CARLSON:   Welcome back to the mother-knows-best edition of "Rapid Fire". Sit up straight. Keep your answers short. Pay no attention to those Democrats running for president. After all, former first lady Barbara Bush calls them -- quote -- "a pretty sorry group." And our guests, Virginia Democratic Congressman Jim Moran, Republican Congressman Mike Pence of Indiana. 
CARVILLE:   Congressman Pence, there's great speculation in the papers who the Republicans would most like to run against for president. Which Democrat would you most like to see the Democratic Party -- or the Democrat Party, as you all refer to it -- nominate for president? 
PENCE:   James, selfishly, I would love to see Howard Dean be the nominee, signing the first gay marriage law in America, if memory serves, a man who opposed the war in Iraq from stem to stern, a man who has a liberal agenda on economics and on social policy. I think the bright-line contrast between President George Bush's positive, mainstream 
CARVILLE:   "Rapid Fire," Congressman. 
CARLSON:   Congressman Moran, you had nice words to say about Howard Dean. 
MORAN:   I did. 
CARLSON:   I thought that was pretty magnanimous, considering he described you as -- quote -- "one of a bunch of cockroaches."    How does that make you feel? 
MORAN:   You have got this selective interpretation of the things that you read. 
CARLSON:   Members of Congress are going to be scurrying    ... cockroaches. That's you, the cockroach. 
MORAN:   I think Howard Dean is doing a good job in energizing particularly the Democratic base, but a lot of independents. And I'm happy to have good words to say about him. I'm happy to have good words to say about any Democrat that's out there on the hustings and taking flak and working hard. And I think that, on the issue of civil unions, for example, that's going to be viewed as a civil rights issue. I think, personally, that it is. I don't think it is going to be the kind of handicap you think it is, Mike, maybe in Indiana, not on the East or West Coast. 
CARVILLE:   Do you agree with Mrs. Barbara Bush that the Democratic field is a pretty sorry lot? 
PENCE:   I never disagree with either my mother or the mother of the president of the United States, James.    And... 
CARVILLE:   That is a pretty good answer. 
PENCE:   That was a little tough. 
CARVILLE:   I don't want to say anything against her, because I'm kind of scared of her myself, to tell you the truth. 
PENCE:   That was a little tough. I'm kind of with Jim in admiring anybody out on the hustings. 
CARVILLE:   I think a mother has the right to defend her son. 
CARLSON:   But, Congressman, you got to admit that Wes Clark's popularity is a sign that the field is pretty weak, isn't it? 
MORAN:   I think Wes Clark's popularity is a sign of how strong he is. He's a Rhodes Scholar. He was first in his class at West Point. And I think he's had good positions. I think he's surprised people that he's articulate. 
CARLSON:   That is another show.    Congressman Mike Pence of Indiana, thank you very much. Congressman Jim Moran, Alexandria, Virginia, thank you very much. 
