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June 13, 2007

Tim Russert on Presidential Race

Hannity & Colmes

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST (voice-over): Tonight on "Hannity & Colmes," McCain vs. Mitt. The two campaigns hammer each other over abortion, as the McCain camp digs up this video.

MITT ROMNEY (R), FORMER GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS: I am absolutely committed to my promise to maintain the status quo with regards to laws related to abortion and choice.

HANNITY: But the Romney folks say McCain is desperate and video is out of context.

And "Meet the Press." Tim Russert is here live in our New York studio.

On the brink, the Gaza Strip is engulfed in violence, raising new concerns of a broader Middle East war.

And some officials in Florida hate Rush Limbaugh so much that they're refusing to provide his radio station with hurricane warnings. You won't believe it. "Hannity & Colmes" starts right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: And welcome to "Hannity & Colmes." Thank you for being with us. I'm Sean Hannity.

We get right to our top story tonight. Joining us now in our New York studio is the moderator of "Meet the Press" and author of the number-one best-seller, "Wisdom Of Our Fathers, Lessons and Letters from Daughters and Sons," which, by the way, is available for paperback, and I highly recommend it. A great Father's Day gift.

Tim, good to see you.

TIM RUSSERT, HOST, "MEET THE PRESS": Great to be here, Sean.

HANNITY: I almost felt like saying, "Our issues this Wednesday"...

RUSSERT: Right, let's do it.

HANNITY: Let me start with a little bit of politics here. For those of us that love politics, this is the Super Bowl, and it runs through November of '08. We love this time.

RUSSERT: Huge.

HANNITY: Yes.

RUSSERT: But what the voters I think should understand is the reason we're covering it with such passion and so aggressively is that, in seven months, we're going to know who the nominees are.

HANNITY: February 5th, probably.

RUSSERT: The first week of January is the Iowa caucuses. That's six months away. And so a lot of people are saying, why are you doing this so early? Number two, this is the first time in 80 years, 80, that an incumbent vice president or president is not running an aggressive campaign to be the next president. It's wide open.

HANNITY: And it gets a little exciting, obviously the Hillary factor.

RUSSERT: Sure.

HANNITY: You've got Barack Obama, who's pretty much come out of nowhere.

RUSSERT: Yep.

HANNITY: Will Fred Thompson get in, not get in? Rudy Giuliani versus Hillary has got a lot of excitement. So...

RUSSERT: Two gladiators. We thought we were going to have them for the U.S. Senate in New York, and then Rudy got prostate cancer. But absolutely. No doubt about it. Fred Thompson looks like he's going to run, closer and closer, and doing very well. He's already second in the polls in the Republican Party.

HANNITY: Yes, it's pretty -- and I've spent a lot of time with all these guys, obviously as a Republican. And I think the Democrats have gone further left than anybody would have anticipated. I think these bloggers have really gotten to them. I think they're really positioning themselves that they're going to have a very difficult time moving center. Do you see that?

RUSSERT: Absolutely, because what has happened -- the Democrats will acknowledge -- for example, on the war. The major candidates were very reluctant to consider voting and cutting off funding. Now, they will -- a year ago. Now, they will say that the circumstances on the ground have changed so much they want to make that vote. It was interesting to me that three senators elected this year, Democrats, Webb of Virginia, Sherrod Brown in Ohio, and Jon Tester of Montana, all voted for the funding, different than Obama and Clinton.

HANNITY: It is pretty interesting.

RUSSERT: And they won in '06. They ran against the war. And yet they consider it at this point not a vote they wanted to make.

HANNITY: You know, I sum up the Democrats' position -- and Alan disagrees with me...

ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: For a change.

HANNITY: But they basically say they want to get rid of the phrase the global war on terror, they're willing to accept a defeat right now in Iraq. They're all on record supporting higher taxes and nationalizing our health care system. Those are pretty left-wing positions for candidates.

COLMES: You're trying to pull him over to your side.

(CROSSTALK)

RUSSERT: But they would disagree with your characterization, obviously.

HANNITY: Well, where would they disagree?

RUSSERT: On the war, they would suggest that the war on terror and the war in Afghanistan and Usama bin Laden and Al Qaeda...

HANNITY: No, the term "global war on terrorism"?

RUSSERT: That's John Edwards.

HANNITY: John Edwards.

RUSSERT: But the other candidates have not necessarily agreed with that. But they believe -- they feel they're on very secure ground on the war on terror, that Iraq is so unpopular. The president's favorable rating is now 29 percent, and his handling of the war is 26 percent.

HANNITY: And Congress's approval rating is 7 points lower.

RUSSERT: Well, Congress is very, very high, because the Democrats have not been able to achieve things legislatively. People right now all across the country, what I'm seeing in the numbers and anecdotally, Washington doesn't work. And they want to fix it. And they're not quite sure the best way to fix it yet, but they're going to keep on trying.

HANNITY: By the way, I decided, if I'm ever a candidate, I'm never going on your show.

RUSSERT: Why not?

HANNITY: Because this is what you would do. You'd go, "Hannity, you were born in 1961. On that day, let's put it up on the screen, you said the following"...

RUSSERT: I have a high school picture of you.

HANNITY: Oh, great.

(CROSSTALK)

COLMES: By the way, I'd like to show that picture, if we can.

RUSSERT: Hello, Alan.

COLMES: First of all -- nice to see you, Tim. Thanks so much for being here. Congratulations on the book. We're going to talk about the book in just a little bit.

RUSSERT: Sure, yes.

COLMES: I notice Sean trying to pull you over way over there to the right.

RUSSERT: He's on my right; you're on my left. I'm right here in the center.

COLMES: I could try to pull you away -- you used to work for Moynihan.

RUSSERT: Daniel Patrick Moynihan, yes.

COLMES: People presume you're a Democrat because of that, but yet Democrats go after you on the blogs. You're not liberal enough for them. Conservatives say you're too much on the left side.

RUSSERT: I'm a right-wing mad dog and a left-wing lap dog. I get it from both sides.

COLMES: Is that the way you want it?

RUSSERT: Sure. I mean, whether it's Dick Cheney, or Bill Richardson, or Hillary Clinton, or John McCain, I ask tough questions of all the candidates and the policyholders, because, one simple reason, I don't think you can make tough decisions unless you can answer tough questions.

HANNITY: Great point.

COLMES: That's true.

RUSSERT: And the questions, when you go back and read the transcripts, are not all that difficult. Like, what would you do, if you're for withdrawing from Iraq, then who would replace the American troops, the Iraqi troops or another country? If you're for staying in Iraq, how long would you stay there for? And can you continue to have an army go to war without a country...

COLMES: Basic questions.

RUSSERT: Exactly.

COLMES: That's why -- you know, candidates of both parties should come on this show. They don't. Democrats don't want to go on with him; some Republicans don't want to come on with me. I think that's wrong. And I think Democrats make a mistake not allowing a debate to take place on the FOX News Channel.

RUSSERT: It's a TV show. If you can't handle TV questions, how are you going to stand up to Iran, and North Korea, and the rest of the world?

HANNITY: And Al Qaeda.

COLMES: That's right. How do you stand up to Al Qaeda and the terrorists if you can't face little Sean Hannity or little Alan Colmes?

RUSSERT: Amen.

COLMES: Or big Tim Russert.

RUSSERT: All right.

(CROSSTALK)

COLMES: Are some candidates harder to get than others?

RUSSERT: Sure.

COLMES: Who's giving you the hardest time right now?

RUSSERT: Well, we've had this meet the candidates series on "Meet the Press." Thus far, Romney and Giuliani, the Republicans, have not appeared. They both have personally assured me they will participate. On the Democratic side, Obama announced on "Meet the Press" last October. He's coming back for the full hour. Hillary Clinton says they're open to it, but they've not made a commitment.

COLMES: Yes. Do you take it as a badge of honor that maybe there's a little hesitation, because tough Tim Russert with the tough questions, with the stills up, and the pictures of what they said?

RUSSERT: Well, it's not the WWF. We don't have it all worked out ahead of time what questions they're going to get. But, you know, again, they know, I believe, deep in their heart, that, in this democracy, that if you want to be president, you have to be able to answer questions, and explain yourself, and articulate yourself.

The thing that baffles me more than anything else, Alan, if a candidate has changed his or her mind, admit it. I had Obama on -- and I said, "In January of 2006, you were on this program, and you said you would not run for president or vice president"...

HANNITY: I saw that.

RUSSERT: ... "in 2008. You will serve your six-year term. Do you still support back those words?" And he put his head down, and he looked up. He said, "I'm not going to be coy. I've changed my mind."

COLMES: How do you argue that?

RUSSERT: What do you say? You didn't change your mind? And more and more, I think it's imperative that politicians just say that.

COLMES: Also, you can see with a microscope everything -- with YouTube, with so much video on the Internet. That kind of makes our job, in a sense, almost in a sense more difficult, because there's so much more material, but easier in that you have such greater access to everything everybody ever said.

