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American Morning
'Gimme a Minute'
Aired October 17, 2003 - 08:35 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It is Friday, and that means it is gimme a break time. And the gang's all here. In Washington this morning, Jonah Goldberg. He's the editor of the National Review Online.
Good morning to you. Nice to see you.
JONAH GOLDBERG, THE NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE: Good morning.
O'BRIEN: Did I say gimme a break or "Gimme a Minute?"
GOLDBERG: You said "gimme a break," but that's all right.
O'BRIEN: That was a little Freudian, wasn't it?
It's been a really long week for me, ya'll. You just have to forgive me on that one.
Democratic strategist Donna Brazile joins us as well.
Hey, Donna. Good morning.
DONNA BRAZILE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Good morning.
O'BRIEN: And in San Francisco this morning, Andy Borowitz of "The New Yorker," who was up a little bit late last night with me, as well.
Nice to see you, Andy.
ANDY BOROWITZ, "THE NEW YORKER": Good to see you.
And "Gimme a Break" was one of my favorite shows.
O'BRIEN: Mine, too, and that's why I threw it in. You know, it's just a segue.
Anyway let's begin.
Of course, Jonah, we're going to start with you. The big debate in Congress is giving the money or loaning the money for the reconstruction in Iraq. The White House says the money should be an out and out gift. Why not loan the money? What's wrong with that?
GOLDBERG: I think it's a terrible idea. You know, we've sort of gone from pay any price, bear any burden to secure freedom and liberty to offer any loan to secure freedom and liberty. It sends exactly the wrong signal that we're there for the right reasons. And if the economy in Iraq rebounds, we'll do great by it anyway.
O'BRIEN: Donna, the argument of course is that it puts the U.S. in a difficult position to get other nations to forgive their loans if we've just gone ahead and done a massive loan ourselves. That's not guaranteed that it would happen anyway. So where do you weigh in on this?
BRAZILE: Well, I support Senator Saxby Chambliss. I like the loan idea. But I'm afraid that if we give the coupon book to former officials of Halliburton, we might never get that money back.
O'BRIEN: Andy, you've got $20 billion you want to loan anybody?
BOROWITZ: This is a very complicated issue, and I think Wesley Clark said it best when he said, can I get back to you on that?
O'BRIEN: Let's turn to the debate in the Anglican Church right now. The Anglican church says that if the U.S. Episcopal Church consecrates the gay reverend as a bishop that could actually split the church. Donna, the question for you, is do you put off the November ceremony, or do you risk splitting the church? Where do you weigh in on that?
BRAZILE: I would go ahead with the ceremony. Look, this bishop was called by god, and he was elected to serve the people, so let him go ahead and serve communion and break bread.
O'BRIEN: Jonah, at the end of the day, isn't this how the Anglican Church all got started in the first place? I mean, remind me, wasn't there this big rift way back when?
GOLDBERG: That's true. But the problem now is that rifts can be really dangerous for the church. First of all, Christianity, for all denominations, is growing fastest in the third world where homosexuality is still taboo. And second of all, if conservatives break off in the United States from the Episcopal Church, they'll lose all of their churches, all of the infrastructure, all their money and they'll have to hold services in basements with bridge tables. So the stakes are extremely high. And no one knows exactly what's going to happen. But it's a big, big deal.
O'BRIEN: Andy, are you predicting bridge tables in our future any time soon?
BOROWITZ: I've got to say, Soledad, every time the Episcopal Church has come to me for advice, it's ended badly.
O'BRIEN: All right.
I want to talk to you a little bit about the curse. You know, the guy they call the Bartman, the guy who touched the foul ball. Now, jokingly, of course, the governor of Illinois is saying they're willing to put him in the witness protection program. You have the governor of Florida saying they will offer him political asylum. When do you think everybody is going to lighten up on this poor guy? Why don't you tackle this one for me -- let's give it to Jonah. GOLDBERG: They'll probably lighten up on him when the Cubs finally win the world series, son in about a century. I feel bad for the kid. Any baseball fan who had been sitting there probably would have reached out for the ball. I think he should have blamed it on the curse and said it was powers beyond his control.
