Guests: David Gregory, Scott Cohn, Pat Buchanan, Cynthia Tucker, Kathleen Parker, Sen. Ron Wyden, Roger Simon, Mike Feldman
CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Listen to Jimmy.
Let‘s play HARDBALL.
Good evening. I‘m Chris Matthews in Washington. Leading off tonight:
The color of politics. It strikes me that race is the San Andreas fault of American politics. It‘s a huge divide right below the surface that always threatens to shake and split this country in the worst way. The fault line began to show itself this time in the claim, richly enjoyed in the American South, that President Obama wasn‘t born here, isn‘t really one of us. Then came the wide-open arena of health care town meetings. That really opened up the divide.
Now last night, came this from a Southerner who was once president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY CARTER, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think an overwhelming portion of the intentionally demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he‘s African-American.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEWS: Well, that statement by President Carter has taken the issue out into the open. Republicans don‘t like what Carter said. Some don‘t like the signs that are being waved at those town meetings, either, but they‘re not saying much about the signs for fear of offending their supporters. When they do speak out, the Republicans are saying they don‘t like what‘s being said about those who are pointing to the signs and the sentiments, people like former President Carter. So tonight we force the question right up front.
Plus: Guess what happened when Democratic senator Max Baucus unveiled his long-awaited health care reform bill today? All three Republican senators from the so-called “gang of six” decided not to join the gang. They didn‘t show. And what‘s more, a lot of Democrats don‘t like the bill, either. So can President Obama get a bill? I‘m beginning to wonder.
And a rat talks. A former speechwriter has written a Bush White House tell-all book, including what the president said to those he trusted about Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden.
Also, just as President Obama faces mounting pressure from his top generals to send more troops to Afghanistan, his allies in Congress want him to cut the number of troops, in fact, to bring them home. Now what? We‘ll break down the president‘s “no good option” dilemma with our colleague, David Gregory, in the “Politics Fix” tonight.
And finally, true or false: The House Ethics Committee has concluded that it‘s OK to say on the House floor that the people over at the State Department are half-baked nitwits? Well, that‘s OK on the floor. We‘re going to give you some other never-before-published things you can‘t (ph) say on the floor of the House of Representatives. That‘s in the HARDBALL “Sideshow” tonight.
But we begin with a question. Is race a factor in these anti-Obama protests? Cynthia Tucker is a columnist for “The Atlanta Journal-Constitution,” and Kathleen Parker‘s a syndicated columnist seen here in “The Washington Post,” and heavily syndicated around the country.
Both of you ladies, thank you. Is it a factor in the anger we‘re seeing in the faces of the people at these rallies?
CYNTHIA TUCKER, “ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION”: Well, of course, race is a factor, Chris. You and I have talked about this before. But it can‘t be measured in polls, so it‘s hard to determine how much of a factor it is. Now, that certainly doesn‘t mean that everybody who objects to President Obama‘s policies or health care reform or is a racist. But race is certainly a factor. You saw it in some of those signs that were held aloft.
MATTHEWS: Well, let‘s quote some of the signs. These clowns that bring these signs out—and they have a right to, free speech. They have a point of view. Kathleen, here‘s the point of view. “The zoo has an African, and the White House has a lying African,” “Undocumented worker,” with a picture of the president there—by the way, which is the logical conclusion of these people who say he wasn‘t born here. He wasn‘t sworn in as an American, so I guess he‘s here illegally, he ought to be deported, according to their logic.
“We‘re being hijacked.” OK, “We‘re being hijacked” could mean almost anything. But the zoo stuff, the undocumented worker stuff—let me give you a fact here. In the American South, most Southerners polled in this poll—admittedly, it was a Daily Kos poll, OK.
(LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: All right. It is the Daily—I‘m not sure it‘s a good poll, but it‘s a poll. A majority of them aren‘t sure or are sure he‘s not from here. In other words, a minority of Southerners, white Southerners, think he‘s from America, the president.
Is that race, that point of view?
KATHLEEN PARKER, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: You know, I think that is. I think that‘s another way of saying he‘s not one of us, and that was one of the things that concerned me all along during the campaign. But let me preface this by saying I agree with what Cynthia said. You can‘t measure racism, so it‘s very hard to say this person is a racist, this person isn‘t, and to quantify in some larger general terms.
MATTHEWS: Do you think if you gave them sodium pentothol (ph) test, they‘d be able to answer it?
PARKER: They?
MATTHEWS: Anybody who says—who‘s—well, even a person carrying a sign like that. Do you think if it said, Are you a racist, they‘d be able to say and pass the test, under medical supervision, that they really weren‘t?
PARKER: Well, I mean, I think you‘d have to—you‘d have to word it differently. You‘d have to say, Do you believe that African-Americans are qualified to lead this country? You know, that would be a question...
MATTHEWS: Yes. Getting to the heart of something.
PARKER: That would be sort of an interesting question.
MATTHEWS: You are getting to the heart of something, Northern and Southern white prejudice, all right? Growing up, I always thought the Northern white prejudice was, We don‘t want a black person living next door. In fact, a guy who was working, friend of mine, I got to know him—was working for Barack Obama in the campaign. He said when he went around northeast Philly, the biggest fear was not that Carter would—or that Obama would be elected president, but that he was looking for a house, OK?
(LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: It‘s funny only in a gallows humor sense, but it‘s true. Down South, it‘s status, isn‘t it. It‘s about the black guy running the country.
PARKER: Well, I don‘t know. I mean, I‘m going to be...
MATTHEWS: Well, I‘m asking because you just said something like that.
PARKER: I‘m going to be very cautious here because I think it‘s too easy to smear the South and say they‘re—you know, it‘s racist. There are certainly racists still in the South.
MATTHEWS: There are everywhere.
PARKER: There are racists everywhere.
MATTHEWS: Different kinds of prejudice. Is there a particular animosity in the South towards the idea of a black guy being president?
