicans in presidential elections, but eclectics democratic governors. Could it be now about to elect a democratic senator -- Mara.

LIASSON: Well, that I think -- to say it's about to elect a democratic senator, that might be going a little too far, but I would say the race against George Allen just got a lot more interesting. What happened in this primary, was a couple things. The democratic -- the National Democratic Party decided it wanted Webb, would rather have a republican who had just turned democrat than the kind of establishment democrat, Harris Miller, who had done all the things you're supposed to do, touched on the bases, raised a lot the money. Webb was out spent three to one, but he had a lot of support from national democrats and he beat Miller even in the very liberal areas of Northern Virginia. He is a war hero. He is someone who maybe transcends party. He did support George Allen in the last election, of course he said, well then he said he waited for George Allen to do something he could be proud of and he never did one thing. But I think it's going to be an interesting race.

The democrats have been looking for people like him. They want military -- former military candidates, veterans to run, because they know that they have a deficit on the national security issues and, you know, he kind of fits the bill. We'll see what we can do.

KONDRACKE: Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia, who is a big expert on Virginia politics, obviously, says that George Allen is not at his peek that he doesn't -- that Virginia has moderated and George Allen hasn't moderated with them, that he's more of a rural candidate than a suburban/urban candidate. On the other hand, George Allen had $7.5 million in the bank in March and probably has 10 now. And Webb has nothing. He only raised $600,000 for this race and so everything depends on his ability to fundraise and the willingness of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Chuck Schumer, to raise money for him.

HUME: Schumer backed him.

KONDRACKE: No, Schumer backed him and John Kerry also backed him and Allen is using that fact, even though Webb is a former republican and a hawk on most defense issues except Iraq and is a -- has kind of moderate views on a lot of things. Nonetheless, the Allen forces are trying to tie Webb to Kerry and Schumer and make him out to be a super lib. So, I would say advantage, Allen.

BARNES: Yeah, not just because he has more money. There's no reason people are mad at him. And he actually is an independent thinker. When I interviewed him recently, he disagrees with Bush on all kinds of things. He's actually a libertarian, but I think the problem with the Webb campaign is.

HUME: But what about the question about whether the state of Virginia, as Larry Sabato suggested, has begun to become more urban and more moderate and Allen is a pretty.

BARNES: It's been urban and moderately conservative for a long time. I think Larry's making a little too much out of that. But, I respect his opinion. Look, there are two premises of the Webb campaign that I think are wrong. One is that if you get a military guy, a guy who's been in the military, that that will attract conservative voters who otherwise wouldn't be for you. But, that's not what happens with these candidates. It didn't work with John Kerry. And with Webb, if you look at the primary yesterday, he was the champion in the liberal areas like Fairfax, County, and Arlington, and Alexandra, down state where there weren't any voters, there was an incredibly low turnout. Down state, where there are more conservative voters, they went for Harris Miller, his -- the liberal opponent. The other false premises is that an anti-Iraq war guy is going to solve the democrat's problems on national security. What they need a pro-Iraq war candidate and that would help.

HUME: We got one little bit of news I want to mention, that this has just came in. Mike Gerson, somebody most Americans have never heard of, but he's the principal -- probably the principal speechwriter of the Bush administration is going to leave the administration and the White House is making clear tonight that this is not part of a shakeup. This is somebody they didn't want to lose, indeed, the White House's chief of staff is being quoted saying "this is one guy who's indispensable." How big a loss -- Mara.

LIASSON: He wrote some great speeches. I think he was one of the most talented White House speechwriters we've ever -- we've ever had.

KONDRACKE: To the extent that Bush is ever eloquent, it's usually Mike Gerson has something to do with it.

HUME: Which speeches come to mind?

(CROSSTALK)

LIASSON: The 9/11 speech. I mean there were so many of them.

BARNES: Any speech on democracy and involving the spread of democracy and the ending of tyranny in the third world has particularly been his. I mean, to the extent that he's also a compassionate conservative.

KONDRACKE: Well, he did have a heart attack at a very young age, but nevertheless it was a heart attack. I don't know why he's leaving. He comes to the closest to being a moral force at the White House of any person I've ever seen at the White House.

HUME: Tell me whether there's anybody there that can fill the bill.

BARNES: Well, you know, he hasn't been the speechwriter. He's been a counselor in really the second term. But Bill McGurn is a speechwriter and I think he's done very, very well.

KONDRACKE: In terms of policy, you've Josh Bolten, is a compassionate conservative.

(CROSSTALK)

Well, I don't know about a speechwriter, but Pete Wehner too, is a moral force.

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