RUSSERT: There was a time when politicians would go around the country, say one thing down South, another thing up north. No more. Those days are over.

COLMES: Can't get away with that.

HANNITY: All right, we've got a lot more with Tim Russert coming up. We'll also talk about his terrific book when we come back.

And still to come tonight, the gloves are off, as John McCain's camp exposes what they claim are Mitt Romney's real views on abortion. We're going to show you the tape behind all the talk.

Plus, fighting is escalating between Hamas and Fatah, as fighters are pushing the region to the brink of an all-out civil war, perhaps, in the Gaza Strip. We'll all the details for you, coming up straight ahead.

Plus, much more, is Rush Limbaugh under fire unfairly? We'll tell you about that, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLMES: Welcome back to "Hannity & Colmes." We now continue with the author of "Wisdom of Our Fathers, Lessons and Letters from Daughters and Sons," "Meet the Press" moderator Tim Russert.

You're friendly with Katie Couric.

RUSSERT: Yes.

COLMES: Have you talked to her lately?

RUSSERT: No, I have not.

COLMES: Have you been following the Dan Rather-Katie little controversy?

RUSSERT: I read about it in the paper. I did not hear it or see it. I guess it was on the radio early in the morning.

COLMES: He talked about tarting up the "CBS Evening News." And he says he wasn't talking about her, but talking about the...

(CROSSTALK)

COLMES: ... dumbing it down. I wonder if you see it that way?

RUSSERT: You know, I'm a hard news guy. And I think that ABC and CBS and NBC cover hard news. You know, I focus mainly on our show, because that's what I'm on.

COLMES: Right. But you watch what the competition is doing, I bet.

RUSSERT: Yes, the best I can. You know, she's a friend of mine. I think she does a good job, and I just think people should leave her alone.

COLMES: And give her a chance to grow and blossom?

RUSSERT: Yes.

COLMES: What do you read everyday?

RUSSERT: I read a lot. I read six and seven newspapers. I read the "New York Times," the "Washington Times," I read the "Washington Post," "Daily News," "Post," "Wall Street Journal," "USA Today."

COLMES: All those every single day?

RUSSERT: I read "The Weekly Standard," "The New Republic." I love to read left, right, center. I want to know what everyone is thinking and why.

COLMES: Do you surf the blogs, surf the Internet? Do you go and do that?

RUSSERT: Sure, I check it out a little bit. You know, you have to limit yourself, because you can get so drawn in and absorbed by all the Googlers and all those kind of things. I'm still someone who likes to hold a newspaper. It still feels good to me.

COLMES: Do you ever feel you're prepared enough for a guest? How do you know when it's too much or not enough?

RUSSERT: I have a simple goal, that I want to know as much about an issue as my guest. And because when they start talking, I want to be able to go down that road with them and ask follow-ups. I also like to anticipate their answers and say, "Senator, I know you have said this, but let me ask you this." If you take away that boilerplate, then you're much closer to getting to what they really truly believe.

COLMES: Who does the best dance with Tim Russert? Who knows how to handle you the best?

RUSSERT: Politicians?

COLMES: Yes.

RUSSERT: I don't know. You know, it depends on any given Sunday. Some really come in there well-prepared. You know, they want to make news, so they'll announce something...

COLMES: Yes.

RUSSERT: ... that is going to grab some headlines. For example, when you interview a president in the Oval Office, whether it's George Bush or Bill Clinton, every time they open their mouths, you can hear the wires literally banging worldwide. Clinton was on North Korea. President Bush in '04 was, "I agree, we will not find the weapons of mass destruction that I had promised." So those events in themselves are hugely significant.

COLMES: Do you have trouble separating your own opinions from the way you want to go with an interview or totally -- or do you ever had the desire, "I really want to give my opinion here," but clearly you don't want to signal...

RUSSERT: Sometimes you want to lean over and shake people. A friend of mine in Japan told me that on one of their "Meet the Press" versions, they have a needle with an audience that says he's lying. And the needle goes back and forth. But, you know, I grew up Catholic, and so I'm used to going in that confessional and just telling the truth and hopefully hearing the truth. That's what I try to do each Sunday.

HANNITY: Tim, one of the things, the most contentious issue of our time, obviously, is the war in Iraq. We had Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid write this letter to the president today. "The surge has failed." Harry Reid said the war is lost. We've repeatedly heard the president's a liar. What do you think of the rhetoric, as it relates to this war?

