CBS Face the Nation - Transcript

CBS Face the Nation - Transcript

BOB SCHIEFFER, HOST: Today on Face the Nation, two days and counting to the election. Are we about to see a real change in the political landscape? For weeks now, the conventional wisdom has been that Democrats would take the majority in the House of Representatives. And that they would pick up seats in the Senate.But a new poll out this morning in The Washington Post shows Republicans may be closing the gap. We`ll get the latest from Democratic Senator Joe Biden and the Republican leader in the Senate, Bill Frist. Then we`ll check in with independent political analyst Stu Rothenberg.

I`ll have a final word on modern campaigns and guess what? I don`t like them. But first, senators Biden and Frist on Face the Nation.

Good morning again. If you have not heard the news, Saddam Hussein was found guilty overnight of mass murder and sentenced to be hanged within 30 days. He can, of course, appeal.

In this country, the big story is the election. This weekend before we all go to vote, joining us to talk about it from Wilmington, Delaware, Senator Joe Biden, who will be speaking today for the Democrats, and with us from Knoxville, Tennessee, to speak for the Republicans, the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist.

Let us begin with Senator Biden. And Senator, before we get into other issues, this news overnight that Saddam Hussein is sentenced now to be hanged, do you think that this will have any kind of an impact one way or the other on this election?

SEN. JOSEPH BIDEN (D), DELAWARE: No, I don`t think so, but there`s a special place reserved in hell for Saddam. That`s the only thing I think will matter. But I don`t think it will have any impact on the election.

SCHIEFFER: Not one way or the other.

BIDEN: I don`t think it will have one way or the other, Bob. I think it was kind of a foregone conclusion. And I think the announcement today I don`t think has any significance in terms of the election.

SCHIEFFER: All right. Well, let`s talk about the election then. Most pollsters, most analysts now seem to believe, Senator Biden, that the Democrats are going to take control of the House. And that they have a good chance of taking control in the Senate. But everybody says it looks very much like they will take the House.

Let me ask you this. Do you think that that will have any impact on the president`s war policy and what`s going on in Iraq?

BIDEN: I do, Bob. Notwithstanding what Secretary or Vice President Cheney says, that it won`t have any impact at all, or that it`s going to disregard the elections as it relates to Iraq. I think the combination of the Army Times and the Navy Times calling for Rumsfeld`s resignation, which is a slap in the face of the way this war is being run, as well as the neo- conservatives like Perle and Adelman calling the president`s policy dysfunctional, I think all of this is mounting.

And what`s going to happen is, if we make gains in the House and Senate, whether we win them or not, I think you`ll see a lot of Republicans willing to join me and others in a plan for Iraq that is a rational way in which we can responsibly bring home more troops and leave a stable Iraq behind. But it requires a fundamental change in the course we`re on.

SCHIEFFER: Well, but the vice president, as late as this morning, told ABC that...

BIDEN: I know.

SCHIEFFER: ... the administration policy is full steam ahead, or words to that effect, and there can be no substitute for victory. And they`ll be satisfied with nothing less. He seemed to suggest, Senator Biden, that there`s going to be no change in policy. What could a Democratic House and a Republican or Democratic Senate do to change that?

BIDEN: Well, he`s somewhere between dysfunctional and delusional about this war. I don`t know where it is. But it`s just totally off the page. The fact of the matter is, very few Republicans in the Senate, if any, think the policy makes any sense the way we`re going now.

Before we left for the election cycle, two of my senior Republican colleagues contacted me and said when we get back, they wanted to join me in coming up with a bipartisan plan. The idea that Republicans are going to go another two years with this administration with a failed Iraq policy and not impact on their future and the future of the next presidential election, Republican Party`s just not going to let that happen, no matter what Bush or Cheney say.

And if the Democrats make the gains that people are saying, Bob, you will find that this president-- you know that old joke about, you know, if you want a friend in Washington, have a dog -- he`s not going to have many members of the House and Senate of the Republican Party sticking with him if he doesn`t change the policy.

