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American Morning
'Gimme a Minute'
Aired January 24, 2003 - 08:32 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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Now we're going to turn to our weekly segment called "Gimme a Minute." We have brought three very different people with different opinions to give their spin on the big events of the week, all of the news, all their opinions, and in one minute per question, they have to think and talk very, very fast indeed. Rising to the challenge, Andy Borowitz from "The New Yorker," Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, Jonah Goldberg from National Review Online.
Good morning, everyone. Let's get started. Welcome.
Jonah, I'm going to start with you first, does it matter if the French and German go along with potential military action in Iraq?
JONAH GOLDBERG, NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE: Well, Paula, look bear goes in the wood, the pope is Catholic and the French are a pain in the butt to Uncle Sam, and that's always been the case. It doesn't matter one wit militarily, because we never thought they were going to be of much help anyway, and we knew the Germans weren't going to be any help at all, but politically and diplomatically, it is kind of a big deal, and it does undercut Colin Powell at the knees, and it can be a real problem on that score.
ZAHN: Donna Brazile.
DONNA BRAZILE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I agree with Jonah, that it does undercut Colin Powell, but let me tell you, I mean, the administration has to go beyond the coalition of willing to and the coalition able, able to assist us and able to help produce the evidence, able to help pay the cost of this massive buildup. So I think it's time that the administration show us the evidence, and show the photos and begin to build a coalition of the able.
ZAHN: Andy Borowitz, your colleague stole 10 seconds of your time, so you're going to get cheated here, but we'll pay you back with the next one.
ANDY BOROWITZ, "THE NEW YORKER": OK, well, it would be nice if the Germans were on our side, but I haven't trusted the French since that whole skating judges thing.
ZAHN: Let's move on to the economy, Donna Brazile. In previous polls, fewer than half of Americans thought that the president was handling the economy the way they wanted him to. How much resonance does this have?
BRAZILE: Well, in the short term, I think the economy will continue to suffer and sputter along, and in the short-term and the tax cuts are just too huge for the average American citizens to get up in the morning and say, my God, I'm going to get a check. So I think in the long-term, deficits will begin to grow even larger and the American people will say, no, this is not the right form of success.
ZAHN: Jonah.
GOLDBERG: Big tax cuts never hurt a Republican president. That will be fine. Bush's poll ratings are still at 58, which would be a sale for re-elect. And you know, basically everything is installed because of the uncertainty about the war, and that will be cleared away pretty soon.
ZAHN: Andy Borowitz, because we're so nice, we're going to you get 10 extra seconds.
BOROWITZ: Thank you, Paula.
I think, you know, the president keeps on talking about Saddam Hussein losing his job, but I think a lot of Americans are worried about losing their jobs. Tax cuts are great. The problem the president has, though, is he's cut so many taxes, he's running out of taxes to cut. He may actually have to raise taxes in order to cut them, I think.
ZAHN: On to reality TV now. You had some 26 million viewers watching "American Idol" this week. Is that the end of civilization as we know it, Jonah?
GOLDBERG: Look, reality shows have been around for a very long time. Candid camera was a reality show. I got no problem with them. "American Idol" is basically a talent search, a very old thing. My problem is when reality TV starts bleeding into real life, as when we have Jerry Springer running for Senate, that is a disaster, and maybe that's why we should curtail this thing.
ZAHN: Donna.
BRAZILE: Give me more, I'll tell you, I've never had so much fun watching TV over the last couple of weeks, just watching these people make fools of themselves, especially that Joe six-pack millionaire story.
ZAHN: It's kind of like a train wreck, isn't it? I found myself watching too, Donna. I couldn't turn it off.
BRAZILE: I couldn't turn it off.
ZAHN: Andy, you've been watching this stuff?
BRAZILE: The one I'm concerned about, Paula, is "The Bachelorette," with poor Trysta (ph), because I think that show is sending the wrong message, that a TV show is the appropriate place to find the perfect mate. That place has and will always be the Internet.
(LAUGHTER) ZAHN: That's very good, Andy.
BOROWITZ: Thank you, Paula.
ZAHN: OK, Jonah, what is the under-covered story of the week?
GOLDBERG: That's a hard one. Mine would be when all of those sort of petunia Stalinists (ph) in open-toed shoes showed up in Washington to protest the war. Everyone talked about how many of them there were, but, at the same time, vastly more people showed up for the car show in Detroit, which shows that most Americans still have their priorities in the right place.
ZAHN: Go, Donna, go.
BRAZILE: The president is cutting programs across the board, but they just increased another office in the White House, Office of Global Communications. They've issued two reports this week on Iraq, and who knows, even more might be coming out of the White House in the next couple of weeks.
ZAHN: Andy Borowitz, you blew me away with your Internet comment, so get 30 seconds to close this off.
BOROWITZ: Well, it was a big week of comebacks, Paula, because McCauley Caulkin had a film at the Sundance Film Festival, and of course Gary Hart said that he may be thinking of running for president again. So I think it's an interesting trend. If America is ready to embrace the star of "Home Alone," are they ready for the skipper of the monkey business? Maybe it's his time.
ZAHN: What do you think, Donna?
BRAZILE: I think why not.
ZAHN: Why not, OK.
BOROWITZ: Hart-springer, that is a ticket.
ZAHN: That one is really interesting, thinking about running for the Senate.
BRAZILE: And Jack can run the campaign.
ZAHN: Well, I doubt that, but Jonah Goldberg, Donna Brazile and Andy Borowitz, thanks.
