ANNOUNCER:   CROSSFIRE. On the left, James Carville and Paul Begala; on the right, Robert Novak and Tucker Carlson. In the 
CROSSFIRE:   Coping with violence and continued opposition in Iraq. 
BUSH:   We've got to stay the course. And we will stay the course. 
ANNOUNCER:   Should the U.S. send in more troops? 
KENNEDY:   Iraq is George Bush's Vietnam, and this country needs a new president. 
ANNOUNCER:   Plus, Tucker Carlson puts his reputation in jeopardy. Today on CROSSFIRE.    LIVE FROM the George Washington University, Paul Begala and Robert Novak. 
NOVAK:   Welcome to CROSSFIRE. While Democrats are whining and wringing their hands about the events in Iraq, President Bush says America won't turn and run in Iraq. 
BEGALA:   Well, of course, nobody supports a plan to turn and run. How about a plan for winning, Mr. President? We will debate the terrible and tragic news from Iraq right after the best political briefing in television, our CROSSFIRE "Political Alert." Senator Edward Kennedy has served under nine different presidents. He is he widely regarded as one of the finest U.S. senators in 100 years. And today, the legendary lion roared on the issue of President Bush's credibility. 
KENNEDY:   They repeatedly invent facts to support their preconceived agenda, facts which administration officials knew or should have known were not true. This pattern has prevailed since President Bush's earliest days in office. And, as a result, this president has now created the largest credibility gap since Richard Nixon. 
BEGALA:   God bless Senator Kennedy. He's following, of course, Harry Truman's old maxim: Don't give 'em hell. Tell the truth and they'll think it's hell. Go, Teddy, my hero. 
NOVAK:   You know -- you know, Paul, I think the -- just by accident, the Bush people agree with you on one thing. They would really like to have Teddy Kennedy out there campaigning all the time. Outside of your little liberal cells, he s so unpopular around the country. The more he campaigns for Kerry against the Bush, the better 
BEGALA:   I'll tell you what. He never misled us into a war. Ted Kennedy is one of the greats in the United States Senate. I love him. He never misled us into a war. 
NOVAK:   John Kerry is the first Roman Catholic on a major party ticket in 44 years. But he may not be able to take communion back home in Boston on Easter Sunday. The archbishop of Boston, Sean O'Malley, been saying that pro- abortion Catholic politicians are in a state of grave sin and, therefore, should be refused communion. That includes Senator Kerry, who violates the church's teaching on abortion and stem cell research. Most recently, he voted against a bill making it criminal to harm a fetus during an assault on a pregnant woman. However, the candidate may be working out a solution. Instead of going to Catholic mass the last two Sundays, he politicked in black churches. 
BEGALA:   I hate to see religion be made into a football like this, particularly as a Catholic, as you are. We're brother Catholics. This is as bad as when George Bush began his campaign in South Carolina by going to Bob Jones University, the hotbed of anti- Catholic bigotry.    And we should not have anybody I think hold Kerry's Catholicism against 
NOVAK:   Somehow, I think that Archbishop O'Malley is a great man. I think you will agree with me. 
BEGALA:   He is.  
NOVAK:   And I believe is he correct that these Catholic politicians owe a higher standard in following the teachings of the church and they should be denied communion. 
BEGALA:   They should follow the teachings of the church, but they have to follow their conscience in voting.    We have a division between church and state in America. And I think that's the way it should be. 
TIM RUSSERT, HOST:   But now in hindsight, the president believes the commission's a good idea? 
BUSH:   Well, I think, Tim, I don't know that the president ever opposed the creation of the commission. 
BEGALA:   What? Of course he did, Karen. President Bush opposed the creation of the 9/11 Commission. He opposed extending its deadline after commission members requested more time in the face of White House foot-dragging. He also opposed even allowing his national security adviser to testify under oath before the commission. Now, why would such a decent person as Karen Hughes say such a dishonest thing to Tim Russert? I don't know. But I know this. The closer people get to George W. Bush, the farther they get from the truth. 
NOVAK:   Well, the problem -- the problem is that, the closer people get inside the White House, the farther they get from the truth. There's sort of a selective memory which is bipartisan in the White House. I really believe that these independent commissions always end up as partisan tug-of-wars. I don't think they accomplish anything. But guys like you...    ... who are trying to make political hay out of it, you love it. 
BEGALA:   I just want the truth. I just want the truth. 
NOVAK:   Vice President Dick Cheney today threw out the first pitch in the baseball opener in Cincinnati. Two hours later, President George W. Bush did the honors in Saint Louis. Now, Ohio and Missouri are swing states in this election. But the Republicans were taking a big risk. In 1931, the year I was born, another Republican incumbent, Herbert Hoover, threw out the first ball at Griffith Washington, D.C., and he was booed mercilessly. Cheney and Bush certainly weren't booed. They were cheered. In 1931, America was suffering from the Great Depression with massive unemployment. As much as the Democrats whine and claim, that's not the case today. All the economic indicators are up. And so Bush and Cheney could go to the ballpark without fear of being booed. 
BEGALA:   You know, it was an afternoon game. And there was a pretty good crowd at the afternoon game. I think it's because there's still eight million Americans that are unemployed. About two million of them had jobs under Clinton. They've lost jobs under Bush. 
NOVAK:   But they didn't boo. 
BEGALA:   I'd like nothing more than to have an election that's all about whether Bush has botched the economy, as we know he has. 
NOVAK:   But there was no -- there was no booing. There was no booing.    They cheered him. 
BEGALA:   Baseball fans are polite. I think that's great. 
NOVAK:   They booed Herbert Hoover. 
BEGALA:   Well, they booed -- you know what? They're going to boot George W. Bush. They're not going to boo him, but they'll boot him on November the 4th.    Well, the United States Army is examining options for more troops in Iraq and violent attacks are becoming an almost daily ritual. But the Bush administration insists things are going so well that they will be able to turn over sovereignty to Iraqis on June 30. Just who will we turn control over to and how will that happen? Well, we'll debate that and the political fallout of all of this just ahead. And later, is CROSSFIRE's own Tucker Carlson in jeopardy or did he use his special bow tie power on the popular game show? Stay with us. 
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