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December 03, 2007

Morris Discusses His Relationship With Huckabee

Hannity & Colmes

COLMES: But not everybody is happy about it. Both sides are here tonight. You don't want to miss this. We get right to our top story tonight. With exactly one month until the Iowa Caucuses on January 3rd, there are some important new polls that are shaking up the race.

A brand new Des Moines Register poll gives Senator Barack Obama a slight lead of 3 points over Senator Hillary Clinton, although still within the margin of error. John Edwards is also right in the mix with 23 percent, just 2 points behind Clinton.

On the Republican side, the big news continues to be former Governor Mike Huckabee, who has opened up a 5-point lead over former Governor Mitt Romney in the Hawkeye State. And that's outside the margin of error.

Observers say Huckabee served as partly the reason why Romney has finally decided to give a major speech addressing his Mormon faith later this week in Texas. We'll have a lot more on that later in the show with one of the Christian conservatives invited to attend.

First, joining us now with more on these new developments, former Clinton adviser, Dick Morris, and by the way, to keep up-to-date on the presidential race, you can subscribe to Dick's columns and newsletters dickmorris.com.

Dick, welcome back to our show.

DICK MORRIS, WWW.DICKMORRIS.COM: For free.

COLMES: That's what -- we said that, free. Well, except for the electricity and for the computer. Let me ask you about -- because politico.com is reporting that Mike Huckabee has been holding private conversations with you and that you guys talk regularly. Are you advising Mike Huckabee?

MORRIS: No. I think they've accused me of seances with him or something. No, I've told viewers on this program and others that I was Mike's political consultant in the early 1990s, and since then we've been very good friends, and for many, many years he visited my dad in the hospital and stuff.

About a year ago I sat down with Mike, and I said, look, the field in front of you is fatally flawed. Romney will ever overcome the flip-flop- flip over abortion, Gingrich isn't going to run, George Allen isn't going anyplace, Fred Thompson, I didn't think, would amount to much. And I said, you really have a shot at being the right-wing alternative to Giuliani.

All you have to do is just not drop out and not be worried about not having a lot of money and just let them all die in front of you and then move out. And he has done that, and I love that, but I'm not advising him.

I talk to him from time to time, but I've been in politics for 40 years, and I talk to people in five or six different campaign. You can't be -- not Hillary's. You can't be knocking around as long as I have without knowing a lot of people running for president and a lot of staff.

COLMES: Two of his advisers, Chip Saltsman and Dick Dresner, who you know very well, are saying that you do talk regularly, and they suggest, according to the Politico, that you are truly advising Mike Huckabee.

MORRIS: Yes, I don't think that Chip said that.

COLMES: Dresner, then.

MORRIS: My former partner may have said that, but there's nothing worse than the business of politics. Maybe we're a little bit at loggerheads there.

COLMES: Is there a possible relationship to be made between Giuliani and Huckabee, and could Huckabee be a good counterpart to Giuliani who could use what Huckabee brings to the table?

MORRIS: Yes, he sure could be. Look, there are three Republican candidates that I think would have a shot at defeating Hillary. Giuliani would have the best shot, McCain could do it, and Huckabee could do it because he has a brand-new approach, and it cuts all the way across the traditional ideological fault lines.

And I think that some combination of those could be very effective. But I think the main thing about Huckabee is nobody advises him. You know, they used to say that Harpo Marx, you know, who was a silent actor in the Marx Brothers movies, you couldn't script him, you'd say "enter Harpo," and he'd do his thing, and then "exit Harpo."

And that's the case with Huckabee. He has this natural conversational humor and flare and perspective that just resonated through those debates. And then after I bet O'Reilly that he'd break 10 percent in the national polls, and Bill said he wouldn't, and then Huckabee won, he wrote me a note saying he was going to name his first grandchild after me.

HANNITY: Hey, Dick, welcome back to the program. Let me ask if this is a factor. And that is likeability. I mean, his self-deprecating humor, look, he has great one-liners in every debate that they have had, is that a big factor for both him and Obama?

MORRIS: I think it is very big for both. But I think in Huckabee's case, there's something really unusual that's happening here. A lot of religious conservatives run a "thou shalt not do this and thou shalt not do that and don't even think about doing this other thing."

