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April 02, 2007

Special Report Roundtable - April 2

FOX News Special Report With Brit Hume

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE SPEAKER: That's one of the issues we'll bring up with him. Of course, the role of Syria and Iraq, the role of Syria supporting Hamas and Hezbollah, the role of Syrian, in so many respects that we think there could be a vast improvement.

DANA PERINO, WH DEPTY PRESS SECY: Speaker Pelosi is a high-ranking United States official. Nothing changes -- nothing has changed in Syria's behavior over the years when high-ranking U.S. officials go to see them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUME: And so, says the White House, Nancy Pelosi and her delegation should not go. Some thoughts on this issue now from Fred Barnes, executive editor of the Weekly Standard; Mort Kondracke, executive editor of Roll Call; and Jeff Birnbaum, columnist for the Washington Post -- all are FOX NEWS contributors.

There's some Republicans over there now making a similar trip. Nobody seem to be beefing about them, least of all the White House, why is that different or is it?

MORT KONDRACKE, ROLL CALL: Well, because Nancy Pelosi is a higher- profile figure, but I was going to say that nobody seems to be paying attention to the Bush administration's admonishments that people shouldn't go. So, everybody seems to be going and even Ehud Olmert...

HUME: Was there anything to the objections?

KONDRACKE: I don't really think so. I mean, she -- look, it depends on what she says there and how much she -- plays footsy with Bashar Assad. If she delivers a tough message, as the State Department says, and she -- there is some reason to think that she might, that because she is a pretty reliable supporter of Israel, for example...

HUME: And a member of the opposition.

KONDRACKE: Right. And she would say something strong about Hezbollah, she would say something strong about terrorist attacks and Hamas attacks, and so on. So, and across -- letting terrorists across the Syrian border. She might actually do that. Furthermore, she is one of the leaders of the opposition and for her to actually see with our own eyes what's going on there I think is probably useful.

FRED BARNES, WEEKLY STANDARD: I don't. I think it's probably a bad idea for her to go, it is a bad idea for Arlen Specter to go, the Republican senator. It was bad for Senator Nelson of Florida to go. And it was a bad idea for Frank Wolf, who's one of the Republican members of Congress who's over there...

HUME: He's your congressman isn't he?

BARNES: No, he use to be.

HUME: No, he's in Maine, I guess he's my congressman.

BARNES: Yeah, he's farther out. He's in the heavier Republican area than mine, which -- Jim Moran, a Democrat is mine congressman.

HUME: So...

BARNES: Now, wait a minute. Let me finish here. We got off on a tangent.

(LAUGHTER)

But, look, what do the Syrians get out of this? The Syrians get out of this, the get a little bit of added prestige. They get to appear on television with -- you know, they're standing there with Nancy Pelosi or with Arlen Specter or whoever, some American -- and they never give up anything.

Now, sometimes people who go and visit with the Syrians come back and say how reasonable they are, and they make fools on themselves. Rick Warren, the Evangelist did that not long ago. I don't know that Nancy Pelosi will do that, but you know, it's not as if the Bush administration hasn't sent people over there who knew what they were doing, whether it was Colin Powell when he was secretary of state and Nick Burns and many, may others. And what happens is, the Syrians want things, but they don' ever want to give anything up. You know, Assad's father wanted the Golden Heights back from Israel, but he didn't want to give Israel anything.

HUME: Jeff, your thoughts.

JEFF BIRNBAUM, WASHINGTON POST: I called Speaker Pelosi's office to asked why it was OK for her to go and they gave the reasons for the three Republicans who were there just today, that there is one Republican on the delegation with the speaker, and that the third reason...

HUME: What's he doing, handling the baggage?

(LAUGHTER)

BIRNBAUM: He's there. The reason she thought it was a good idea to go was because it was recommended by the Iraq Study Group, the Hamilton- Baker...

BARNES: Weren't they talking about having the Bush administration talk to Syria. I don't remember...