PARKER: You know, I don‘t know. I mean...
MATTHEWS: OK. Well, here‘s what President Carter said about that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARTER: I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he‘s African-American. I live in the South and I‘ve seen the South come a long way. And I‘ve seen the rest of the country, that shared the South‘s attitude toward minority groups at that time, particularly African-Americans—that racism inclination still exists. And I think it‘s bubbled up to the surface because of a belief among many white people, not just in the South but around the country, that African-Americans are not qualified to lead this great country. It‘s an abominable circumstance and grieves me and concerns me very deeply.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEWS: Cynthia, what do you think of that? You‘re from Georgia.
TUCKER: I‘m from Georgia. I grew up in Alabama. Like Kathleen, a Southerner. And I so want to be clear that I certainly don‘t think that that represents all Southerners, and it‘s certainly not true that all racism is in the South.
But I think Jimmy Carter knows the South very well. He‘s 85 years old, and he remembers the South at a time when race relations were much worse, much more poisonous than they are now. But I think he‘s lived in the South long enough to know—and lived in a very small town in the South for much of that time—to know how much racism there has been and how much racism still exists. But he was very careful to say not just in the South but around the country.
MATTHEWS: Yes.
TUCKER: And some of—I wrote my column today about some of the hate mail that a black congressman, David Scott from Atlanta, has gotten around health care reform. And one of the nastiest, most vile notes that he got came from a gentleman in Michigan who used the “N” word in addressing David Scott and proceeded to be explicitly racist in his e-mail.
MATTHEWS: Yes. Yes.
PARKER: You know, it‘s funny. Justice Thomas, Clarence Thomas, told me once—we were having this conversation about race in the South. And he said the first time anybody ever called him the “N” word was in the North. So you know, that‘s just an anecdote, but an interesting one.
MATTHEWS: Yes. Well, fair enough. But let‘s take a look at these exit polls from the last election, last November. This isn‘t 100 years ago. This isn‘t during Jim Crow. This is last November. Ten percent of white voters in Alabama said they voted for Barack Obama -- 10 percent, 1 in 10. Eleven percent of white voters in Mississippi voted for him, about 1 in 10. Louisiana, up to about 14 percent.
Now, the national percentage is about 43 percent of whites voted for Barack Obama. So there is a geographic differential. In all fairness to the region of the South—and I went to Chapel Hill, which is not exactly, well, conservative, North Carolina, University of North Carolina—the—it is generally a conservative part of the country. But it also became a conservative part of the country in terms of racial issues and all—became a Republican part of the country after Civil Rights legislation.
PARKER: Right. Right.
MATTHEWS: Let‘s face it. Johnson picked that and saw it coming.
PARKER: The Democrats, actually.
MATTHEWS: So the idea that Barack Obama gets 10 percent of the white vote in Alabama, 11 percent of the white vote in Mississippi, 14 Louisiana, and the rest of the country, he gets 43 percent, doesn‘t that tell you? And by the way, this birther nonsense, that he wasn‘t born here...
PARKER: Right.
MATTHEWS: ... is a Southern thing. In the North, 93 percent of people say he was born here and know it.
PARKER: Yes. I‘m not going to defend ignorance.
MATTHEWS: So why are Southerners saying he wasn‘t born in America if it‘s not an ethnic thing?
PARKER: I agree with you. I...
MATTHEWS: Why are they saying it?
TUCKER: Well, and that concerns me even more than the very low percentages of votes he got. I mean, how can you possibly believe that Barack Obama was not born in the United States? And so what concerns me about this...
MATTHEWS: So what are they really saying? Translate.
TUCKER: That he‘s not an American, he‘s not qualified to be president, he doesn‘t look like us. The other thing that I...
MATTHEWS: But that‘s absurd! Black people were in America before white people were, almost every case.
TUCKER: Well—and doing some very hard work, might I add.
MATTHEWS: Yes.
TUCKER: But there—there...
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: That is the dumbest thing I‘ve ever heard!
TUCKER: There is the sense that he is an illegitimate president, and race has a lot to do with that. Not everything because we all remember...
PARKER: Well, I think that‘s a cover for race. I really do.
TUCKER: We all remember the wackiness that...
MATTHEWS: OK, let‘s do...
TUCKER: ... (INAUDIBLE) to the Clintons.
MATTHEWS: We‘re going to—we‘re going to talk about this with David Gregory and others later, and Roger Simon, later in our “Fix,” when we go to the political depth of this. But let‘s do it with you two. Politically, this president, who I voted for and was thrilled by his campaign and the fact that we could elect an African-American after all these years—great. But he seems to decide he doesn‘t like this topic. He doesn‘t like the fact we‘re talking like this right now, from everything I‘ve seen. What do you think?
PARKER: Well, it‘s the third rail...
MATTHEWS: He doesn‘t like this conversation.
PARKER: It is the third rail for him. He absolutely cannot talk about race. Look what happened...
MATTHEWS: Does he want us talking about it?
PARKER: Well, I don‘t think it matters. He can‘t stop us from talking about it...
MATTHEWS: Can‘t stop me.
PARKER: ... of course...
MATTHEWS: But doesn‘t it bug him...
PARKER: ... and he can‘t...
MATTHEWS: ... that we‘re talking about it?
PARKER: Well, I think he‘d rather we just talked about health care.
I think he‘d rather not see the racial element rear its head...
MATTHEWS: Because?
PARKER: ... because it gets everybody off track. It‘s inflammatory.
MATTHEWS: It gets (INAUDIBLE) tribalistic.
TUCKER: It‘s in...
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: ... think more white or black. What are you—you‘re demurring here.
PARKER: No, no, no, no. It doesn‘t—I don‘t know what Barack Obama wants us to talk about...
MATTHEWS: But does this conversation...
PARKER: It‘s—it‘s...
MATTHEWS: ... hurt the chance of diversity, of racial—of getting beyond race?
