Kay Bailey Hutchinson and Aaron. She doesn't think anyone who lies should be prosecuted. She thinks lying is okay. BUT, get this. She thinks anyone who committed the crime of outing Ms. Plame should be held responsilbe. Now. I ask you. How is anyone supposed to know if one is responsible for outing Ms. Plame as a crime if it's okay to lie? That the convoluted thinking of the Republican Party. Completely self righteous. Does Aaron go in for the 'kill' to point out how this woman has a double standard. No, of course not. Women aren't treated like that as a Republican but God help you if you are a Democrat.
From the Transcript:
BROWN: Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas is a proud conservative, also a staunch supporter of the Miers nomination. And we spoke with the senator earlier tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): Senator, did the White House blow this one?
SEN. KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON (R), TEXAS: I don't think the White House blew it. I think they had set parameters. The president knew Harriet Miers and wanted someone that he knew and would trust to have his judicial philosophy and I just think that she was not treated fairly. I think people didn't give her a chance to say who she was and what she believed and I think that's unfortunate.
BROWN (on camera): Did she jump or was she pushed?
HUTCHISON: No, she made that decision on her own. She did.
BROWN: Why did social conservatives -- because it really was social conservatives largely, not exclusively -- hammer her so hard? Is it because they weren't certain -- 100 percent certain -- that she would vote to overturn Roe versus Wade?
HUTCHISON: Well, I think there were a lot of factors here, Aaron. I do think that some people were concerned that they didn't know exactly. But I have to say they didn't know exactly what John Roberts would do and you didn't hear this kind of uproar. But I also think that on the other side, the Democrats were beginning to say they wanted to have internal White House documents and they wouldn't go forward without that. And I think that's what was the final blow for her.
BROWN: The last time I checked, your side, the Republicans have the votes. They have the votes in the committee, they have the votes on the floor. And to say that it was the Democrats that did her in in the end sounds like at least a failure of mathematics, if not politics.
HUTCHISON: Well, people weren't voting in lock step. We do have Republican control, but there were people rightly who were saying I'm going to wait and see. And I think the overwhelming view was that the Democrats were not going to support her and that they were going to require information that could not be given and they were going to make a big deal of that at the hearings. And that was a concern.
BROWN: Do you think, under the circumstances, the president is a year into this term, he has control or his party has control of both houses of Congress, that the president himself has been damaged -- be honest now -- has been damaged by a nomination that he could not even get to a hearing?
HUTCHISON: I think Harriet made the decision to stop before the hearing. I think the president wanted her to go forward and he stood 100 percent behind her and he was not in any way, I think, to blame for her not getting a hearing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Kay Baily Hutchison. We're clearly juggling two major stories tonight: The Miers withdrawal and the CIA leak investigation, which will come to a head -- perhaps not totally, but in part tomorrow. John King has an irresistible urge to work the telephones, I must say. He has been working the phones tonight on this and he joins us now.
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PERSONAL NOTES
They are starting their 'Anderson' promotin again. Or better stated, still.
1053
Aaron and Harriet Miers. AGAIN?
How much can you chew this up and spit it out again?
1053
Commercials.
Aaron. LIKELY, is not definitely.
Aide to Cheney Appears Likely to Be Indicted; Rove Under Scrutiny
By DAVID JOHNSTON
and RICHARD W. STEVENSON
Published: October 28, 2005
WASHINGTON, Oct. 27 - Associates of I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, expected an indictment on Friday charging him with making false statements to the grand jury in the C.I.A. leak inquiry, lawyers in the case said Thursday.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/28/politics/28leak.html?hp&ex=1130472000&en=f4b9e5edc0a35fdf&ei=5094&partner=homepage
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Commercials
1102
Aaron and breaking news on the CIA case. Frankenstein and "The Whip Around the World"
NEWSNIGHT WITH ANDERSON COOPER AND AARON BROWN.
1105
Aaron and Toobin
1110
Dana Bash and Miers - AGAIN.
PERSONAL NOTES
The Bigots are at it again. Day Two of Frank Bigotry.
1119
Honoring the Fallen. Average age 25.
1120
Commercials
1123
Honoring the Fallen - Average age 27
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Greenfield does not exist.
