MTP Transcript for Mar. 4, 2007

MR. RUSSERT: It sounds like the domino theory that we heard in Vietnam.

SEN. GRAHAM: It’s not a domino theory, it’s their own words. It’s not me saying what they’re going to do, it’s them saying what they’re going to do. And I believe them. I believe the president of Iran, if he had a nuclear weapon, would attack Israel. I don’t believe in sitting down with him and talking about world problems until he acknowledges the Holocaust exists. This is 2007. The president of Iran, sitting on a sea of oil, has openly said in the United Nations, “My goal is to wipe Israel off the state—the face of the earth,” and their nuclear weapons program is not about peaceful power, it’s about a nuclear weapons...

MR. RUSSERT: Do you think the Iraqi government is closer to Iran than they are the United States?

SEN. GRAHAM: I think the Iraqi government is a lot closer to Iran, because they’re their neighbors. The Iraqi government...

MR. RUSSERT: Well, ideologically.

SEN. GRAHAM: No. I—here’s what I—Sadr represents a Shia view. Maliki and others represent the—what’s best for Shias? Is it to have the country partitioned, and Iran become stronger, where other—every Sunni Arab state would be threatened? No. What’s best for the Shias, according to Maliki and others, is to be the dominant political force in a democracy. What’s best for the Sunnis in Iraq? To be run out of the country? No. To have part of the oil. The oil revenue sharing deal is on the verge of being successful. It could change everything. What’s best for the Kurds in the north? To live in a confederation where your, your children can be prosperous and you never have to worry about Turkey invading you. It’s in all of their interests to live together in a loose confederation under the rule of law and democracy. I believe that.

MR. RUSSERT: Before you go, you are a very strong supporter of the John McCain for president campaign.

SEN. GRAHAM: Yeah.

MR. RUSSERT: Rudy Giuliani has pulled significantly ahead in all the polls...

SEN. GRAHAM: Mm-hmm.

MR. RUSSERT: ...we have seen over the last few months. Why is that?

SEN. GRAHAM: I think people admire Rudy because he was the American mayor—America’s mayor during 9/11. He’s truly an American hero. And he has a lot to offer to the Republican Party. But comparison shopping hasn’t started. This is early in the game, and we’re talking about straw polls of, you know, 1,000 people at, at the most. We’re going to have a comparison shopping going on in the Republican—here’s what Republicans got to do. Why did we lose in 2006? We need to nominate someone that can get our party right with the American people and get us back to fiscal conservatism. We need to put somebody who can stand up to the Clinton machine, if she’s elected. We need somebody to be the commander in chief without doubt. Rudy Giuliani is electable in general election. Can he get through the primary because he’s so different on the core social issues? I don’t know, that’s his problem. Can John McCain get through the primary? He’s made people mad in the past. Can Mitt Romney prove to people that this is what I believe today, and this is why, and I can be commander in chief? We’ve got a lot of talented people in our primary. But if we don’t get back to the basics of being a Republican on the fiscal side, and elect someone that can stand up to, to the test of being commander in chief, we will not do well in ‘08. But we have good candidates, and our Democratic friends have an array of very good candidates. It’s going to be an exciting election.

MR. RUSSERT: Lindsey Graham, we thank you for joining us.

SEN. GRAHAM: Thank you.

MR. RUSSERT: Coming next, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, speaking this very morning at black churches in Selma, Alabama. Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, John McCain, all fighting for the support of the Republican base. Our roundtable, John Harwood, Eugene Robinson are next right here on MEET THE PRESS.

(Announcements)

MR. RUSSERT: And we are back.

John Harwood, Gene Robinson, welcome both. Let’s go right to it. Republican conservatives gathered in Washington, the Conservative Political Action Conference. All spoke, major candidates spoke, except John McCain, who was fund-raising, other part of the country. There was a straw vote, and here are the results: Romney, 21; Giuliani, 17; Sam Brownback of Kansas, 15; Newt Gingrich, 14; John McCain, 12. The McCain forces hasten to add that they won the Spartanburg, South Carolina, straw vote.

John Harwood, does this mean anything?

MR. JOHN HARWOOD: No. It is a nice thing for Mitt Romney. It’s, he brought a lot of people down. He did well in his speech. Among other things, he put a very, very heavy accent on his personal life, his 38 years of marriage and his children and grandchildren, which is a nice contrast for him to draw with twice-divorced Rudy Giuliani, once-divorced John McCain. So it was a good day for Mitt Romney, but there are very, very powerful cross-currents within this party, within this field, and he’s not going to get over it with one straw vote.

MR. RUSSERT: Gene Robinson, Time magazine talked to Republicans all across the country, little broader profile, if you will, universe. And this is the result of their poll: Giuliani, 38; McCain, 24; Gingrinch, 12; Romney, 7. Giuliani showing surprising strength in the Republican primary, according to some. His people say, “We expected this all the time.”

MR. EUGENE ROBINSON: Well, I’m not sure they did. I mean, these numbers are getting better and better for Rudy Giuliani and kind of worse and worse for John McCain. The question, I think, is we still don’t know how Giuliani will do in the South. I, I don’t know, at least, in South Carolina, for example. There’s been—there’s been a little polling that indicates people really don’t know him that well. And I think, as they learn his positions on abortion, on guns, on gays, on the kind of three sacred issues, it’s hard for me to imagine those numbers staying the same. And it’s really early.

MR. RUSSERT: He is on the cover of Newsweek magazine, entitled “The Real Rudy,” and I’ll show it on the screen there. The subtitle is, “The hero of September 11^th is a man of strength and skill, but can be stubborn and abrasive. The question for 2008: Do his virtues trump his vices?”

And Mitt Romney, one of his opponents, gave an interview for the Christian Broadcast Network, John Harwood, and had this to say about Rudy Giuliani.

(Videotape, Thursday)

FMR. GOV. MITT ROMNEY (R-MA): He is pro-choice and, and pro-gay marriage, and anti-gun. And that’s a—that’s a tough combination in a Republican primary.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT: Giuliani will say, yes, he’s pro-choice, yes, he’s anti-gun, but he is pro-civil unions, but not pro-gay marriage. But, nonetheless, Mitt Romney drawing the line on those social cultural issues.

MR. HARWOOD: Well, he’s got a great point. Look, Rudy Giuliani has steel in his spine. He’s got a strong security profile. All that’s a good thing. But he is very vulnerable to what’s going to happen in debates, in negative advertising. One thing he’s doing that’s positive for the Republican Party right now is, one, he’s presenting a different face to the party, to the country; secondly, he’s running very strongly in these horse race polls against Barack Obama, against Hillary Clinton, giving his party a little bit of confidence that maybe all isn’t lost after that disastrous 2006 election. So all that’s a good thing. But he’s got a very rough road to hoe once, once the rubber really hits the road in this primary.

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