GILLESPIE SETS THE RECORD STRAIGHTChairman Ed Gillespie on
CBS' "Face The Nation"
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Posted on 07/18/2004 3:48:44 PM PDT by RWR8189
GILLESPIE SETS THE RECORD STRAIGHT
Chairman Ed Gillespie on
CBS' "Face The Nation"
________________________________________________
CBS' BOB SCHIEFFER: And both of our combatants are in the studio with us this morning. On the right Ed Gillespie. On my left Terry McAuliffe. Let's start with you Mr. Gillespie. The Democrats are going to hold their convention next week. And their theme is going to be "Stronger At Home, Respected In The World." After three-and-a-half years, do you believe that this country is stronger at home and respected in the world, because obviously that's not what the Democrats mean?
RNC CHAIRMAN ED GILLESPIE: Well I do. And we're proud of the President's record in terms of the recovering economy getting stronger at home. We have more to do. The President is not going to rest until every American who wants a job can find a job. Then you look at where we are in terms of stronger in the world. As the President laid out in his speech last week you look at the positive developments that are going on around the globe. The Taliban out of power in Afghanistan, the fact that people are living in freedom there. And those terrorist training camps have been wiped out. In Iraq we have a new self-governing Iraq taking root there. We see Libya opening up its what used to be a weapons program and stopping all of their terrorist sponsoring activities.
SCHIEFFER: If all that's true, why would you choose that kind of a theme?
DNC CHAIRMAN TERRY MCAULIFFE: Well, I think, Bob, most Americans don't think that we're strong at home. And they don't think that this nation is safer than we were four years ago. And that's what this convention is going to be all about. We're going to introduce the American public, John Kerry and John Edwards, we're going to talk about John Kerry's life story as a Vietnam veteran, went over to Vietnam, served two tours of duty up and down the Mekong Delta risking his life to save the lives of others. I mean you talk about character. You talk about values. When John Kerry was called upon, he answered that call and he served with the distinction as a prosecutor and then as you know 19 years in the United States Senate. …
SCHIEFFER: Let me just question something you have just said. No one would question Senator Kerry's patriotism or the service that he performed in Vietnam but don't you have to say more in answer to what are we going to do about Iraq? Don't you have to do more than just say I'm a Vietnam veteran? Because he really has laid out no agenda about how to make this situation better than it is.
MCAULIFFE: Well, what John Kerry has said and when we say respected around the world that's working with our allies, being trustful with our allies so we have mutual respect. We base it on correct information. And there are a lot of issues as it relates to Iraq. You've just seen the bipartisan Senate report come out absolutely scathing indictment on the President and his Administration for not truthfully dealing with the information. The 9/11 report is coming out this week as you know. So most Americans don't think that the President was honest with them. …
SCHIEFFER: Did you - excuse me, did you just call the President a liar? Did you say he's not being honest with the American people?
MCAULIFFE: There have been serious questions raised about the information, was it politicized? Was it embellished? Just look at the bipartisan report that came out last week as relates to the intelligence- gathering operation. John Kerry just this week came out and said he would double the budget for the CIA. Our intelligence system is not working today. It's no better off than it was before September 11th. And these are critical issues.
GILLESPIE: Look at the Senate Intelligence Committee report, Bob, because in face the Senate Intelligence Committee report came to the conclusion that there was no pressure from the White House to change intelligence gathering or data to conform to any desire by the White House. It concluded there were systemic problems in our intelligence gathering. There ought to be reforms. The President has called for reforms because in the same way we had to adapt our intelligence gathering after World War II to reflect the new reality of the cold war now after the cold war we need to adapt our intelligence gathering capacity to reflect the new reality of the war on terror. The fact is that as we just heard from Terry there is no - the Kerry campaign has no policy relative to Iraq. And they're having a hard time explaining where they've been on policy as it is. The fact is he voted for going to war in Iraq and removing Saddam Hussein from power. Then he voted against funding the troops in combat. Then he didn't show up for the vote to fund the troops in combat. He said on this program, bob, that it would be irresponsible for any senator to vote against the funding to provide body armor for our troops to up-armor the Humvee vehicles to provide health care for our reservists and then he turned around and did exactly that under pressure from Howard Dean in the Democratic primaries. Now he's on this week by my count his 7th explanation of that vote. He has said that he would have voted for it had his vote been necessary to make it pass. He was just casting a protest vote. He said that - now he says he's proud of having voted against the funding for the troops. And then later on this week he said it's too complicated for the American people to understand. …
GILLESPIE: I want to make a couple points about the positioning here. Look at what's going on in the two campaigns. You see the Kerry campaign pulling out of states pulling down ads. You see the President and the Vice President – I was in Minnesota and Iowa over the past two days, two states that the President narrowly lost in 2000. The Vice President has been there. The President. We are campaigning in states the President did not carry in 2000 we're because we're expanding the playing field. Democrats are trying to lock down their own base and lock down their own states that they won. The fact is when you look at the polling numbers the president's approval rating is in the mid 40s to low 50s actually which is closer to where Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton were. In fact, the President's approval rating on the economy today is exactly where Bill Clinton's was in 1996 before he went on to re-election, much closer to where Presidents Reagan and Clinton were than former President Bush and former President Carter when they were defeated.
MCAULIFFE: We have more states in play. John Kerry has more states in play than we have ever had traditionally in our party. I happened to be with Senator Kerry campaigning in Virginia. We haven't won Virginia since 1964. We have television ads -
GILLESPIE: And you're not going to win it now. …
SCHIEFFER: Where is all this stuff about Cheney leaving the ticket coming from? I'm told that everybody in the White House says that this ticket is etched in stone and yet I hear these reports when I go out and talk to Republicans.
