CARLSON:   Welcome back to CROSSFIRE. It's time for our "Fireback" segment, when we invite our studio audience and our viewers to fire back. It turns out they do. They take us at our word. E-mails first. The first from Paula Zelinski of Evanston, Illinois. "What Bush should have been doing about the Palestinian- Israeli conflict the last 15 months, I don't know. But you don't put out a fire by watching it burn." 
BEGALA:   Amen. 
CARLSON:   Well, Paula, I don't know. You're in good company. No one else knows either, but thanks for the good advice. 
BEGALA:   ... and gone to see our so-called Arab allies and tell them to put the pressure on Arafat to come back to the table for peace. That's what he should have done. 
CARLSON:   That's funny; I guess nobody thought of that. 
BEGALA:   No, he didn't have the guts to do it. 
CARLSON:   Really? You have a brand new career as an international negotiator. 
BEGALA:   Here's number two -- you know, I used to do this for a living. "Isn't negotiating with Arafat the same as negotiating with the Taliban? I mean, neither are them are an official government, are they?" Mary Coleman in Rolla, Missouri. Rolla being the home town of  . 
CARLSON:   Hey, there's one I like. Jane Burdick of North Carolina writes: "The new CROSSFIRE is the best thing on television since the original show 'The Family Feud.'" That would make you Richard Dawson, so assume a Cockney accent. 
BEGALA:   Survey says. Mae from San Diego, California sends us our next e-mail: "Someone needs to take that "time-out" bell away from Tucker, until he learns some manners and lets his opponent gets a word in edgewise." From Mae way out West. 
CARLSON:   Hey, you wouldn't want my opponents to get a word in edgewise. I'm doing you a favor. Thanks. And we have audience questions. 
BEGALA:   Audience questions. Yes, sir. 
CARLSON:   Your name. 
JUSTIN:   I'm Justin from Houston, Texas, and I had a question for both of you all: I was wondering do you think the crisis in the Middle East will help push the Alaskan oil drilling bill through the Senate, or how it will effect it? 
CARLSON:   I hope so. I mean, it makes more and more sense when the oil in Alaska and ANWR could account for 30 years of oil from Saudi Arabia, it's sort of hard to argue against it, except on the grounds it might hurt the musk oxen. And so you were deeply indebted to the musk oxen in some way, you're against it; otherwise you're for it. 
BEGALA:   It is actually a six-month supply of oil, and it will take us seven years to get it. I hardly think that the fact that the Middle East is in flames this week means we should be drilling six months worth of oil. 
CARLSON:   All of it false, but a nice comeback. And another question. 
BOB:   Hi, I'm Bob from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And my question is: Is anything going to be voted on in the Senate this year, or is an election year starting now? 
CARLSON:   Boy, I hope not. I mean, I like gridlock and paralysis in the Senate. That means no more laws are passed. It's a good thing. That's actually the one issue on which we agree. You're for Democratic obstructionism, and so am I. 
BEGALA:   One of the things that the Democrats killed was a $254 million taxpayer bail-out for Enron, and God bless Tom Daschle for killing that.    Go ahead, sir, what's your question. 
JOHN CARROLL:   Hi, I'm John Carroll from Southern California. It seems to me that there's a double standard for liberal and conservative Democrats. Clinton was never asked to resign after he lied under oath, and it took Gephardt months to ask Condit to resign. Yet he immediately asked Traficant to resign. Is there a double standard? 
CARLSON:   That's not true. I actually asked Clinton to resign immediately. 
BEGALA:   The House of Representatives is shredding the constitution trying to impeach him, and even the Republican Senate found him not guilty. But by the way, George W. Bush lied under oath in a civil lawsuit; I didn't hear Republicans asking him to step down. 
CARLSON:   This is called finding the last word. But you know...    If there is proof, unlike you I will accept it, if it is absolutely... 
BEGALA:   From the left, I'm Paul Begala. Good night for CROSSFIRE. 
CARLSON:   And from the right, I'm Tucker Carlson. Join us again Monday for a whole new week, a brand new week of an all-new CROSSFIRE. See you then.
