ANNOUNCER:   CROSSFIRE.  On the left, James Carville and Paul Begala. On the right, Robert Novak and Tucker Carlson. In the CROSSFIRE tonight, the clock ticks down on weapons inspections. 
PAUL WOLFOWITZ, DEPUTE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE:   But so far it has treated disarmament like a game of hide and seek. 
ANNOUNCER:   If it comes to war, what friends can the U.S. count on? 
POWELL:   I don't think we'll have to worry about going it alone. 
ANNOUNCER:   Putting God in government, from federal dollars for church programs to a judicial bias for the Ten Commandments. But not quite to an AIDS Commission nominee who talks about the "gay plague." 
ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECY.:   That remark is far removed from the what the president believes and for what the president stands for. 
ANNOUNCER:   Plus, the battle for the right to take on the president in 2004. Tonight, on CROSSFIRE.    Live from the George Washington University Paul Begala and Robert Novak. 
NOVAK:   Welcome to CROSSFIRE. Tonight, the Bush administration tips its hand about what Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is really up to and starts finding out who its allies really are. Also, the left wing's never ending crusade to muscle people who sound too religious. Forget about freedom of speech. That's a freedom we intend to exercise right now with the best political briefing in television, our "CROSSFIRE Political Alert." With a report from U.N. weapons inspectors four days away, the Bush administration has launched a counteroffensive for support in a war against Iraq. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz gave a saber rattling speech accusing Saddam Hussein of ordering the execution of Iraqi scientists who cooperate with the U.N. inspectors. Secretary of State Colin Powell publicly hinted the U.S. may not ask the U.N. Security Council to authorize force. But he suggested the U.S. won't have to go it alone. Meanwhile, Democratic Senator John Kerry labeled the Bush administration's approach as "blustering unilateralism." Instead, Kerry called for a "bold, progressive internationalism." That's a presidential hopeful trying to be anti-Hussein and anti-Bush at the very same time. 
BEGALA:   And I think he pulled it off quite well. It seems to me our president needs to not simply tell us that Saddam Hussein is an evil, evil man. We know that. He better persuade us why we need to go to war right now, right there. And he hasn't done it yet. Well, White House political guru Karl Rove, today -- or yesterday, declared his boss, President Bush, to be a Populist. Mr. Rove claims that our president's call for an end to the taxation of dividends is aimed at the little guy. Of course, the Tax Policy Center reports that nearly all -- 70 percent in fact -- of the benefits of Mr. Bush's tax cut would go to the wealthiest 5 percent of Americans. Now George W. Bush started out, for those of you scoring at home, as a compassionate conservative. He then reinvented himself as a different kind of Republican. After that, remember the reformer with results. And then of course he was a steely wartime leader. And now, a Populist. This guy has had more makeovers than Madonna. Perhaps, next, Mr. Bush, will insist that he's actually the seven foot tall center for the L.A. Lakers and demand that everyone call him President Shaq Daddy. That's... 
NOVAK:   You know you're... 
BEGALA:   ... about as likely. 
NOVAK:   ... trying to do a Jerry Leno and you're not nearly as funny as Jerry Leno, not even in the same -- Jay Leno... ... you're not even in the same category. I don't watch him that much, but I read his reports. You know, the Treasury says that of the top 5 percent in income, they now pay 72.4 percent of the taxes. Under Bush, they would pay 73.3 percent. So they actually pay more. It's a tax increase. Senator Bob Graham of Florida, who has been looking at a run for the Democratic presidential nomination, had announcement today. But not the one his supporters were hoping for. He called reports into his Capitol Hill office to reveal that at age  66, he will undergo heart surgery the week of February 3. That week, he said, was when he planned to announce his candidacy for president. Such an announcement is now postponed indefinitely, pending Senator Graham's physical condition. Is it an omen that the most grown-up Democratic candidate may not have the heart to run? 
BEGALA:   I'll tell you what, he is an enormously bright guy. Everybody wishes him the best. And he's now only four heart surgeries behind Dick Cheney. So we wish you well, Senator Graham. We love you, and we hope you will recover quickly. We know you will. Now normal people of course have a word for those who believe that AIDS is a gay plague. We call them bigots. We also have a word for people who think that being gay is some sort of a spiritual failing that can be cured by prayer. We call them crackpots. The Bush administration, however, wanted to call a man who hopes (ph) both of these views something else. Mr. Bush wanted to call him a member of the President's Advisory Commission on HIV and AIDS. Jerry Thacker, a graduate and former employee of Bob Jones University, was under consideration to sit on the prestigious presidential panel that advises our president on AIDS policy. Now Mr. Thacker withdrew his name from consideration this afternoon during the controversy over his comments. The White House then went into full damage control mode. Of course, even the Bushes couldn't find a way to blame this one on Bill Clinton. So instead, the president, through his spokesman, blamed his own Cabinet, presumably the secretary of Health and Human Services, Tommy Thompson. Apparently, the buck stops there under the Bush administration. But perhaps Mr. Bush was actually -- decided to settle on Thacker when he was told my his staff that all of the original Three Stooges are dead. 
NOVAK:   You know, Paul, I had thought recently that you had gotten over this attempt to end every "Political News Alert" with an attack on our president. But apparently you haven't. This audience didn't even applaud you, this Democratic audience. And I've sick of it, and I'm sure a lot of the viewers are sick of it as well. 
BEGALA:   Ha. You know what, you had better take some medicine because I ain't going to stop. NOVAK : Jerry Springer, who hosts one of the sleaziest of all sleazy television programs, says he might run for the U.S. Senate from Ohio as a -- guess what -- Democrat. He is a former mayor of Cincinnati, who once ran for governor. But he left politics to go down hill. He became a television news anchor. And then started the nationally syndicated "Jerry Springer Show," where the principles strip down to their underwear. That has made Jerry a multi-millionaire. I think his candidacy is a good idea. Springer's opponent would be Republican Senator George Voinovich, a former governor and a distinguished statesman, but maybe a little stodgy. What better contrast that to run a swinging Democrat against him?    OK, let's have the first debate right here on CROSSFIRE. Jerry Springer has been on. Let's have Senator Voinovich on, and we'll host the debate right here on CROSSFIRE. I'd love to see it. Well, our friend and CNN colleague, Al Hunt, who also writes at the "Wall Street Journal," notes today that affirmative action is practiced at our military academies, which give African American and Hispanic candidates for admission an average of 60 to 100 extra points on their SAT scores. General Dan Christman, the former superintendent of West Point tells Mr. Hunt -- quote --"We're training our cadets for an Army that operates around the world in a very diverse environment with a huge mixture of cultural, religious and ethnic balances. It is very important that our young officers appreciate the diversity in our own society, and the environment that he or she will be operating in overseas." No word yet on whether President Bush will end affirmative action at the service academies. We do know of course he benefited from affirmative action, the kind for the hard drinking, non-studying, under-achieving, unqualified children of the Eastern moneyed elite. 
NOVAK:   Paul, only you and Al Hunt do not understand that the United States Army, which has a lot of diversity in enlisted men need a diverse officer corps. That does not justify discriminating against people applying for graduate school at the University of Michigan, which is against the Constitution. 
BEGALA:   Well, we'll see. We'll let the Supreme Court decide. Will the Bush administration go it alone in Iraq, or at least with very little help? Former National Security Adviser Richard Allen will step into the CROSSFIRE to debate it next. Later we will catch up with the 2004 presidential race, which believe it or not, is already going at full speed. And then, the Reverend Jerry Falwell, we'll ask him his views about that potential Bush administration nominee that I mentioned a moment ago, the guy who called AIDS a gay plague. Stay with us.
