BEGALA:   Welcome back to CROSSFIRE. Time now for "Fireback." I hope you are locked and loaded. According to the e-mail you certainly are. We'll start with K. Gibson of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, who writes, "Paul, my wife made a cake so rich it would be in line to get a Bush tax cut." I like that. It's the Novak case, I guess. 
NOVAK:   It's nice to know there are still a few Democrats left in South Carolina. Not many, though. The next one is from Bob Rumsfeld of Eastern, Pennsylvania. He says, "What do you get when you clone on a liberal and a talk show host? Answer: Begala Interruptus. It appears to me the only way Begala can make his point is by constantly interrupting everyone on the show. How can you take it night after night? My wife and I are loyal CROSSFIRE viewers, but enough is enough."    Bob, you have to be a little sympathetic to Paul. He's not a bad fella. He just can't stand hearing the truth and he has to interrupt you. 
BEGALA:   No, it's so difficult to always be correct all of the time. And I feel the obligation to correct my friend Mr. Novak, and he always wrong. And so I have to try to help him out. Debbie Leancini (ph) from  , California, writes, "Bob, I have to laugh when I hear you say you're tired of all the Bush bashing from Paul and James. Now you know how Democrats felt for eight years while Republicans bashed Clinton constantly. It seems to me you Republicans can dish it out but you can't take it." NOVAK : I think you can be an honest person. I don't know how good your memory is, but I think you will agree that in eight difficult years for me of the Clinton administration I was not a Clinton basher.    Well you weren't a Clinton hater, but I think you were very critical of our president. 
NOVAK:   I wasn't a basher. I never did the things and said the things about our president that you say about this president with less justification. 
BEGALA:   Because Clinton was stupid. That's why. You can't say he was stupid, but you might say he's a bad husband. 
NOVAK:   You proved my point, Paul, and you make yourself look worse. Dennis of Sunriver, Oregon said, "Mr. Novak's overuse of the word "demagoguery," which he uses to label any statement that differs from his opinion, is irritating, disingenuous and boring. Please assist him in expanding his vocabulary." Thank you very much, Dennis. But you know what you are, little Dennis? You're a demagogue. 
BEGALA:   Congressman Nick Lampson is here from Texas. A great Texas Democrat from Congress. Thank you for joining us, Congressman. 
LAMPSON:   You are very welcome. Thank you. 
BEGALA:   Good to see you. 
LAMPSON:   Well, I'm Congressman Nick Lampson from Beaumont, Texas. And Bob, I have a question for you about the policy on Iraq. In light of the fact that this is a policy that shouldn't be about George Bush but should be about my kids and my grandkids, and in light of the current economic and future economic policy that we seem to be living with right now, how and when are we going to pay for this? 
NOVAK:   Well you know, Congressman, like most Democrats, you are very short sighted and have very little vision. This isn't a question of how we pay for it. We can pay for anything. The question is whether we should do it. The question is whether we should unprovoked attack another country with a preemptive strike. That's what worries me. 
LAMPSON:   And should we not also just do some of the other things that so many of the citizens across this country are demanding from our government? Help with health insurance. And help with... 
NOVAK:   Well, the losers in this society always demand a lot of things. You appeal to the losers, and you end up like Albania. 
BEGALA:   Well, somebody has to appeal to the losers. I guess Bob is doing it for all of us, Congressman. Thank you very much, Nick Lampson, for that question there.    The truth is, you know, any kind of a decent society would do something about healthcare, and I think we ought to. And the congressman makes a very good point. From the left, I'm Paul Begala. 
NOVAK:   I think we've fought that fight before, didn't we? 
BEGALA:   From the left, I'm Paul Begala, once again. Good night for CROSSFIRE. 
NOVAK:   From the right, I'm Robert Novak. Join us again next time for another edition of CROSSFIRE.
