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American Morning

'Gimme a Minute'

Aired June 27, 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.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Time now for our Friday feature "Gimme a Minute." It's a chance for our panel to be both brilliant and brisk as they sound off on the week's big stories. With us this morning in Washington, Jonah Goldberg, editor of the National Review Online, and Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, and with us in New York, humorist and author Andy Borowitz. His new book, of course, "Who Moved My Soap?: The CEOs Guide to Surviving Prison."
Good morning, panelists. Good to have you here with us.

We're going to start with what looks like not a great week for conservatives from the Supreme Court, the high court holding up the idea of affirmative action and then striking down sodomy laws.

Jonah, what do you make of this? You go first.

JONAH GOLDBERG, THE NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE: Well, I mean, you can have an argument about the actual polices one way or the other. I think the sodomy laws were stupid, but I don't think that they were necessarily unconstitutional. Generally, conservatives are furious, you're right, because the Supreme Court has basically appointed itself the arbiter of niceness in the country, not the arbiter of what's constitutional and what's not.

KAGAN: Donna, you go from here.

DONNA BRAZILE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, I think the court struck the right balance. It was a victory for America, a victory for civil rights and a victory for equality.

Look, the Supreme Court kept the doors of affirmative action open and closed the windows for privacy. So I like the decisions.

KAGAN: Andy, I can hardly wait to hear your take on these.

ANDY BOROWITZ, "THE NEW YORKER": Well, the real test comes next week when they court weighs in on a Massachusetts law that would ban Ann Coulter.

KAGAN: Not soon enough for us here. We had her on the other day.

First, now on to bad numbers. Let's look at some economic numbers. The Fed cutting interest rates yet again this week. The first quarter numbers for the economy up only 1.4 percent.

Donna, lady goes first on this. What are the presidential numbers? Could those be the next to go down?

BRAZILE: Well, right now, the president remained popular, but he put all his eggs in the tax cut basket. And unless he can produce some jobs out of his magical hat, I think his numbers will go down by Elections Day.

KAGAN: Jonah, how do you spin these numbers?

GOLDBERG: That sort of sums it up. Democrats are hoping that the economy goes bad because that's good for Democrats these days.

I think that the -- I think one of the things that's helping Bush is that because of the rise of personal investing and 401ks and that kind of thing, people are more sophisticated of how the economy works, and they understand the president isn't in charge of how the it runs, that plus the 09/11 gives Bush a little bit more of a pass than it normally would.

KAGAN: Hey, Andy, how do you see the economy and presidential numbers?

BOROWITZ: Well, there are more bad numbers out there. A new reports shows that half the nation's wealth is concentrated in Dick Cheney.

KAGAN: But we knew that.

The recording industry now. The recording industry has had just about enough of people taking and downloading music from the Internet and not paying for it. Now they've announced they will go ahead and sue individuals. One student announcing he had to go on line to try to raise money, $12,000 for recording fees? Jonah, is it right to pick for the recording industry to pick on the little guy to solve the problem of new technology?

GOLDBERG: Well, I think on the law, it may be right. I believe in property rights. But as a matter of practicality, it's insane. I mean, this is like McDonald's suing people for eating hamburgers in their homes. It just shows the crisis that the music industry is in.

KAGAN: Donna, is this the end of your downloading career?

BRAZILE: Well, you know, I haven't started to download. I still have my vinyls. But I'll tell this much, parents better beware. They need to now pass on a new record label to their children, thou shalt not steal.

KAGAN: Thou shall not. Shall you steal, Andy?

BOROWITZ: Well, I think Madonna has a better way to battle piracy, which is to release an album no one wants to steal.

KAGAN: And now let's move on to the story that we missed this week. Jonah, what did the media miss?

GOLDBERG: Last Sunday, right before the Supreme Court announced the affirmative action decision, Dick Gephardt told a Chicago audience during a Democratic debate, that if the Supreme Court ruled the way he didn't like, he would simply overrule the Supreme Court when he became president, which shows you how much respect he actually has for the rule of law.

KAGAN: Donna, what's the story we missed?

BRAZILE: Well, this past week, a powerful Republican in the House of Representatives put forward a novel idea, but one that will allow districts residents to finally celebrate. He intends to push for limited voting rights for the delegate to vote in Congress. That is reason to celebrate next 4th of July.

KAGAN: And what are you celebrating today, Andy, of the story that we missed?

BOROWITZ: Well, the Iraqi information minister of course resurfaced this week, and he announced that "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" is the best movies ever made.

KAGAN: And the Iraqis are winning the war. Thank you so much for your input and for your minutes today. Appreciate it.

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 June 27, 2003 - 08:32   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Time now for our Friday feature "Gimme a Minute." It's a chance for our panel to be both brilliant and brisk as they sound off on the week's big stories. With us this morning in Washington, Jonah Goldberg, editor of the National Review Online, and Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, and with us in New York, humorist and author Andy Borowitz. His new book, of course, "Who Moved My Soap?: The CEOs Guide to Surviving Prison."
Good morning, panelists. Good to have you here with us.

We're going to start with what looks like not a great week for conservatives from the Supreme Court, the high court holding up the idea of affirmative action and then striking down sodomy laws.

Jonah, what do you make of this? You go first.

JONAH GOLDBERG, THE NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE: Well, I mean, you can have an argument about the actual polices one way or the other. I think the sodomy laws were stupid, but I don't think that they were necessarily unconstitutional. Generally, conservatives are furious, you're right, because the Supreme Court has basically appointed itself the arbiter of niceness in the country, not the arbiter of what's constitutional and what's not.

KAGAN: Donna, you go from here.

DONNA BRAZILE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, I think the court struck the right balance. It was a victory for America, a victory for civil rights and a victory for equality.

Look, the Supreme Court kept the doors of affirmative action open and closed the windows for privacy. So I like the decisions.

KAGAN: Andy, I can hardly wait to hear your take on these.

ANDY BOROWITZ, "THE NEW YORKER": Well, the real test comes next week when they court weighs in on a Massachusetts law that would ban Ann Coulter.

KAGAN: Not soon enough for us here. We had her on the other day.

First, now on to bad numbers. Let's look at some economic numbers. The Fed cutting interest rates yet again this week. The first quarter numbers for the economy up only 1.4 percent.

Donna, lady goes first on this. What are the presidential numbers? Could those be the next to go down?

BRAZILE: Well, right now, the president remained popular, but he put all his eggs in the tax cut basket. And unless he can produce some jobs out of his magical hat, I think his numbers will go down by Elections Day.

KAGAN: Jonah, how do you spin these numbers?

GOLDBERG: That sort of sums it up. Democrats are hoping that the economy goes bad because that's good for Democrats these days.

I think that the -- I think one of the things that's helping Bush is that because of the rise of personal investing and 401ks and that kind of thing, people are more sophisticated of how the economy works, and they understand the president isn't in charge of how the it runs, that plus the 09/11 gives Bush a little bit more of a pass than it normally would.

KAGAN: Hey, Andy, how do you see the economy and presidential numbers?

BOROWITZ: Well, there are more bad numbers out there. A new reports shows that half the nation's wealth is concentrated in Dick Cheney.

KAGAN: But we knew that.

The recording industry now. The recording industry has had just about enough of people taking and downloading music from the Internet and not paying for it. Now they've announced they will go ahead and sue individuals. One student announcing he had to go on line to try to raise money, $12,000 for recording fees? Jonah, is it right to pick for the recording industry to pick on the little guy to solve the problem of new technology?

GOLDBERG: Well, I think on the law, it may be right. I believe in property rights. But as a matter of practicality, it's insane. I mean, this is like McDonald's suing people for eating hamburgers in their homes. It just shows the crisis that the music industry is in.

KAGAN: Donna, is this the end of your downloading career?

BRAZILE: Well, you know, I haven't started to download. I still have my vinyls. But I'll tell this much, parents better beware. They need to now pass on a new record label to their children, thou shalt not steal.

KAGAN: Thou shall not. Shall you steal, Andy?

BOROWITZ: Well, I think Madonna has a better way to battle piracy, which is to release an album no one wants to steal.

KAGAN: And now let's move on to the story that we missed this week. Jonah, what did the media miss?

GOLDBERG: Last Sunday, right before the Supreme Court announced the affirmative action decision, Dick Gephardt told a Chicago audience during a Democratic debate, that if the Supreme Court ruled the way he didn't like, he would simply overrule the Supreme Court when he became president, which shows you how much respect he actually has for the rule of law.

KAGAN: Donna, what's the story we missed?

BRAZILE: Well, this past week, a powerful Republican in the House of Representatives put forward a novel idea, but one that will allow districts residents to finally celebrate. He intends to push for limited voting rights for the delegate to vote in Congress. That is reason to celebrate next 4th of July.

KAGAN: And what are you celebrating today, Andy, of the story that we missed?

BOROWITZ: Well, the Iraqi information minister of course resurfaced this week, and he announced that "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" is the best movies ever made.

KAGAN: And the Iraqis are winning the war. Thank you so much for your input and for your minutes today. Appreciate it.

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