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CNN Live Today

Democrats and Republicans War of Words

Aired September 26, 2002 - 10:23   ET

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

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


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: The debate over Iraq and homeland security has turned into an angry war of words with Democrats and Republicans firing off new rounds of criticism. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, you saw this one live right here on our air yesterday, he lashed out at President Bush from the floor of the Senate for suggesting that Democrats were putting politics ahead of homeland security.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TOM DASCHLE (D-SD), MAJORITY LEADER: The president is quoted in the "Washington Post" this morning as saying that Democratic --the Democratic-controlled Senate is not interested in the security of the American people. Not interested in the security of the American people, that is outrageous! Outrageous! The president ought to apologize.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Well Daschle's comments did not elicit an apology from the White House, but they did ignite an angry response from the top Republican in the Senate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TRENT LOTT (R-MS), MINORITY LEADER: Who is the enemy here, the president of the United States or Saddam Hussein? That's who was attacked this morning here on the floor of the United States Senate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Well for more insight on the partisan finger-pointing and what is going on in Washington, we're going to go to Boston where we track down our senior political analyst Bill Schneider.

Bill, good morning.

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Morning -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Well Tom Daschle has a fire in his belly, who knew?

SCHNEIDER: That's right. He came out yesterday. He and other Democrats, like Dick Gephardt, have been standing up to the president on the war -- over the war.

Now this particular criticism was over the issue of homeland security where the Democrats are insisting that the federal work force be unionized and the president opposed that, but it's come out generally over the war in Iraq, there's a debate beginning. It's become infinitely more partisan this week, and there's a reason for that, Al Gore.

Al Gore, the Democrat's presidential nominee in 2000, gave a speech on Monday in which he articulated a pretty strong criticism of President Bush's policy on Iraq. And Democrats immediately stood up and they said this is what we've been waiting to hear. I'm talking about rank and file Democrats around the country. And they looked at Gore as a hero because he finally said what Democrats have been trying to say, let's have this debate, let's go at it over Iraq, don't shove the issue aside and that seems to have given some backbone to other Democratics -- Democratic leaders in Congress.

KAGAN: Well let me ask you this, Bill, are you saying that it's not so much what President Bush that had to -- what he had to say that gave the fire to Tom Daschle more than actually a fear that maybe Al Gore is going to take back leadership of this party?

SCHNEIDER: Well there's no question that when Daschle saw the quote in the "Washington Post" he brought it to the caucus that morning, he was angry about that quote. But the general demeanor of Democrats over the past few weeks has been essentially let's make a deal with the White House, let's get the resolution on Iraq passed and go on to other subjects, subjects that Democrats want to talk about like the economy, the stock market, corporate responsibility.

But when Gore gave his speech and got such a rousing reception from Democrats, I think a lot of Democratic leaders, including Daschle, saw that there was a big audience for criticism of the president on the war. And Democrats were saying we don't want to just roll over and let Bush just ride right over us and go into this war, we want to have this debate. We don't want to get it over with and off of the agenda.

KAGAN: So you're saying that for the Democrats this could be a political opportunity, the same thing that they are accusing the Republicans of doing of using this war as a political opportunity?

SCHNEIDER: Of course Democrats all along have been saying under their breath not aloud that why now, because the president -- it's part of the president's political agenda. But they don't want to say that too loud because that offends a lot of American. Well Al Gore said it out loud on Monday and a lot of Democrats said right on because there was a ready audience for that message. So now we're hearing Democrats say the same thing. Robert Byrd and others are saying the president must be doing this for political reasons. We don't see any other reason why this rush to war now.

KAGAN: Well, and what about the role of these congressional elections which are just six weeks away? The Democrats might think that maybe they're trying to control the Iraq agenda, but they haven't been able to control any of the agenda. They should be out there talking about the economy and the difficult times and jobless numbers and yet it's all Iraq, Iraq, Iraq on the Republicans terms. SCHNEIDER: And that's been very frustrating for Democrats because they know that they're ahead on every issue on the agenda except terrorism, Iraq, international affairs. That's frustrating because Democrats know the economy is poor, Bush's record can be criticized.

What about corporate responsibility? We spent most of the summer talking about corporate wrongdoers and the abuse of the business system in this country. What went wrong? Who's to blame? Suddenly that issued has just disappeared from the agenda. That's intensely frustrating for Democrats, and they have been saying that they want to cooperate with the president on Iraq, say we agree, we'll support this, and go on to those other issues.

What they're hearing from Democrats right now is no, we don't want to go on to those other issues, we don't want to go to war and have the Democrats simply agree with the president. We want to have this debate. And I think the Democratic leaders in Congress are finally getting that message. The debate may not be good for Democrats. They really would like to talk about other issues, but I think they're being pressured to do it by their own party.

KAGAN: Well I bet you're going to stick around a little bit and listen in. In a few minutes we expect to hear the Democratic leaders, Daschle, once again, and Dick Gephardt. They'll be speaking live. We're going to show that. And then 10 minutes from now, a news conference from the White House with President Bush. Seeing both live right here on CNN.

Our thanks to Bill Schneider who we found in Boston.

