‘Meet the Press’ transcript for Sept. 2, 2007

MR. TIM RUSSERT:  Our issues this Sunday:  A draft report from the investigative arm of Congress finds little positive progress in Iraq just two weeks before General David Petraeus returns to Washington with his own report.

Former Senator Fred Thompson will finally become an official presidential candidate this week.

The political fallout over the arrest and resignation of Republican Senator Larry Craig continues.

And Clinton, Edwards and Obama locked in a very tight race in Iowa just four months before the Iowa caucus.

With us, a special Labor Day weekend political roundtable.  He helped put Bill and Hillary Clinton in the White House in 1992, Democrat James Carville.  She worked for Bush 41 and Bush 43 and now supports Fred Thompson, Republican Mary Matalin.  He’s worked for both John McCain and Mitt Romney, Republican Mike Murphy.  And he’s worked for John Kerry, John Edwards, Al Gore and more, Democrat Bob Shrum.  The race for the White House through the eyes of Carville, Matalin, Murphy and Shrum only on MEET THE PRESS.

Welcome, all.  It’s Labor Day, and what a way to kick it off, with this brain trust.  Let’s go right, right to it.  What a week in politics!  This was the scene yesterday, Boise, Idaho, Senator Larry Craig.

(Videotape)

SEN. LARRY CRAIG (R-ID):  To my wife and my family, I apologize for what I have caused.

It is with sadness and deep regret that I announce that it is my intent to resign from the Senate, effective September 30^th.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT:  A much different tone than we saw on Tuesday when Senator Craig was blaming the local newspaper, The Idaho Statesman, for his difficulties. Let’s watch the senator on Tuesday.

(Videotape)

SEN. CRAIG:  I did nothing wrong at the Minneapolis airport.  I did nothing wrong, and I regret the decision to plead guilty.

Let me be clear, I am not gay; I never have been gay.  Still, without a shred of truth or evidence to the contrary, The Statesman has engaged in this witch hunt.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT:  Mike Murphy, how have we gone from a witch hunt by a local paper to resignation in five days?

MR. MIKE MURPHY:  Well, I want to start by saying I have a very narrow stance. I think that’s the catchword everybody’s going to remember out of this.  What happened is the Republican leadership very quietly made it clear to Senator Craig, I think, that they had the elephant gun ready and they were going to increase pressure on him.  The RNC even might have done something.  And I think Larry Craig did the political calculation that he was in a situation where it would only get worse for him, and so he resigned, which I think is a good thing for the Republican Party.  And hopefully we’ll put this behind us.

MR. RUSSERT:  It was a different reaction in terms of speed by response by the Republicans to this crisis than it was to Mark Foley, the congressman from, from Florida...

MR. MURPHY:  Right.

MR. RUSSERT:  ...during the page scandal.

MR. MURPHY:  Yeah.

MR. RUSSERT:  Did the Republicans learn something from that?

MR. MURPHY:  Yeah, well, I think there’s a general feeling in the Republican Party right now that what we don’t need is more trouble.  We got plenty.  And I think so that the fact that Senator Craig gave a not particularly compelling explanation.  He blamed it on the Boise paper when he, you know, caught a moral charge.

MR. ROBERT SHRUM:  Not particularly compelling!

MR. MURPHY:  Yeah, yeah.  Not—so I, I think that there’s a new focus in the Republican Party now on, on not having problems.  And we have Vitter, too, so I think small tolerance and small patience for this sort of thing.  And I think, also, it’s Idaho, and Larry Craig took a look around the political landscape and thought he was going to spend the next year of his life into a campaign, making these Shermanesque statements and battling this, and it looked like a losing fight.

MR. RUSSERT:  Bob Shrum, Mike Murphy mentioned Vitter, a reference to Senator Vitter of Louisiana, who has acknowledged that he solicited a D.C. madam, and yet there’s no calls for his resignation.  Senators say, “Well, that happened when he was a member of the House.” He did not plead guilty to a criminal offense.

MR. SHRUM:  Right.

MR. RUSSERT:  Is there a difference or is it a double standard?

