MSNBC The Situation - Transcript

MSNBC The Situation - Transcript
Tuesday, November 1, 2005

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TUCKER CARLSON, HOST: So much. Thank you, Joe.

Thanks to you at home, too, for staying with THE SITUATION tonight.

We appreciate it.

Dramatic developments on the Senate floor this afternoon. In an unusual move, Democratic leader Harry Reid closed down the chamber in the Senate for two hours, managed to the Senate Intelligence Committee to continue their investigation into prewar weapons claims made by the Bush administration.

While Democrats declared victory, Republicans were absolutely enraged, red in the face by the tactic. Bill Frist called it the most offensive thing he's seen since he's been majority leader of the U.S. Senate. Wow.

Meanwhile, the debate over conservative Supreme Court nominee Sam Alito continued today. Republican Senator Mike Dewine of Ohio-he's a member of the Senate's bipartisan group known as the Gang of 14 -- met with Alito this morning, and he warned Democrats he would side with GOP if they tried to filibuster Alito's nomination.

Here to discuss the Alito nomination, as well as the dust up today on the Senate floor, Ben Nelson, senator, Democrat from the state of Nebraska.

Senator, thanks a lot for joining us.

SEN. BEN NELSON (D), NEBRASKA: Thank you, Tucker.

CARLSON: I'm sure you've seen the Republican majority leader, Bill Frist's, comments about what happened today in the Senate. Let me just read you one line.

"The United States Senate has been hijacked by the Democratic leadership," he said. "They have no convictions. They have no principles. They have no ideas. Never have I been slapped in the face with such an affront to leadership of this grand institution."

He was just apoplectic. Is it going to be hard to conduct business after this?

NELSON: No, I don't think so. I was on the floor right after those comments, and everything seemed to be quite peaceful after the dust-up.

And I think the American people probably don't care much about all the inside baseball within the Senate chamber. But they were working together, coming together with a compromise on how quickly to bring out the report on prewar intelligence, from the intelligence committee.

So these things happen from time to time, and I think people, their frustration level shows. But after it's all over, it's business as usual.

CARLSON: Well, a procedural question, I can't resist asking. Quickly, I read in every report of this, the indication of Rule 21, that all non-senators are booted out of the Senate chamber. People are required to leave their cell phones outside, and the lights were dimmed. Why were the lights dimmed?

NELSON: I don't know about that part of the rule, but they were dimmed when I came down to the floor to find out what was going on. I'm not sure. I think it probably was because the lights that are there are those that are there for the cameras, and when the cameras are turned off, I think automatically the lights are dimmed on the Senate floor. But that's my expectation.

CARLSON: Do you think watching Harry Reid, whom I respect as a person

I think he's a smart guy and a decent person. But watching his frustration over the past year or so with Iraq makes me wonder if his vote for the war doesn't add to that frustration.

Do you think the Democrats who voted for the war, voted to authorize the president to go to war, should somehow apologize for their vote, now that they're against the war?

NELSON: Well, I don't know who's against the war, necessarily, but I think everybody is expecting to find out about the prewar intelligence that was relied on for the votes for the war.

And I think there's a bit of a frustration on how long that has taken for that report to come out. And I think we're all anxious to see it.

But I think whether you're frustrated about the report or not, I don't know that everybody is turning against the war, necessarily. I do think that there are questions raised about what kind of information was there that was present for the vote.

CARLSON: Yes.

NELSON: I think a lot remains to be seen, and I think hopefully we'll be able to sort that out.

CARLSON: I can't-just from my point of view, as a non-senator, I can't wait to see the report. I think it's going to be interesting.

One of the things you do in the Senate is lead the Gang of 14, so-called, a group that was formed not long ago to try to prevent filibusters, in cases where judges were coming up for confirmation. Do you think you will be able to prevent a filibuster in this case, for Alito?

NELSON: Well, I don't know. I think it's a little bit early to be able to decide that, but I can tell you that I'm not hearing any of my colleagues on the Democratic side using the word "filibuster," and I think that's an important point here. The word seems to be coming out of other people's mouths.

My focus is on how we can-we can work together and get the kind of rigorous but fair process.

You know, the Roberts nomination showed us that the process can work without-even in the context of extreme partisanship. The Miers nomination showed us that partisanship doesn't always have to be present, and it's not always the minority who creates obstruction.

So I'm anxious to see how this process unfolds, so that we can make up our minds on whether or not Judge Alito ought to serve on the United States Supreme Court.

CARLSON: It seems like so much of the problem Democrats have with Judge Alito, at least right off the bat, within hours of the announcement of his nomination, the complaints had to do with abortion, his position on it. Do you think you could ever see a majority Democrat supporting someone, a judge, who was openly, avowedly anti-abortion?

NELSON: I'm not sure. I can say at this point, though, as long as you've got the political left saying that, in presidential elections, that they want to appoint somebody that's going to protect Roe v. Wade, the political right promising to put judges on that will overturn Roe v. Wade, this issue is going to be at the center of so much about our Supreme Court.

Not that it shouldn't be, but as long as it's about who's going to appoint the most conservative or the most liberal judges, this is going to continue to be the kind of issue that it is for us right now.

CARLSON: Do you carry a handicap nomination, Senator? What do you think odds are he makes it onto the court?

NELSON: Well, unless-unless he slips up, unless there's something

in his record, something in his decisions that would raise to the level of

rise to the level of extraordinary circumstances, I think he gets approved.

But it's way too early in the process, and I always hate to make predictions. I'm not going to predict the Nebraska-Kansas football game next weekend, either.

CARLSON: I'd say Nebraska. Ben Nelson...

NELSON: I think Nebraska is going to win.

CARLSON: Senator from that state, really one of the great Democrats in the USA. Thanks a lot for joining us tonight.

NELSON: Thank you, Tucker.

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