Posted on 01/31/2008 5:16:24 PM PST by Always Right
Talk show host Michael Reagan invited John McCain to call into Reagan's radio show on Tuesday, February 29. McCain obliged, and what follows is a transcript of their brief and tense conversation, aired nationally on more than 220 radio stations. This transcript was provided by the Bush for President Campaign.
Michael Reagan: This is an interview I tried to do earlier today with John McCain... It would be choosing the judges if John McCain becomes President of the United States, and will they be liberal judges, or will they be conservative judges? That's an issue many people would like to get an answer to. Is Warren Rudman going to be the Attorney General? That would be a good question to ask. Why don't we go now, Sen. John McCain. Senator, how are you?
John McCain: How are you?
Michael Reagan: I am just fine, thank you very much. Where are you, are you in Fresno?
John McCain: I'm on the bus, I'm on the way to Bakersfield, I'm headed through a lot of very beautiful fruit tree areas. It's very pretty here in the valley.
Michael Reagan: Question I want to ask you, first of all, have you decided now to get into the debate that's going to be taking place on Thursday night?
John McCain: We're having the debate, will be done by satellite from, we'll have to stop on our trip back to New York and we had to cancel some, some ah of our New York schedule, but we'll be there by satellite.
Michael Reagan: All right, let me ask you this, because I think it's an issue, just isn't being played out within the campaign, there's so many other things that are being talked about, but as President of the United States, one of the legacies you would leave would be the judges that you would appoint as President of the United States of America and there's some great concern if Warren Rudman, who is your overall campaign chair, would be in such a position in a McCain administration to appoint judges like Judge Souter to the bench as was done during the Bush administration back in the 1980s.
John McCain: Ah, Warren Rudman did not appoint Judge Souter, President Bush did, remember he was the president.
Michael Reagan: Yes, but ...
John McCain: Second of all, Warren Rudman is a fine, decent man who served his country in the Korean War, Attorney General of his state, and a Senator who was highly respected. It was, it was President Bush that appointed Justice Souter.
Michael Reagan: Right, but Warren Rudman...
John McCain: Warren Rudman is 70...let me finish, please, could I finish? Ah, ah, Warren Rudman is 70 years old, he's been, he had a serious illness. He's not interested in playing any active role in a McCain administration and I resent enormously phone calls that were made by Pat Robertson saying that he was a vicious bigot. I think that one might be...
Michael Reagan: Senator, Senator, Senator, Senator, Senator...
John McCain (talking over Reagan): ...well worth talking about as well...
Michael Reagan: Senator!
John McCain: I'm not...
Michael Reagan: Senator!
John McCain: I asked you, Michael, if I could finish, can I finish?
Michael Reagan: But you did finish... [McCain interrupts]
John McCain: Can I Finish? Can I finish? Yes or no?
Michael Reagan: What else do you have to say?
John McCain: Can I finish or not, I mean otherwise...
Michael Reagan: Go ahead.
John McCain: Okay. I don't appreciate having him being called a vicious bigot by Pat Robertson in personal phone calls to hundreds of thousands of Americans. He is a fine and decent man and he will play an advisory role to me because he is a fine and decent man who enjoyed a sterling reputation as United States Senator and Attorney General of the state of New Hampshire.
Michael Reagan: So...
John McCain: Now I'm finished.
Michael Reagan: Very good. And what I was trying to get to is the fact that, yes, Warren Rudman did not appoint him, Warren Rudman's the man who sold [him] to John Sununu, who sold him to President Bush at the time, and what...
John McCain (interrupting): In other words...
Michael Reagan: I want to find out.
John McCain: In other words, in other words, in other words, President Bush and John Sununu did not have any minds of their own. That's, I don't think that's the way it happened.
Michael Reagan: That's, Senator, let me ask you this. There are, there are...
John McCain (interrupting): I don't believe that's how it happened.
Michael Reagan: Well...
John McCain: John Sununu knew Souter just as well as Warren Rudman did, they're both from New Hampshire.
Michael Reagan (talking over McCain): The question is, the question is, what kind of judges would you appoint to the bench? Would they be Souter-like? Would they be judges in the make of a Bork, a Thomas? What kind of judges could we see from a President McCain?
