MSNBC Countdown with Keith Olbermann - Transcript

MSNBC Countdown with Keith Olbermann - Transcript

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OLBERMANN: First, perhaps, it was Steven Laffey, the man challenging Lincoln Chafee in the Republican senatorial primary in Rhode Island. He said we need a new secretary of defense. Then came the change of heart from the moderate Republican congressman from Connecticut, Chris Shays, saying we need a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.

In our fourth story on the COUNTDOWN, now it is a strongly worded six-paragraph call for Mr. Rumsfeld to resign by the Republican nominee for the Senate from New Jersey, who just happens to be the son of the Republican co-chair of the 9/11 commission. New Jersey State Senator Thomas H. Kean, Jr., made his position known over the weekend.

As he challenges the Democrat incumbent, Robert Menendez, he also challenges Secretary Rumsfeld‘s continuing stewardship of the Pentagon, saying it is time for a, quote, "fresh approach to a tired, faulty, and stalled policy."

Senator Kean joins us now here in the studio.

Thank you for your time tonight, sir.

STATE SEN. THOMAS H. KEAN ®, NEW JERSEY SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: It‘s great to be with you. Thank you for inviting me.

OLBERMANN: The White House just released a letter to the Democrats who had called for Mr. Rumsfeld‘s resignation, saying, quote, "Secretary Rumsfeld retains the full confidence of the president." The administration seems to have little room for discussion on this point. Are you in trouble for your comments?

KEAN: It‘s the right thing to do. I think Secretary Rumsfeld, especially in his comments last week, where he showed that over the last six years, he has not learned the lessons that he needs to learn about the changing world environment, and comparing anybody who criticizes any aspect of the war on terror, or the war in Iraq, as appeasers, is absolutely wrong.

And I think that he needs to go.

OLBERMANN: The secretary of defense, like all of the cabinet appointees, serves at the president‘s pleasure. Is there a reason you chose not to call on the president to dismiss him, rather than calling for a resignation?

KEAN: Well, I was hoping that the secretary would resign, but clearly think that the president should dismiss him as well.

OLBERMANN: In your statement about the resignation, let me read this exactly, you call upon congressional leaders of both parties not to make the war in Iraq a political football. Necessarily, as a politician even of the same party that is in power, is not calling for a cabinet member‘s resignation inevitably a political move? Is it not necessarily, by definition, that way?

KEAN: Well, I think that removing Secretary Rumsfeld is the right thing to do.

But what we‘ve seen in this situation is now happening on both sides of the aisle, is a hyperpartisanship. And we‘re not getting the type of debate about the war in Iraq and war on terror that we need to have that will make sure the American public is well educated into the stakes involved in each of the decisions. And that‘s why I think we need to focus, and my hope is that we will have policies and personnel in the administration, as well as in Congress, that would be able to have those type of conversations across partisan lines.

This is an incredibly important issue for the future of America, and we need to get leaders in Washington who are able to work across the party lines on the policies that will make our homeland safer.

OLBERMANN: I‘d like to second you on that. But here‘s my problem with it. Mr. Laffey‘s comments in Rhode Island about Mr. Rumsfeld, and Congressman Shay‘s comments in Connecticut about a timetable, and now your comments, this is—I would hope that (INAUDIBLE) kind of frank, My country before my party, talk that we need right now.

But it seems to be the very same kind of talk that the president just criticized again today, and which Mr. Rumsfeld criticized so strongly last week. Are there—are we not at greater loggerheads than perhaps we know here?

KEAN: Well, I think we need to have (INAUDIBLE) on both—efforts on both sides of the aisle that would be able to emphasize the importance of the war on terror, making sure that we‘re protecting our troops as they‘re in harm‘s way, that we are focusing on ways that make sure that we have a secure government and a stable borders and the situation in Iraq.

And as we‘re looking at the global situation which we find ourselves with, terrorism is clearly a significant threat. Nonstate actors are a larger threat than they‘ve ever been in the past. And we need to focus on those efforts and bring a bipartisan dialogue down to Washington, D.C., and not have the hyperpartisanship.

And my hope is we have a discussion on those types of issues, and not have a situation in which everything is turned into a political football, which does not help the American people.

OLBERMANN: What do we do about the political football, sir? Is there anything that we can do now that we are not doing?

KEAN: Well, I think we need to have leaders on both sides of the aisle willing to work at—across the aisle to focus on those policies that are going to make the American people safer, and making sure that our troops, as they‘re in harm‘s way, are well protected and given the type of equipment that they need to accomplish their mission.

I‘m not convinced that that‘s the type of dialogue that‘s going on in Washington, D.C., right now. And but one of the things we do need is a change in personnel at the Department of Defense, so that we can have an individual who will bring fresh eyes and fresh ideas to this situation, not only in Iraq, but to Iran, to North Korea, to the emerging global terrorist threat that‘s impacting and will impact this country for decades to come.

We need to focus on making a real difference now. And the first step is removing Secretary Rumsfeld.

OLBERMANN: Thomas H. Kean, Jr., Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate from New Jersey, elaborating here on his call for Mr. Rumsfeld‘s resignation or dismissal.

Thank you for some of your time tonight, sir.

KEAN: Thank you.

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