PARKER: I don‘t think there‘s anything wrong with talking about race. I mean, I think that‘s part of the growth process, is to be open and honest and get it all out on the table. But I think we can overemphasize the anecdotal and make it more than it really is.
MATTHEWS: OK...
PARKER: Let‘s go back to January, by the way, when Barack Obama‘s approval rating was 70 percent. Somehow, all those people didn‘t become racists since then.
MATTHEWS: OK, what ripped the scab off?
PARKER: Well, I think—you know, some of the objections to the president‘s policies...
MATTHEWS: Are policy. OK.
PARKER: ... are policy.
MATTHEWS: What‘s this term “the battle”? I heard some gentlemen up at the Lee mansion this week, and they didn‘t know who—they knew...
(CROSSTALK)
PARKER: I think they knew who you were.
MATTHEWS: They may have not known who I was, but they were pretty conservative guys, and they were tough.
TUCKER: The battle?
MATTHEWS: And one of them said he was mad at me for something I said about Michele Bachmann. When I asked if we should investigate the Democrats—that was her call. Look, the idea that it‘s a battle—one of the guys said to the other fellow—he‘s a little older than me, not much older. One of said to the other, Let‘s keep the battle going. Let‘s keep—what is this battle? It‘s like the cause, the Southern white thing, the battle—what is the battle?
PARKER: I mean, were these Southern white guys?
MATTHEWS: All these people that showed up and rallied this weekend against Obama. What‘s this battle?
PARKER: Well, they weren‘t Southern white people.
MATTHEWS: Well, what‘s this battle about?
PARKER: These were—I think the complexion was fairly pale, as the Republican Party is.
MATTHEWS: Well, what‘s the battle about? What‘s the battle about?
PARKER: I don‘t know what they were talking about.
MATTHEWS: What‘s this battle?
TUCKER: It‘s the culture war, Chris.
MATTHEWS: Keep the battle going!
TUCKER: It‘s the culture war all over again, and this time with a racial element. But again...
PARKER: I don‘t agree with that.
TUCKER: ... some of—I think it absolutely is.
PARKER: With all...
TUCKER: Some of these same folks...
MATTHEWS: You don‘t have to say “with all due respect,” by the way, here. We don‘t do that here.
TUCKER: OK. I don‘t agree with you.
(LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: OK, what do you—I‘m sorry. You want to finish your thought?
(CROSSTALK)
TUCKER: Some of these same people were after the Clintons in the ‘90s. Remember all that wacky stuff, that Hillary...
MATTHEWS: Yes, but Clinton was the first black president, remember that?
TUCKER: Well, exactly. I mean, race may have been an element then, but—but...
MATTHEWS: No, but he was pro-black.
TUCKER: ... not as much of an element...
MATTHEWS: I think—I think the reason...
TUCKER: ... as it is now.
MATTHEWS: ... his politics were pro-black. Let‘s face it. That would be one reason why they wouldn‘t like him, too. I mean, it doesn‘t take away the issue.
PARKER: Well, I think...
MATTHEWS: The Civil Rights legislation in the ‘60s killed the Democratic Party in the South.
PARKER: You cannot—you can‘t ignore the fact that Republicans and conservatives are very concerned about this massive growth of government...
MATTHEWS: Fair enough. By the way...
PARKER: ... and that‘s...
MATTHEWS: ... we all—we should all be concerned.
PARKER: That‘s the battle.
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: We should all be concerned about the massive growth of government. And there‘s a lot of Libertarians out there who are as good on race as anybody in this country or world who don‘t like the growth of big government, don‘t like taxes, don‘t like the government telling them what to do.
PARKER: Sure.
MATTHEWS: You know, sometimes, I‘m one of those guys, believe it or not.
PARKER: There you go, you racist.
(LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: You‘re so kind! Thank you. Nice...
(LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: No comment. Cynthia Tucker, Kathleen Parker—I was going to make one of the comments that gets me in trouble!
Coming up: Democratic senator Max Baucus says the time has come for action on the health care bill, but will any Republicans sign on? Will the Democrats get together with this guy with the bill?
You‘re watching HARDBALL, only on MSNBC.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SEN. MAX BAUCUS (D-MT), FINANCE COMM. CHAIRMAN: This is a good bill.
This is a balanced bill. It can pass the Senate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEWS: Welcome back to HARDBALL. That was Senator Max Baucus, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, finally unveiling his $856 billion health care plan today. Here‘s how “The Washington Post” describes the Baucus plan. “‘It would require nearly all Americans to carry health insurance, while barring insurance companies from discriminating against people based on their health status or denying coverage because of preexisting conditions. The plan does not call for a government-run insurance option, but would set up a system of non-profit consumer-owned cooperatives to compete with the private insurers.”
With us now, fresh from the White House, Democratic senator Ron Wyden of Oregon. Senator Wyden, thank you so much for coming, my friend.
SEN. RON WYDEN (D), OREGON: Thank you, Chris.
MATTHEWS: You were just with President Obama. You know what we don‘t know. Where‘s this stand, your position on the bill from Baucus, what the president says, how he‘s going to fix it to meet your needs?
WYDEN: Chris, I always have a rule that I‘ll talk about what I said to a president, but I won‘t get into kind of private comments the president makes back. I and Senator Bennett both made the case for bipartisanship. We think there‘s a natural opportunity. At this point in the United States, Democrats are right that you cannot fix this unless you cover everybody. You‘ve got to have good quality, affordable coverage for everybody or else the uninsured shift their bills to the insured.
But Republicans have some valid points, as well. There ought to be choices. There ought to be markets. You ought to stay away from price controls. And we talked about bipartisanship and bringing Democrats and Republicans together, building from the center of the political spectrum out. And then, of course, we did a little bit of discussion about the Senate Finance Committee next week.
MATTHEWS: Well, let‘s talk about this in a way we haven‘t done it yet. Suppose a person‘s making about $30,000 a year gross income. And they‘re not rich and they‘re providing for a family, but they don‘t have insurance where they work. How will this help them? The bill that comes out from Baucus, where you‘d like to go, where you think the president might go. How are we going to deal with that challenge, the uninsured family making $30,000 or $50,000 a year, somewhere in that range, the reality of American life?
WYDEN: Chris, remember, the bill just came out this morning. And I have this kind of quaint, outdated theory I‘m going to actually read the bill before I get into the specifics. That group of individuals, people who are making about $30,000, if they‘re a family, they‘re going to get a pretty solid subsidy under most of the ideas that Democrats and Republicans are talking about.
The group that I‘m most worried about is a family of four who might be making, say, $66,000. Now, in the earlier drafts, we were told that those folks could be spending up to 13 percent of their income on health care. Then they would have an $8,500 premium, co-payments, deductibles, these kinds of things. They would find a pretty hefty increase, and given these tough economic times, they‘d have real trouble.
Now, the earlier drafts talked about an exemption for those folks, but they don‘t want to be exempt, they want insurance. They want to be able to protect their family.
MATTHEWS: Right.
WYDEN: So, I think the folks that you are talking at $30,000, under most of these bills, will get a pretty generous subsidy. But I‘m very concerned that we are going to see sticker shock among middle-class folks.
MATTHEWS: Right.
WYDEN: They are hurting right—right now. And they are going to need some more relief.
MATTHEWS: Well, who would pay those subsidies for the people who make more? As you say—going with your arithmetic, say a family makes about $60,000 or $70,000. By your arithmetic, 13 percent of that is about $10,000 they would have to pay out. By law, they would have to pay it. They would be required to pay it for insurance.
If they can‘t pay it, who will pay it?
WYDEN: Well...
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: You say someone else should pay it.
WYDEN: At—at stories—at this point, of course, the administration is talking about supporting a bill that would either give those people a big penalty or perhaps an exemption of some sort.
I don‘t think middle-class folks are going to consider that financial security. I would rather have more cost containment. And the way you get real cost containment, what the Budget Office has scored, is by holding insurance companies accountable.
And the way you hold insurance companies accountable is by giving people real choice. In other words, you say, if you don‘t like the policy you have got today, you can go get something else, sort of like members of Congress have.
But the problem with the bills thus far, including what the Finance Committee put out today, is, under that legislation, more than 200 million people wouldn‘t be given a choice, wouldn‘t be given the opportunity to hold the insurance companies accountable. I want them to have that choice. I think it will help us hold down premiums, hold down exposure for taxpayers.
That is what I‘m going to focus on in the Finance Committee.
MATTHEWS: Do you and Senator Bennett of Utah still want to finance this largely by taxing the Cadillac insurance plans?
WYDEN: I certainly think that, if you are talking about folks at Goldman Sachs, who are making $40,000 a year in terms of health benefits, you know, tax-free, that is not—not right. I want them and everybody else to be able to get a generous break on—on their health care, but, certainly, they should not get $40,000, you know, tax-free.
A portion of that ought to be used to try to give a bit of extra relief to the kind of hardworking middle-class folks you and I are talking about.
MATTHEWS: OK. Let‘s talk about the politics of this. You have been in the House. You have been in the Senate. I have known you a long time. You know the Hill.
After all the argument back and forth and the twisting back and forth, will we get 60 votes in the U.S. Senate for a health care bill?
WYDEN: I—I certainly feel that the president‘s timetable of staying at this until it is done right by the end of the year is the right way to go.
I think it is very important for the country to make this a bipartisan effort. If this is essentially all Democrats and perhaps one—one Republican, I don‘t think you have the national kind of consensus you need when you are dealing with one-seventh of the American economy.
One of the points I made to the president today is that I think you ought to be building from the center out. That is what Senator Bennett and I did, saying the Democrats were right on coverage expansion. Republicans had some good points in terms of the markets and the private sector.
MATTHEWS: Yes.
WYDEN: Once you build from the Senate out—the center out, I believe you are on your way to perhaps 68 votes in the United States Senate.
MATTHEWS: Do you believe that there is a good chance that the president will take your approach?
WYDEN: My hope at this point is that it will be possible to export some of the key market-oriented principles from our effort into the Finance Committee legislation.
I would like to see us take some of our principles, like making sure everybody has choices like members of Congress, and include that in the Finance bill.
One of the points I mentioned to the president today is, he always gets tremendous applause at a rally, like he did in Minneapolis on Saturday, when he says that all Americans should get the same deal that members of Congress get.
MATTHEWS: OK.
WYDEN: Unfortunately, in the text of this legislation, 200 million Americans are barred from getting the very pledge the president made to them.
MATTHEWS: OK.
Thank you, Congressman—I mean, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon.
Thank you, sir, for joining us...
WYDEN: Thank you, Chris.
MATTHEWS: ... back from the White House just today.
Up next: the elephant in the room, the story the White House would prefer we would ignore. That‘s about race. That kept coming up today in that meeting today with the presidential press secretary, Robert Gibbs, so many questions—we will get to how many—on the question of race all being thrown at the White House. They don‘t like these questions. There‘s not really any answers right now.
We will have that story for you when we come back with the “Sideshow,” only on MSNBC.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MATTHEWS: Back to HARDBALL.
And now time for the “Sideshow.”
First up: Watch your tongue.
For obvious reasons, the Rules Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives has just handed out a can-do and a can‘t-do list for behavior on the House floor.
Here is the official guidance on the insults members have been permitted in the past. You can call a presidential message a disgrace to the country. You can say the government is something hated, something oppressive. And you can call the State Department folks half-baked nitwits. Yes, you can.
Here‘s what has been forbidden so far and is the guidance. You can‘t call the president a liar or a hypocrite. You can‘t call the president‘s veto of a bill cowardly. And you can‘t refer to the—I love this one—the sexual misconduct on the president‘s part. I guess we know where that precedent came from.