RUSSERT: I think the rhetoric has been harsh on both sides. I do. You know, the Democrats were accused of cutting and running and aiding and abetting the enemy. That's pretty strong.

HANNITY: Well, they did come up with a strategy of slow bleed. And they want to retreat.

RUSSERT: Slow bleed wasn't their word. That was a word that was applied to their strategy.

HANNITY: Well, accurate, though.

RUSSERT: You know, but Jack Murtha, congressman from Pennsylvania, a decorated Vietnam veteran, someone who himself is highly regarded at the Pentagon, I've said to him, "Did you talk to people at the Pentagon before you went forward with your criticisms?" He said, "Absolutely." So I think both sides could really take a step back. What I care about are the 150,000 men and women on the ground.

HANNITY: Yes.

RUSSERT: And I think both parties would do an awful lot for them and for our country if they would sit down together and figure out -- this is an American problem. How are we going to deal with it?

HANNITY: How does Hillary Clinton overcome statements she made in October of 2002, how he has weapons of mass destruction, the connections to Al Qaeda, to how it's evolved to where she is today? I mean, I could draw up some pretty compelling campaign ads showing her flipping and flopping. Do you think she's going to have a hard time with that?

RUSSERT: Well, every candidate running for president on the Democratic side voted for the war, except Barack Obama, who was not in the Senate, and Dennis Kucinich, who was in the House. And John Edwards was the first to come out and say, "I'm sorry." Hillary Clinton has not uttered those words yet. She will say that the information she got was wrong. She will acknowledge she got information both from former Clinton officials and Bush officials.

HANNITY: But none of them read the national intelligence report. I think six people did.

RUSSERT: I think what will happen, Sean, if, in fact, the nominee of the Republican Party is someone other than John McCain, you will have both the Democratic candidate and the Republican candidate both having a plan for withdrawal from Iraq. I really believe it. It will be like 1968, Nixon and Humphrey. I see that happening. In fact, I would be very surprised if we were not down significantly below 100,000 troops by November of 2008.

HANNITY: But we're also getting to the end of this, too. It's up to the Iraqis. They've got to have their army in place. They've got to be able to sustain this themselves. And we all want the troops to come home as quickly as possible.

What do you make of Joe Lieberman, his comments about Iran, his clear opposition and outspokenness towards his own party, or former party? Do you think there comes a time where he now works with the Republicans more and...

RUSSERT: He kept that wide open when he was on "Meet the Press" several months ago.

HANNITY: He kept it open this week when I interviewed him.

RUSSERT: When he talked about military action against Iran -- I did speak to some people at the Pentagon about that, and their concern was, one, do we know the right targets? But, two, and this was a very powerful argument to me, if we did do that, and Iran suddenly decided they were going to send a couple hundred thousand troops into Iraq, what happens to our folks in Iraq?

COLMES: We're going to actually talk about your book when we get back with Tim Russert.

And coming up, the campaign trail gets nasty, as John McCain continues his assault on fellow Republican Mitt Romney, questioning the former Massachusetts governor's principles.

And later, tensions continue to rise in Gaza, as warring factions take to the streets. We have another day of gun battles. All-out war on the horizon, is it? We'll debate it, coming up on "Hannity & Colmes."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: And we continue now with the author of "Wisdom of our Fathers, Lessons and Letters from Daughters and Sons," the host of "Meet the Press" and the moderator, Tim Russert.

All right, I'm a fan of both of your books, and obviously a lot of other people are, as well. Two number-one best-sellers, it started with "Big Russ and Me" about your dad.

RUSSERT: Right. Right. My dad left high school in 10th grade, joined the war, and got terribly hurt when his B-24 Liberator crashed. He spent six months in the hospital, and then he came home and met my mom and started a second mission, and that was to raise and educate his four kids, and he did it by working two full-time jobs, as a truck driver and a sanitation man for 32 years.

He's never complained. And when I wrote that, Sean, I thought Irish Catholics from south Buffalo would say, "That's my dad." People across the country, liberals, conservatives, Democrats, Republicans, said, "Now you're talking about my dad."

HANNITY: Well, you know, and I told you at the time when I first interviewed you about the book, I said, "That's my dad. That's my family." They are the greatest generation. And, as a result of that, this book came out of it because of all the letters that people would send you about their dads, their big Russerts.

RUSSERT: Sixty thousand letters and e-mails, and all of them had a similar theme. Nothing about material goods. It was, "My dad didn't preach a sermon; he lived one. And he let me watch his life. And I didn't fully appreciate the effort that he gave us and the sacrifice, the quiet eloquence of his hard work."

