This is a partial transcript from “Hannity & Colmes,” February 19, 2007, that has been edited for clarity.
SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: With Senator Hillary Clinton making her run for the White House, many supporters are looking at husband Bill to fill her Senate seat if she wins.
First-term New York governor Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat, would be forced to appoint a replacement for Hillary. And Clinton supporters are already lobbying the former — for the former president.
Joining us now, former Clinton advisor Dick Morris. Don’t forget. You can go to DickMorris.com and get his latest columns and newsletter.
You know something? Why do I not doubt — why do I not doubt he would take it and lobby for it and want it badly?
DICK MORRIS, FORMER CLINTON ADVISOR: Well, I’m not sure he wants to go back to work for a living, Sean. He’s having a nice time and I think he would thoroughly enjoy being first husband in the White House. And I think he would want to treat that job expansively.
I think the more likely role for him would be kind of like roving ambassador. I think Hillary would use him to tour the world and develop relationships that she needs and to advise her on foreign policy.
I don’t think that he wants to be in the Senate voting on whether to make — talk about Boy Scout Day or motherhood and apple pie or five over 5 million here or 10 million there. I think that he’s — he would want a day job that that would be better.
HANNITY: So we’re back to the issue of two for the price of one, which was her comment about her early on until the health care debacle.
MORRIS: I also don’t think Spitzer would appoint him. Eliot is a very, very good governor with a tremendous future and I think some potential himself to be president. And I think that he’s going to want to appoint a protege.
HANNITY: Keep dreaming, Eliot. You’re living in a fantasy land on that. But let me talk more specifically about what happened in the last…
MORRIS: Sean, there was once this governor of Arkansas, you know?
HANNITY: No doubt. I mean, he had some political skill. His wife didn’t have it and frankly, nor does Eliot Spitzer. But putting that aside for just a minute here, we had the House nonbinding resolution. That passes in the House. They couldn’t get a cloture vote in the United States Senate.
Hillary just this weekend on her web site, now came up with her 50th position on Iraq. And now she wants, you know, time to cut, run and surrender in 90 days, which is a new position. Which clearly indicates to me she’s being pushed very hard by the hard left, those people that might be responsible for her not getting the nomination.
MORRIS: Yes. She is. But, look, this 90 day starts on the 12th of never. You know, that bill is never going to pass.
And the important thing is that the bill doesn’t say when the withdrawal is going to end. Obama says we’ll be out by March of ’08. And if Hillary is getting into a bidding war about who can be the most antiwar, I think she’s going to have trouble.
And I think it also is a mistake, because she’s not going to get that bill passed. And it’s one thing to say OK I couldn’t pass legislation in the Republican-dominated Senate.
But when she has a Democratic majority in the Senate, she won’t even get enough Democrats to vote for that for it to pass. And forget cloture. And I think that she’s making a mistake by introducing legislation that isn’t going to go anywhere because she’s going to look very ineffective.
HANNITY: But does it once again add to, I mean, we put together our montage. Hillary proudly makes the case about Saddam, about weapons of mass destruction, proudly boasts the year and a half later…
MORRIS: This woman has become a pretzel.
HANNITY: … when Saddam Hussein has captured. Now it’s “I would have never voted for the war. Get out in 90 days.” She almost seems very reactive, Dick, to all the political circumstances that are evolving. That doesn’t — that doesn’t seem to bode well in my mind for her.
MORRIS: Well, Sean, reactive but also incredibly stubborn. In looking at her conducts on Iraq, you see all of the things that you saw in the health care debate.
First, she would not — won’t say she’s sorry. She won’t say she made a mistake in that vote. And she won’t for reasons of pride and arrogance. She won’t set a mandatory date for withdrawal, and she won’t do a cutoff of funding. And her staff is probably beating her up to do those things.
She could have the nomination for the asking if she doesn’t give Edwards any daylight over that issue but hugs his position on it. But she won’t. And I think that it started with the fear of being portrayed like the wind surfer like Kerry. But that’s going to happen to her anyway.