BIRNBAUM: Right, and my view -- I think that's absolutely the wrong reason to go. In other words, she is there in opposition to the Bush administration dictate that we should not deal with Syria or Iran, for that matter. She is the third ranking constitutional officer behind the vice president, that's why it's different when she goes -- than Frank Wolf Who's just a Republican member, though you know, representing important people, nonetheless...

HUME: I would see my neighbors...

BIRNBAUM: Just a congressman. It's different when the speaker of the House goes. It sends a different signal and is probably not something that the speaker of the House should do in opposition to the person in charge of foreign affairs which is the president of the United States.

BARNES: I don't see how the case in any of these cases, I agree, she's more important, but any -- when did this get started, where people go over the opposition party or even ones who are in the majority party go over and meet with America's enemies? Syria is an enemy of America. We know that.

KONDRACKE: We are not in a state of declared war with them.

BIRNBAUM: Mort, Mort, don't...

KONDRACKE: Just a second -- fact-finding is what members of Congress are supposed to do and you want to find out what atmosphere is. She's not going to change policy. Even if she has the most loving press conferences with Bashar Assad, which she will not...

HUME: What about the legitimacy P.R. aspect of this? Does a country like Syria, entertaining these guests, many of whom, like Rick Warren, for example, said nice things about them, gets something out of it in exchange for nothing?

KONDRACKE: Well, if they say nice things about them, and they're used as fools, then it helps, marginally, helps the adversary.

HUME: Let me set up a scenario, which is not unlikely -- that Nancy Pelosi comes back and says: I believe that there's good reason to negotiate with Syria.

BIRNBAUM: Which she has said.

HUME: Which she probably has already say that.

BIRNBAUM: Right, and she...

HUME: Who does that help?

KONDRACKE: It certainly helps Assad. It does help Assad.z

HUME: Can you imagine her not saying that?

KONDRACKE: I can't, no. But look, it is the Democratic Party position on this matter. We know there is a difficult on approach between Democrats and Republicans, if she says that, you know, it might be policy someday, it's not going to be policy anytime soon.

BARNES: It isn't treason or anything. It's a mistake and you used the word "marginally," at the margin, it will help the Syrians.

BIRNBAUM: It's where this partisanship really does damage, in my view. I mean, this -- people are -- we can confuse the world about who's in charge if the person in charge of the opposition party says something different after visiting with someone who's stated to be the enemy...

(CROSSTALK)

KONDRACKE: If she's tough there -- if she comes back with a tough message about how she told Assad quit helping Hezbollah, that's a help to the Bush administration.

HUME: Next up with the Panel, Rudy Giuliani clarifies what his wife's role would be in a Giuliani White House. We'll talk about the role of spouses and family in this election cycle -- stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARBARA WALTERS, ABC NEWS: If and when you are president, would Mrs. Giuliani sit in on cabinet meetings?

RUDY GIULIANI (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If she wanted to, if it where relevant to something that she was interested in. That would be something that I'd be very, very comfortable with.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUME: Well, since that comment, Mayor Giuliani has work to explain to interested people that he probably should not have said yes on the question of cabinet meeting where the secretary of state and other cabinet officers would be present, but that there are circumstances under which, because healthcare is an issue that his wife, a former nurse, or I guess, still a nurse, cares a lot about, she might have something to say. So he is -- this, of course after the reaction to it, which has been such things as Mrs. Edwards saying she would never sit in on a cabinet meetings and so forth. So, it's become a kind of a bit of an issue for the Giuliani's as they go forward.

Before we get to that, let's talk briefly about the fund-raising results. Mitt Romney, 23 million; Rudy Giuliani what -- 14; and John McCain who for so long was believed the frontrunner, third with 12. Other than the fact that somebody has a lot of money, which knew about Romney, anyway, is the really meaningful?

BIRNBAUM: I think so.

HUME: Really?

BIRNBAUM: Well, we don't have any other way to measure the way voters are really thinking. We have polls.

HUME: Romney has -- the positions are reversed. He's third or so.

BIRNBAUM: Well, not completely, but this does give a measure of support and betting by people who pay a lot of attention to politics, I think.

