MSNBC Scarborough Country - Transcript

MSNBC

SHOW: SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY 22:00

HEADLINE: SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY For July 23, 2004

BYLINE: Steve Emerson; Joe Scarborough

GUESTS: Michael Isikoff; Susan Collins; Christopher Shays

HIGHLIGHT:
Details from the 9/11 Commission show how efficient and thorough the terrorist system is and how broken down America's is. However, will Congress do anything to change the way the United States fights terror?

BODY:
SCARBOROUGH: Friday night in SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY and a special report on the bombshells found inside the 9/11 Commission's report.

Al Qaeda still poses a very real, very immediate threat to the United States. But will anything actually be done to make America safer or will it be politics as usual inside the beltway?

With me now, Senator Susan Collins from Maine.

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS ®, MAINE: Good evening, Joe.

SCARBOROUGH: Now, the 9/11 Commission issued its report and everybody in Washington went on vacation, just like everybody did in August of 2001.

And, of course, as you know, Senator Collins, back then, on Congress' first day back from vacation, America was attacked. Is anything going to be different in 2004, three years after that attack?

COLLINS: Yes, it is.

The leaders of the Senate, Bill Frist and Tom Daschle, have tasked Joe Lieberman and me with being the lead in reviewing the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. And we understand the urgency of this task. We are going to hold our first hearing to evaluate the recommendations the very first week in August. And our task from our leaders is to get a bill recorded by the Governmental Affairs Committee in the first week of October.

This task is much too urgent for us to wait six weeks before tackling it.

SCARBOROUGH: You know, Senator, I said-and I remember in 1999, I predicted to colleagues in the House that nothing was going to get done because of election-year politics. And that's what happened then.

Don't you really believe that your hope and Joe Lieberman's hope of getting real reform passed a month before the election, in October of this year, is simply unrealistic because it's going to be blocked by partisan presidential politics?

COLLINS: We just can't allow that to happen. This issue is far too important. It transcends partisan politics.

Joe Lieberman and I work very well together. We're committed to taking a bipartisan approach. There's no more critical priority for our country than improving our capability to respond to, detect and deter terrorist activities. We just can't allow that to be caught up in presidential politics. This is serious. It's urgent.

And that's why we've started work on the recommendations of the commission today. Joe and I met this morning. We had a conference call with the commission's two chairmen this afternoon and we've already scheduled our first hearing.

SCARBOROUGH: All right, Senator Collins, good luck. Thank you for joining us tonight. But I can tell you, you're going to have an uphill battle. I'm glad you and Joe Lieberman are on this, because Congress really needs to act.

Now, SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY...

COLLINS: That's for sure.

SCARBOROUGH: It sure is. Thank you again.