Al Franken visits 'Scarborough Country'

SCARBOROUGH: ... Al, there's obviously -- a lot of Democrats in the base are very concerned about Hillary Clinton.  They believe that she is moderating too much on the war.  Tim Robbins ... stepped forward and was critical of her a few days ago, because he and, again, a lot of people in the base, think she has really been associating herself too closely with President Bush. 

Do you think that's going to be a problem for her in '08, or do you think she is taking the right tact? 

FRANKEN:  I don't know if it's about taking a tact.  It may be. 

I am a talk show host.  And I feel like some responsibility on talking about what we should and shouldn't be doing in Iraq, and I literally don't know.  I mean, I think there are -- I think we may be in a no-win position, and have been put there.  You know, I say things like, employ Iraqis, put them to work.  But that's something we should have done a year-and-a-half, two years ago in reconstructing their country. 

I think we should really have congressional investigations.  I think Congress should do its oversight into the corruption that's there from both our companies and Iraqi companies.  And that's something that Congress just won't do.  And I think it's because they are afraid of offending the White House.  I think we need the White House to be more truthful with us, frankly. 

But I think that it's legitimate for people to have different views of what's going of what is going -- of what we need to do.  Wesley Clark had an op-ed piece yesterday in 'The New York Times' that said we should be securing the border with Iran more, and we should put pressure on the Iraqi government to outlaw these militias. 

I mean, you have Muqtada al-Sadr, who has a slate as big as anyone for the Shiites, and his militia killed U.S. soldiers, and he is going to be a big part of this government.  So, I think it is very chaotic there, and I think that it's really hard for Americans to have a real open debate about this if everybody is criticizing each other for their opinions and their stances. 

SCARBOROUGH:  Yes.  It is awfully tough.  And it's awfully tough.  And we always found this -- Republicans found this when Bill Clinton was president of the United States.  It's hard to speak in a unified voice when you have got all these House and Senate members running around.  And then, I mean, Republicans were in the majority, and it was still hard to compete with that one single voice coming out of the White House. 

Hey, tell us in closing about your book. 

FRANKEN:  Well, can I say something about this, how divided -- divisive and divided we are? 
I think the president -- I think people have to remember back to September 12, 2001.  We were the most united we had ever been in our history that I can remember.  And we had the world behind us.  And I think the president hijacked 9/11 and used it to go to war with Iraq, in a way that was very divisive.  And I think he was divisive by holding the-having the vote on the resolution for him to use force right before the election, and the way he used the Department of Homeland Security, which, if you see four years later, he hasn't really taken seriously at all. 

You don't put Michael ... Brown ... in charge of FEMA, if you really, really care about our Homeland Security.  And so I think this president deliberately divided us and took a -- he took a chance that this war would be successful.  And it hasn't been, and I think he took a gamble, and he has lost. 

SCARBOROUGH:  ... We don't agree on everything, but the one thing I think all of us can agree on is, this country is divided right now.

After eight years of Bill Clinton and eight years of George Bush, I think a lot of Americans are going to be looking for people that can bring the country together, just the divisiveness.  And it just doesn't matter whose fault it is or isn't.  We have got to come together as a country. 

FRANKEN:  Barack Obama. 

SCARBOROUGH:  Barack Obama? John McCain, baby. ... All right.  Thanks so much for being with us.  Greatly appreciate it.   The book is "The Truth With Jokes."  Thanks so much, Al, for being with us.

Catch 'Scarborough Country' each weeknight at 10 p.m. ET

MORE FROM MORNING JOE

Morning Joe Section Front

Despite downturn, ‘prosperity gospel’ still strong   Tree ‘murdered’, dragged to 30 Rock   Did people make 'too big a deal' out of NY-23?   Oprah tweets about Palin interview   Education secretary unveils school aid program   Stengel: Hasan a ‘new kind of terrorist’   When will Obama unveil Afghan policy?   ‘Obamanos!’ examines ‘energy’ of ‘08 campaign   Prejean scolds Larry King during interview   Is Karzai an obstacle to success in Afghanistan? Morning Joe Section Front   Add Morning Joe headlines to your news reader: