Fairhope Alabama Personal Injury accident Attorney at Law James Dorgan

What Will Rehabilitate Bush's Political Image?

 

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

This is a partial transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," September 13, 2005,

 

BILL O'REILLY, HOST: "Impact" segment tonight, just about every national poll this week has President Bush at his lowest level job approval wise ever. Katrina, Iraq, gas prices, and the border have all damaged the president.

 

Joining us now from Washington is FOX News political analyst Newt Gingrich.

 

Well, Mr. Bush did a Harry Truman today and said that he's taking full responsibility for the slow response and the screw- up on all levels of Katrina. Was that a smart thing to do?

 

NEWT GINGRICH, FOX NEWS POLITICAL ANALYST: I think it was tremendous both morally to have the president step up and say look, it isn't working, and be honest about it. And also, it's the right thing to do for the country and for politics.

 

This is pretty obvious it didn't work. I think to have the president get out front and say we're going to fix it, which really gives, I think, the Congress, the governors, and the country a chance to offer their ideas of what a fix is, I thought it was a tremendous thing for him to do. And I'm very proud of him for doing it.

 

O'REILLY: How about Brown resigning, the head of FEMA? Were you happy with that? Was that necessary? Or is this guy just a scapegoat?

 

GINGRICH: Sure. No, I think it was sadly necessary. You know, I think that by itself it doesn't fix anything, but I think it was probably unavoidable to bring in the admiral and have them start to work on that particular problem.

 

And I think you'll see the president, you know, the president now has an enormous opportunity to lead the country in changing a lot of things. And I think that if this becomes a wake-up call, he could by next spring be in a stronger position than ever.

 

O'REILLY: Well, that's what Morris says.

 

GINGRICH: And a lot of his critics could be surprised.

 

O'REILLY: That's what Morris says. Morris is now — and Thursday night, the president's going to talk to the nation about what they're doing. And Morris has recovered.

 

I'm skeptical because if I'm on the other side of the aisle, I'm saying look, wake-up call? It takes them four years to wake up after 9/11 and we still don't have protection. You know, you got Iraq. That's still chaotic. You got this.

 

And it's about performance. And the performance you can make I think a legitimate case isn't there at the executive level.

 

GINGRICH: And I think, Bill, if that's still true next summer, then the Republicans are in trouble.

 

On the other hand, if the president leads the federal government in a substantial period of inventing new solutions, changing bureaucracies, getting things done, having effective construction on the Gulf Coast by next summer, people are saying this is a heck of a leader. And he actually pulled it off.

 

And if by next summer, Iraq is substantially calmer, and we're beginning to win that struggle for democracy in Iraq, again, I think people could look up and say there's a lot more here than I thought.

 

O'REILLY: All right. I think you might be a little hopeful here, but you're a Republican. And.

 

GINGRICH: Well, let's wait a second, Bill.

 

O'REILLY: Who, whoa, whoa wait. You know, look. This is my problem with not only Mr. Bush, with all politicians. They should be held like the New York Yankee pitching staff, accountable for how they perform on the field.

 

You got a border situation that's absolutely out of control four years after we're hit, OK? You got Iraq, which is not — it may turn around, I'm praying it turns around. I'm rooting it turns around. I think if it does turn around, it will be great for this country, OK. But it's dicey. You got a storm that the homeland security office simply couldn't handle. How many more chances do you get?

 

GINGRICH: Well, first of all, there are two different questions here. I agree with your analysis that the system isn't working, and that the president right now is in a hole. He's going to have to dig himself out of it.

 

You asked me could he. And all I'm reporting to you is I served with Ronald Reagan when he was at 39 percent approval. And people thought he'd lost his touch. And they thought he was going to be a one-term president. They thought this anti-Soviet empire stuff was crazy.

 

He came back, won a landslide victory in 49 states. The Soviet Union disappeared. We look back and think he's an historic figure.

 

George W. Bush right this minute has an opportunity to focus his administration to work with the Republicans in the House and Senate. And a year from now to be stronger than ever.

 

He also has an opportunity to let the bureaucracies drift onward exactly as you've described, to fail to solve the border, to not have an effective answer on gasoline, to not get Iraq mopped up, and to not fix the Gulf Coast, in which case frankly the Republicans are in big trouble next year.

 

O'REILLY: All right. So this is the tipping point, to use a cliché, in his administration right now.

 

GINGRICH: Absolutely. Absolutely.

 

O'REILLY: He's either got to do it or he goes down into Warren Harding, James Buchanan territory, Jimmy Carter territory.

 

GINGRICH: Well, you know, somebody told me many years ago that a pitcher always has an advantage in baseball, even at 3-2, because he knows what he's going to do. Presidents have huge ability to recover. But this is a very important crossroads for this president.