And I think that what’s going on here, is you’re see the dominating characteristic of Hillary. This ingrained stubbornness of hanging in, and then this absolute belief that she can con the American people.
ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: And Dick, let me follow up on that with you.
MORRIS: Talk her way out of apology.
COLMES: Here’s a woman, if she were to say the words “I’m sorry” which you seem to be urging her to say and certain people say, “Oh, she’s got to say the words ‘I’m sorry’.” She has said everything she said she wouldn’t vote that way again, knowing what she knows now. She said she would end the war.
If she were to say I’m sorry, wouldn’t you be among the first to say, “Oh, look, she capitulated. She gave in. She was swayed. She has no core”? Wouldn’t you be saying that?
MORRIS: Yes, I probably would. But so what? I’m not voting in the Democratic primary.
COLMES: Why not?
MORRIS: If she were to — if she were to say that “I apologize for the vote,” just like Edwards does, “and I believe we should cut off funding for the extra troops” just like Edwards says. “And I believe we should set a date certain for withdrawal,” just like Edwards says, she would have 77 percent of the Democratic vote agreeing with her.
Edwards would have no basis for his candidacy. It would be gone in a heart beat. Nomination by acclimation.
COLMES: But she’s already said she wouldn’t vote that way again. She’d end the war. She’d be caving in if she did what you say you want her to do.
MORRIS: Alan, that’s just what I’m saying. She gets herself stuck. She takes positions early. She doesn’t think them through. And she ends up having to hew to those positions, because she’s afraid of being called a flip-flopper. And she ends up hunkering down on a crazy ground and fighting fights she doesn’t need to fight.
That’s exactly what happened in ’93 and ’94 over health care reform. It’s exactly what would happen if she was president. It’s why she would not make a good president. Bill would never get himself caught in this.
I’ve got a story for you. When Bill Clinton — listen to the story.
COLMES: Go ahead.
MORRIS: When Bill Clinton wanted — had to apologize for raising car license fees in Arkansas, I shot an ad for him and I said, “Apologize.”
He said, “I won’t apologize, but listen to what I’ll do.” And in the ad, he ad libbed, “when I was growing up my Daddy never had to whip me twice for the same thing.” And everybody got the point, and he got through it by charm and charisma. She doesn’t have any of that.
COLMES: Well, maybe she needs Dick Morris. Maybe you ought to be advising her.
Let me — let me just follow up for a second.
MORRIS: Gets down on positions and get stuck like this.
COLMES: If — we have President Stubborn. Don’t we? You call her Senator Stubborn in your latest column. President Stubborn, regardless of new evidence, regardless of new information, holds onto the same position, regardless of new things coming to light. Isn’t that the problem we have now with current leadership?
MORRIS: You’re absolutely right. In fact, except for the fact that I basically agree with Bush and I basically disagree with Hillary.
COLMES: Right.
MORRIS: And except for the fact that Bush’s means are moral as well as his ends, Hillary and Bush have a lot in common. Let’s talk about it after the break. That will be interesting thing to talk about.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLMES: We now continue with former Clinton advisor Dick Morris.
So you admit it, Dick, President Bush is stubborn. You call Hillary stubborn. The difference is our president, because of his stubbornness has us enmeshed in a war, and he’s refusing to change course when we continue to not do particularly well, and Iraq isn’t getting better. So that’s the real problem, which is why there’s probably going to be a change of leadership.
MORRIS: The difference — the different, I think, is that Hillary is basically wrong, and Bush is basically correct in the way he analyzes problems.
But there is that same, almost religiously-based stubbornness, that same feeling that I’m right and I’m going to go for it and I’m going to do it.
Now, Sean is right, she flip-flops. She tries to cover up. She tries to hide her positions. She tries to mask shifts that she does. But ultimately, when you get down to it, Hillary Clinton is a very stubborn person, who is very convinced that she’s right and, if she embarks on a course that’s wrong, she’s never going to change. She’s got that in — with Lyndon Johnson and Bush in common.
COLMES: I’m a little confused. Help me understand something. On one hand you’re calling her stubborn, intransigent, digs in. Then you say she flip-flops. How could they both be true?
