Uncle Sam interviews Paul Begala

The Uncler Interviews: Paul Begala - watch more funny videos

Was Bush lying when he said we don't torture?

From CNN Transcripts:

COOPER: Recapping our breaking news, Ed Henry tonight learning about a memo from President Obama's director of national intelligence saying that some of the harsh interrogation techniques now banned by the White House were effective in yielding information about the structure of al Qaeda.

They do not, however, say they prevented terrorist attacks, as former Vice President Cheney is saying.

More on the subject from my interview with Ari Fleischer and Paul Begala, and their answer to the question, was President Bush lying when he repeatedly insisted the United States does not torture?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEGALA: Yes, George W. Bush was lying when he said we don't torture. This is not a matter of subjective opinion. This is a matter of...

(CROSSTALK)

FLEISCHER: So, Paul, who would you -- so, who would you prosecute?

(CROSSTALK)

FLEISCHER: ... selective prosecution that Paul is after.

COOPER: Ari, was President Bush lying when he said, we do not torture?

FLEISCHER: No, I don't think he was lying.

COOPER: Was he telling the truth?

FLEISCHER: Yes. I think that it depends, again, on things that none of us were privy to, that none of us saw, that none of us know.

COOPER: If what they did was -- was right and -- and correct and legal, why did they destroy the evidence? Why did they destroy the videotapes?

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: They destroyed the videotapes of two people being tortured, water-boarded, more than 100 times.

FLEISCHER: I think that's a fair question. And I think the CIA destroys a lot of things. They -- they typically like to destroy as much things as they can. That's a matter of procedure at the CIA, not only on this, but on a host of...

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: Porter Goss, I think, head of the CIA, specifically did not want those tapes destroyed. And, yet, they were.

FLEISCHER: Well, and that's why I said I think that's a fair question. I think it's a matter of CIA routine procedure to destroy a lot of things. And, sometimes, they go too far, get themselves in trouble for it.

COOPER: If, in fact, it does work, does it matter, Paul?

BEGALA: No.

COOPER: If the vice president is correct, and valuable information was obtained, does that justify it?

BEGALA: No.

COOPER: Ari, if it works, do you think, then, it's justified?

FLEISCHER: No, I don't.

COOPER: Do you believe that it did work in this case, as the vice president has -- as Vice President Cheney has indicated?

FLEISCHER: No, again, Anderson, your premise is that it is torture. And I think the only people who can determine that are people from the Department of Justice.

COOPER: But it's interesting, though...

FLEISCHER: If it is torture, if it is torture...

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: ... when the Khmer Rouge did it, when the Khmer Rouge did it at Tuol Sleng prison, and you can go there, and you can see the instruments they used to water-board people, I mean, we labeled it as torture.

FLEISCHER: And, Anderson, that's why I said the only people who are in a position to make an authoritative judgment on it should be career, independent-minded people at the Department of Justice, without anybody at the White House interfering or anybody else interfering.

And then, if they decide it was, then they have got a very careful decision to make about how far and extensive do you prosecute people. Is it the people who did it? Is it the Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill who were briefed on it and didn't object to it? And who in the administration would you have to apply that standard to?

This is where this whole thing can go.

But, going back to the memo, and going back to bipartisanship, you know, it's not just the Bush people who said it was wrong to release that memo. Bill Clinton's head of the CIA said it was wrong to release those memos, because you're teaching al Qaeda operatives exactly what our techniques are.

And why do we want anybody in al Qaeda to know what the limits of our techniques are, Paul?

BEGALA: The techniques that -- the techniques that we no longer use, the techniques that were in "The New York Review of Books" and half of the newspapers and magazines in North America, Ari. I mean, it is...

FLEISCHER: Paul, it was your administration's head of the CIA who objected to the release of those memos.

BEGALA: It doesn't -- it doesn't make...

FLEISCHER: It's a Clinton official who said that.

BEGALA: It doesn't make him right. Torture is always wrong, Ari. We executed...

FLEISCHER: I agree with you that torture is always wrong.

BEGALA: Excuse me for talking while you're interrupting.

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: Let Paul finish.

BEGALA: We -- our country executed Japanese soldiers who water- boarded American POWs. We executed them for the same crime that we are now committing ourselves. How do you defend that?

FLEISCHER: Well, again, Paul, I guess you already are the jury, the prosecutor, the judge, and a citizen all rolled into one. You have already pronounced judgment that it is a crime.

So, if it is a crime, my question goes back to. Which Democrat members of Congress who sat in on the briefings, were authorized, were told about it, while -- particularly at a time when the Democrats had the majority in the Senate, would you say need to be prosecuted, Paul?

BEGALA: Here's the thing. Ari, you think it's a political issue. And, so, you say, well, Democrats knew, or George Tenet said this, and he used to be a Democrat. And...

(CROSSTALK)

FLEISCHER: Because the only people you want to blame, Paul, are Republicans.

BEGALA: Again, excuse me for trying to make a point here.

FLEISCHER: That's why.

BEGALA: No, no, no.

FLEISCHER: The only people you want to blame are the Bush administration.

BEGALA: I just said a moment ago -- I just said a moment ago, if -- if George Tenet, who was head of the CIA when I was in the White House, if he says this, he's wrong, too.

COOPER: It's an extraordinarily serious subject, and I appreciate, both, the way you guys have talked about it tonight. Thank you very much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

Paul Begala on Ring of Fire with Mike Papantonio

I like it when Begala allows his Southern accent to shine through. I actually wish he'd do it more often.

Part One

Part Two

Scrapin' Southern Boys: Paul Begala goes after South Carolina's Republican Governor

That's Paul Begala over thereto your left, but you probably knew that already.

Meet Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina to your right.

Don't take the money? The money from Washington most certainly will be taken, but Paul Begala makes the point in a most excellent way.

Begala is a Southern boy so of course he can.

Go Begala!

If Republican politicians are so deeply opposed to President Obama's economic recovery plan, they should refuse to take the money. After all, if you think all that federal spending is damaging, there are easy ways to reduce it: Don't take federal money.

Gov. Sanford can lead the way. South Carolina should decline to accept any federal funds for transportation, education, health care, clean energy or any of the other ideas President Obama is advocating to fix the economy. And the rest of the GOP can follow suit.

Justice Louis Brandeis famously called states "laboratories of democracy." So let's experiment. Gov. Sanford can be the guinea pig. His Palmetto State already gets $1.35 back from Washington for every dollar it pays in federal taxes, according to 2005 numbers, the latest calculated by the Tax Foundation, a nonprofit tax research group.

South Carolina is a ward of the federal government. It's been on welfare for years. If Gov. Sanford is so all-fired opposed to federal spending, let's start by cutting federal spending in South Carolina. Otherwise, he's got about as much credibility on fiscal conservatism as A-Rod has on steroids.

Under the Bush-Sanford economic theories, South Carolina's unemployment rate has reached 9.5 percent -- among the highest in the nation. But if Gov. Sanford wants to continue those policies, good luck to him.

Make no mistake about it, Republicans like Gov. Sanford want to go back to the bad old days of George W. Bush. In his CNN.com column, Gov. Sanford expends 605 words attacking President Obama's plan to turn the country around after eight years of Bush-Republican-Sanford economics. source: CNN - read more here

Paul Begala on the potentially nasty game of 'guilt by association' that John McCain does not want to play

for source - click here