Anyway, next up—and speaking of that—taking sides. Bill Clinton has just endorsed San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom over Attorney General Jerry Brown in the California governor‘s race. There‘s a backstory here. Jerry Brown ran against Bill Clinton, of course, for the Democratic presidential nomination way back in 1992.
In a big debate that year, Brown did the unpardonable. He brought up allegations then in the press of conflict of interests between Bill Clinton as governor of Arkansas and his wife Hillary‘s law firm, the famous—or infamous—Rose Law firm.
Here is a piece of that debate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, 1992)
JERRY BROWN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He is funneling money to his wife‘s law firm for state business. That is number one.
Number two, his wife‘s law firm is representing clients before the state of Arkansas agencies, his appointees.
BILL CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I feel sorry for Jerry Brown. I served with him as governor in the late ‘70s. He asked me to support him for president once.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you?
CLINTON: Of course not.
You know, he reinvents himself every year or two.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that true, or isn‘t it?
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: It‘s in “The Washington Post” this morning.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it true or isn‘t it true, Governor Clinton?
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: Bill, you‘re always trying to attack.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Brown, Mr. Brown...
BROWN: You never answer the question.
CLINTON: Let me tell you something, Jerry. I don‘t care what you say about me, but you ought to be ashamed of yourself for jumping on my wife. You‘re not worth being on the same platform as my wife.
BROWN: I‘ll tell you something, Mr. Clinton. Don‘t try to escape it.
CLINTON: Now, wait a minute.
(CROSSTALK)
CLINTON: Jerry comes here with his family weather and his $1,500 suit and makes a lying accusation about my wife.
I never—I never...
BROWN: It‘s in “The Washington Post.”
CLINTON: That doesn‘t make it true.
BROWN: Are you saying they lied?
CLINTON: I‘m saying that I never funneled any money to my wife‘s law firm, never.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: So, what is with the grudge? That was 17 freaking years ago. Are these guys Irish?
And for tonight‘s “Big Number.”
It‘s the elephant in the room, and the White House can‘t get away from it. How many questions on race did Press Secretary Robert Gibbs field during today‘s briefing? Well, according to follow-ups, including the questions themselves, 18 times, he had to respond to questions. President Carter has thrown open the floodgates. Eighteen race-related questions at today‘s White House briefing, that is tonight‘s “Big Number.”
Up next: A former speechwriter for George W. Bush reveals what Bush said about Sarah Palin and what a disaster she would be for the Republican Party—more revelations from that tell-all book coming up when we come back from commercial.
You are watching HARDBALL, only on MSNBC.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCOTT COHN, CNBC CORRESPONDENT: I‘m Scott Cohn with your CNBC “Market Wrap.”
Stocks rallied again today, hitting fresh highs for the year on another big day for the industrials. the Dow Jones shot up 108 points, the S&P 500 up 16 points. The Nasdaq added more than 30 points.
The Fed said industrial production rose more than expected in August. That is the second straight months of gains. And with July‘s data being revised upward, it shows that there is some solid growth in the industrial sector.
The consumer price index, the prime gauge of inflation, climbed a paltry 0.4 percent last month. Gas prices did climb sharply, but the overall threat of inflation apparently remains low.
And shares in software giant Oracle are moving lower in after-hours trading. On an earnings report that came out just after the closing bell, Oracle reported earnings in line with estimates, but sales fell short of forecasts.
That‘s it from CNBC, first in business worldwide—now back to
HARDBALL.
MATTHEWS: Welcome back to HARDBALL.
Well, another former Bush staffer, White House staffer for President George W. Bush, has a book coming out next week. And we have got some excerpts from “GQ” magazine. They‘re pretty amazing.
Joining me right now to talk about is Pat Buchanan—of course, he‘s an MSNBC analyst—and former adviser to Vice President Al Gore Mike Feldman.
Both gentlemen—you are going to enjoy this, because both these fellows guys have been on the inside, Pat forever.
(LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: But let‘s catch this. This is an excerpt from—about
President Bush‘s—President George W. Bush‘s reaction about the idea of
Sarah Palin being tapped as John McCain‘s vice presidential running mate—
quote—“‘I‘m trying to remember if I have ever met her before. I‘m sure
I must have.‘ His eyes twinkled. Then he asked, ‘What is she, the
governor of Guam?‘”
The excerpt continues—quote—“‘This woman is being put into a position she is not even remotely prepared for. She hasn‘t spent one day on the national level. Neither has her family. Let‘s wait and see how he looks five days out.”
Pat Buchanan, very, very—what is the right word?
(CROSSTALK)
PAT BUCHANAN, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: You know, it is very insightful, quite frankly.
MATTHEWS: Yes.
BUCHANAN: It‘s astute. It‘s politically astute.
She was a sensation, no doubt. And all the White House apparently was excited.
MATTHEWS: But he obviously—he obviously remembered her being as being an attractive lady and the whole thing. He remembered. His glinted, or whatever the hell...
BUCHANAN: But he said, where is she from, Guam? He knew exactly where she was from.
(LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: Mike Feldman, I think the president has a little—I think this is helping Bush‘s image here.
Go ahead.
MIKE FELDMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Look, he had the exact same reaction that I had when I heard that she had been picked, so I actually relate to...
(CROSSTALK)
BUCHANAN: Right.
MATTHEWS: What, she was good-looking, but lightweight?
FELDMAN: Actually, I didn‘t know what she looked like. I had never heard of her.
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: Oh, OK. Well, he apparently liked her looks.
Let‘s go to this funny one. This is a little rougher, to say the least. This is an excerpt from President—former President Bush about Hillary Clinton, the now secretary of state.
“He always believed Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic nominee.” This is the writer talking about the president. He was a speechwriter, and he thought that President Bush thought that his successor would be Senator Clinton.