MR. SHRUM:  Well, if he committed murder in the House, I don’t think they could give that defense.  I think there is a double standard.  What happened here is that Larry Craig was involved or solicited a male, and I think that really upset the base of the Republican Party.  He also looked ridiculous.  He went from 1 percent name recognition to 99 percent in about 24 hours.  And there was a wide stance in terms of his hypocrisy between what he had said about gay people and his own personal conduct.  It was a purely political decision.  The difference wasn’t, as the Republicans have said, that Vitter faced no criminal charges or had no criminal charges.  The difference was that Louisiana doesn’t have a Republican governor who can appoint a Republican successor.

MR. RUSSERT:  They have a Democratic governor who would, would appoint a Democrat replacement.

MR. SHRUM:  That’s right.

MR. RUSSERT:  And so you think that muted that Republican response?

MR. SHRUM:  Oh, absolutely.  And I think they made—look, they made a very practical decision here.  It wasn’t a decision made according to a set of principles, it was to keep the base happy and to try to avoid the ethical taint that they faced in 2006.  I don’t think this will be easily forgotten. I mean, this is water cooler conversation and jokes will proliferate about this for a long time.

MR. RUSSERT:  James Carville, in 1999 Larry Craig was on this program talking about William Jefferson Clinton, the president of the United States, and his behavior.  This is the way Senator Craig talked about the president.

(Videotape, January 24, 1999)

SEN. CRAIG:  And I will tell you that the Senate certainly can bring about a censure resolution, and it’s a slap on the wrist.  It’s a “Bad boy, Bill Clinton, you’re a naughty boy.” The American people already know that Bill Clinton is a bad boy, a naughty boy.  I’m going to speak out for the citizens of my state who, in the majority, think that Bill Clinton is probably even a nasty, bad, naughty boy.

(End videotape)

MR. JAMES CARVILLE:  You know, I’ve said many times that those who are not willing to give pardon and mercy are those that don’t need pardon and mercy. Clearly, Senator Craig is not one of these people, nor, I suspect, is anybody on this television set or are very few people like that.  And I couldn’t—I remember that, as you remember a lot of things.  And I remember that people know the way that he, he used gays in, in terms of gay marriage or gays in the military.  He was very, very far out there.  And I think the American public has really sort of turned against this kind of thing, and I think he was exposed for being the kind of hypocrite that he was.  By the same token, you could not look at that event yesterday and be a human being and not feel sorry for that man, to some extent, and feel sorry for his family.  But, you know, the, the message here is just shut your mouth and lead the life.  And I think that’s what the American people want, want, want people to do.

What I found extraordinary about this is nobody came out and defended this guy.  I mean, nobody said, “He’s a good man, done a bad thing.” “Here’s a decent guy who’s obviously been struggling with a problem.” “Here’s somebody who”—I mean, nobody.  No Republican, no, no, no, no operative, no journalist. Nobody said, “Well, Larry Craig’s got nothing.” And I mean, they didn’t throw him under the bus, they hit him with the bus.  I mean, he’s like, boom! Flattened him.

MR. RUSSERT:  Mary.  Mary Matalin:

MS. MARY MATALIN:  If you’re a liberal and you cheat on your wife, it’s a private affair.  If you’re a conservative and you cheat on your wife, you’re a hypocrite.  Normal people, when the husband cheats on the wife, the wife does not consider the politics before she gives a response on this.  Normal people out there did just what James just referenced, they looked at Mrs.  Craig, and I remember looking at Lee Hart and through the years this—these poor suffering families.  The first thing normal people thinks are—think are, “What?  Is—this is a family tragedy.” The second thing they think is, “Why is everybody in Washington glued to this?  And can’t—and don’t you guys have something better to do?” And thirdly, I didn’t listen to the tape, I didn’t watch any of this, but the people that I talked to are not particularly Craig fans, or critics, said, “That sounds like entrapment.  Don’t the cops have better things to do than tap dance in bathrooms in the airport?” I’m just telling you the normal person view at the end of all...

MR. SHRUM:  But he pleaded guilty, Mary, that was the—I mean, he pleaded guilty.  I mean, that killed him.  I mean...

MS. MATALIN:  I—but my larger point is, I think this has no political legs. And I further think, to the extent we’re discussing it in the political arena, I don’t think the best strategy for Hillary Clinton is to attack the Republicans by defending her husband for a 10-year-old charge.  She doesn’t want to re-bring up those scandals.  This week she also had the other Johnny Chung redux scandal, so if I were you guys, I would just move, move ahead and not put Clinton and Craig in the same pot.

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