ANNOUNCER:   On the left: James Carville and Paul Begala. On the right: Robert Novak and Tucker Carlson. In the 
CROSSFIRE:   was it a memorial or a political rally? 
VENTURA:   I think the Democrats should hang their head in shame. 
UNIDENTIFIED MALE:   ... wasn't politics, it was Paul Wellstone. 
ANNOUNCER:   Is a viable candidate or has-been? Tonight: Minnesota and a state of political confusion. Some call it Sin City. He wants to keep it that way. We're talking the politics of sin with the mayor of Las Vegas. They skewer politicians, they wrote the book about the people who skewer politicians. Now we get to skewer the people who wrote the book about skewering politicians. Everyone's a critic. Tonight on CROSSFIRE. From the George Washington University: James Carville and Tucker Carlson. 
CARVILLE:   Welcome to CROSSFIRE. It's the night before Halloween and Walter Mondale is coming back to haunt the Republicans. We'll also talk television and politics with the guys who went looking for the skeletons in "Saturday Night Live's" closet. But first, with only six days to Election Day, it's time for our own version of trick or treat. Here comes the CROSSFIRE "Political Alert." Minnesota's Democratic former labor party is meeting tonight to pick a replacement for the late Senator Paul Wellstone. Actually, as former Vice President Mondale has just written a note to party leaders, Wellstone cannot be replaced. But Mondale also wrote the words Democrats all over the country wanted to hear, "It's with a heavy heart, but a great hope for the future that I will pick up the campaign where Paul Wellstone left off." 
CARLSON:   I can't believe you said that with a straight face. Walter Mondale. Four words for you, James: bring back Jimmy Carter. 
CARVILLE:   Here's a party that has a 100-year-old senator talking about Walter Mondale being 74. He's the same age Bob Dole ran for president. 
CARLSON:   Walter Mondale. The political world is still reeling tonight from yesterday's nauseating display in Minnesota, where a memorial service for the late Senator Paul Wellstone was hijacked by partisan zealots and turned into a political rally. Republican friends of Senator Wellstone were booed and shouted down as they tried to speak. Democrats, meanwhile, used the occasion to promote the desperate candidacy of, yes, Walter Mondale. If the 74-year-old former vice president does not win, one Democrat operative shouted, "then our spirits will be crushed and we will drown in a river of tears." Governor Jesse Ventura, not a man who is easily shocked, was so offended that he walked out. Others in the crowd, including the Clintons, the Gores and Senator Ted Kennedy, did not. They stayed and they smiled. 
CARVILLE:   Actually he was not easily shocked. He was duped. That's one thing he is, easily duped. Let me tell you something. You know what's the outrage here? Is the stupid outrage from the namby pampy -- you know what, this man was political. It was a funeral, it was a political funeral. I've been in Louisiana, you go to somebody that played jazz, you play jazz at a funeral. 
CARLSON:   What in the world are you... 
CARVILLE:   They mix in politics in the funeral, of course they did. He was a politician. 
CARLSON:   It's a funeral, man. Is nothing sacred? 
CARVILLE:   His son -- it was his life. If Louis Armstrong dies, you play jazz. Paul Wellstone dies, you talk about politics. Get over it. 
CARLSON:   Jazz is more defensible than revolting politics. 
CARVILLE:   It was not revolting. 
CARLSON:   It is revolting. 
CARVILLE:   Politics is an honorable cause. 
CARLSON:   It makes me sick. 
CARVILLE:   If it's enough to make trouble for Martha Stewart, why isn't it enough to make trouble for George W. Bush? The "Boston Globe" has obtained a 1990 memo in which lawyers for Harken Energy Company (ph) warned the board of directors not to unload their stock because it would look like insider trading. George W. Bush, who thinks he's above the law, was on the board at the time, sold his stock anyway, to the tune of nearly $1 million. That memo is a lot more   than authorities have for going after poor old Martha. And she didn't even make half as much money from her stock sale. Suppose the SEC will jump in and investigate now or ask why an earlier poll be ignored about insider knowledge Bush may have had? As Martha Stewart might say, it would be a good thing. 
CARLSON:   Let me get this straight James. Walter Mondale, a 1990 memo, the Democratic Party, the party of tomorrow -- that's pathetic, man. You got to do better than that to win the election. 