Quote—this is his quote, Bush‘s, according to this writer—“‘Wait until her fat”—well, rear end, I guess—“‘is sitting at this desk,‘ he once said,” except he didn‘t say that word.
(LAUGHTER)
BUCHANAN: That—that is—Chris, that is locker room at the country club.
MATTHEWS: Yes.
BUCHANAN: That is exactly what that is.
And it is disparaging of her and stuff like that. But I don‘t take it that badly, quite frankly. That is boy talk, I think.
MATTHEWS: So, Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton wouldn‘t mind hearing this?
BUCHANAN: Well...
(LAUGHTER)
BUCHANAN: Bill Clinton...
(LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: I mean, I think—what do you think of this, Mike Feldman?
FELDMAN: I fail to find the historical relevance of that comment.
(LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: OK.
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: OK. You are so P.C.
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: Let‘s go to this third one here.
This is definitely aimed at the Democrats again. This is a very funny line, I think. And I hope Joe enjoys this, the vice president.
(LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: This is about Joe Biden, our vice president.
The author writes—quote—here—here—how—here is how he
describes the president. “He paused for a minute. I could see him
thinking maybe he shouldn‘t say it, but he couldn‘t resist it. ‘If B.S.” -
bull—you know what the word is—“‘was currency,‘ he said straight-faced, ‘Joe Biden would be a billionaire.‘”
(LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: A billionaire.
(CROSSTALK)
BUCHANAN: He said, we all laughed and laughed, or burst out laughing.
It is very, very funny, because, quite frankly, it has a touch of truth to it, Chris.
(CROSSTALK)
(LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: Right. I know. It is so funny.
FELDMAN: There would be a lot of wealthy people in Washington. Let‘s just say that.
(LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: OK. You won‘t give him anything.
(CROSSTALK)
(LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: OK. Let‘s go to this last here. This is—no, there is one more. This is the one about—about a McCain event, where the—where McCain is having a hard time scratching together up enough people.
This excerpt is Bush when he learns the McCain campaign has agreed to appear at an event, but he can‘t get people—quote—“‘He can‘t get 500 people to show up for an event in his hometown?‘ No one said anything.
And then we went to another topic. But the president couldn‘t let the
matter drop—quote -- ‘He couldn‘t get 500 people? I could get that many
people to turn up in Crawford.‘ He shook his head. This is a five-spiral
crash, boys.‘”
BUCHANAN: Boys.
(LAUGHTER)
BUCHANAN: That, to me, is a great metaphor. Here‘s a guy who was a fighter pilot. I know it‘s F-102, National Guard. But a five-spiral crash?
MATTHEWS: Which means the plane is going down five times and...
(CROSSTALK)
BUCHANAN: The plane is going down. It will spiral around five times before it hits.
MATTHEWS: That is where the campaign is going to be, because this guy can‘t get squat to show up in his home town.
(LAUGHTER)
BUCHANAN: I thought it was a terrific line.
FELDMAN: It‘s an astute political observation.
(LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: OK. Let‘s take it home.
(LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: Let me go...
BUCHANAN: Who brought this guy, Chris?
(LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: Let‘s go to the next one here. This is about—is on the president who succeeded him.
BUCHANAN: Right.
MATTHEWS: Here‘s an excerpt again from the speechwriter about President Bush on President Obama.
“‘This is a dangerous world,‘ he said for no apparent reason. ‘And
this cat isn‘t remotely qualified to handle it. This guy has no clue, I
promise you.‘ He wound himself up even more.” This is the president
winding himself more. “‘You think I wasn‘t qualified?‘ he said to no one
in particular. ‘I was qualified.‘”
(LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: From a speech—anyway.
BUCHANAN: This is—what‘s that guy Stone made that movie “W.”?
MATTHEWS: Yes.
BUCHANAN: This is—this is it. The guy looks like he wrote—that is the George Bush in “W.”
MATTHEWS: “You think I wasn‘t qualified? I was qualified.”
(CROSSTALK)
BUCHANAN: I find him a fairly attractive—I mean, Bush a fairly attractive character from this, very candid, honest.
MATTHEWS: But this is the Bush that I liked before the presidency.
BUCHANAN: He is a likable guy.
MATTHEWS: No, this is what we met in the campaign. This is the trouble. We picked a guy that we thought we might like to hang out with.
Pat, that is exactly the expression you‘ve got on your face.
BUCHANAN: Right. Right.
MATTHEWS: You wouldn‘t mind being the next locker over.
BUCHANAN: He‘s a likable guy.
MATTHEWS: But we picked the guy as president of the United States.
BUCHANAN: But what I liked was...
MATTHEWS: And he let Cheney call the shots.
BUCHANAN: But here‘s what he did.
MATTHEWS: Again, this is our problem.
BUCHANAN: In that huge economic disaster, he said, “Why did you guys let me come out for the proposal if I—we don‘t understand it?”
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: This is why—this is why women don‘t look up to male political...
(CROSSTALK)
(LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: ... because you are sitting here saying, forget the guy, whatever else. He is a regular guy. Therefore, anything goes. He takes shots at Hillary Clinton‘s physique. He takes shots at Biden‘s brains. He takes shots at everybody.
(LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: But you are just chuckling here.
FELDMAN: Look, I...
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: You are going to buy this book, aren‘t you?
(LAUGHTER)
FELDMAN: I think it‘s entertaining.
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: I‘m not selling it, by the way. I‘m not telling anybody the name of the book here.
BUCHANAN: It is a good read. You‘ve got to—is it not a good read?
MATTHEWS: These parts are good.
FELDMAN: It is entertaining.
I think it is—I think it‘s actually destructive, OK? This guy wouldn‘t have a career, he wouldn‘t have a job...
BUCHANAN: Yes.
FELDMAN: ... if it wasn‘t for political patronage.
MATTHEWS: OK. Now we have got—let‘s—let‘s get sober here.
(CROSS TALK)
BUCHANAN: The guy is a snake. He‘s telling stories out of his—
MATTHEWS: Here is the great conundrum. We like these stories. We don‘t like people telling him. Explain it. He rats out his boss. We love the jokes because they‘re funny.
BUCHANAN: You and I were just talking off camera. You and I know the LBJ story. We know them all. And they are very funny. I would think terribly if a Joe Califano (ph) or somebody had done that stuff. I think you‘re right. You ought to think badly of this guy.
MATTHEWS: How do we deal with this? How do we get these stories without getting them from rats?
FELDMAN: All of us—the problem is—yes, these stories don‘t have much historical—redeeming historical value.
MATTHEWS: I have to disagree with you. I disagree with you.
(CROSS TALK)
BUCHANAN: Totally clueless.
FELDMAN: Here is a guy who owes his job to George W. Bush. All of us have had the privilege of serving at the pleasure of a president. If presidents get to the point where they can‘t speak candidly in front of their staff—
(CROSS TALK)
MATTHEWS: -- former White House speech writers, a bipartisan group. It‘s always a great bit of fun. Especially it was more fun in the old days, when everybody drank. It is still fun. Ted Sorenson got into a big fight with Arthur Schlesinger at that meeting. Remember? Somebody‘s house.
Arthur Schlesinger said, you should always tell stories about the boss, because that is how we get history. He went over and Raymond Molley (ph), back with the second New Deal and all this stuff. He said, you got to get stories that way. Ted Sorensen says you never rat out the boss.
BUCHANAN: You do have to get—quite frankly, I think you do have to write history. You‘ve got—I would write a memoir. Tell stories about Nixon and how he felt, things like that. But it‘s these personal—all of us know personal things, that are family things, that you know, that you just don‘t tell.
MATTHEWS: I‘m with you on that. I wouldn‘t do it. What would you do?
FELDMAN: I wouldn‘t. I worked in a White House.
MATTHEWS: Are there any Al Gore stories you want to share with us?
FELDMAN: During the next commercial break. By the way, I happen to think—and the stories that I would share about the former vice president would reflect well on him.
MATTHEWS: You know the joke about Al Gore? He was so boring that his Secret Service code name was Al Gore. Thank you, Pat Buchanan. Thank you, Michael Feldman.
Up next, the politics fix. The public wants the United States to get out of Afghanistan, according to all the polls. Here‘s the dilemma facing the president: the military wants to increase the number of military there; he is getting told by the public to get out. Hot story here.
We got David Gregory of “Meet the Press” joining us in just a minute.
This is HARDBALL, only on MSNBC.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADM. MIKE MULLEN, CHAIRMAN, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: Properly resourced counter-insurgency probably means more forces. And without question, more time and more commitment to the protection of the Afghan people and to the development of good government.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEWS: We‘re back. That was Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joints Chief of Staff, testifying about Afghanistan yesterday. Those comments, by the way, are the big headline on today‘s “Washington Post.” Will President Obama send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan?
Time for the politics fix, and it‘s dead serious tonight, with David Gregory, moderator of NBC‘s “Meet the Press,” and the “Politico‘s” chief columnist, Roger Simon.
This country went to war in Afghanistan in 2001, after the bombings of 9/11. We are at war still, longest war in history probably now. Is this a call for an escalation by the admiral?
DAVID GREGORY, MODERATOR, “MEET THE PRESS”: I don‘t think there is any question that it is. The admiral has been clear. Military leaders have been clear. There‘s got to be parody between the mission and the resources. If they are going to do a counter-insurgency, if they‘re going to do a nation building effort in Afghanistan, the U.S. needs more troops, and they are going to be there for a while.
The president has an important choice to make.
MATTHEWS: Roger, that choice is politically packed, but it is real. It‘s not a public relations issue. It‘s not about campaigning or getting votes. It is about whether this country stays at war at full strength or whether we begin to pull back out of that war.
ROGER SIMON, “POLITICO”: It is real. And we have gone not from a mission creep in Afghanistan to a mission gallop. You heard the admiral say that one of the goals there now is to improve life in Afghanistan. We could be there 100 years.
The mission used to be, is what we are doing in Afghanistan making America safer? Are we destroying the people who attacked us on 911? Have we at least pushed them into the mountains in Pakistan? Have we destroyed their ability to launch an attack here?
Now the goal is create a democracy, prop it up, build better roads, change the agriculture policy, equal rights for women. All good stuff, but that was no longer the original mission.
MATTHEWS: Why don‘t we do that in Youngstown, Ohio, while we‘re at it? We have places in this country that could use—not the women‘s thing. There are places in this country that needs money and economic development.
Let‘s look at the “Washington Post” poll. It‘s a new one out. It found that 51 percent, narrowly, thinks the war is not worth fighting. So it‘s begun to—talk about creeping here. What has crept up is the fact that people don‘t like this war. A quarter of the country now thinks we should send more troops. Roger, that‘s the question. If the president goes totally against the base now, and certainly the left, if you will—you can use that term here—that don‘t like this war, he is really challenging the people who voted for him.
SIMON: He is. Don‘t forget, his opposition to the Iraq war was his main point against his chief rival, Hillary Clinton. He was in that sense a peace candidate.
MATTHEWS: But he covered himself by supporting, David, the Afghanistan war. Was that a ploy or is that true belief?
GREGORY: I‘m sure it was true belief. I think that the left in general had a position, which was Iraq was the wrong war, Afghanistan was the right war.
MATTHEWS: Because?
GREGORY: Because they‘re the ones who hit us. Al Qaeda hit us, Sheltered by the Taliban. We ought to resource properly what we do in Afghanistan. Well, here he is as president biting off a huge task of counter-insurgency and nation building. We don‘t have a strong central government that isn‘t corrupt. We have a corrupt government in Afghanistan. It makes it longer—
MATTHEWS: This is the part of politics I don‘t like in war. The presidents is like Nixon—I really hold this against Nixon, not all the other stuff, the bad, dirty tricks. I‘ve heard about that in politics. Maybe it was the worst. But keeping us in a war that was pretty clear we were going to lose by after ‘68, that we were definitely just in a holding action; 30,000 some guys killed because we were in a holding action, without a mission of victory of any kind.