O'BRIEN: Well, I was going to ask Donna that, do you think that maybe he was just a vessel, a vehicle of the curse, and Steve really didn't have anything to do with it at all, outside of being kind of a body that was used?
Donna, doesn't that sound plausible to you, maybe, kind of?
BRAZILE: Well, you know, I think we should forgive him. And I think he should take up the offer from Jeb Bush to go down to Florida. After all, winter is approaching in Chicago, and wouldn't mind spending the fall in Florida.
O'BRIEN: Andy, tell me, when do you think Steve's going to be able to return to work and not have to slink around Chicago?
BOROWITZ: Well, you know, all he did was put his hands on something he shouldn't have. I think he should be the next governor of California.
O'BRIEN: All right. Let's quickly get to the uncovered topic of the week.
Donna, let's begin with you on that.
BRAZILE: Well, we all saw the unveiling of the new $20 bill. But what we didn't see was the price tag. $32 million to promote the new 20. That's 1.6 million new $20 bills. I see red, not green.
O'BRIEN: Jonah, what are you thinking about?
GOLDBERG: Oh, Bill Clinton won't stop spinning. He's now claiming that he told George Bush that Osama bin Laden was the biggest threat that America faced when he left office, which totally contradicts the eight years Clinton spent in office, basically sweeping Osama bin Laden under the rug.
O'BRIEN: Andy Borowitz, we're going to give you the final word this morning. What do you have to say?
BOROWITZ: Well, it's a big casting coup for director Quentin Tarantino. The sequel to "Kill Bill" will star Senator Hillary Clinton.
O'BRIEN: And that is our final word this morning. Jonah, and Donna and Andy, nice to see all of you. I like "Gimme a Break." I'm actually going to pitch that to the producers later.
BOROWITZ: Good, a little theme song.
O'BRIEN: Thank you guys. 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 October 17, 2003 - 08:35 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It is Friday, and that means it is gimme a break time. And the gang's all here. In Washington this morning, Jonah Goldberg. He's the editor of the National Review Online.
Good morning to you. Nice to see you.
JONAH GOLDBERG, THE NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE: Good morning.
O'BRIEN: Did I say gimme a break or "Gimme a Minute?"
GOLDBERG: You said "gimme a break," but that's all right.
O'BRIEN: That was a little Freudian, wasn't it?
It's been a really long week for me, ya'll. You just have to forgive me on that one.
Democratic strategist Donna Brazile joins us as well.
Hey, Donna. Good morning.
DONNA BRAZILE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Good morning.
O'BRIEN: And in San Francisco this morning, Andy Borowitz of "The New Yorker," who was up a little bit late last night with me, as well.
Nice to see you, Andy.
ANDY BOROWITZ, "THE NEW YORKER": Good to see you.
And "Gimme a Break" was one of my favorite shows.
O'BRIEN: Mine, too, and that's why I threw it in. You know, it's just a segue.
Anyway let's begin.
Of course, Jonah, we're going to start with you. The big debate in Congress is giving the money or loaning the money for the reconstruction in Iraq. The White House says the money should be an out and out gift. Why not loan the money? What's wrong with that?
GOLDBERG: I think it's a terrible idea. You know, we've sort of gone from pay any price, bear any burden to secure freedom and liberty to offer any loan to secure freedom and liberty. It sends exactly the wrong signal that we're there for the right reasons. And if the economy in Iraq rebounds, we'll do great by it anyway.
O'BRIEN: Donna, the argument of course is that it puts the U.S. in a difficult position to get other nations to forgive their loans if we've just gone ahead and done a massive loan ourselves. That's not guaranteed that it would happen anyway. So where do you weigh in on this?
BRAZILE: Well, I support Senator Saxby Chambliss. I like the loan idea. But I'm afraid that if we give the coupon book to former officials of Halliburton, we might never get that money back.
