Your World With Neil Cavuto - Interview with Saxby Chambliss

SHOW: YOUR WORLD WITH NEIL CAVUTO (16:00)

April 8, 2004 Thursday

Transcript # 040801cb.140

SECTION: Business

HEADLINE: Interview with Saxby Chambliss

GUESTS: Saxby Chambliss

BYLINE: Neil Cavuto

BODY:
NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: All right. Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss also listened to Dr. Rice's testimony closely today.

Senator, what did you think?

SEN. SAXBY CHAMBLISS ®, GEORGIA: First of all, let me second what you just said about Ms. Gallop. She was very fair, and-in her assessment of what happened. And our hearts go out to she and her son.

I thought Dr. Rice did a good job today. I was a little disappointed that three of the Democratic commissioners who had been so vocal about this being a bipartisan commission would be as partisan as they were today. And even though they were very tough in their cross-examination of Dr. Rice, I thought she acquitted herself very well.

I think, at the end of the day, minds probably were not changed on anything. But I do think Dr. Rice was very direct, she answered the questions thoroughly. Could she have done a better job of answering? You're going to hear that from the other side probably. But, you know, that is politics, and they have politicized...

CAVUTO: But, Senator, do you...

CHAMBLISS: ... this commission.

CAVUTO: Right. Here's my upshot on all of this, is when all is said and done and we have a final report, there will be epochs on both the Democrats and the Republican administration houses. And try as we might to avoid it, September 11, it is a lot of-a lot of nothing. Am I being too cynical?

CHAMBLISS: Well, let's don't characterize it as a lot of nothing, Neil, because it was obviously a very serious issue. But you are right in that it happened, it's done, and we need to move on.

This is about the seventh or eighth commission that has looked at the facts leading up to September 11. Every one of those groups has concluded-including my subcommittee on the House Intelligence Committee-has concluded that there is nothing that we could have done to have prohibited September 11 from happening.

Now, we are going to continue to look back with this commission, when we need to be looking forward. We need to be focusing on the issues that everybody that testified before that commission raised relative to information sharing, to gathering human intelligence in a better way than we have ever done, to putting our resources to work.

CAVUTO: Yes, but it's interesting, Senator-it is a valid point, sir, but it is interesting. When people are polled on this very subject-I think we have the results very lately from a Fox poll-most seem to think that, you know, it is kind of going nowhere. Some say it is constructive and bipartisan, but almost the plurality say it is destructive and partisan.

Some are mixed, some are not sure. Basically, that looks to me like the American public is shrugging its shoulder at the effectiveness of the commission. What do you think?

CHAMBLISS: Well, I think they have seen the number of other commissions that have come before this one and the conclusions have all been the same. This one may come to a different conclusion. They may come to some conclusion that if such and such had happened that maybe September 11 could have been prevented.

But I go back to the point that it is over with and we have got to move ahead and we have got to prohibit this from happening again. Our intelligence community, our law enforcement community has done a much better job post-September 11 than they did pre-September 11.

CAVUTO: Yes.

CHAMBLISS: We are going to continue to criticize, and the Senate is concluding a report right now on a pre-Iraqi intelligence. We are going to have another commission of some sort looking at that. So we are about commissioned to death right now, and I think the American people are ready to move ahead.

CAVUTO: All right. We'll see what happens. Senator Chambliss, always good having you. Thank you.

CHAMBLISS: Same here, Neil.