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CNN Live At Daybreak

Interview with Neal Boortz

Aired September 12, 2002 - 06:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Now comes the part of the show where I get to play devil's advocate. Nationally-syndicated radio talk show host, Neal Boortz, is back with us.
Good morning, Neal.

NEAL BOORTZ, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Are you going to pick on me again?

COSTELLO: Of course.

BOORTZ: OK.

COSTELLO: You're a guy with strong opinions.

BOORTZ: How did you deliver that line about "shaving his back" without cracking up?

COSTELLO: I'm telling you, it was really hard. It was really hard. But he was in the bathroom shaving his back, and it took him so long, passengers became nervous.

BOORTZ: I know people like that.

COSTELLO: You do?

BOORTZ: Yes.

COSTELLO: I don't think...

BOORTZ: They're usually in radio.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: Before I begin playing devil's advocate with you, I just want to say, our sparring has caused some intriguing viewer e- mails, like this one.

BOORTZ: Oh, boy.

COSTELLO: Let's take a look. There it is: "Carol has got to be the biggest airhead on national TV news today." That's from Don in Norfolk.

And let's take a look at another one, shall we? Just one more. "Carol, Carol, Carol. Dear sweet Carol. Were you my daughter, I'd send you to a school for the rehabilitation of airheads. Your grasp of world affairs is simply astonishing. Let's have more of that super patriot, Scott Ritter. What a role model for future turncoats." And that's from J.L. in Dover Plains, New York.

So...

BOORTZ: You know, the negative e-mail is much more fun than the stuff that says, "Good job." It really is.

COSTELLO: No, it's not.

BOORTZ: It is. I enjoy it, personally. I mean, when I -- and I get some vicious...

COSTELLO: Oh, you do.

BOORTZ: ... vicious mail.

COSTELLO: You have read some on your radio show, and...

BOORTZ: Oh, yes!

COSTELLO: ... it's ugly.

BOORTZ: It is.

COSTELLO: Anyway, I felt the need to remind the viewers that I'm not taking a side. I'm merely trying to get Neal's goat. So, Neal, let's get going.

BOORTZ: I love it. I love it.

COSTELLO: Yes. So, the president speaks to the United Nations General Assembly today, and he's going to outline all of Saddam Hussein's transgressions.

BOORTZ: That is a critically important speech. He has quite a sales job to do. I hope that he's up to it.

I really -- this statement that Kofi Annan had made yesterday about a war for "political convenience," is that the way Kofi Annan looks?

COSTELLO: Well, I knew you were going to bring that up, Neal, so I have my...

BOORTZ: Political convenience?

COSTELLO: I have my handy-dandy "Newsweek" magazine, and there is a quote. It says: "One administration official," a Bush administration official, "concedes that for the president, the politics of keeping his conservative base, as his father failed to do in 1992, is driving much of the debate over Iraq."

BOORTZ: Oh, so Colin Powell is at it again, huh?

COSTELLO: It didn't say it was Colin Powell who said this. BOORTZ: I know. I know. Look, it's not -- I guess maybe it is politically convenient...

COSTELLO: Everything is political.

BOORTZ: Sure it is. I would think it would be politically convenient to keep a terrorist attack or a weapon of mass destruction out of an American city. If I was a politician, I'd look at that as a very convenient thing to do.

COSTELLO: Yes, but the -- but most Democrats believe Saddam Hussein should also be removed. The question here is: How does the United States do it? And you have to admit that politics has to come into play when President Bush does anything, because he gets re- elected.

BOORTZ: Oh, politician -- politics comes into play with any of them. The thing that's bothering me the most about this is this idea of being promoted by Nelson Mandela, by Tom Daschle, by Kofi Annan, is that the United States is some sort of a political subdivision of the United Nations. We are not. We are a sovereign nation. And if we need to act in our interests and for the safety of American citizens, we do not have to say, mommy, may I, to the United Nations before we act.

COSTELLO: OK, well, let me play devil's advocate once again. The United Nations, part of its job is to maintain world order, and it feels that if the United States acts alone in this and without the blessing of the United Nations that much of the world will be thrown into disarray.

BOORTZ: Well, if that's the way the United Nations feels, I'm sorry. The United Nations -- and we've gone through this before, too -- has been anti-U.S. since its very inception.

COSTELLO: Oh, you said that last week!

BOORTZ: It has been, Carol!

COSTELLO: Well, let me...

BOORTZ: These people -- this is a body that consists of nations, the majority of whom are insanely jealous of the lifestyle that we enjoy in this country, and would -- there are two types of jealously. I, oh, gee, I'd like to have that. I'm going to work hard to get it. Or, I don't have one of those, so I'm going to take it away from him. Well, that's the type of jealousy that is aimed at the United States...

COSTELLO: You know, Neal...

BOORTZ: ... by so many of these international nations on the U.S.

COSTELLO: Let me play devil's advocate once again. Whether that's true or not, it's a problem that the United States has to deal with, and it has to deal with it effectively.

BOORTZ: You are right.

COSTELLO: And the question is: How does it deal with that?

BOORTZ: You are right, and that's...

COSTELLO: The United States certainly can't ignore those feelings.

BOORTZ: No, we can't. That's where George Bush's speech today may be -- it may be one of the most important of his presidency, and it may be critically important to the safety and security of the United States and our western allies. And it is...

COSTELLO: And every single word of that speech is going to be analyzed across the world.

BOORTZ: Every word, every gesture, every grin, every grimace -- everything. And maybe he ought to just go in there wearing a cowboy hat -- they love that cowboy metaphor -- with six-shooters on his side, something like that.

COSTELLO: Oh, they do. They use that quite often.

Let me -- Kofi Annan released some of his speech...

BOORTZ: Yes.

COSTELLO: ... that he'll give before the president actually speaks to the General Assembly. And he will say -- these are Kofi Annan's words...

BOORTZ: OK.

COSTELLO: ... "I urge Iraq to comply with its obligations for the sake of its own people and for the sake of the world order." And he's talking about the U.N. resolution...

(CROSSTALK)

BOORTZ: Nice words.

COSTELLO: "If Iraq defiance continues, the Security Council must face its responsibilities."

BOORTZ: Those sound like strong words. But I don't believe that there is any chance that Saddam Hussein is ever going to allow unfettered inspections in Iraq. If he has these programs under way -- and I believe he does, they're happening under mosques, inside children's hospitals, in the back rooms of some of his palaces -- the first time inspectors try to enter a mosque, the game will be over. He'll never allow it.

COSTELLO: OK, you have the last word on that one, because we're out of time. BOORTZ: Out of time. See you Tuesday.

COSTELLO: Neal Boortz, thank you very much. Oh, yes, we'll see you Tuesday.

BOORTZ: Bye-bye.

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