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American Morning

Discussion with Senator Joseph Lieberman

Aired November 20, 2002 - 09:05   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: After weeks of wrangling, legislation creating a cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security now has the green light from both parties of Congress. The Senate-passed landmark bill last night, and President Bush is expected to sign it into law next week. Now one of the original sponsors of the idea to create such a department was Democratic Senator Joseph Lieberman, and he joins us now from Washington.
Good morning. Welcome back.

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D), CONNECTICUT: Good morning, Paula. Good to be back with you.

ZAHN: Senator, we hear it could be a long time before this department is up and running. And one analyst had this to say about that process. Quote, "It is a big, ugly, messy, bureaucratic organization that will take years to realize." When will this department start making a difference?

LIEBERMAN: Well, I don't accept those predictions. I think the passage last night by the Senate of this legislation to create a Homeland Security Department is critically important. This is our way of saying, we need to aggressively reorganize our homeland defenses so that the terrorists can never take advantage of our vulnerabilities again the way they did on September 11th.

I don't accept the prediction of years. We've given the homeland security a lot of power, including budget power. And I expect as soon as that person is nominated, and that will happen quite soon, he or she will get to work right away bringing the agencies that are supposed to protect us here at home and are not working together well enough together right away. So the bill says within a year it's all got to be done. I think it's going to be done a lot sooner than that.

ZAHN: When you talk about the future leadership, I was struck by the fact you just said he or she. We all know that Tom Ridge reportedly is the president's pick. Do you not see that happening?

LIEBERMAN: Well, I was trying to respect the president's options. The word here in Washington certainly seems to be that Tom Ridge is the likely choice, and I think he's the likely choice in a lot of ways. I mean, it's been very good to work with him. He's had executive experience as governor of Pennsylvania. I think he would be a very good choice, and his nomination would sail through the Senate with broad -- I would guess unanimous bipartisan support.

ZAHN: It a fait accompli, do you think? LIEBERMAN: Well, the president doesn't consult me directly on these decisions, but it sounds like it's moving in Tom Ridge's direction, and look, he's had this year. I give the president and Governor Ridge a lot of credit, because at the outset when a few of us introduced this legislation, last October, they said we didn't need it. and then after a period of months, they, to their credit, changed their minds and said, experience had shown them the original idea of just an office in the White House without statutory authority was not enough. They needed to give -- to create a new department, the largest reorganization of our government in more than half a century, and give the secretary the power to make this go urgently, because the terrorists are out there. They are plotting. They are planning to strike us again, and we're not as defended and organized as we should be to prevent that, particularly not in the coordination of law enforcement and intelligence, which this new department will do for the first time.

ZAHN: You say the terrorists are out there. I think Senator Bob Graham was even more blatant this morning when he said international terrorists are sleeping among us, and when I pushed him on the question, he confirmed that he believes that there are members of Hezbollah working in the United States right now, and he expressed frustration that government agencies haven't been able to do anything about it. Do you share that same concern?

LIEBERMAN: I share the same sense of reality, and I think the administration knows that, that there are groups in our country, sleeper cell groups, whatever you want to call them. Of course we've arrested some of them already. We're pursuing others, and I think any time we see them, we should strike them before they strike at us. I mean, that is the unprecedented nature of the war that we are in, and it's important that the American people not forget that. That's why what we did yesterday was so critically necessary.

Our enemy is not an army massed on land or ships approaching our coast. They among us in the shadows, and we have to use all our technical and law enforcement power to find them and get them before they strike at us.

ZAHN: Can we talk presidential politics right now?

LIEBERMAN: If you insist.

ZAHN: We insist. Your partner on the ticket last night was on "LARRY KING LIVE" last night, talking about the process he's going to go through to decide whether he's going to indeed run, and he said, through the holidays, he's going to think it through, and then he's going to announce to the Democrats his intention. Do you expect to hear from him first before he makes a public announcement?

LIEBERMAN: Yes, I mean, first, I'd like to say, and I saw part of Larry King's show. I thought Al and Tipper looked great and sounded great. I'm just very happy for them about this new book, and I look forward to reading it. Secondly, we've kept in touch, us, and my wife and Al and Tipper and I are good friends. We've talked some. He hasn't said what he's going to do. We'll probably talk some more in December, and then I expect to hear by the end of the year what his decision is, and I'll respect it.

ZAHN: And his decision could make a huge impact on what you'll be doing down the road. I wanted to look at a recent CNN/"Time" poll which found 61 percent of Democrats asked if they'd like to see Al Gore make another run at it and this is basically what they said. The numbers were 61 percent Democrats, 45 percent independents, 29 percent of the Republicans. What does that mean?

ZAHN: Said that they wanted Al to make another run?

LIEBERMAN: You know what, I'm actually a little confused by the graphic on that, but as I remember the poll, that's what was asked, whether he should run again.

ZAHN: Well, so a large number of Democrats and descending from independents and Republicans. Sure, look, the fact is that the ticket Al Gore and I were on got more votes in 2000 than our opponents and more votes than any Democratic ticket in history. So we're proud of that run. It didn't end as we hoped it would. But I think you got to give Al Gore some room to make a very personal decision as to whether he and Tipper want to do this again. And as I said before, I'm going to respect that decision.

ZAHN: We need a yes or no. If he doesn't run, will you?

LIEBERMAN: I guess for now, I probably should say probably. And I mean that in a sense that I haven't made the final decision, because it's an enormous personal decision, and it's going to require some final discussions with our family. That's the key.

ZAHN: Sure, we respect that. Senator Joseph Lieberman, always good to see you.