SCHIEFFER: Well, do you think that Democrats and whoever the others, there are enough votes that if the president refuses to change the policy, would you then want to cut off the funding? Because that is the hammer that the legislative branch always holds over the executive branch.

BIDEN: It`s not much of a hammer though, Bob. I went through the Vietnam War with that. You know, it is very difficult. It`s a bludgeon. It doesn`t work very well.

I think what will happen is, you will see the president --notwithstanding the bravado the two days before the election, I think you`ll see some real changes.

I was on your program with dick Lugar and others not long ago. You heard what they are saying. A lot of leading Republicans, conservative Republicans -- Rick Santorum endorsed the Biden plan for Iraq in his election up the street here.

SCHIEFFER: Well, that hasn`t helped him much, though, as far as we can tell.

BIDEN: No, no, it hasn`t helped him at all. But it`s just, kind of, interesting that there is nobody that I know of who is staying where Cheney is, on the Republican side of the aisle.

Maybe there`s somebody, but none of the well-known folks, none of the prominent people.

You even have the neo-conservatives going after them now, Bob. You have Richard Perle and Adelman and the rest of that crew.

You have -- I mean, it probably happened before, but I don`t know when it`s ever happened that all of the military newspapers, the day before an election, run an editorial saying, get rid of the secretary of defense.

If that is not a vote of no confidence, I can`t imagine what is. Like I said, if they continue this course, it will be just a disaster.

SCHIEFFER: Let me just ask you this question. Let`s suppose that the president did ask the secretary of defense to resign and told him he wants to put somebody else in there.

Do you think that a Congress, either Republican-dominated or Democratic-dominated, would confirm the next person?

Because, won`t those confirmation hearings just turn into an investigation and an examination of the war policy?

BIDEN: Well, I don`t think so. If the Democrats take back the House and the Senate, there`s going to be some of that looking at the war policy. There will be really thorough hearings.

But I don`t think that would stop anybody from being able to come along with a competent secretary of defense and have him confirmed pretty easily.

SCHIEFFER: How do you look at the Senate right now?

Most people, as we have said, believe that the Democrats are going to take the House.

How do you think the new Senate is going to look on next Wednesday morning?

BIDEN: You know, you and I were talking earlier. I`m not a very good prognosticator. If I had to bet, it ends up a 50-50 Senate.

But who knows? I mean, I`d be very surprised if the Democrats didn`t get to 48 seats. And I wouldn`t be stunned if they got to 52.

SCHIEFFER: All right. Well, what do you think, Senator, at this point, if the Democrats do take the House and they close the gap in the Senate, even if they don`t take control, what will be the difference in the American people`s lives?

Will they see anything different here?

BIDEN: Well, I think one of the things they`ll see different, if the Senate gap is closed, you`ll not see many more right-wing nominees for the Supreme Court.

I think the president will have to go a more moderate route on choices for the Supreme Court, if there are any.

I think you`ll see a minimum wage moved right away.

I think you will see a much more open discussion about American foreign policy.

And I think you`ll see the president being required to engage, or else it will become dysfunctional. So I think you`ll see -- I don`t think you`ll see any radical, though, because there`s still going to be a Republican president.

SCHIEFFER: The main thing that the Republicans say that we will notice is that the Democrats will raise taxes. What`s your response to that?

BIDEN: Well, the answer is that we`ll not do that. At least, we won`t raise taxes on working class and middle class. They might put increase tax cut for them.

I think you will see efforts to deal with the top seven-tenths of 1 percent, in terms of renewal of the tax cuts.

But the president is still there. He has his veto pen. I don`t think it`s any more likely that we`ll be able to set tax policy in the next two years than it is we`ll be able to set health care policy.

SCHIEFFER: OK. Well, Senator, thank you very much for being with us this morning.

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