ANNOUNCER:   CROSSFIRE. On the left, James Carville and Paul Begala; on the right, Robert Novak and Tucker Carlson. In the 
CROSSFIRE:   It's the war of words over the war on terror. 
KERRY:   Iraq is now what it was not before the war, a haven for terrorists. George Bush made Saddam Hussein the priority. I would have made Osama bin Laden the priority. 
ANNOUNCER:   President Bush stays the course in his war plan. 
BUSH:   If we show uncertainty or weakness in this decade, the world will drift toward tragedy. This isn't going to happen on my watch. 
ANNOUNCER:   While Teresa Heinz-Kerry says don't be surprised to see Osama bin Laden show up in October. Today on CROSSFIRE.    Live from the George Washington University, James Carville and Robert Novak. 
NOVAK:   Welcome to CROSSFIRE. Senator John Kerry laid out his plan for the war on terror today, if you want to call it a plan. It's full of half-baked ideas, fuzzy facts. Kerry may finally finding his voice on the war on terror, but that might not be to his political advantage. 
CARVILLE:   Kerry's plan is right on. Not only does he shift the focus back to where it should be, on bin Laden. He sets it up to begin taking about how to get out of Iraq. More on that. First, the best little briefing in television, our CROSSFIRE "Political Alert." Remember the promises made by President Bush as he was losing the presidential campaign to Al Gore by more than a half million votes? He said he'd keep the budget in balance, have a humble foreign policy and strengthen the military. We all know what happened to the first two and now bad news on the third. West Point graduate Senator Jack Reed of Ohio -- Rhode Island -- read from a study commissioned by Bush's own Pentagon by appointed outside experts who said the current state of the American military is so weak that we do not have sufficient forces to provide for missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. In other words, President Bush has wrecked the military he inherited, which was so powerful that it won the Iraq war in three weeks. So, just for the record, he has exploded the deficit, ruined America's good name abroad. And in a study commissioned by his own administration shows how he has wrecked the American military. Is there any promises this man has made that he hasn't broken? 
NOVAK:   You know, James, thank you for paid political commercial. I'm sure they would appreciate it. As a matter of fact, of course, he didn't inherit that military. He built that military from the weak spot he had found it when he inherited it from Clinton, because -- the Iraq war not in the first year of the administration. I know you get confused sometimes. 
CARVILLE:   Right. Right. 
NOVAK:   It was just last year. 
CARVILLE:   The same level that Clinton had. His own commission said that he has wrecked it. I didn't say that. The Pentagon said that. 
NOVAK:   Well, that's not what that study said.    You misinterpret the study and distort it. 
CARVILLE:   Right. Right on. 
NOVAK:   The CROSSFIRE political alert is becoming the Teresa watch. Teresa Heinz Kerry, the Democratic nominee's wife, headlined a $1 million fund-raiser at the posh Arizona Biltmore Resort and Spa in Phoenix. In her speech, she talked about Osama bin Laden being captured just in time to hurt her husband's chances to be elected. That's straight out of "Looney Tunes" from the Internet.    Will the Kerry campaign muzzle Teresa Heinz-Kerry? For the answer, take a look at her profile in this week's "New Yorker" magazine. Teresa says said she won't be told how to behave and she's too old to be bossed around. That's the way it is when a candidate's wife is a billionaire. 
CARVILLE:   You know, first of all, I've been to Biltmore. It's a very nice place. And second of all, see, I don't believe you ought to muzzle your wife. I think my wife could speak out. I actually think women ought to have an opinion.    I don't think they need to be muzzled. I like women -- I like women that offer opinions. Mrs. Heinz-Kerry is not running for president. But I don't believe in muzzling women. I believe in letting women talk. 
NOVAK:   Well, you know very well that the Kerry campaign thinks that she says stupid things, when she says that people who disagree with her are idiots. She thinks she's better than anybody. She even thinks she's better than you, James. 
CARVILLE:   I don't know about that. I think my wife... 
NOVAK:   I'm not talking about your wife. I'm talking about his wife. 
CARVILLE:   I'm for letting women have their say. Frankly, I'm sick of Democratic whiners out there. I want to read you part of a memorandum I just posted on my Web site. In it, I show that the average of all public polls of yesterday has President Bush with only a 1.5-point lead. The best of all polls, Democratic Corps poll, has him with only a two-point lead. You would have to be awfully stupid to believe that an incumbent with a two-point lead, polling at 47 percent, is anything other than in serious jeopardy of failing to win reelection. Hey, Democrats, we have got 40 days until the election. Let's get together and help John Kerry get the job done. 
NOVAK:   Well, James, in the first place, I think, in the interest of full disclosure, we ought to say that you are the co-chairman of the Democracy Corps. 
CARVILLE:   I said that. 
NOVAK:   You didn't say that.    I think you ought to say... 
CARVILLE:   I'm the co-chairman of the Democracy Corps. It's the best private poll out there. And I'm sick of these whining Democrats. 
NOVAK:   And in second place, I think it's a very close race for president. I think that people go a little bananas on all these polls. They go up and they go down. But I think it's very interesting that the first time the Democrats had some bad polls, they head for the hills, wringing their hands. 
CARVILLE:   I agree. I agree. 
NOVAK:   Republicans have bad polls, they say, let's fight harder. 
CARVILLE:   I agree with you. I agree with you. And they're nothing but a -- and all those whiny Democrats out there sitting there complaining, you need to be glove-slapped.    I completely agree with you. 
NOVAK:   I'd like to see you do that. Democrats in the House of Representatives may not be totally stupid, but they sure give a good imitation of it. Yesterday, 166 House Democrats voted against the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. A bill passed by a 74-vote margin to amend Title 28 of the U.S. Code to remove jurisdiction to the federal courts to mess around with the Pledge of Allegiance, including the words "under God." That was the idea of a bright second-term Republican from Missouri, Todd Akin. The Democrats have been out of the power on Capitol Hill for 10 years. And with votes like this one, they may stay in the wilderness for a very long time. 
CARVILLE:   Well, they didn't vote against the Pledge of Allegiance. What they did is, is that the courts would have jurisdiction over the First Amendment. You know, Bob, I don't know what it is about people, you all want to muzzle women. You want to tell people what to say. You want to control everything, you and Ashcroft. And I don't want to muzzle anybody and let people, if they've a got complaint on something, let them say it. They didn't vote against the Pledge of Allegiance. 
NOVAK:   In the interest of the full disclosure, James... 
CARVILLE:   Right. 
NOVAK:   .There's a lot of people, as I go around the country, who agree with me. I'd like to muzzle you. 
CARVILLE:   Really?    You know what? I do. And a lot of people would because they don't like the truth. 
NOVAK:   John Kerry spent today attacking what he says are President Bush's wrong choices. That's pretty good coming from a candidate who's chosen to come down on both sides of every issue time and time again. Next, we'll debate just who should lead the war on terror. And, later, taking the plunge for office. You won't believe who's trying to woo voters with this stunt.