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 January 24, 2003 - 08:32 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Now we're going to turn to our weekly segment called "Gimme a Minute." We have brought three very different people with different opinions to give their spin on the big events of the week, all of the news, all their opinions, and in one minute per question, they have to think and talk very, very fast indeed. Rising to the challenge, Andy Borowitz from "The New Yorker," Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, Jonah Goldberg from National Review Online.
Good morning, everyone. Let's get started. Welcome.
Jonah, I'm going to start with you first, does it matter if the French and German go along with potential military action in Iraq?
JONAH GOLDBERG, NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE: Well, Paula, look bear goes in the wood, the pope is Catholic and the French are a pain in the butt to Uncle Sam, and that's always been the case. It doesn't matter one wit militarily, because we never thought they were going to be of much help anyway, and we knew the Germans weren't going to be any help at all, but politically and diplomatically, it is kind of a big deal, and it does undercut Colin Powell at the knees, and it can be a real problem on that score.
ZAHN: Donna Brazile.
DONNA BRAZILE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I agree with Jonah, that it does undercut Colin Powell, but let me tell you, I mean, the administration has to go beyond the coalition of willing to and the coalition able, able to assist us and able to help produce the evidence, able to help pay the cost of this massive buildup. So I think it's time that the administration show us the evidence, and show the photos and begin to build a coalition of the able.
ZAHN: Andy Borowitz, your colleague stole 10 seconds of your time, so you're going to get cheated here, but we'll pay you back with the next one.
ANDY BOROWITZ, "THE NEW YORKER": OK, well, it would be nice if the Germans were on our side, but I haven't trusted the French since that whole skating judges thing.
ZAHN: Let's move on to the economy, Donna Brazile. In previous polls, fewer than half of Americans thought that the president was handling the economy the way they wanted him to. How much resonance does this have?
BRAZILE: Well, in the short term, I think the economy will continue to suffer and sputter along, and in the short-term and the tax cuts are just too huge for the average American citizens to get up in the morning and say, my God, I'm going to get a check. So I think in the long-term, deficits will begin to grow even larger and the American people will say, no, this is not the right form of success.
ZAHN: Jonah.
GOLDBERG: Big tax cuts never hurt a Republican president. That will be fine. Bush's poll ratings are still at 58, which would be a sale for re-elect. And you know, basically everything is installed because of the uncertainty about the war, and that will be cleared away pretty soon.
ZAHN: Andy Borowitz, because we're so nice, we're going to you get 10 extra seconds.
BOROWITZ: Thank you, Paula.
I think, you know, the president keeps on talking about Saddam Hussein losing his job, but I think a lot of Americans are worried about losing their jobs. Tax cuts are great. The problem the president has, though, is he's cut so many taxes, he's running out of taxes to cut. He may actually have to raise taxes in order to cut them, I think.
ZAHN: On to reality TV now. You had some 26 million viewers watching "American Idol" this week. Is that the end of civilization as we know it, Jonah?
GOLDBERG: Look, reality shows have been around for a very long time. Candid camera was a reality show. I got no problem with them. "American Idol" is basically a talent search, a very old thing. My problem is when reality TV starts bleeding into real life, as when we have Jerry Springer running for Senate, that is a disaster, and maybe that's why we should curtail this thing.
ZAHN: Donna.
BRAZILE: Give me more, I'll tell you, I've never had so much fun watching TV over the last couple of weeks, just watching these people make fools of themselves, especially that Joe six-pack millionaire story.
ZAHN: It's kind of like a train wreck, isn't it? I found myself watching too, Donna. I couldn't turn it off.
BRAZILE: I couldn't turn it off.
ZAHN: Andy, you've been watching this stuff?
BRAZILE: The one I'm concerned about, Paula, is "The Bachelorette," with poor Trysta (ph), because I think that show is sending the wrong message, that a TV show is the appropriate place to find the perfect mate. That place has and will always be the Internet.
(LAUGHTER) ZAHN: That's very good, Andy.
BOROWITZ: Thank you, Paula.
ZAHN: OK, Jonah, what is the under-covered story of the week?
GOLDBERG: That's a hard one. Mine would be when all of those sort of petunia Stalinists (ph) in open-toed shoes showed up in Washington to protest the war. Everyone talked about how many of them there were, but, at the same time, vastly more people showed up for the car show in Detroit, which shows that most Americans still have their priorities in the right place.
ZAHN: Go, Donna, go.
BRAZILE: The president is cutting programs across the board, but they just increased another office in the White House, Office of Global Communications. They've issued two reports this week on Iraq, and who knows, even more might be coming out of the White House in the next couple of weeks.
ZAHN: Andy Borowitz, you blew me away with your Internet comment, so get 30 seconds to close this off.
BOROWITZ: Well, it was a big week of comebacks, Paula, because McCauley Caulkin had a film at the Sundance Film Festival, and of course Gary Hart said that he may be thinking of running for president again. So I think it's an interesting trend. If America is ready to embrace the star of "Home Alone," are they ready for the skipper of the monkey business? Maybe it's his time.
ZAHN: What do you think, Donna?
BRAZILE: I think why not.
ZAHN: Why not, OK.
BOROWITZ: Hart-springer, that is a ticket.
ZAHN: That one is really interesting, thinking about running for the Senate.
BRAZILE: And Jack can run the campaign.
ZAHN: Well, I doubt that, but Jonah Goldberg, Donna Brazile and Andy Borowitz, thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