CARVILLE:   You guys spent $70 million -- you spent more money investigating Clinton than you did trying to find these snipers. That's what you did and you ought to be ashamed of yourself and you ought to be ashamed of yourself having a 100-year-old man in the United States Senate attacking someone for their age. 
CARLSON:   Get over it. 
CARVILLE:   That's why the people in the United States are not going to vote Republican because you attacked them. And they can serve and they can serve well. Believe you me. 
CARLSON:   It's about the rights of the elderly now. 
CARVILLE:   Right. And it's about their Social Security, too. 
CARLSON:   Yes it is. OK. There was a shakeup today at the Democratic brain trust when the party's chief foreign policy adviser, Barbra Streisand, announced that she'll retire and return to her first love, musical comedy. Several weeks ago Dr. Streisand issued a position paper identifying Saddam Hussein as the "president of Iran," a gaff that let some to question her grasp on international affairs. The party has announced her replacement: noted intellectual and hard-core pornographer Larry Flynt. Flynt made his inaugural remarks in Paris, where he was opening a new strip club. He began by congratulating the governments of France and Germany for their virulent anti-Americanism. Then he attacked President George W. Bush as "the least qualified and least prepared president we've ever had." As evidence, Flynt noted that unlike himself and Dr. Streisand, President Bush has never appeared in a B movie and does not even live in Beverly Hills.  
CARVILLE:   Well let me just say this. Neither Larry Flynt or Barbra Streisand have been guilty of insider trading, so that's one good thing. 
CARLSON:   You're defending Larry Flynt? 
CARVILLE:   It's a little too soon for the Oscars, but if there were a category for best performance by a non-elected president who wants to believe he's suddenly a convert to  , what you are about to see would be a shoe-in to win. It's President Bush signing a brand new law to clean up voter registration and modernize the voting process. This from a man who filed a lawsuit to stop legal counting of votes in Florida. It gives the state almost $4 billion to, among other things, get rid of punch card ballots, dimpled dangling, pregnant, and every other form of chad. The president said every registered voter deserves to have confidence that the system is fair, that elections are honest, that every vote is counted and that the rules of consistently applied. Oh yeah, right. The only votes he really wants counted are the five votes in the Supreme Court justices who put him in the White House. 
CARLSON:   You are really caught in the past. This is over, and I'll have you know the Vietnam War is over, too. 
CARVILLE:   You know what, your people spent more money investigating Clinton than they spent on the snipers, Oklahoma City and TWA 800. You're the party of the past, the big past.   I would say don't worry about it too. 
CARLSON:   I'm sure that will bring your party to electoral success. Good luck, James. The U.S. regularly warns its citizens about the dangers of traveling to certain hostile countries. Now an apparently hostile country is warning its own citizens to avoid long-term travel to the United States. We're speaking, of course, of Canada, which is the large, cold country at the top of this continent. A Canadian government travel advisory suggests that Canadian citizens born in Iraq, Syria and other places that promote terrorism should refrain from entering the U.S., lest they face discrimination from mean Americans at the border. The intent of the advisory is to contrast the sensitivity of Canada with the heartlessness of the United States. But the effect will be to discourage citizens of that snowbound wasteland from venturing south to a more welcoming climate. The message from the Canadian government? Stay in your igloos. So who is the heartless one here? 
CARVILLE:   You know what, your party hates everybody. You hate elderly people... 
CARLSON:   I love the Canadians. 
CARVILLE:   You called them a snowbound wasteland. All eyes are on Minnesota tonight, as Democratic leaders get ready to put Walter Mondale on the ballot. Republicans, on the other hand, are getting ready to change Minnesota's nickname from the gopher state to the sour grapes state. Let's get the latest from CNN's Jonathan Karl in Minneapolis. 
KARL:   Well James, you know I want to make clear, you were talking about the 100-year-old senator. I think you were talking about Strom Thurmond. He is actually only 99, according to his office. But right here, we have in the theater behind me, the Democrats will gather and formally tap Walter Mondale as their candidate. Inside the theater right now, they've already started to gather. 800 delegates, 800 local party activists from across the state of Minnesota coming together. They will put Walter Mondale's name in the nomination. He's expected to be nominated by acclamation and then deliver his first speech as a political candidate since 1984. Afterwards, tomorrow morning early in the morning, Mondale will visit the old Wellstone campaign headquarters and then hold a press conference, where he will speak. And not only Walter Mondale will be there, but also Paul Wellstone's two surviving sons, David and Mark. They'll also be at that press conference as Mondale kicks off a statewide tour and five quick days of campaigning. 