And Huckabee does all that, he believes all that, but then he says, I'm pro life, but my commitment to human life doesn't end with childbirth. And he talks about a very interesting. novel, important series of new steps.

Like he says the solution to medical care costs is to get people to stop smoking, eat less, and exercise more, and he points out that 80 percent of our Medicare and Medicaid dollar is spent on chronic conditions that that could alleviate. Nobody else is saying stuff like that.

HANNITY: But let me ask you about this. A very good friend of mine gave me a great line, and I think it sums it up very well as it represents Hillary's campaign, she wants her past respected, but not inspected. That pretty much captures it, doesn't it?

MORRIS: Well, my wife has a better take on it. Do you remember the character Walter Mitty? He was a character who would always fantasize that he was a great diplomat or a great economist, and that's really what Hillary Clinton is doing.

She images, for example, that she was intimately involved in the Irish peace process. You read Adams' memoir, you read Mitchell's stuff, you read Clinton's memoir -- Bill Clinton's, you real Hillary's memoir, and she doesn't talk about that.

She's trying to -- like Forrest Gump, she's trying to sort of always be there. And it's fraudulent. She wasn't. She was a largely ceremonial first lady after the first two years in office, and most of her foreign trips she rode elephants and went ice skating and visited children's centers. She didn't negotiate policy.

HANNITY: Let me ask that -- well, that's the point, and her record is not open for inspection either being the first lady of Arkansas or the first lady of the United States? And I thought Karl Rove had a good point in an article that he wrote today, as Barack should have turned to her, looked at her and said, you have the ability to turn over these documents right now and challenge her to do it.

Because -- and he gave some good advice, I think, to Obama. And that is, that he has got an opportunity here, but if he loses Iowa, he's in trouble. Now Hillary must sense she's in trouble because she's even digging up dirt on Barack Obama's kindergarten years.

MORRIS: Yes. That was so crazy that she did it. One of the things that she attacked Obama for was she said he's using his PAC to get support in Iowa and New Hampshire, this from a woman who gave $20,000 to Vilsack, the former governor of Iowa, had 32 of her maxed out donors max out to him, and gave $160,000 to state senator Darrell Jackson, the leader of the African-American community in South Carolina.

I think that what's happening here, which is fascinating, is Rudy and Hillary are both going to lose Iowa and probably lose New Hampshire, too. And our question is, will that kill them or not? Let's talk about that when we come back.

HANNITY: I love when our guests know it's time to go to a break.

MORRIS: Yes, I hear the break music.

HANNITY: All right. We'll take a break. And we'll touch on that when we get back. More with Dick Morris coming up.

And after an eight-month hiatus, Don Imus is back on the radio with some new sidekicks. And is controversy far behind? We'll find out straight ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, Rutgers plays tonight -- Rutgers women.

IMUS: Go, (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes -- no, that's right.

(LAUGHTER(

IMUS: I want them to win. Go Scarlet Knights.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: We continue now with Dick Morris.

All right. Dick, I didn't want to interrupt you here. But the bottom line here is you may have front-runners losing the first two primaries, and you were going to analyze what happens from there.

MORRIS: Right. And maybe losing the third one too. I don't think that Rudy can stage a comeback in South Carolina, the most conservative state in the country. And I don't think Hillary can against a black candidate with the blacks casting a huge proportion of the Democratic primary vote in South Carolina.

So you may see the front-runners lose the first three. The public has a capacity for one idea in its mind at a time about an election. And until now, the idea in the Democratic primary has been, do we want Hillary to be the nominee? And the idea in the Republican primary is do we want Rudy to be the nominee given his social positions?

Now, the voters in those early states are basically saying no to both of those, which is why Rudy's running third and Hillary I think may end up running third in Iowa. And at that point, they then begin to look at Obama and Edwards and at Huckabee in the Republican primary, maybe Romney, but I think Huckabee will beat him, and they say OK, well, are these folks ready to win?

And do we really want to take a risk with the first to Mormon to run for president? Do we really want to take a risk with the first African- American to run for president? Edwards already lost. Do we want to take a risk on him? And I think at that point they probably begin to come back to Rudy and Giuliani who then live to fight again on Super Tuesday.