GILLESPIE: Bob, we know where it's coming from. We saw it -- I tell you, I have pitched my fair share of the stories, as you know, over the past 20 years in this town. And whoever that anonymous Democratic congressman was who was quoted in The New York Times a couple days ago as saying, you know "Democrats are talking about Cheney being off the ticket," and got The New York Times to put this rumor on the front page deserves a lot of credit. I mean he took them for all they're worth.
SCHIEFFER: Well I want to ask you this though, could this possibly be some of this coming from Republicans who are not in the White House but outside the White House who are nervous about this being a very close election? Because when I go out to give talks, when I talk to people on the Hill, they talk about, "Should Cheney be on the ticket?"
GILLESPIE: Bob, the vice president was in Minnesota and Iowa right around the same time I was out there. The crowds were fantastic. I followed him actually, and so I had people come up to me and say, "He was so great, so excited to see him." Rank-and-file Republicans are appreciative of the experience, the gravitas, the seriousness with which Dick Cheney approaches the job of Vice President. They're very supportive of him. Democrats have had a concerted effort for over a year now to attack the vice present in some of the most scurrilous fashion with a lot of information that's inaccurate. I'll tell you what, we just talked about the Senate Intelligence Committee report which found that Joe Wilson who led the attack against the vice president and the president for more than a year has been entirely discredited in bipartisan fashion by the way, unanimously by the Democrats and the Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee. They found that he fabricated stories, that he talked about seeing documents that he never even saw. He says that he used a little literacy flair, pretty serious business to be using a little literacy flair about. He says that he misspoke when talking to The Washington Post. He was on this program Bob and in fact CBS News itself on 30 different occasions has reported on his allegations, 15 of him on camera, including this program, and yet at some point I think it will be helpful to have the viewers informed and I've got the Senate Intelligence Committee report here that he was completely been repudiated and let them know that those 30 reports, the 15 times he was on camera, he was basically making stuff up.
SCHIEFFER: Do you think that's right?
MCAULIFFE: I'll let Joe Wilson speak for himself. I saw the editorial he wrote yesterday in The Washington Post defending himself. He wrote a six-page letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee, so you know, I'll let Joe Wilson speak for himself. Our issues as it relates to--
(CROSSTALK)
GILLESPIE: But the Kerry campaign is letting him speak for them. He is an advisor to the Kerry campaign and they continue to post his now repudiated allegations on their web site. …
MCAULIFFE: … We still haven't gotten to the bottom of his energy task force nor these Halliburton no-bid contracts where our troops are not being taken care of, and they're not being given the meals that we have paid for, unsanitary conditions. Halliburton is a disgrace.
SCHIEFFER: OK, let's let Ed respond.
GILLESPIE: First of all, as Terry well knows, the vice president at the request and with criticism from many Democrats, severed his ties with Halliburton. He continues to receive compensation from them that was agreed to, but it is in no way tied to whether or not they get a contract or they don't get a contract. He's been clear that his office was not involved in awarding of contracts to Halliburton or any other company, but the Democrats continue to make these kinds of charges. …
Guess Schieffer was abducted by a truth alien.......WOW!
Good read! OK so I'm biased against Terry McA and I think he's a lower form of life than pond scum, I'd say he sounded like a man spitting into the wind by his comments and grabbing at straws, and Gillespie had an answer each time.
DNC CHAIRMAN TERRY MCAULIFFE: . . . we're going to talk about John Kerry's life story as a Vietnam veteran, went over to Vietnam, served two tours of duty up and down the Mekong Delta . . .
???
Two tours = Four months????
Im gonna send Schieffer a note thanking him for his forthrightfulness in questioning McAullife
Going up the river is one tour, coming back down is another.
Oh for love of PETE~! Can't you guys just get off that freaking horse?? I have to imagine even your base is sick of hearing that same old idiocy!!
The Demdid not "take the NYT" for all they were worth. I am sure the NYT was happy to oblige. It is, after all, a self-inflated National Enquirer. How much truth do people really believe is in it anymore?
You go, Ed!
Thanks for posting this! The ONLY thing that I wish Gillespie would have gotten in is that these "no bid" contracts for Halliburton happened under x42, NOT President GWB! More leftists need to hear the truth until they can't run away from it anymore.
Is Terry so stupid he forgot about the divestiture? Wait, what am I asking? He knows it, he just would prefer to lie about that too!
Was Kerry in Viet Nam?
SCHIEFFER: Do you think that's right?
MCAULIFFE: I'll let Joe Wilson speak for himself. I saw the editorial he wrote yesterday in The Washington Post defending himself. He wrote a six-page letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee, so you know, I'll let Joe Wilson speak for himself. Our issues as it relates to--
(CROSSTALK)
GILLESPIE: But the Kerry campaign is letting him speak for them. He is an advisor to the Kerry campaign and they continue to post his now repudiated allegations on their web site.
Good for Ed!…
He requested swift boat duty not realizing that their mission was about to change and they would be in danger.
He got himself out of there as quickly as he could......three purple hearts and you're out. My guess is that his commanding officers were glad to see the back of him.......never mind the bandaids and bacitracin on the boo boo.
I agree. However, leftists live in round rooms (in their minds). They can't get cornered that way. At least, that's been my experience in debating the few I know.
The Democrats should change their motto " We will hide at home and be laughing stock in the world"
Thanks for the info.
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