CARLSON:   Can you fill us in on the fallout from the political rally that erupted at the funeral yesterday? 
KARL:   Well, certainly that has been the buzz throughout the state. The former Wellstone campaign actually apologized for the political tone of the rally. It really was somewhat more of a political rally than a funeral, as you saw. ] And then you had perhaps the most, the strongest reaction, not from the Republicans, but from the independent governor here, Jesse Ventura, who had this to say about the rally. 
VENTURA:   I feel used. I feel violated and duped over the fact that that turned into nothing more than a political rally. And like in the case of Senator Lott flying all the way up here and being booed when he's supposed to be going to a memorial service, I think the Democrats should hang their heads in shame. 
KARL:   Now the Republican reaction to what Jesse Ventura said is they were amazed that, in their words, that Jesse Ventura was now starting to speak sense. They clearly agreed with him on that count. And Republicans think this is something that will actually, you know, something that will hurt the Democrats as they went over the top last night. But we'll see what happens here, because obviously Wellstone's former supporters are fired up for this campaign. They're going to campaign for Walter Mondale in Paul Wellstone's name. 
CARLSON:   OK. Jonathan Karl reporting from an extremely cold place. Thanks for the update. We appreciate it. Still ahead: Democrats behaving badly. In this case, in a shameful display in Minnesota. Later, a politician who is not afraid to take a stand or a seat on lap dancing. He is, of course, the mayor of Las Vegas. Plus, the authors of an uncensored history of "Saturday Night Live" join us here. We'll be right back. 
CARVILLE:   A new poll in Minnesota gives Walter Mondale a 47 to 39 percent lead over Republican Norm Coleman. A lot can happen in six days, but you don't need a poll to know that November 5 is going to be a long tense night. To of the best political pollsters in the business are ready to step in the CROSSFIRE. Please welcome Democrat Mark Mellman and Republican Ed Goeas. 
CARLSON:   Awfully brave of you to come out tonight, Mark Mellman. 
MELLMAN:   In this weather, for sure. 
CARLSON:   No, I mean to defend the indefensible behavior of your party. I'm not even going to ask you that the Wellstone's campaign has already apologized for its behavior yesterday. I want, instead, to broaden it, and I want you to listen to something that Tom Daschle said at a rally yesterday about the death of Senator Paul Wellstone. He said "There is so much energy than there was two or three weeks ago. I think part of the reason for that is that people lament Paul Wellstone's passing and want to do this in part for him." This, being, of course, voting for the Democrat. Now people are accused of politicizing all sorts of events. And sometimes it's true. But to politicize a man's tragic death, that is about as low as you can go, isn't it? 
MELLMAN:   Look, this memorial service last night was put together by Paul Wellstone's sons. They are the ones who lost a father, a mother, a sister. Who are you to tell them how to celebrate the life of their late father? That's absurd. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.    They have the right to memorialize their father in whatever way they want. And their father was a man of principle, who stood up for principle. 
CARVILLE:   Take a deep breath. I want you to respond. This is the spokesman   for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, who said, "Wellstone's death would inspire Democratic voters and increase turnout." Now she's not a family member. She's leveraging and the party is leveraging his death politically. And that's disgusting and there's no excuse for that, is there? 
MELLMAN:   Nobody's leveraging his death for political gain. 
CARLSON:   She's saying it right here. 
MELLMAN:   People are asking the question. And the reality is, everybody who is a Democrat out there, walking precincts, walking door to door, trying to get people to vote, they're inspired by Paul Wellstone. They were inspired by his life and they are inspired to work even harder as a result of his death. There's no question about that. That's what heroes are all about. That's what heroes doe. They inspire people, and Paul Wellstone was a hero. 
CARVILLE:   Let's go, Ed, to -- you're right. The man died. The Republicans and the anti-political crowd are attacking his children at the moment of their father's death. 
CARLSON:   Attacking his children? What are you talking about? 
CARVILLE:   Well, of course, you're sitting there attacking the man's sons. But anyway, let's go -- we've got five days to go in Minnesota. What should Coleman be talking about? 