HANNITY: Well, probably before that though as we get to Florida, which is on the 29th, the week before. All right. Let me ask you the importance in your mind of the Oprah Winfrey factor. For example, we've got Oprah Winfrey comes out for Barack Obama, Barbra Streisand and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. come out for Hillary Clinton.

Now by the way, this is the same Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that literally said about people in Iowa, large scale hog producers are a greater threat to the U.S. and U.S. democracy than Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network. I'm surprised that hasn't gotten more play.

MORRIS: He doesn't like hogs, with the possible exception of his uncle.

COLMES: Oh, come on!

HANNITY: You know, you dig your own...

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: You are on your own.

COLMES: When you have got Hannity distancing himself from you, you know you're in trouble.

(LAUGHTER)

HANNITY: You're on your own.

MORRIS: But listen, i think that the endorsement -- that the Oprah endorsement is significant. But don't forget John Edwards. His people have been to caucuses before, know the routine, know the drill, and are much more likely to turn out than either Obama's or Hillary's, who are first-time caucus attendees.

And I think that you could see Edwards surging in Iowa, and you could see two people finishing ahead of Hillary.

COLMES: Hey, Dick, just like Do Imus had a chance to apologize, would you like to take back that hog comment?

MORRIS: About Ted Kennedy? Murderer is probably a little better -- a little worse than hog...

COLMES: Oh, come on, that has never been...

MORRIS: ... and I wouldn't take that one back.

COLMES: All right. I'm not going to keep having you dig your own...

MORRIS: He killed somebody while DWI.

COLMES: Well, you know, that has not been proven in a court of law. The fact of the matter of is, Dick, I want to go back to something...

MORRIS: Yes, they don't have them in Massachusetts.

COLMES: ... else you said in the last...

HANNITY: He left her that night. He left her in the water.

COLMES: All right. We'll take that up some other time when...

HANNITY: He left the scene.

COLMES: ... his book comes out, I'm sure we'll talk about it.

HANNITY: He left the scene of the accident and left her there.

COLMES: Hold on, let's get back to the topic at hand here. Dick, you said before that Mormon and African-American create a problem. Are you saying we are such a bigoted country that someone who is black or someone who is a Mormon could not be elected president of the United States?

MORRIS: Black, no, Mormon, possibly yes. And I agree with your characterization of bigoted in both cases. It's absurd to reject somebody based on their religion and obscene to reject them based their race. I don't think it's a matter of fact that Obama couldn't win because of his race. I think possibly Romney can't win because of his religion, which is wrong. He shouldn't win because of his flip-flops on abortion, not because of his religion.

But my point is that Democratic primary voters are going to look at it and they're going to say, we've got to win this election, it's vital to win it, do we really want to take this chance? And Republican primary voters will be looking at Romney with the same scrutiny.

And I don't think it's a question of thinking that Mormons shouldn't be elected. I think there's a second generation here, of, will other people think that, and do we want to take a chance on that?

COLMES: In terms of what you said about Hillary being inspected, she has been inspected, she has been looked at, she has been tested. She has been in the public eye for decades. You're not going to -- you yourself have said on this show to attack Hillary Clinton based on all the golden oldies is not going to win the election for Republicans.

MORRIS: I think that's true, but let's not pretend that she has been inspected. To believe Hillary Clinton on ethics, you have to believe that she didn't know that her brother was paid $300,000 to get Bill Clinton to pardon someone. You have to believe she didn't know the correct description of the real estate project she worked on as an attorney.

COLMES: And Rudy as the nominee is going to have a lot of questions to answer about his expenses having to do with mistress. So it's going to be wash if that's the case.

MORRIS: But those were not about the mistress, they were about the police detail to protect him. He paid the protection out of his pocket.

COLMES: Well, he was getting protection at taxpayer expense.

MORRIS: We are talking -- yes, because he is mayor, and 24/7 they have to be with him.

COLMES: So his wife and mistress got protection...

(CROSSTALK)

COLMES: ... taxpayer dollar.

HANNITY: Well, he's no Bill Clinton.

MORRIS: When he sleeps on the beach, the cops have to be there.

COLMES: No, Bill Clinton...

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Yes, with an intern.

COLMES: But in private, not on the taxpayer dime. Thank you very much, Dick.

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