MTP Transcript for Jan. 28, 2007

GOV. HUCKABEE: Absolutely. You know, I think people underestimate her at their own peril. She’s a very strong, capable, brilliant person, and she will most certainly be a formidable candidate.

MR. RUSSERT: You’re from Hope, Arkansas. So is Bill Clinton.

GOV. HUCKABEE: Yes.

MR. RUSSERT: Are you similar?

GOV. HUCKABEE: We both came from Hope, Arkansas. We both came from humble origins. I think there are a lot of differences in us politically and philosophically, but the one thing that I’d say that we do share is that we share the sense of coming out of roots that really are, are poverty. I was the first male in my entire family lineage to even graduate high school. I—I’ve lived the American dream, Tim. One of the reasons that I’m running for president is because I think that America needs folks who understand what it is to start at the bottom of the ladder and climb their way to the top. We’ve got a lot of people who are born on third base and think they’ve hit a triple. America loves an underdog. America loves people who’ve had to struggle and for whom every rung of the ladder has been sometimes three rungs up and two back down. Thank God for the one you’ve gained and, and keep climbing.

MR. RUSSERT: David Broder of The Washington Post wrote this column in 2005:

“Huckabee ... is part of a bewildering variety of networks. A preacher for 12 years, he headed the Arkansas Baptist State Convention before being elected lieutenant governor and succeeding the scandal-tainted Jim Guy Tucker as governor in 1996. But at 1 a.m. last Sunday, he could be found wearing a Hawaiian shirt, playing bass guitar and leading his rock band of fellow Arkansans, called Capitol Offense, at the [National Governor’s Association] staff party at Raccoon River Brewing Co., a downtown beer hall.” And we have found this footage, governor.

GOV. HUCKABEE: Uh-oh, I’m in trouble now.

MR. RUSSERT: I believe—let’s take a look.

(Videotape of Governor Huckabee playing guitar)

GOV. HUCKABEE: This is from Memphis, by the way, yeah.

MR. RUSSERT: Now, I believe that song is “Born To Be Wild.” Is that your inner self?

GOV. HUCKABEE: It probably would be born to be mild would be a better one for me. I love music. One of the things that I’m very passionate about is music and art and education because it was life-changing for me. I think in a creative economy we’ve got to have a whole group of kids coming up and a generation whose left and right brains are stimulated. It’s something I pushed for as a governor in Arkansas where we are one of the few states that required both music and art education. I’m a musician, I’m passionate about it, but I think this, this country has made a huge mistake in cutting music and art out of school budgets. And it’s something we’ve got to address because the future economy is dependent upon a creative generation.

MR. RUSSERT: Governor Mike Huckabee, he’s announced for president. Thank you for sharing your views, and we’ll be following your campaign.

GOV. HUCKABEE: Thank you, Tim.

MR. RUSSERT: Coming next, Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, Republican Senator David Vitter, former Bush adviser Michael Gerson, former Clinton adviser Ken Pollack—they are all here. The Iraq war, what now? Where do we go from here? Only on MEET THE PRESS.

(Announcements)

MR. RUSSERT: Senators Schumer and Vitter, Ken Pollack, Michael Gerson, the war in Iraq after this station break.

(Announcements)

MR. RUSSERT: And we’re back joined by Senator David Vitter, Republican of Louisiana; Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York; Michael Gerson, the Council on Foreign Relations; Ken Pollack, the Saban Center of the Brookings Institution.

Welcome all.

SEN. DAVID VITTER (R-LA): Thank you.

MR. RUSSERT: Senator Schumer, let me start with you. We’ll talk about your book, “Positively American: Winning Back the Middle Class Majority One Family at a Time,” in a little bit. But let me start with Iraq.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Yeah.

MR. RUSSERT: This was the scene yesterday down in Washington on the Mall, tens of thousands of Americans protesting the war, calling for a withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Senator Schumer, with that kind of anti-war fervor in the country and within the Democratic Party, do you believe that it’s inevitable Democrats will cut funding for the war off?

SEN. SCHUMER: Well, we’ll certainly ratchet up the pressure against President Bush. The bottom line is that this escalation, for instance, is so poorly received, not just by Democrats, but by all of the American people. Our first step will be this sense of the Senate resolution. But it’s only the first step. I believe, Tim, that that resolution will not only get a large number of Democrats—most Democrats to vote for it, but a large number of Republicans, close or even a majority. And that will send shock waves through the White House and through the country.

MR. RUSSERT: The secretary of defense, Robert Gates, says to vote for that resolution would embolden the enemy.

SEN. SCHUMER: I don’t think that’s true, and, you know, that kind of talk has led us into the problems in Iraq. When General Shinseki said something, they didn’t debate the issue, whether we needed 200,000 troops, they just kneecapped them. And right now 70 percent of the American people want a change in policy. That’s democracy, and Democrats and American people are not going to be intimidated by that kind of talk. We have to debate the issues. We haven’t had enough of a debate until now. The election in 2006 said debate those issues. We will not be intimidated.

MR. RUSSERT: You said this to Don Imus on Wednesday about the prime minister of Iraq. “Here’s a guy we know is incompetent. He’s controlled by our biggest enemy, Sadr. He can’t do even the execution of Saddam right, in a dignified way. And we’re putting more troops to back him?” If you have no confidence in the prime minister of Iraq, then why not stop the war now and cut off the funding?

SEN. SCHUMER: Well, the problem with just an immediate withdrawal is that it would create huge problems, as Ken outlines in his report. One, you’d have huge loss of life. Two, you might very well bring in other countries—Iran, Saudis—and have a huge conflagration. And worst for the United States, you might create grounds where terrorists would go. So we are for a rational, careful withdrawal. We’d like to see the troops reduced by a great amount by the end of 2007, and we are going to put pressure on President Bush not just in this resolution, but particularly in the upcoming funding resolution, to make that happen.

MR. RUSSERT: So you will cut off the money for some troop assignments.

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