HUME: People willing to put their money where their mouth is.

BIRNBAUM: That's the way it is and what's interesting about it, the one part that's really interesting is that McCain is in third place, whereas the expectation was that he would be way ahead. And the reason I think is that for a very long time, he has been biting the hand that he wishes to feed him in this case, because of his...

HUME: You mean Bush voters?

BIRNBAUM: No, I mean, on campaign finance reform. He is asking for money from fundraisers who he has tried to limit for years and years because of his support...

HUME: You think it's payback?

BIRNBAUM: I think so. Payback, so to speak.

KONDRACKE: Yeah, look, I think it also says something about their organizational strength, that they can get fundraising operate going.

But you know, it does not -- in the end, everybody who's over a certain line is competitive. And you remember that John Connelly and Phil Graham in his time raised oodles of money and when nowhere, so...

BARNES: ...money Howard Dean was raising on the internet. You know, President Howard Dean -- oh, wait a minute...

HUME: All right. All right.

BARNES: It didn't work. Look, no, It think Mort has it right. If they have enough just to keep their campaigns going at reasonably full speed, and I think all three of the Republicans do -- even though we're -- look, Mitt Romney's ahead...

HUME: Short-term difference, long-term meaningless.

BARNES: Yeah.

HUME: All right, now, let's move on to the spouses are involved here, because we have the question of how big a role Bill Clinton will play. We have questions about whether the Edwards' are making the right decision. They said not that they're going to take the kids out of school, the two younger ones, and they'll travel on the campaign with them. I guess they did some of that in the last cycle when he was running for vice president. And now you have this question about the Giuliani's and what role his spirited wife will play in his campaign and his administration, if there were one, and so forth. Where does all this stand and what does it all mean?

KONDRACKE: Well, I mean, look, you got the ideas primary, before you get to the real primaries you get the ideas primary, you get to the organization primary, you get the fund-raising primary and you get the soap opera primary. And this is part of the soap opera primary. And it's not insignificant; the personal has become that political. The use to be that personal lives were, you know, in the shadows and stuff like that. And now it's all out front and everybody wants to know who many times were you married and were you faithful to your wife and all that stuff and it plays a part in the campaign.

Barbara Walters, last night, indulged in practically nothing else. I wanted her to ask about Judith Nathan: well, what are your views about healthcare -- if she's going to sit in the cabinet...

HUME: Question: Is Bill Clinton a plus for Hillary (INAUDIBLE) or not?

BIRNBAUM: Well, with some people -- with, I think, a lot of Democratic primary voters, he's certainly a plus. Broadly, I think it's a mixed message, that's for sure...

BARNES: It makes her look weak when she has to call on him and she has. This wasn't a plan on her campaign to call on him.

HUME: They call on him for these fund raisers?

BARNES: Yeah or for anything else.

HUME: Like the one we're seeing on the screen right now?

BARNES: Yeah, I want to know -- my question is, if she's elected, is he going to live in the White House?

HUME: Sometimes.

(CROSSTALK)

I think he's going to have an apartment in there.

Listen, listen, let's get another question. The Edwards' have now made the decision that they've made. Some people have criticized it, others said this is absolutely the right thing. And now the discussion about having the kids pulled out of school and so forth. Some people think the schools in America are so that they can't blame them. But, what about that?

KONDRACKE: Well, you know, if homeschooling is all right, I'm sure that they'll be tutored on the campaign trail and their mother will be there. It's probably be better for them to be with and with a tutor...

HUME: How will it play politically -- Jeff, what do you think?

BIRNBAUM: I think that the Edwards' had a short-term burst, not that they had planned it, but nonetheless, because of Mrs. Edwards' unfortunate diagnosis, but over the long-term, I think they could look self-indulgent and that could hurt them politically.

HUME: Fred, last word, very quickly.

BARNES: Yeah, Jeff said it pretty well. I mean dragging the kids around, they're going to look like gypsies.

HUME: My goodness.

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