For the latest news and analysis on the tensions with Iraq, be sure to watch our new one-hour program, "SHOWDOWN: IRAQ." It's hosted by none other than our Wolf Blitzer. Begins at noon Eastern, 9:00 Pacific.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired September 26, 2002 - 10:23   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: The debate over Iraq and homeland security has turned into an angry war of words with Democrats and Republicans firing off new rounds of criticism. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, you saw this one live right here on our air yesterday, he lashed out at President Bush from the floor of the Senate for suggesting that Democrats were putting politics ahead of homeland security.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TOM DASCHLE (D-SD), MAJORITY LEADER: The president is quoted in the "Washington Post" this morning as saying that Democratic --the Democratic-controlled Senate is not interested in the security of the American people. Not interested in the security of the American people, that is outrageous! Outrageous! The president ought to apologize.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Well Daschle's comments did not elicit an apology from the White House, but they did ignite an angry response from the top Republican in the Senate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TRENT LOTT (R-MS), MINORITY LEADER: Who is the enemy here, the president of the United States or Saddam Hussein? That's who was attacked this morning here on the floor of the United States Senate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Well for more insight on the partisan finger-pointing and what is going on in Washington, we're going to go to Boston where we track down our senior political analyst Bill Schneider.

Bill, good morning.

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Morning -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Well Tom Daschle has a fire in his belly, who knew?

SCHNEIDER: That's right. He came out yesterday. He and other Democrats, like Dick Gephardt, have been standing up to the president on the war -- over the war.

Now this particular criticism was over the issue of homeland security where the Democrats are insisting that the federal work force be unionized and the president opposed that, but it's come out generally over the war in Iraq, there's a debate beginning. It's become infinitely more partisan this week, and there's a reason for that, Al Gore.

Al Gore, the Democrat's presidential nominee in 2000, gave a speech on Monday in which he articulated a pretty strong criticism of President Bush's policy on Iraq. And Democrats immediately stood up and they said this is what we've been waiting to hear. I'm talking about rank and file Democrats around the country. And they looked at Gore as a hero because he finally said what Democrats have been trying to say, let's have this debate, let's go at it over Iraq, don't shove the issue aside and that seems to have given some backbone to other Democratics -- Democratic leaders in Congress.

KAGAN: Well let me ask you this, Bill, are you saying that it's not so much what President Bush that had to -- what he had to say that gave the fire to Tom Daschle more than actually a fear that maybe Al Gore is going to take back leadership of this party?

SCHNEIDER: Well there's no question that when Daschle saw the quote in the "Washington Post" he brought it to the caucus that morning, he was angry about that quote. But the general demeanor of Democrats over the past few weeks has been essentially let's make a deal with the White House, let's get the resolution on Iraq passed and go on to other subjects, subjects that Democrats want to talk about like the economy, the stock market, corporate responsibility.

But when Gore gave his speech and got such a rousing reception from Democrats, I think a lot of Democratic leaders, including Daschle, saw that there was a big audience for criticism of the president on the war. And Democrats were saying we don't want to just roll over and let Bush just ride right over us and go into this war, we want to have this debate. We don't want to get it over with and off of the agenda.

KAGAN: So you're saying that for the Democrats this could be a political opportunity, the same thing that they are accusing the Republicans of doing of using this war as a political opportunity?

SCHNEIDER: Of course Democrats all along have been saying under their breath not aloud that why now, because the president -- it's part of the president's political agenda. But they don't want to say that too loud because that offends a lot of American. Well Al Gore said it out loud on Monday and a lot of Democrats said right on because there was a ready audience for that message. So now we're hearing Democrats say the same thing. Robert Byrd and others are saying the president must be doing this for political reasons. We don't see any other reason why this rush to war now.

KAGAN: Well, and what about the role of these congressional elections which are just six weeks away? The Democrats might think that maybe they're trying to control the Iraq agenda, but they haven't been able to control any of the agenda. They should be out there talking about the economy and the difficult times and jobless numbers and yet it's all Iraq, Iraq, Iraq on the Republicans terms. SCHNEIDER: And that's been very frustrating for Democrats because they know that they're ahead on every issue on the agenda except terrorism, Iraq, international affairs. That's frustrating because Democrats know the economy is poor, Bush's record can be criticized.

What about corporate responsibility? We spent most of the summer talking about corporate wrongdoers and the abuse of the business system in this country. What went wrong? Who's to blame? Suddenly that issued has just disappeared from the agenda. That's intensely frustrating for Democrats, and they have been saying that they want to cooperate with the president on Iraq, say we agree, we'll support this, and go on to those other issues.

What they're hearing from Democrats right now is no, we don't want to go on to those other issues, we don't want to go to war and have the Democrats simply agree with the president. We want to have this debate. And I think the Democratic leaders in Congress are finally getting that message. The debate may not be good for Democrats. They really would like to talk about other issues, but I think they're being pressured to do it by their own party.

KAGAN: Well I bet you're going to stick around a little bit and listen in. In a few minutes we expect to hear the Democratic leaders, Daschle, once again, and Dick Gephardt. They'll be speaking live. We're going to show that. And then 10 minutes from now, a news conference from the White House with President Bush. Seeing both live right here on CNN.

Our thanks to Bill Schneider who we found in Boston.

For the latest news and analysis on the tensions with Iraq, be sure to watch our new one-hour program, "SHOWDOWN: IRAQ." It's hosted by none other than our Wolf Blitzer. Begins at noon Eastern, 9:00 Pacific.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com