O'BRIEN: Andy, you've got $20 billion you want to loan anybody?
BOROWITZ: This is a very complicated issue, and I think Wesley Clark said it best when he said, can I get back to you on that?
O'BRIEN: Let's turn to the debate in the Anglican Church right now. The Anglican church says that if the U.S. Episcopal Church consecrates the gay reverend as a bishop that could actually split the church. Donna, the question for you, is do you put off the November ceremony, or do you risk splitting the church? Where do you weigh in on that?
BRAZILE: I would go ahead with the ceremony. Look, this bishop was called by god, and he was elected to serve the people, so let him go ahead and serve communion and break bread.
O'BRIEN: Jonah, at the end of the day, isn't this how the Anglican Church all got started in the first place? I mean, remind me, wasn't there this big rift way back when?
GOLDBERG: That's true. But the problem now is that rifts can be really dangerous for the church. First of all, Christianity, for all denominations, is growing fastest in the third world where homosexuality is still taboo. And second of all, if conservatives break off in the United States from the Episcopal Church, they'll lose all of their churches, all of the infrastructure, all their money and they'll have to hold services in basements with bridge tables. So the stakes are extremely high. And no one knows exactly what's going to happen. But it's a big, big deal.
O'BRIEN: Andy, are you predicting bridge tables in our future any time soon?
BOROWITZ: I've got to say, Soledad, every time the Episcopal Church has come to me for advice, it's ended badly.
O'BRIEN: All right.
I want to talk to you a little bit about the curse. You know, the guy they call the Bartman, the guy who touched the foul ball. Now, jokingly, of course, the governor of Illinois is saying they're willing to put him in the witness protection program. You have the governor of Florida saying they will offer him political asylum. When do you think everybody is going to lighten up on this poor guy? Why don't you tackle this one for me -- let's give it to Jonah. GOLDBERG: They'll probably lighten up on him when the Cubs finally win the world series, son in about a century. I feel bad for the kid. Any baseball fan who had been sitting there probably would have reached out for the ball. I think he should have blamed it on the curse and said it was powers beyond his control.
O'BRIEN: Well, I was going to ask Donna that, do you think that maybe he was just a vessel, a vehicle of the curse, and Steve really didn't have anything to do with it at all, outside of being kind of a body that was used?
Donna, doesn't that sound plausible to you, maybe, kind of?
BRAZILE: Well, you know, I think we should forgive him. And I think he should take up the offer from Jeb Bush to go down to Florida. After all, winter is approaching in Chicago, and wouldn't mind spending the fall in Florida.
O'BRIEN: Andy, tell me, when do you think Steve's going to be able to return to work and not have to slink around Chicago?
BOROWITZ: Well, you know, all he did was put his hands on something he shouldn't have. I think he should be the next governor of California.
O'BRIEN: All right. Let's quickly get to the uncovered topic of the week.
Donna, let's begin with you on that.
BRAZILE: Well, we all saw the unveiling of the new $20 bill. But what we didn't see was the price tag. $32 million to promote the new 20. That's 1.6 million new $20 bills. I see red, not green.
O'BRIEN: Jonah, what are you thinking about?
GOLDBERG: Oh, Bill Clinton won't stop spinning. He's now claiming that he told George Bush that Osama bin Laden was the biggest threat that America faced when he left office, which totally contradicts the eight years Clinton spent in office, basically sweeping Osama bin Laden under the rug.
O'BRIEN: Andy Borowitz, we're going to give you the final word this morning. What do you have to say?
BOROWITZ: Well, it's a big casting coup for director Quentin Tarantino. The sequel to "Kill Bill" will star Senator Hillary Clinton.
O'BRIEN: And that is our final word this morning. Jonah, and Donna and Andy, nice to see all of you. I like "Gimme a Break." I'm actually going to pitch that to the producers later.
BOROWITZ: Good, a little theme song.
O'BRIEN: Thank you guys. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