In this paperback, "The Wisdom of our Fathers," there's an amazing fellow named Dutch Bialky (ph) from Minnesota. He had eight kids. And it was his 75th birthday, and they said, "You know, what can we give dad? He doesn't need another tie." They all sat down and wrote 75 reasons why they loved their dad. And on his deathbed, that's all he wanted to hear, those reasons.

HANNITY: One of the great things you did in this book is you left the back page open so that you can give it as a gift, and Father's Day is this Sunday. It would be perfect time to give it.

RUSSERT: Right.

HANNITY: And then somebody can write a note to their dad.

RUSSERT: It says, "About Dad." And I want sons and daughters to give their dad the book with a note. Fathers now Xerox that page to me and send it to me.

HANNITY: Is that the next book?

(CROSSTALK)

RUSSERT: The men 50, 60 years old, saying, "I never knew this is the way my child felt." This book is really a road map to a father, how to get it right, because it tells you what really affects kids. And bottom line, time, it's all about time, the most priceless commodity. Once you give, you can never get it back, but that's what kids want from their dad. They want you to invest time.

HANNITY: As my kids get older, I see it's the main thing. One of the things about your dad, I keep bringing this up every time I've interviewed you, because it tells so much about the heart and soul of a guy, he's a sanitation worker. And when he would wrap up broken glass at your house, "We've got to protect the guys."

RUSSERT: The guys. He would wrap it in masking tape, put it in a cardboard shoe box, more masking tape, because so many times he would dump a can with open glass and see his guys.

COLMES: It's really amazing, too. It's not the -- you touched on this a moment ago -- it's not the material goods. It's not the big gift. Your father wouldn't even accept a car that you wanted to give him. It's the touch. It's the thought. It's the moment.

RUSSERT: He got his Crown Victoria.

COLMES: He said it's a cop car, right?

RUSSERT: It taught me a lesson. You're right, Alan. And it's the spontaneous moments. It's not the big, expensive, planned vacations. It's sitting at the edge of a bed reading a story, or walking through a ballpark, and suddenly your son or daughter asks you about a certain star or about a tree or, "Dad, what were you like when you were little?" Those are the things that connect. Or they watch you working hard, that discipline, preparation, accountability, those values, those lessons.

COLMES: Like you say, work hard, laugh often.

RUSSERT: Work hard, laugh often, and keep your honor. That's the secret to life.

COLMES: That's what you learn from your dad. Did you become a different father or a better father as a result of the process of having done these books? Did it change your fathering?

RUSSERT: These books changed my life. It's a journey I never expected or anticipated. My dad is now much more demonstrative and outgoing and affectionate to me. He actually uttered the words, "I love you." And I said, "What did you say?" "You heard me." I got it once. That was it. But my own son, I have such a different relationship with him. And you should see my son with his grandpa, my dad.

COLMES: Yes, different relationship than the father-son relationship.

RUSSERT: Well, we're bonded by blood, and we know it now. And it's deep. It's so deep, and we're not afraid to tell each other.

COLMES: Do you have a mom who says, "What about me? Where's my book?"

RUSSERT: Well, I lost my mom two years ago, and I write about her in "Wisdom of our Fathers" and in a very extensive -- she loved the book, because there's a phrase in there that Father Donovan, our parish priest, used to say, "The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world." My mom would have us at the table at 4:45 every day. While she made supper, we did our homework. She signed our homework every night. But for her, I would have never gone -- first person to go to college, law school. Mom did it.

COLMES: There's something about an Aqua Velva man.

RUSSERT: Is that true.

COLMES: You've got about 30 seconds. I don't know if you can do it.

RUSSERT: Andrea Mufusko (ph) up in Massachusetts, her father died. She went to clip the hedges. She got the clippers out, his gloves fell down, his goggles fell down. There's a little note saying, "Sweet brown eyes, please always protect yourself," and she could smell his Aqua Velva from those gloves, 10 years later. Even in death, Dad was protecting daddy's little girl.

HANNITY: It's called "Wisdom of our Fathers," book stores. Great Father's Day gift.

RUSSERT: Happy Father's Day.

HANNITY: And they can write that note to their dad on those pages you leave open in the back.

RUSSERT: I hope so.

HANNITY: Tim, hey, great to see you. Thanks for coming back. We appreciate it. Thank you very much.

COLMES: Thanks, Tim. Thanks very much.

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