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July 18, 2007

Special Report Roundtable - July 18

FOX News Special Report With Brit Hume

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have now verified that all the five nuclear facilities have been shut down, and that appropriate measures have been put in place, including sealing some of the facilities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUME: Well, that is good news. At first they closed down, did the North Koreans, the Yongbyon nuclear reactor. They turned it off. But there are others around. And they have apparently acted with them as well.

Some thoughts on all this from North Korea and what it means from Fred Barnes, Executive Editor for The Weekly Standard, Mort Kondracke, Executive Editor for Roll Call, and the syndicated columnists Charles Krauthammer, Fox News contributors all.

Well, we keep thinking that North Korea has done something, but what will they do next? And they have done a few things next. So where do we stand?

MORT KONDRACKE, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, ROLL CALL: Well, so far so good, as you said. There is a lot left to be done. I mean, they have got to give up the nukes that they may have made--

HUME: Let's talk about what has happened.

KONDRACKE: Well, they have closed their nuclear installations down, Yongbyon being the principle one that was producing plutonium, is shut. But it is not destroyed, it could be reopened theoretically. And they have gotten fuel oil in return for it.

But, as I said, there is a lot left to be done to have them denuclearize. But I think that what this prove is, or demonstrates, suggests, anyway, is that multi-lateral diplomacy, with a lot of fists applied, can bring to heel even the most obdurate member of the axis of evil.

The fist here was provided, one, by the United States in financial sanctions, and mostly by the Chinese, who, after the North Koreans shot off a missile and tried a nuclear test, cut off all shipments of everything for a couple of weeks to North Korea. That got their attention.

HUME: They are saying now that they are prepared within six months to disable their entire nuclear operation. Do you believe them now?

FRED BARNES, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, WEEKLY STANDARD: I will believe it when I see it.

But this brings a rich new definition to phrase "trust but verify." They need to not only disable all the nuclear facilities, but make sure we know where any of their nuclear weapons that they have already produced are, where they may have more nuclear material, whether they--and you always have to worry whether they have a covert enrichment program, or any of these things.

It's hard for me to believe that the North Koreans don't want to be a nuclear power. I, you know, that little squirt who runs the country, of course he wants that.

And the key thing, Mort was right about that, about the six-party talks. It's about one country, it's about China, and that's why you had to have these other countries there, particularly China, and South Korea, so some extent.

It would be so easy for the North Koreans just to thumb their nose and break any treaty but with the United States, but if they are doing one with China and South Korea, that is a little harder for them to just break it.

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: That is true. It all depends on China. It is important that these talks are happening in Beijing. The chairman of the talks is Chinese, and the announcement of the schedule for the dismantling and disclosure will be made eminently by the Chinese chairman.

That is where the leverage is here. I read somewhere that the reason all of this is happening is because of the North Koreans are worried about the 2008 elections, and the theory is that they think Democrats will be tougher on North Korea because of their history of being weaker in the past.

That's a three cushion shot I don't really buy. What is happening here is China. And the reason is China also has a timetable, and is also looking at 2008, and the event here is the Olympics. This is the big coming out, this is the Berlin 1936 for the Chinese.

It's also the Moscow 1980, and they remember what happened in Moscow 1980, and they don't want any incidents, any problems to interfere with this. This is going to be a huge psychological events. China is going to enter on the world stage as the number one power.

I think it wants to clear decks between now and the Olympics, starting with North Korea. Will it end up in a complete dismantling of the uranium enrichment program, which the North Koreans have denied, and then admitted, and denied? I'm not sure. But it depends on China, and China has a big interest in making sure nothing untoward happens on this issue between now and the Olympics.

KONDRACKE: If this works out, it is a tribute to Condi Rice style diplomacy, which is different from--it is not necessarily Colin Powell--but different from Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, John Bolton, kind of ignore them, shun them, don't have anything to do with them, and Democratic diplomacy, which consists of let's have unilateral talks.

I mean, this is coercive diplomacy, and so far it has proved to be effective.

BARNES: I don't remember Cheney being opposed to the six-party talks and leaving the Chinese in, and Rumsfeld. Look, I think they were good idea. Remember, it was all the Democrats who were saying, you remember what John Kerry and others said, the U.S. had a to do it unilaterally with the North Koreans--

HUME: Because otherwise it was outsourcing diplomacy.

BARNES: Yes, and that would have been a huge mistake. The Chinese are the key people here.

HUME: OK, coming up next, the story of a judge. You may never have heard of him, but there is a fight over him, and you will hear of him. We are going to talk about his situation next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ARLEN SPECTER (R), PENNSYLVANIA: On the Court of Appeals, Judge Southwick has participated in between 6000-8000 cases. He has written 985 opinions, himself, in the course of 12 years. Now, the objections to Southwick have been limited to two cases.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUME: Senator Specter is sticking up for Judge Southwick, who's nomination to a Federal Appellate Bench is in trouble in the Senate. In trouble, not because there are not votes to pass the nomination, but in trouble because it is difficult to get it to the floor because of resistance from the Democrats, who, after all, control the place.

Back with our panel. So, who is this guy, and why should we care about him? And what is up with him? Fred?

BARNES: Well, he is a Mississippi judge. Actually, he is a friend of President Bush. He is being backed very strongly by Thad Cochran, the senator down from down there. And he has been named to the fifth circuit court of appeals.

There is a record here of Democrats blocking nominees to this court. You remember Charles Pickering? An outstanding judge and person, who I think was maligned unfairly. Then William Wallace, another Mississippi judge was named. He had to withdraw his nomination.

Now Southwick comes along, who is not so hard core conservative. This is not Scalia in Mississippi clothing. Here is a moderate conservative, and was about to sail through.

But the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee and Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, said they would have a vote on him, and he would go through. And because People for the American Way complains about two opinions, that this judge didn't even write, he just joined in, now they have held it up.

Look, if this guy doesn't go through, it will show that even a group like People for the American Way can--Democrats can be about to do something, and they can just yank them back by the nose.

KONDRACKE: Yes. This guy is not a bigot, as People For The American Way and the human rights campaign are alleging. In this one case, an employee used the n-word one time. And a review board decided not to fire her. And the court, basically, upheld that decision. And he did not even write the opinion, as Fred said, and he is being accused, therefore, of--

HUME: Racial insensitivity?

KONDRACKE: Yes. And enormous red flags about his sensitivity.

In the other case, he joined in an opinion which upheld the Mississippi law, or at least followed the Mississippi law, whereby you had to take the sexual orientation of a spouse in a custody case into account.

And that is all that he did. He did not defend it, and so on. And the human rights campaign is accusing him of bias against gays, for using the word "homosexual," I might add. This is over the top.

KRAUTHAMMER: This is an out and out smear campaign. And the fact that the Democrats seem to be knuckling under ought to be an issue. The Republican base is demoralized after the immigration fiasco and over the war in Iraq.

But, this is an issue, and one issue this president, and Arlen Specter, I would say, have been excellent--on judges. And that is going to be this presidents lasting domestic legacy--Alito and Roberts.

And they have hung tough on him, and Specter has defended him. And Specter, as you know, can often give you heartburn. He likes to act the statement, which, as a senator, is always dangerous. And people are still scratching their heads over the vote he cast on impeachment--invoking the Scottish rule that nobody ever heard of before or after.

However, on this he was stalwart. He go stiffed. Leahy stiffed him on this, after promising, withdrew it. But Specter is promoting him. He made a good speech on the floor. Republican ought to be push this and expose Democrats.

HUME: And so you think he will get through?

KRAUTHAMMER: I'm not sure, I don't think--

KONDRACKE: I don't think he is going to get through.

BARNES: I am afraid not.

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