MORRIS: When she’s running for office, she will adopt any mask she can. She needs do. She’ll adopt any contrivance or any disguise that she needs to.
But when you get right down to a matter of policy, she works very hard at trying to be consistent with what she really believes. She’s very stubborn about that.
HANNITY: Hey, Dick…
MORRIS: And it is my basic belief that Hillary is an ultra liberal and very stubborn about that, which is why I don’t think she should be president.
HANNITY: I think the entire Democratic Party’s trying to…
MORRIS: By the way, Sean, I…
HANNITY: Hang on a second.
MORRIS: I wanted to mention, Sean, you’ve got Boortz coming on.
HANNITY: Yes.
MORRIS: That book is fabulous.
HANNITY: It is a fabulous book.
MORRIS: He wants to repeal the 16th and 17th amendments, and the 18th is already repealed, but he’s a great guy.
HANNITY: He’s — well, he’s coming up in just a minute. So my buddy, Neal, is coming up.
Let me ask you this. Rudy is up in the polls. McCain he’s down a little bit in the polls. Romney seems to have flattened off a lot.
MORRIS: McCain is gone, Sean.
HANNITY: Well, and then the question is…
MORRIS: McCain is gone. He raised million and a half bucks last quarter. That’s enough for a race for the state assembly.
HANNITY: All right. Hang on. Let me ask you this. One story that is emerging is although he says he won’t get in until September if he does get in, is Newt Gingrich. What do you think of his potential candidacy?
MORRIS: Yes. One of my last columns was called “Here comes Newt”.
You’ve got Romney, who the right wing is just turning on. He said that he would be better on gay rights than Kennedy was. And he said he would protect a woman’s right to choose in Massachusetts. — He is history.
McCain had some momentum going, but then Rudy stole his thunder. He is raising no money. He’s been repudiated in Arkansas. He’s trying to get it back by moving to the right on Roe vs. Wade. But his opposition to the Bush tax cuts and his amnesty for illegal immigrants is killing him.
So there’s a vacancy for a right wing candidate, and if Newt stays out until September, it will be over by then. But if Gingrich got into this race right now, and I hope he’s listening, he could give Rudy a heck of a fight for his money.
HANNITY: Do you think he could win the nomination? And how do you…
MORRIS: No, I think Rudy would still beat him. But I said he could give him a heck of a fight for his money. Otherwise, Rudy is going to win this in a coronation.
HANNITY: Let me ask you this, then. If it’s Rudy and say, if he chose Newt Gingrich as his vice president, would it be Hillary and Evan Bayh?
MORRIS: No. I think it’s going to be Hillary and either Richardson or Obama to expand the electorate and get more blacks and Hispanics to vote.
Richardson’s the better choice. She likes Richardson. She knows him from the cabinet, and Hispanics are really up for grabs. But she’ll alienate the blacks by beating Obama, and she may have to put him on the ticket.
For the Republicans, if it’s a woman and a black on the Democratic ticket, duh, you run Condoleezza Rice as vice president.
HANNITY: Would she take it?
MORRIS: Yes. Everybody takes vice president, sometimes with twisted arms. And it’s Condi’s style. She likes to audition. She does a good job as secretary of state, and you say, “OK, it’s time for you to move up.”
And then in 2012, Sean, we have Condi versus Hillary, and Eileen’s and my book goes into the…
HANNITY: There’s your dream ticket.
COLMES: I thought Hannity was going to run in 2012. Aren’t you going to run in 2012, Hannity?
HANNITY: 2016.
COLMES: You’re announcing right now?
HANNITY: I’m announcing right now.
COLMES: 2016?
HANNITY: I will run for the presidency.
COLMES: In 2016.
HANNITY: As soon as I can get rid of you. I’m kidding. It’s a joke. It’s a joke.
COLMES: You know what? It’s too long. It’s too long from now.
Dick, thank you very much.
MORRIS: Thank you.
COLMES: We’ll have Dick comment on that announcement next time he’s on the show.
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