Fox News Hannity & Colmes-Transcript

Fox News Network

SHOW: FOX HANNITY & COLMES (21:21)

July 1, 2004 Thursday

HEADLINE: Should We Reinstate Draft?

GUESTS: Ann Coulter, Michael Gross

BYLINE: Oliver North, Alan Colmes

BODY:

COLMES: This is a "FOX News Alert."

The Associated Press has just reported that New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson has told the Kerry campaign that he does not want to be considered as a running mate.

Richardson was widely believed to be in contention for the number two spot. We'll keep you posted on all the latest news in the V.P. search as we learn more.

First, in today's news, the president is taking some heat for calling up members of a rarely used army unit called the Individual Ready Reserve to serve in Iraq.

The unit is made up of former soldiers who've left active duty before they completed their military service requirement but still retain much needed military skills. Is this a good idea.

Joining us now here in New York, Congressman Charles Rangel.

Do you have a favorite V.P. choice?

CON. CHARLIE RANGEL (D), NEW YORK: I'm dropping out. I think people...

NORTH: That's a new "FOX News Alert." New "FOX News Alert," Charlie Rangel running, now he's not.

COLMES: I think you'd be a great choice. You'd be a great choice. We'll work it out in the next segment.

RANGEL: That's right.

COLMES: Do you have a favorite?

RANGEL: Well, yes. It's actually Wesley Clark. But I...

COLMES: OK.

RANGEL: The reason I do is...

COLMES: All right. You're just giving up a plush seat in...

RANGEL: ... I do is because the present president that said he is a war president. And Colonel, I think you would appreciate that if you're up against a war president, you have to put the best type of person who understands war. And I think you would agree that General Wesley Clark has the most experience in that area?

NORTH: I will reside with those whose peers and superiors and what they said about him when he was running for president.

COLMES: All right, let's get to the issue at hand here.

RANGEL: I'd like to get to those who gave him the medals, OK?

COLMES: Let's talk about-you with Earnest Hollings have put together a proposal for a draft.

Now what's happening, those who have already served honorably are discharged back into the service. That's what's going on here. People extending their stays and saying, "Guess what? You're going back in again."

RANGEL: Discharged into the service? They're being drafted back into the service. Those that have already served, those that joined the Reserves, those that are in the National Guard, even those that are in the active service are now getting additional time being put on them.

But this group I'm very sensitive to. They served their time. When they got discharged, they probably got back pay. They signed a lot of papers. They're trying to get on with their life.

And I can relate to that so emotionally. You know, after putting in four years, trying to find out what I was going to do, deciding I was going back to high school, getting counseling from the Veterans Administration and for them to call and to call me back, that would be a crushing, cruel thing to do.

NORTH: Charlie-Congressman, let's just-for the benefit of our people who don't know as much as you and I about the Ready Reserve. The Ready Reserve, every single member who serves in the armed forces when he is discharged gets a DD-214 and he remains on the Ready Reserve rolls for two years.

Do you remember the last time we called up people for the Ready Reserve?

RANGEL: Persian Gulf.

NORTH: Yes, sir. And before that it was Vietnam. And before that it was the war in which you were a hero. I'm talking about Korea.

RANGEL: It doesn't mean...

NORTH: Charlie, what I'm suggesting-wait a second.

RANGEL: ... saying is that we have a war that everyone-patriotism should not be just restricted to those kids that have enlisted in the service.

I'm saying that if terrorism-and I truly believe that you and I believe is an international problem...

NORTH: Amen.

RANGEL: ... and a threat to our national security...

NORTH: Like few others.

RANGEL: ... then the people that are fighting this war are coming from the poorest communities in the United States of America.

NORTH: But they're not.

RANGEL: They are.

NORTH: Congressman...

RANGEL: We've got Congressman Ike Skelton from Missouri. He's proved that 47 percent of those killed come from communities that have less than 20,000 people.

NORTH: But that doesn't mean they're poor. Look at...

RANGEL: They're poor.

NORTH: Charlie, the folks who are serving in today's military, all of them high school graduates, all of them volunteers, every one of them.

And they have an average I.Q. nine points higher than the national average. They all come out and find good jobs.

There's not the massive unemployment that we had when there was a draft in the war I was in-Vietnam. When a kid came back from the Vietnam War, he'd been drafted out of high school. He went into the military. He wasn't qualified for a decent job when he got out, and most of those kids ended up in the infantry, in the Army and Marines. And you and I know that. It was unfair to them.

The draft is unnecessary as long as you have sufficient volunteers, and we now know that the volunteer rate-the best barometer of how things are going is the rate at which people volunteer to enlist and reenlist. It's never been better.

RANGEL: Well, if you take a look and you see who's being attracted to the military, it's because of the bonuses that they give. It's because of their educational benefits they give. And that's certainly why I enlisted.

NORTH: Congressman...

RANGEL: My point is that you're talking about what they get when they're discharged. I'm saying the facts will prove that the enlistees are coming from communities with the highest unemployment. If you take a look at "Fahrenheit 9/11"...

NORTH: Oh, God help me.

RANGEL: You'll be able to see...

NORTH: That's propaganda.

RANGEL: No, no, no. It's true that the recruiters go where they believe they can get people to enlist. And they...

NORTH: Look...

RANGEL: ... are in our inner cities and they are in our rural areas.

NORTH: There are more college graduates enlisted in the Army and the Marines than they've ever had since World War II. College graduates. Enlisted guys.

RANGEL: But there's a close relationship between those who enlist and the unemployment rates. That's what it is.

NORTH: Charlie, I will just beg to differ with you. But you know what there is? There's patriotism out there.

COLMES: All right, guys. Thank you very much...

RANGEL: But there's no patriotism in the White House, and the Cabinet, or members of Congress. Why don't we find more...

COLMES: Charlie, good to see you. Thank you very much.

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