John McCain: My record is very clear as to who I have supported and my record is very clear in public statements that Justice Scalia is a Justice that I admire very much. I also happen to admire Justice Rehnquist, Chief Justice Rehnquist, who is from the state of Arizona. And, ah, but Scalia I admire an enormous amount as well as others. My record as a conservative is very clear, my record on supporting people who adhere to the Constitution is very clear, and my record as a - 18-year record - of conservative positions both physically and others is also very clear.
Michael Reagan: All right. Next question, education. Big issue. I mean, compared to other industrial nations, we here in America, the children routinely test near the bottom. So what about your plan for a better-educated child here in America? What is the McCain plan?
John McCain: Choice, ah, by the way, before we go into that, ah, are you - it doesn't disturb you that Pat Robertson would call up people and say that, that ah, Warren Rudman is a vicious bigot? I'd like you to talk about that a little bit.
Michael Reagan: No, Senator. No, Senator. No, Senator, because let me tell you, I think that gets off...
John McCain (interrupting): No, let me tell you, let me tell you, when the man's name is maligned and his reputation is maligned then it ought to be talked about, okay? (inaudible)
Michael Reagan: Senator McCain, goodbye. (PAUSE) There you go, all he wants to talk about is Pat Robertson and bigotry. He doesn't want to talk about education. Didn't matter what question you asked him, he wanted, everything was an attack. Man does not have the temperament to be President of the United States. As somebody said, another hour of the show, said to me, you know, I know Ronald Reagan, Ronald Reagan's a friend of mine, etc., You ain't no Ronald Reagan. You ain't no Ronald Reagan. In your dreams, Senator McCain. In your dreams. Only in your dreams. Let's go to the phones, Mike, you're up.
Wow. Captain Queeg is a friggin’ kook. This man must be stopped. How can any Republican be supporting him?
Anybody got an audio or you tube link?
I couldn’t find the audio of it.
He’s a loose cannon. Scary!
This is the guy that would be able to launch the missiles, bombers and cruise missiles. Scared yet?
He is a bumbling political idiot and doesn't deserve to gain any positions of power, especially in republican circles.
McCain has always hated religious people. McCain has used his war record to cover himself and make it possible to get his way because anyone who disagrees with him is not patriotic.
McCain a nasty, vicious little man.
Oh come on Michael Reagan had to hang up on him? Was that necessary?
I love John McCain. He was pretty nasty and vicious when he was being beaten and tortured at the Hanoi Hilton. Anyway, it does’t matter what Michael Reagan says. Nancy Reagan endorsed him today.
John McCain has always had a temper and is a kook. He’ll lose that temper again...unless he is taking something to keep it under wraps!
Now all we have is hate McCain and I guess support Romney when the few conservatives who ran are finished.
Nancy is a very old woman. Her endorsement means nothing to anyone. She was always more liberal than her husband.
Michael is younger and I think more reflective of Ronald Reagan.
McCain is a nasty A hole, who will never get my vote no matter what stuffed shirt establishment fool trys to shove that little turd down my throat.
If you hven’t noticed, McCain has yet to get more than 36% of the vote in any primary. That means 2/3 of Republicans do NOT want him to be our nominee! We need to get Huckabee out of the race NOW.
I heard the original call. McCain basically had no interest in answering questions or having a discussion. He was rude to the extreme. The transcript makes it seem even less obnoxious than it was.
Yeah, the transcript does not completely capture just how rude and vile McCain was.
I thought conservatives would have learned a lesson since '06 but it appears this moderate wave is going to carry over for this election.
Independents are the ones electing McPita. And conservatives are going to have to sit out because they didn't prepare for the primary when they should have. People are looking at this election from a WOT perspective. Who has a war record? McPita is the only viable canidate to the moderates and independents and they are coming out in droves.
Conservatives have really lost big time because we acted stupidly, when we should have been standing as bold and decisive leaders. Conservatives have to get over this fear in of the DBM. They are going to be against conservatives no matter what we do, so we might as well go for it. Why we didn't govern conservatively when we had the best chance in 1996 we've EVER had, is a travesty!
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