ANNOUNCER:   CROSSFIRE. On the left, James Carville and Paul Begala; on the right, Robert Novak and Tucker Carlson. In the 
CROSSFIRE:   The Democratic Party presidential debate club has a new member. 
CLARK:   That's why I'm proud to be a Democrat. 
ANNOUNCER:   Will this former general be able to rally the troops and capture the nomination? Another front-runner had to come up with a defense strategy of his own. 
HOWARD DEAN  , PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE:   Is flat-out false, and I'm ashamed that you would compare me with Newt Gingrich. Nobody up here deserves to be compared to Newt Gingrich. 
ANNOUNCER:   Who were the winners and who were the losers? Today on CROSSFIRE.    Live from the George Washington University, James Carville and Tucker Carlson. 
CARVILLE:   Last night, 10 Democrats showed why their party is 10 times better than the GOP. They outlined their positions. They were quick on their feet. And even in their worst moments, they were better than President Bush on a good day. We'll put their debate in the CROSSFIRE in just a few moments. But first, the best little briefing in television, our CROSSFIRE "Political Alert." For a long -- for a long time, many have thought that Colin Powell is the only man in the Bush administration who is capable of telling the truth. He did one time. On February 24, 2001, in Egypt, Colin Powell said -- quote -- "Frankly, the sanctions against Iraq have worked. He," Saddam Hussein," has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors." Now we know for certain that the administration's case for war was a pack of lies. Powell called it from the beginning. And now the rest of us know it to be true, what Powell said in Egypt. 
CARLSON:   Now, I know, James, you are going to be tempted to shout me down, but, if you can, attempt to answer this question. 
CARVILLE:   Be glad to. 
CARLSON:   Colin Powell almost exactly two years later made precisely the opposite case to the United Nations, arguing that in fact Iraq is a threat not simply to its neighbors, but to the U.S., because it had these capabilities he claimed it did not have. Was he lying? Or did someone force him to lie, and therefore he's a weasel? Which one? 
CARVILLE:   B. B. He was forced to lie and, therefore, he is a weasel. 
CARLSON:   Then how in the world... 
CARVILLE:   He told the truth. He told the truth on February 24, 2001. 
CARLSON:   OK.    That's your position. Colin Powell is a weasel. 
CARVILLE:   He's capable of truth. 
CARLSON:   And yet you say that he's the only man who tells the truth. 
CARVILLE:   A weasel is capable of the truth. I think the man told the truth on February 24. 
CARLSON:   Well, I think he's a decent man. 
CARVILLE:   I think he's a very decent man. 
CARLSON:   But a weasel, too. 
CARVILLE:   I think he would have liked to tell the truth. I think he's around people who forced him to lie. He knew full well it wasn't true. And it turned out it wasn't truth. 
CARLSON:   I never knew he was a weak and contemptible liar. Interesting. I kind of like him. As if we needed further proof that the John Edwards presidential campaign might be imploding, he's now enlisting the Olivia Newton-John vote. That's right. For a mere $44, you can get the proud owner of -- quote -- "a classic fuzzy sweatband."    Emblazoned with -- with a "Jog with John" motto. A fund-raising e-mail sent by the Edwards campaign encourages supporters to get behind the avid runner in his most challenging and yet doomed race yet, by getting four friends to pledge $44 to help make Edwards the 44th president. Unfortunately, there's nothing John Edwards can do. His career is over. And it's sad. He could have been a decent senator. 
CARVILLE:   Let me tell you what. I think it's a perfectly good idea to sell sweatbands for $44, as opposed to what the Bush administration -- to sell pollution to the coal companies for tens of millions of dollars. 
CARLSON:   I know. I know. 
CARVILLE:   That -- I know that offends you, that people go out and jog and we're stifling on the air that the coal companies -- industry's money bought this administration, like a sack of potatoes. 
CARLSON:   It doesn't offend me. It's so dumb, it amuses me. 
CARVILLE:   Lack a sack of potatoes, for sale sign on the White House. 
CARLSON:   But address this. But address this. John Edwards might have been a promising senator. Now his political career is over. You're not even going to respond to that, because you know it's true. 
CARVILLE:   Of course it's not over. Why is it over? 
CARLSON:   He's not going to be the nominee and he's not running for Senate again. 
CARVILLE:   How do you know that? At least he's not selling himself like a sack of potatoes, like Bush did. He's got a little more pride. 
CARLSON:   He'll go back to chasing ambulances.  
CARVILLE:   An op-ed college in today's "Washington Post" just shows how well the Bush administration has managed to brainwash Washington's conservative commentators. Charles Krauthammer tries to pick apart a brave statement by -- the great Senator Ted Kennedy made about the real motive behind the Iraq war. Kennedy said -- quote -- "There was no real threat. This was made up in Texas, announced in January to the Republican leadership that war was going to take place and it was going to be good politically. This whole thing was a fraud." Krauthammer says Kennedy's statement marked a new stage in losing it, calling it a transition into derangement. I'll tell you what, Mr. Krauthammer. You're the one that's deranged. Ted Kennedy is the greatest United States senator in the last 40 years. And I say, keep speaking out and don't let the P.C. police and the patriot correct police and Mr. Krauthammer, whose life exists to be patted on the head by Mr. Wolfowitz -- I'm standing with Ted Kennedy. And I'm glad that he had the guts to speak out against the war. 
CARLSON:   Attacking Mr. Krauthammer personally is 
CARVILLE:   He didn't attack Ted Kennedy personally. If he attacked Ted Kennedy personally, I'll attack him back personally. 
CARLSON:   But I will say, James, you claim that there is this patriotic police that keeps people from talking. Every one of the 10 Democratic presidential candidates says the same thing you said. But why resort to a conspiracy theory? 
CARVILLE:   You know why. Because all Charles Krauthammer cares about is Wolfowitz inviting him to a dinner party.    He's a gopher, a little neocon gopher. 
CARLSON:   That's an awful thing. You know what? He's actually an honorable, decent person who happens to disagree with you. And yet you attack him personally. And I think that's wrong. 
CARVILLE:   He is attacking Ted Kennedy. I'm going to defend Ted Kennedy. He's a great man. 
CARLSON:   OK. Well, on yesterday's program on telemarketing, some of you may have seen it. I jokingly gave out what I said was my home phone number. In fact, it was the main number of the Washington bureau of the Fox News Channel.    I thought it was funny. Fox did not think it was funny. 
CARVILLE:   I say this seriously. You have four children. One of your child is in the third grade, the same classroom as my child. And you know what my definition of an operation that would scare the dickens out of little children and a mother living at home and a lot of times you being out of town? This is a pond scum operation that would do that, that would terrify children, that would put something like that up there for the bunch of nuts that watch that thing to call and harass you.    You pulled a joke. If they want to go adult-to-adult, person-to-person, that's fine. You're big enough to take it. They have no right to be scaring the dickens out of children, out of little children, when their daddy's out of town. And they ought to be ashamed of themselves. 
CARLSON:   OK. 
CARVILLE:   Ashamed of themselves for doing that. 
CARLSON:   Well, thank you, James. Incidentally, we have Roger Ailes' home phone number, but we're not going to give it to you. 
CARVILLE:   No, I wouldn't do that, because Roger Ailes has a small child. He showed me the picture of it. I think Roger Ailes is a good man. 
CARLSON:   OK. 
CARVILLE:   I don't think he was behind this. 
CARLSON:   All right. Now there are 10. The Democrats who want to be president have yet another challenger. Is the former general ready to play politics with the professionals? We'll debate the debate just ahead.