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Aaron and Miers and the Evangelical Pat Robertson. "She probably saw the handwriting on the wall." Why as Harriet pushed? "The Religious Right asked too much. They wanted perfection. I don't know if they will ever be that good." "It was the cronyism thing that killed it."
1131
Pat Robertson - Bigot of the Hour - Janice Rogers Brown - "The Democrats would not beat up on a Black Woman like they would a white male.
1132
Honor the Fallen - age 23
From the Transcipt:
Since the Religious Right is getting much of the blame or the credit, depending on your point of view, for the Miers' withdrawal, who better to talk about that than the founder of the Christian Coalition, the Reverend Pat Robertson. And we spoke with Reverend Robertson earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Reverend Robertson, do you think that Harriet Miers jumped or was pushed?
PAT ROBERTSON, FOUNDER, CHRISTIAN COALITION: I think a little of both. I think she's a very perceptive lady, so she probably saw the handwriting on the wall. It just looked like she didn't have the votes to get confirmed.BROWN: And the people who did the pushing are people who are in many respects, your political allies, your social religious allies -- why did they push her?
ROBERTSON: Well, I frankly, Aaron, think they were asking too much. They put requirements on that woman that nobody put on other candidates that I'm aware of over the last few decades. They asked impossible things. She's a very good lawyer. She's a terrific trial lawyer, and they just, I think they wanted perfection, which I'm not sure we'll ever find in America's judiciary.
BROWN: When you say they wanted too much, what is the it there? What is it that they wanted that they didn't get?
ROBERTSON: Well, if they want a litmus test of abortion or anti- abortion or whatever, no judge is going to give it to them. So I think they were asking more than they needed to get.
BROWN: If I was the president, I'd be a little annoyed with my political base because my political base has done me no favors in the last three or four weeks.
ROBERTSON: It was the cronyism thing that killed it. But I supported her. The president said okay, she's my choice and I had good things from her from Texas, so I said, okay, I'm onboard, let's go. But a lot of people were just vehement against her. I think it was unwarranted, some of the criticism.
BROWN: Did the White House botch it in that sense, in the selling of Ms. Miers?
ROBERTSON: Again, Aaron, you're back to that White House counsel business. You're back to a close aide of the president. And he had a whole plethora of excellent judges he could have selected -- excellent. On the other hand, there were those who said well maybe the president's ducking a fight. And you remember Pat Buchanan, who said well we need a bench clearing brawl. Well, I don't go for that.
BROWN: Here's what I hear you saying. Tell me if I'm reading too much into this.
ROBERTSON: All right, okay.
BROWN: That if you had been in position to make the choice, you'd have made a different choice?
ROBERTSON: Correct. BROWN: She didn't have the chops that you would have like to have seen in a Supreme Court nominee; but in a sense, you felt you owed the president one?
ROBERTSON: Not owed him one. I trusted him and I still trust him. I think his judicial philosophy has been right on point with what I believe. So I was all for it. If he said she's good, he'd known her for about 10 years, if he says she reflects my judicial philosophies, then that was fine with me.
BROWN: Do you think it was inappropriate to inject her religion, her religious background as a qualification for her nomination.
ROBERTSON: Yes, I do. I don't think that -- if we say it wasn't right to bring up the Catholicism of John Roberts, then we shouldn't have brought up the evangelical position of Harriet Miers. I think we ought to sell her on her judicial philosophy. I really believe that if she had gone before the committee and presented her views, she would have been confirmed. But she just thought it was too much heat and there were too many people who said we're not going to vote for you, on the Republican side of the aisle.But I -- as I say, Janice Rogers Brown -- she is brilliant. She is an African-American. She I think a sharecropper's daughter. It's rags to riches, an American success story. And she would make a superb Supreme Court, also brilliant.
BROWN: And you'd get your bench clearing brawl, whether you want one or not?
ROBERTSON: She might not have one. I can't imagine Ted Kennedy beating up on a black woman. Could you? He just wouldn't. It wouldn't play. He wouldn't mind beating up on a white male, but I don't know if he'd go after a black woman. I don't know if any of those Democrats would beat her up the way they would somebody else. So, I think if they did it would hurt them in the polls and they know that.
BROWN: Oh, I think there'd be a brawl.
