ANNOUNCER:   CROSSFIRE. On the left, James Carville and Paul Begala; on the right, Robert Novak and Tucker Carlson. In the 
CROSSFIRE:   It's a new year. He's way out in front in a new poll. Is it time for the Democrats to stop beating up on Howard Dean? After all, somebody else is waiting. 
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:   I'm looking forward to 2004. 
ANNOUNCER:   Today on CROSSFIRE.    Live from the George Washington University, Paul Begala and Robert Novak. 
NOVAK:   Welcome to CROSSFIRE. Chances are, Howard Dean's going to be disappointed if he thinks his fellow Democrats have made New Year's resolutions to stop attacking him. 
BEGALA:   Today, we will ask two congressmen, one a Dean supporter, one a supporter of Wesley Clark, if their candidates can stand up to the rough-and-tumble of a presidential campaign. But first, year out and year in, it remains the best little political briefing in television. Here it is, our CROSSFIRE "Political Alert." Yet another flight from London to Washington was canceled today because of security concerns. Meanwhile, at Washington's Dulles Airport, where five terrorists had slipped through security, hijacked a jet and crashed it into the Pentagon on 9/11, "Washington Post" reports today that the Bush administration's top security official for Dulles Airport was allegedly drunk while he was on duty for a code orange alert on New Year's Eve. I think this is just a perfect metaphor for Mr. Bush's priorities in the war on terror. You see, he's wasted trillions of your tax money on tax cuts for the wealthy, which gives them quite a party. But there's no money left over to hire good people or inspect ships or protect plants or to fulfill the president's first constitutional duty, to provide for the common defense. Party on, indeed. 
NOVAK:   A couple...    A couple of facts, Paul. First place, this guy who was arrested was arrested DUI, driving in his car. We don't know that he was on duty that night at all. No. 2, he's not a member of the Bush administration. He's a part of a bureaucracy, the Transportation Security Agency, which the Democrats insisted on setting up as a bureaucratic operation. So don't -- don't foist this guy or his behavior that was reprehensible... 
BEGALA:   In 19 -- in 1864, the worst year of the Civil War, General George B. McClellan landed as the Democratic candidate against Abraham Lincoln as an anti-war candidate, figuring to clean with war- weary soldiers. Now, 140 years later, another general turned Democrat, Wes Clark, is running against George Bush as an anti-war candidate, probably expecting the support from the troops that McClellan expected and didn't get. Clark is likely to be just as disappointed. According to an "Army Times" poll of the troops, it shows them 53 percent conservative, 7 percent liberal. It also indicates 57 percent Republican to 13 percent Democrat in a country otherwise evenly divided. General Clark, you better not campaign in the barracks.    This is the first time anybody compared George W. Bush to Abraham Lincoln. You know, they called Abraham Lincoln "Honest Abe' for a reason. Ain't nobody is calling Bush "Honest George." Abraham Lincoln didn't lie us into the Civil War. 
NOVAK:   What do you think? What do you think? You think that they're just dumb that they're Republicans, conservative? You have contempt for those troops, because they want your 
BEGALA:   I don't want to -- I don't want to lie about them and send them halfway around the world for a war we didn't need to fight. That's contempt. 
NOVAK:   You didn't answer. 
BEGALA:   That's what Mr. Bush has. 
NOVAK:   You didn't answer. 
BEGALA:   Well, the Associated Press reports that, after nine months of searching and $700 million of your money, not a single item on a long classified list of weapons of mass destruction has been found in Iraq, not one. The AP calls it -- quote -- "the most secretive, expensive and fruitless weapons hunt in history" -- unquote. Now, nearly 500 of those brave American troopers dead. Thousands more are wounded. And $160 billion of your money is gone. But there is no evidence, none, that Iraq ever threatened America, as President Bush claimed. In fact, Mr. Bush's chief arms hunter, David Kay, called the president's claim that trailers found in Iraq housed biological weapons labs -- quote -- "a fiasco" -- unquote. No, Mr. Kay, it's not just a fiasco. It's also a falsehood and surely not the last you'll hear from Mr. Bush about this war. 
NOVAK:   Let me...    Let me ask you, Paul. Quite apart from the weapons of mass destruction, do you wish that Saddam Hussein were back in power in Baghdad? Is that what's eating you? 
BEGALA:   I wish we had a president that told us the truth. He was no threat to America. He knew it or should have known it. He should have never launched that war. 
NOVAK:   ... won't answer my question. 
BEGALA:   He should have never launched that war. 
NOVAK:   Answer my question. 
BEGALA:   It was not worth the lives of 500 men and women.    No, sir. 
NOVAK:   Answer my question. 
BEGALA:   Not for a lie. It was not worth the life of one American to attack a country that was no threat to the United States of America. 
NOVAK:   Answer my question. Answer my question. Do you wish he were back -- do you wish he were back in Baghdad? 
BEGALA:   I'm glad he's gone, Bob. But I'm more sorry that those Americans are dead. 
NOVAK:   You're glad he's gone. 
BEGALA:   That's what we've done with 
NOVAK:   I admire Willie Nelson, who comes from my wife's hometown, Abbott, Texas, as a great country singer who was persecuted by federal tax collectors. But he went over the top on Christmas Day, when he got so angry watching the TV news that he composed an anti-Bush screed called "Whatever Happened to Peace On Earth?" He'll sing it tomorrow at a benefit for presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich. The chorus: "Hell they wont lie to me, not on my own damn TV. But how much is a liar's word worth? And whatever happened to peace on Earth?" I didn't sing that. Willie, calling the president, any president, a liar, is over the top, even a past president who lied about sex. 
BEGALA:   So it's OK to lie about a war, but not about sex? Look, Willie Nelson is a great American. I love his entertainment. But I love his courage even more. He could sit there on his millions of dollars, as a rich Texan with a rich Texan in the White House. But he has the courage to stand up for those soldiers and for every American who wants a president that tells us the truth.    And that's what we deserve. 
NOVAK:   I remember when you said it was disrespectful to call Bill Clinton a liar. 
BEGALA:   I try not to use that word about George W. Bush. I try not to. But he begs for it, man. 
NOVAK:   Well, you're using it. You're using it right now. 
BEGALA:   I try not to.    But, like we say in Texas, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck. 
NOVAK:   All right, 2004 is there. And that means, things are heating up in the race for president. On the Democrats' side of the race, all eyes are on Dr. Howard Dean. Can anybody stop the little guy from Vermont from getting the party nomination? And later, who is in, who is out on the style scene? And why is James Carville part of this discussion? 
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