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‘Meet the Press’ transcript for Oct. 28, 2007
 | NBC video: Meet the Press |
 Take Two: The ‘Capital Gang’ returns The renowned "Capital Gang" – Margaret Carlson, Al Hunt, Bob Novak, Kate O'Beirne & Mark Shields – reunites to discuss the most outrageous campaign moments thus far and their predictions for the V.P. picks of Decision 2008. |
MR. RUSSERT: Bill Safire, it sure is striking how something that we always instinctively feel, that politicians always put on a gloss and a public persona, but it is remarkable when they let their hair down privately and later on in history, when they’re gone, we find out their true feelings.
MR. SAFIRE: I don’t know if I’ll—in fact, I don’t like the idea of “write this when I’m dead.” By the way, the title of the book is, “Write It While,” you know, “Write It When I’m Gone.” In the book it says “Write this when I’m dead.” And I don’t know about you, Tom, but I think some publisher said “dead” is a bad word in a title. But at any rate...
MR. RUSSERT: The language guru, Mr. Safire, speaks.
MR. DeFRANK: I have great reverence for Bill’s respect for the language.
MR. SAFIRE: But, I don’t know, it’s certainly from the reporters point of view, if somebody says that to you, you are free when somebody dies or when the time runs out you’re free to do it. But are you free to, if you’re the president, to say “While I’m alive, I don’t want to take heat for this, but afterwards I don’t care what happens? Then you’ll know what I think I thought at the time.” I’m—that makes me a little uncomfortable.
MR. RUSSERT: Here’s President Ford on Bill Clinton. “Back to impeachment: Ford told his wife Betty that” he’d “been talking about Clinton’s troubles with Monica Lewinsky”—“we’d been talking about Clinton’s troubles with Monica Lewinsky. ‘Betty and I have talked about this a lot. He’s sick. He’s got an addition. He needs treatment. He’s sick.’
“The former first lady, who’s Betty Ford Center has turned around tens of thousands of lives, joined in. ‘You know, there’s treatment for that kind of addiction. A lot of men have gone through the treatment with a lot of success. But he won’t do it, because he’s in denial.’
“Ford,” returning “to his Clinton head-shaking theme without any prompting, ‘I don’t understand why any of his Cabinet hasn’t resign. How can they keep working for him after he lied to them?’
“On a human level, he was more concerned about what he believed was Clinton’s denial—something he himself had witnessed with Betty for years until she face dup to her alcohol and medicinal dependencies.
“‘I’m convinced that Clinton has a sexual addiction,’ he repeated. ‘He needs to get help for his sake. He’s already damaged his presidency beyond repair.’”
And then you write that Clinton and Ford had conversations, and Ford was willing, in fact, to be a character witness for Clinton if...
MR. DeFRANK: If President Clinton admitted that he had lied in the Paula Jones and Monica Lewinsky matters. And President Clinton, according to President Ford, said, “I can’t do that. I won’t do that.” And Ford said, “Well, Bill, this conversation must end.” I, I find it somehow comforting about our democracy, Tim, that a partisan Republican would be willing to reach across the aisle to a partisan Democrat in a moment of crisis and, and offer to help him. But the deal was never consummated so we don’t know what that help might have been, and Ford didn’t—or wouldn’t tell me.
MR. RUSSERT: And, finally, on the book, Jerry Ford predicts, one, that Hillary Clinton would run for president; and, two, her opponent would probably be Rudy Giuliani.
MR. DeFRANK: Right. He, he always thought that that would be one great race. And he would go back and forth. And I think he always thought that Giuliani would be the best, best shot at beating Hillary Clinton. But he always—he thought the country wasn’t quite ready for a woman president. He thought we were going to have a woman vice president, something’s going to happen to the president and the next—and that would be how we got the first woman president. And then he said, “From that time on, us men are in second, second place.”
MR. RUSSERT: But pretty interesting crystal ball, looking at Giuliani-Clinton in terms of 2008. Which brings us to Bill Safire, who used to write his office pool when he had his column in The New York Times and op/ed page. And we’ve asked him to do a MEET THE PRESS edition, and here it is: If Hillary wins the nomination, her choice for vice president would be: Barack Obama, Bill Richardson, Rahm Emanuel, the Illinois congressman. Safire says, Rahm Emanuel.
