Pubdate: Thu, 06 Nov 2003 Source: Fox News Network (US) Program: The O'Reilly Factor Copyright: 2003 Fox News Network, Inc. Website: http://www.foxnews.com/ Host: Bill O'Reilly Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis) DEMOCRATS ANSWER ON POT USE O'REILLY: In the impact segment tonight, earlier this week, some young voters quizzed the Democratic presidential candidates. And of course, pot came up. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Which of you are ready to admit to having used marijuana in the past? And they want us to go around and ask each of you. Governor Dean? HOWARD DEAN: We'll all keep our hands down on this one. COOPER: John -- Senator Kerry, yes or no? SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Yes. COOPER: Congressman Kucinich, yes or no? KUCINICH: No, but I think it ought to be decriminalized. AL SHARPTON: I grew up in the church. We didn't believe in that. COOPER: Okay, Senator Edwards? SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D), NORTH CAROLINA: Yes. COOPER: Senator Lieberman? SEN. JOE LIEBERMAN (D), CONNECTICUT: I have a reputation for giving unpopular answers at Democratic debates. I never used marijuana. Sorry. COOPER: General Clark? WESLEY CLARK: Never used it. COOPER: Ambassador Braun? SHARON MOSELEY-BRAUN: I'm not going to answer. COOPER: And Governor Dean? DEAN: Yes. COOPER: All right. (END VIDEO CLIP) O'REILLY: All right, so you have to apologize at the debate if you didn't use pot. With us now, Fox News political analyst Dick Morris, the author of "Off with their Heads: Traitors, Crooks and Obstructionists in American Politics, Media, and Business." Look, this is silly little thing. And it doesn't mean anything, but is it fair game to be asking did you use pot, did you use heroin, did you use crack, did you smoke mushrooms, you know, take ecstacy, did you have an affair, did you go to a strip club? I mean, where does it end? DICK MORRIS, FOX NEWS POLITICAL ANALYST: My answers to your question are no, yes, yes, yes, no, yes, no. All right? O'REILLY: How do you break it down? MORRIS: It's - you shouldn't ask -- pot is not a political negative. Cocaine, heroin, stuff like that is. The adultery -- vanilla adultery is probably not. Sexual harassment, sexual abuse, nonpayment of child support, those kinds of issues are. O'REILLY: But should politicians answer any of these questions because it doesn't stop once you start to answer them, you got to answer them all. I would - I think Moseley-Braun did the best thing. I'm not going to answer that. MORRIS: You got it right. You got to answer them all. O'REILLY: Why? MORRIS: Because it's part of the guy's character. It's part of knowing about him. O'REILLY: I wouldn't answer. MORRIS: Well, you wouldn't get elected president. O'REILLY: How do you know? All right? I wouldn't answer him. And I think that this... MORRIS: By the way, once I walked into the White House and Clinton had a big unlit cigar in his mouth, which he often did, and he just sat there with it. And it's like, not inhaling again, sir? O'REILLY: And what did he say? MORRIS: He laughed. O'REILLY: All right, so you think they are legitimate questions... MORRIS: Sure. O'REILLY: ...to ask people about their vices? MORRIS: I believe this concept of a zone of privacy around a presidential candidate is nonsense. You leave your zone of privacy at home. O'REILLY: Really... MORRIS: If you want a zone of privacy, don't run for president. O'REILLY: All right. I disagree with that. I think politicians should say look, let's just... MORRIS: And I think Americans... O'REILLY: ...this is germane to my public policy stand... MORRIS: And I think Americans are sensible enough to take the answers seriously. O'REILLY: Maybe, but I don't like the tone of the questions. MORRIS: Dean's not going to lose five votes because of that. O'REILLY: No, I agree with you. I mean, anybody who thinks that Dean didn't smoke pot... MORRIS: (Unintelligible) confederate decal going after him. O'REILLY: All right, now you saw my "talking points" memo... MORRIS: Yes. O'REILLY: ...about dirty tricks in the DNC. MORRIS: Yes. O'REILLY: What do you think? MORRIS: The Republican party was the dirty trick party of the 1970's. The Democratic party was the dirty trick party of the '90's and the 2000's. The use of private detectives to dig up dirt on the women who said yes or no or maybe to Bill Clinton is ultimately what caused me to part company with the Clintons. O'REILLY: Is that right? MORRIS: Because it was -- it was a filthy, dirty thing that they did. O'REILLY: And who paid for those private detectives? MORRIS: You did. It was tax money that was used for that because it was federal matching funds in the 1982 election. O'REILLY: Yes. MORRIS: You paid -- 1992 election. You paid for it. O'REILLY: So what I object to is the Democratic party, obviously a party of respect. And we respect them. We respect both parties. But to use donations to pay to smear merchants to go out and defame people and to run them around... MORRIS: Right. O'REILLY: All right, as they're doing now makes me sick. MORRIS: Well, it's a matter of record that in 1992, Hillary Clinton was peddling the story that Bush had an affair as an -- trying to get reporters trying to run as an antidote to the Gennifer Flowers piece. This bit about passing around dirt on candidates is so old, it's always done, and -- but the idea of doing it... O'REILLY: But now they're using the... MORRIS: ...in book format is really unusual. O'REILLY: Yes, they're using the publishing industry to do it. And they're running... MORRIS: And at the same time, hyping books up on the bestseller list. O'REILLY: Well, there's no question about that. You know what stores report. And they go to those stores. It's a very corrupt game. But I don't even care about that. What I care about is that you have President Bush being assassinated by 18 books right now. MORRIS: Right. O'REILLY: All right. And Terry Mcauliffe is behind some of those books, and nobody knows it. MORRIS: Terry Mcauliffe is the Clintons' private direct operative. O'REILLY: Is he as dirty as I think he is? MORRIS: He doesn't do anything without anyone's consent. Well, he went out playing golf with somebody, and as a result, made millions of dollars... O'REILLY: That's the Global Crossing $18 million thing. MORRIS: Global Crossing. And he says that they didn't talk about it when they played golf. And it was just a coincidence that he happened to have figured it out. O'REILLY: All right, something wrong here. MORRIS: I leave it up to you. O'REILLY: We're going to -- one more thing before we let you go. Looks like Wesley Clark is not... MORRIS: Wesley Clark is fading. I think he's gone. O'REILLY: Yes -- gone? MORRIS: Well, going, going. The Marist (ph) poll has him in fifth place at 8 percent. "The Washington Post"-ABC poll just in has him in fourth place at 12 percent. O'REILLY: Why? Why? Real short. We only have 15 seconds. Why? MORRIS: Because he's all image, no substance. Whereas Dean is substance. You may not agree with him, but he has substantive on positions. O'REILLY: All right, Dick Morris, thanks very much. As always, good to see you. MORRIS: Good to see you. O'REILLY: And you can weigh in on the pot issue. Our billoreilly.com poll question is "would the fact that a presidential candidate once smoked pot influence your vote" in any way? We will keep the poll open until Monday. So far, the results have been very interesting. Billoreilly.com. In a moment, why is a man who killed 48 women dodging the death penalty? Next. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman