BEGALA:   Time now for "Fireback." And boy, do you. We're wearing our flak jackets so we can take it. Let's start with the e- mail bag. Here's our first from Al Jensen in Copper Center, Alaska. "Revelations this week about Bush and Cheney's corporate activities make Clinton look like a choir boy." Amen. Now, that is true. When the scandal was Whitewater or a girlfriend -- those were the good old days. 
NOVAK:   If you think that fraudulent embezzling that went on with Whitewater has anything to do with this, you're more of a partisan than I thought. 
BEGALA:   Let's find out by getting an independent counsel. Let's put Ken Starr on George Bush's ass to see what he finds after eight years and $8 million. 
NOVAK:   You're using too much swearing, by the way.  All right. This is Josh Gipper from Fairbank, Iowa. "I find it truly heartening that we find it reasonable to put a gun in the hands of our pilots. I mean, it's obvious pilots are always in their right frame of mind while they're in the cockpit and definitely never drunk." Josh, you are not my kind of Gipper if you are trying to defame policemen -- defame pilots who aren't drunk. They are good guys. You should have a lot of faith in them, because we put our lives in their hands. 
BEGALA:   And women. And by the way, the two drunk pilots were caught by our new federal -- federal airport security people. So good for them. Kim in Las Vegas, Nevada writes: "Nevadans" -- she was writing about the debate last night about whether Nevada should decriminalize marijuana, and she says: "Nevadans have to have legal marijuana to treat the increased number of people with cancer leukemia now that we're the nation's nuclear waste dump." Kim, that's a -- do you remember Chic Hecht? Chic Hecht was a Republican senator from Nevada who once famously said, "I'm not going to let them put that nuclear waste suppository in my state." He was great. 
NOVAK:    , you know, and it's going to really upset the high rollers rolling their dice in Las Vegas 100 miles away. OK. The last one is from Andy Baranowski of Bordertown, New Jersey. "I was just wondering if Paul was related to Squidward of "SpongeBob SquarePants?" Their heads look alike, and they sound a lot alike, too. Just wondering was there a common relative?" Let's take a look. 
BEGALA:   Squidward is one of my favorites. Oh, there it is.    In fact, SpongeBob Novak I think is actually a little more like it. Here's SpongeBob SquarePants. Look, he's happy and people love him. Here's Novak, SpongeBob Novak. 
NOVAK:   OK. Next -- first question from the audience? ASHAN (ph): Hi, my name is Ashan (ph). I'm from London. My question is to both of you, or maybe it's a bit of a comment... 
BEGALA:   What school do you go to? 
ASHAN:   I go to Harvard University. 
BEGALA:   Oh, well, I've heard of that. 
ASHAN:   How does putting a metal weapon in a metal cylinder 30,000 feet above the earth make anybody safe? In my opinion, this is just another and most dangerous symptom of America's gun culture. 
NOVAK:   I'll tell you what it is -- I like the gun culture. I think people who are afraid of guns have a real problem. And I'll tell you something else: If they had those guns, those handkerchief heads with box cutters wouldn't have killed 3,000 Americans. 
BEGALA:   Also, though, you should know, the director of aviation safety for Boeing testified on Capitol Hill and he said, and I quote: "Even multiple handgun bullet holes would not result in a loss of the aircraft." So it's not unsafe to the aircraft. 
NOVAK:   Next question. CHRISTOPHER ZAMPONIO (ph): Christopher Zamponio (ph) from Washington, D.C. I don't know how we can say that the tax cuts have caused the deficit, since most of them haven't gone into effect yet.    I know. That's the left-wing Democratic propaganda, and as a matter of fact, what the president should do -- and I'm sorry he doesn't -- is to really turn us around and help investors. We should have a cut in the capital gains rate and increase the timing for the cut in the income tax. 
BEGALA:   The president's own budget says the largest cause of the deficit and the projected deficit is the president's tax cut. He says so, and he can't lie. From the left, and apologizing for my potty mouth to my grandma, my mom, my wife -- everybody's mad at me now -- good night for CROSSFIRE. I'm Paul Begala. 
NOVAK:   And I'm mad at you too. From the right, I'm Robert Novak. Join us again tomorrow night for another edition of CROSSFIRE. "CONNIE CHUNG TONIGHT" begins immediately after a CNN "News Alert."