MR. SAFIRE: Well, I was torn there, because Bill Richardson would bring a lot to the ticket, his Spanish background and all. However, he’s been—surprised all of us by going very strongly anti-war. Now, bring the boys home now—not the boys. Bring the troops home now. So I don’t think she could cross that bridge with him.
What about Rahm Emanuel, the most powerful voice in the House of Representatives that agrees with Hillary Clinton on foreign affairs. He’s a hawk. And although he’s a rootin’ tootin’ liberal on domestic affairs, he is a hawk on foreign affairs. I was at the—a roast for him for Epilepsy Association, and Hillary Clinton was there, and I said, quite frankly, here you have the hawkish side of the Democratic Party. If they get together, the bumper sticker will read “Invade and bomb with Hillary and Rahm.”
MR. RUSSERT: But, you know, they never got along when they worked together in the Clinton White House, but that’s another subject.
MR. DeFRANK: Times change.
MR. RUSSERT: And you, you forgot Ted Strickland, the governor of Ohio. Ohio, Ohio, Ohio. You need Ohio to win.
MR. SAFIRE: Well, but I don’t think—I think that would be a “Who, me?” kind of appointment.
MR. RUSSERT: All right. Let me go through the rest of these questions. These are the predictions, again from Safire. If Obama wins the nomination, his VP choice: Biden, Dodd, Feinstein. Safire says Feinstein of California. If Giuliani wins the nomination...
MR. SAFIRE: Wait a minute, before you...
MR. RUSSERT: His—I got to go. His choice would be Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, John McCain. He says Fred Thompson. If Romney wins the nomination, his choice would be Mike Huckabee, John McCain, General David Petraeus. Look at this, Safire says David Petraeus. If McCain wins the nomination—Giuliani, Romney, Condi Rice—Safire says Condi Rice for John McCain. Biggest Republican worry: the war drags on, the economy tanks, early Hillary nomination lockup, poll-driven despair. Safire says biggest GOP worry, the war drags on. Biggest Democratic worry: success in Iraq exploited by McCain, terror attack on U.S., Clinton-Pelosi party split, soak-the-rich tax backlash, poll-drive base overconfidence. Safire says Clinton-Pelosi party split. What’s that?
MR. SAFIRE: Well, there, there are two Democratic parties—the Nancy Pelosi far left party, which is the base, and Hillary Clinton, who is not running for the nomination anymore. She’s got the nomination, in her mind. But she’s running for the presidency, and so because of that she’s running a centrist campaign starting now. And that centrist vs. base is the tension within the party, and you never can tell. If she stumbles and makes a mistake, wham, you’re going to have a big fight.
MR. RUSSERT: Before we go, do you ever think if you had gotten New York Daily News headline: “Ford to Nixon: ‘Drop Dead,’” what it would have done to history and to your career?
MR. DeFRANK: Well, I don’t know what it have done to my career, but I know that it—I don’t know, I don’t know the answer to that, but I do know that Richard Nixon would still have had to resign, and Gerald Ford would still have been—become president in August. It might have come at a different time, but it still would have happened.
MR. RUSSERT: And you kept your word.
MR. DeFRANK: I did promise him, and I kept my word, at least for 33 years.
MR. RUSSERT: And you missed your 40th reunion at Texas A&M last night to be here on MEET THE PRESS, we appreciate that. “Write It When I’m Gone: Remarkable Off-the-Record Conversations with Gerald Ford.” Tom DeFrank, thank you.
And thanks for the office pool, Mr. Safire. We miss it. And we’ll be right back.
(Announcements)
MR. RUSSERT: Watch MSNBC Tuesday night, 9 p.m. Eastern, as Brian Williams and I question the Democratic candidates. Presidential debate, Drexel University in Philadelphia Tuesday night, MSNBC, msnbc.com at 9 p.m.
That’s all for today. We’ll be back next week. If it’s Sunday, it’s MEET THE PRESS. How about those Boston College Eagles? Matty Ryan for the Heisman trophy.
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