LIEBERMAN: You, too.

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 November 20, 2002 - 09:05   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: After weeks of wrangling, legislation creating a cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security now has the green light from both parties of Congress. The Senate-passed landmark bill last night, and President Bush is expected to sign it into law next week. Now one of the original sponsors of the idea to create such a department was Democratic Senator Joseph Lieberman, and he joins us now from Washington.
Good morning. Welcome back.

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D), CONNECTICUT: Good morning, Paula. Good to be back with you.

ZAHN: Senator, we hear it could be a long time before this department is up and running. And one analyst had this to say about that process. Quote, "It is a big, ugly, messy, bureaucratic organization that will take years to realize." When will this department start making a difference?

LIEBERMAN: Well, I don't accept those predictions. I think the passage last night by the Senate of this legislation to create a Homeland Security Department is critically important. This is our way of saying, we need to aggressively reorganize our homeland defenses so that the terrorists can never take advantage of our vulnerabilities again the way they did on September 11th.

I don't accept the prediction of years. We've given the homeland security a lot of power, including budget power. And I expect as soon as that person is nominated, and that will happen quite soon, he or she will get to work right away bringing the agencies that are supposed to protect us here at home and are not working together well enough together right away. So the bill says within a year it's all got to be done. I think it's going to be done a lot sooner than that.

ZAHN: When you talk about the future leadership, I was struck by the fact you just said he or she. We all know that Tom Ridge reportedly is the president's pick. Do you not see that happening?

LIEBERMAN: Well, I was trying to respect the president's options. The word here in Washington certainly seems to be that Tom Ridge is the likely choice, and I think he's the likely choice in a lot of ways. I mean, it's been very good to work with him. He's had executive experience as governor of Pennsylvania. I think he would be a very good choice, and his nomination would sail through the Senate with broad -- I would guess unanimous bipartisan support.

ZAHN: It a fait accompli, do you think? LIEBERMAN: Well, the president doesn't consult me directly on these decisions, but it sounds like it's moving in Tom Ridge's direction, and look, he's had this year. I give the president and Governor Ridge a lot of credit, because at the outset when a few of us introduced this legislation, last October, they said we didn't need it. and then after a period of months, they, to their credit, changed their minds and said, experience had shown them the original idea of just an office in the White House without statutory authority was not enough. They needed to give -- to create a new department, the largest reorganization of our government in more than half a century, and give the secretary the power to make this go urgently, because the terrorists are out there. They are plotting. They are planning to strike us again, and we're not as defended and organized as we should be to prevent that, particularly not in the coordination of law enforcement and intelligence, which this new department will do for the first time.

ZAHN: You say the terrorists are out there. I think Senator Bob Graham was even more blatant this morning when he said international terrorists are sleeping among us, and when I pushed him on the question, he confirmed that he believes that there are members of Hezbollah working in the United States right now, and he expressed frustration that government agencies haven't been able to do anything about it. Do you share that same concern?

LIEBERMAN: I share the same sense of reality, and I think the administration knows that, that there are groups in our country, sleeper cell groups, whatever you want to call them. Of course we've arrested some of them already. We're pursuing others, and I think any time we see them, we should strike them before they strike at us. I mean, that is the unprecedented nature of the war that we are in, and it's important that the American people not forget that. That's why what we did yesterday was so critically necessary.

Our enemy is not an army massed on land or ships approaching our coast. They among us in the shadows, and we have to use all our technical and law enforcement power to find them and get them before they strike at us.

ZAHN: Can we talk presidential politics right now?

LIEBERMAN: If you insist.

ZAHN: We insist. Your partner on the ticket last night was on "LARRY KING LIVE" last night, talking about the process he's going to go through to decide whether he's going to indeed run, and he said, through the holidays, he's going to think it through, and then he's going to announce to the Democrats his intention. Do you expect to hear from him first before he makes a public announcement?

LIEBERMAN: Yes, I mean, first, I'd like to say, and I saw part of Larry King's show. I thought Al and Tipper looked great and sounded great. I'm just very happy for them about this new book, and I look forward to reading it. Secondly, we've kept in touch, us, and my wife and Al and Tipper and I are good friends. We've talked some. He hasn't said what he's going to do. We'll probably talk some more in December, and then I expect to hear by the end of the year what his decision is, and I'll respect it.

ZAHN: And his decision could make a huge impact on what you'll be doing down the road. I wanted to look at a recent CNN/"Time" poll which found 61 percent of Democrats asked if they'd like to see Al Gore make another run at it and this is basically what they said. The numbers were 61 percent Democrats, 45 percent independents, 29 percent of the Republicans. What does that mean?

ZAHN: Said that they wanted Al to make another run?

LIEBERMAN: You know what, I'm actually a little confused by the graphic on that, but as I remember the poll, that's what was asked, whether he should run again.

ZAHN: Well, so a large number of Democrats and descending from independents and Republicans. Sure, look, the fact is that the ticket Al Gore and I were on got more votes in 2000 than our opponents and more votes than any Democratic ticket in history. So we're proud of that run. It didn't end as we hoped it would. But I think you got to give Al Gore some room to make a very personal decision as to whether he and Tipper want to do this again. And as I said before, I'm going to respect that decision.

ZAHN: We need a yes or no. If he doesn't run, will you?

LIEBERMAN: I guess for now, I probably should say probably. And I mean that in a sense that I haven't made the final decision, because it's an enormous personal decision, and it's going to require some final discussions with our family. That's the key.

ZAHN: Sure, we respect that. Senator Joseph Lieberman, always good to see you.

LIEBERMAN: You, too.

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