CNN Judy Woodruff's Inside Politics - Transcript

CNN

SHOW: JUDY WOODRUFF'S INSIDE POLITICS 16:00

HEADLINE: Appeals Court Will Reconsider Recall Delay; Interview With Ted Kennedy

GUESTS: Ted Kennedy

BYLINE: Judy Woodruff, William Schneider, Candy Crowley, Robert Novak, John King

HIGHLIGHT:
Can a new Bush administration focus on the positive strategy on Iraq drown out Democratic criticism? While Davis and Gore rock against the recall, a court decided to reconsider delaying the vote.

BODY:
WOODRUFF: All right. John King at the White House.

And as you're hearing from John, while the administration is trying to sound upbeat about Iraq, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay unleashed an angry response to Senator Edward Kennedy's criticism. DeLay said -- quote -- "I call on the vociferous Democratic critics from Kerry to Dean and from Daschle to Pelosi to have the courage to tell their hero, Ted Kennedy, that he went too far" -- endquote. And he added, "It is disturbing that Democrats have spewed more hateful rhetoric at President Bush than they ever did at Saddam Hussein."

Well, Senator Edward Kennedy joins us now from Boston.

Senator, hateful rhetoric at the president -- is that what this is?

KENNEDY: Well, it's basically politics as usual. This is the same kind of response that the Republicans had for Max Cleland when they called him unpatriotic after he lost three limbs in Vietnam. It's the same kind of rhetoric from the Republicans that they had for Tom Daschle when he questioned the administration's policy.

It will be the same kind of rhetoric, I guess that they're going to have for the American people who are questioning the administration's policy in Iraq. This is a failed, flawed, bankrupt policy. The American people want answers. They want to know what the peace policy is, what is really going to secure the peace in Iraq? What the cost is going to be to the American taxpayers and when will we be able to bring home our troops with honor?

WOODRUFF: Senator, do you know for a fact that the administration did what it did in Iraq for political reasons, which is in essence what you were charging?

KENNEDY: There's no question in my mind that the White House has hyped the political aspects of the war in Iraq. Karl Rove himself, the principal spokesperson for the Republican Party addressed a Republican National Committee out in Los Angeles in January 2001 and talked about the advantages that this war would have for Republican candidates.

So we also see the bitterness that the Republicans have for anyone that questions -- raising these serious questions about their policy. So they understand what they're doing. They're questioning the patriotisms of those that are asking the questions, but the fact is the American people are asking the questions and they should ask the questions.

The administration's had an initial tie between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein; they rejected that. They said we were in an imminent threat of being attacked by nuclear war; that has not worked out. They said we are going there because of weapons of mass destructions; that isn't so. They also said we wouldn't have to ask the American taxpayer for money for reconstruction because there's sufficient oil reserves there and that's wrong, too.

WOODRUFF: But, Senator, it's a very, very harsh thing indeed to say that this president, in essence, has spent the lives of now hundreds of American young men and women for political reasons. Is that really what you're saying?

KENNEDY: What we -- all of us are saying is that the president of the United States ought to come clear with the American people in terms of the cost of this war and also recognize we never had a peace policy. The administration is asking us now for $87 billion more dollars. There's a blank check for this administration and there is no peace policy. They're making it up day by day and I believe that the American men and women that are in the service that are over there are effectively in a shooting gallery, and I met with two that just returned from Iraq this morning who have been back for a period of two days. They also want to know the answers.

The American people are entitled to answers, not shifting rationale, which this administration has given.

WOODRUFF: Senator, the other charge that you make that almost $2 billion of the $4 billion that's been spent on Iraq, you believe it's being used to bribe other leaders to send in troops to Iraq. Do you have proof of this?

KENNEDY: Bribe, coerce, incentivise. We're going to see the announcement this weekend, announcement that the United States is going to loan Turkey $8.5 billion and we're anticipating that the Turks are going to provide military assistance to the American forces in Iraq. You know it didn't have to be this way. We wouldn't have to be providing these billions of dollars to these countries to incentivise them or coerce them or bribe them to send their troops in if we had done it the right way -- if we had gone to the United Nations, if we had built an international constituency.

The American taxpayers are paying for that and they're paying for those extended loans to Turkey that are going to be announced this weekend, and we're paying for it in also the support for these other troops that are coming in as well.

WOODRUFF: Senator Edward Kennedy with some very tough words for President Bush and the Bush administration. Senator, we thank you very much for talking with us.

KENNEDY: Thank you very much.

WOODRUFF: We appreciate it