GOEAS:   Well, he needs to be talking to the voters of the state and he needs to be talking about Walter Mondale. There's a lot... 
CARVILLE:   Should he be talking about  ? Should he be talking about the funeral? 
GOEAS:   Well you asked me. You know the state is much different than the last time Walter Mondale ran there. There's over a million voters more, almost 40 percent more voters there now than there was last time he ran. Last time he ran was 1984 for president. He only won the state by 4,000 votes. There's a lot of clarification in terms of his record. Things like, does he still believe in tax increases to help the economy? There's also some interesting things in terms of other tax issues, like taxation of the Internet. The Internet that wasn't even created by Al Gore the last time he was serving in the Senate. 
CARVILLE:   Let me ask you a question. How much has Minnesota changed since 1996 when Norm Coleman endorsed President Clinton and Paul Wellstone? 
GOEAS:   Well... 
CARVILLE:   And how much has it changed since then...  
GOEAS:   The bottom line on the state is the state is about a quarter independent. A quarter Democrat and a quarter Republican. I think Mark is very right. The Democrats have been very enthused and very energized over the events of recent days. I think the mistake, in terms of the overreaching last night, and it wasn't Republicans saying this, it was independents saying this, it was voters saying this. The overreaching last night got Republicans energized to the same extent and it really did turn off a great deal of independents from the governor all the way down to... 
CARVILLE:   Well, one thing they need, energizing, because their candidate sure can't energize them. 
CARLSON:   Speaking of candidates here, I think I finally I understand the Democratic strategy, which is, of course, to sort of pull old people off the golf course and make them run for office. And I have heard talk in recent days, Max Cleland being replaced by Jimmy Carter in Georgia. Tim Johnson in South Dakota Senate race, not doing well. George McGovern taking his place. Do you think that's likely, or do you think this is a winning strategy, getting the elderly to run? 
MELLMAN:   The elderly shouldn't be discriminated against. 
CARLSON:   I agree. I totally agree. 
MELLMAN:   Seventy-four is not that old anymore, Tucker. I'll tell you. 
CARLSON:   He was elected when I was in first grade for the last time. 
MELLMAN:   You're a kid. That's OK. It's also OK for him to be 74. But you know what's disgusting in that race? What's disgusting is what the Republicans and their allies were putting out. Here's a flyer that was sent out, RIP. Paul Wellstone not only wants to... 
CARLSON:   That was done before he died. 
MELLMAN:   ... tax your business to death, he wants to tax you in the hereafter. This is the most negative personal attacks. 
CARLSON:   Well it's also true. 
MELLMAN:   The most negative personal attacks against Paul Wellstone that we've seen in any campaign in the country. Why is that defensible? 
CARVILLE:   What is the age difference between Bob Dole, when he ran for president in 1996 and Walter Mondale running for the Senate now? I just asked you a question. Just tell us. I'm curious... 
GOEAS:   I mean, again, you've been talking about the past all night. 
CARVILLE:   I just asked a question. What is the age difference between Bob Dole, as a Republican nominee in 1996 when he ran for president, and Walter Mondale, who is running for the United States Senate? 
GOEAS:   James, I'm not making an issue of age. Republicans may have made an issue of age. 
CARVILLE:   They're the same age. 
GOEAS:   Well, you know he's not running in the race up in Minnesota. He's not consulting in the race in Minnesota. The issue is going to be over the next five days having a very strong debate over the issues. Walter Mondale has a very long record of his position. He is a   liberal and admits to it, and... 
CARVILLE:   Let me say this to you. Norm Coleman does not have a long record. 
GOEAS:   His positions of the past, that you keep wanting to talk about, how they are valid and applicable in today's society. 
CARLSON:   OK. Well we will get to more of that in just a minute. We have to take a quick commercial break. In a minute, we'll look beyond Minnesota. Why would Walter Mondale want to serve in a Republican-controlled Senate anyway? We'll ask that question. Later, most politicians seek endorsements. We'll talk to one who gave his endorsement to a brand of gin. Good for him. Plus, the authors of a book "Publisher's Weekly" calls the "juiciest treasure trove of backstage gossip, sex and drugs since the "Andy Warhol Diaries." You won't want to miss it. We'll be right back.