Roger, is there a mission that‘s realizable here, in a reasonable amount of time, with a reasonable amount of loss of life, or not? If there isn‘t, why are we there? Is there a reasonable mission there?
SIMON: I don‘t know the answer to that. I fear there may not be. I don‘t know what a reasonable loss of life is. The cruelest irony or dilemma, if you will, is having destroyed, apparently, al Qaeda‘s ability to attack us in the United States. We are sending them targets to kill. We have lost more people in Afghanistan and Iraq, more Americans, than we lost in 9/11.
MATTHEWS: What to you make of the fact it‘s a stand-up war now? It‘s like North Vietnam, where the actual forces, the organized regular army began to face us. We‘re having fire fights over there, as you know, David, that are real wars, like in the movies.
GREGORY: And the Taliban is resurgent. These are the people that we ran—they can run into Pakistan. Look, this the politics fix. But this goes beyond the politics to actual policy. General Petraeus, who is the head of Cent-Com, does believe that certain tactics that we used associated with the surge in Iraq can be applied to Afghanistan. We have to be—
MATTHEWS: The mission there was to allow those people in Afghanistan
in Iraq to get their political act together. Does anyone believe that Afghanistan will get its political act together, so we can leave, like we‘re leaving Iraq?
GREGORY: President Bush expressed to people he thought Afghanistan would be tougher to get its act together than Iraq.
MATTHEWS: That is the problem. The question is, will they ever become the kind of country that we‘re satisfied we can leave as stable?
Anyway, we‘ll be right back to talk about the lighter topic of race and why it‘s raised its ugly head, with Roger Simon and David Gregory. Back with the fix. You‘re watching it, HARDBALL.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MATTHEWS: We‘re back with David Gregory and Roger Simon. David, you first, I know where you stand, because I heard it in your column today. You think the White House, inside—you‘re talking to the big guys in there. Are they saying they want this subject over with?
GREGORY: Absolutely. Absolutely. The president does not want to take on Congressman Wilson and his attitude about government, about him, about race. He doesn‘t want to have that conversation. The president has been very clear publicly, he thinks these kinds of matters become a circus.
He watched the circus this summer. It didn‘t go well for him.
MATTHEWS: It was his bad day.
GREGORY: It was also that, but it was also just a lot of what played out in the town halls. The president thought it was a circus. He‘s got a limited time now to focus people‘s minds on what he wants them to talk about.
MATTHEWS: So craziness hurts him?
GREGORY: Absolutely.
MATTHEWS: The racial piece, you think, what, what‘s that do to him?
He‘s always been able to avoid it.
SIMON: It‘s terrible. Jimmy Carter is describing a world that for two and half years Barack Obama and his staff have said does not exist in America. We exist in a country where race really doesn‘t divide us, where it‘s not that important, where we can overlook it.
MATTHEWS: Where‘s that world? Where is that country?
SIMON: We thought it was America. We elected the first African-American president.
GREGORY: How early was it in the campaign when we were having a conversation about than an African-American really be elected president? Can he get the nomination? Can he really win in the general? Now he‘s president. He got elected. He crossed that barrier. Now it‘s, can he really be accepted?
These are not questions the White House wants to be focused on right now.
MATTHEWS: I know, because we have about 43 percent of the country, white people voted for him.
SIMON: That‘s right. He lost the white vote by 12 percentage points, a landslide. It‘s not like everyone in America voted for this guy. That doesn‘t mean, if you voted for him, you weren‘t against him because of race. Now you have Jimmy Carter, who seems determined never to be accused of malaise, making the over the top statements and saying they‘re an overwhelming portion of those who are intensely demonstrated against Barack Obama, are racist, an overwhelming portion.
I don‘t think it‘s an overwhelming portion. I think it‘s some of them. I don‘t see how he quantifies that, and says now --
MATTHEWS: Let me put to you. When Daily Kos polled people about this birther thing, is he one of us, is he an American? The regional breakdown was frighteningly dramatic. Most southerners either thought he was from some other country, or planet for all I know, but they didn‘t think he was from here. That was a geographical analysis.
So why do most southerners have a problem believing he was born here, if it isn‘t race? If it isn‘t race, why?
SIMON: I think some of it is race. But, you know, let me just examine this in the terms of Joe Wilson. When Sarah Palin talked about death panels, no one said she was a racist. When a guy shows up—guys show up to speeches of Barack Obama in New Hampshire and Arizona carrying guns, no one said they were racist. When a white guy from South Carolina says you lie—
MATTHEWS: I think it all—does the White House have a plan for changing the subject yet? Is there any way they can get off this?
GREGORY: The president is going to be giving a round of interviews.
MATTHEWS: One of them is going to be—do you have a question ready? Can you share with us a question? Do you like this race issue? I guess that‘s a good question. Is this good for America?
GREGORY: I don‘t think the president thinks it‘s good for America at all. I also think this is part of something larger than race. This question of whether a lot of Americans think the president is legitimate, whether they think government is out of control. I think a lot of that is being fused together now.
SIMON: Barack Obama said it was a convergence of three things: the worst recession since the Great Depression, a legitimate difference on the size and scope of government, and a 24/7 media culture that emphasizes the shrillest voices.
MATTHEWS: Part of that 24/7 is this second, and you‘re on. Thank you, David Gregory. Thank you, Roger Simon. “Meet the Press” this Sunday, the president will be on. Join us again tomorrow night at 5:00 and 7:00 Eastern for more HARDBALL.
Right now it‘s time for “THE ED SHOW” with Ed Schultz.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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