RICHARD PERLE - TRANSCRIPT OF "BILL O'REILLY: PERSONAL SEGMENT" - Richard Perle

O'REILLY: "Personal story" segment tonight, an interesting debate took place in Portland, Oregon last night between DNC Chief Howard Dean and Republican terror war adviser Richard Perle.

Governor Dean continues to avoid "The Factor", but joining us now from Washington is Mr. Perle, a former Assistant Secretary of Defense under President Reagan.

I want to say up front, this segment really isn't that fair because I'd like to get Dean to come on and explain. But my question about Dean, and this is a question I wanted to know from John Kerry as well, is that from the get-go when these guys started to run for president, Dean and Kerry, I never knew and still to this moment don't know -- how they would wage the war on terror.

Now I know what you'd want to do, because you're the architect of the Iraq War and the Middle East and the aggressive/proactive, but do you, after debating Dean for 90 minutes, know what he would do?

RICHARD PERLE, FMR. ASST. DEFENSE SECRETARY: No. And it's a topic, of course, that was very much at the center of the debate, but the debate ended without any clear indication of what he would do.

He says that we have to be vigorous and robust in combating terror. And I believe he believes that. But he had no specific ideas about what to do, except to say that it was a complicated problem and it couldn't be dealt with military means alone. But that doesn't tell you what he would do.

O'REILLY: OK, so still now after they -- Democrats lost the election, and I believe they did because Kerry couldn't get specific about how he'd improve the Iraq situation or really anything else on the war on terror, other than saying he had a plan on his Web site, which he didn't, and then the allies, he was going to convince in some miraculous way to help us. And yesterday, we learn that Jacques Chirac won't designate Hezbollah as a terrorist group. So there we are.

So you spent 90 minutes in Portland with Dean. And all Dean wants to do is shoot down what the Bush administration has done. And that's still his game, correct?

PERLE: Well, at one point in the course of the debate, he said we need a new president. I had to remind him that we just had an election to settle that.

No, there are no ideas. And he put a lot of emphasis, and I've heard him do this on other occasions, on getting the message across that Democrats are not soft on defense. And I suggested that the best way to get that message across was to change the behavior of many Democrats on defense issues, which is consistently to oppose spending for example for our own forces and our intelligence services.

O'REILLY: All right. But see, I'm -- I don't even care about that. I mean, there are always going to -- look, both sides want to make the other side look bad. You know the game. You've been around long enough. That's what they do.

But I just can't understand the Democratic Party, after all of this time, after their defeat and not only for the presidency but in Congress, still have no strategy, nothing that you can say and look at and analyze, other than you, Richard Perle are a snook and the president should be removed. That's all they continue to have after 90 minutes. Didn't the audience get a little tired of that?

PERLE: Well, actually, the audience was quite enthusiastic for Howard Dean. I think he'd have won the Oregon primary if he'd lasted that...

O'REILLY: Yes, they love him, but they accept the fact that he didn't have any solution or any plan.

PERLE: Well, I think the sentiment in that audience was largely negative with respect to what we are doing to fight terrorism.

O'REILLY: Yes, there's no question.

PERLE: Look, Howard Dean's an intelligent man. And he understands perfectly well. He can't say it obviously, but he understands perfectly well that the range of options for dealing with fanatical terrorists are limited. And the president is availing himself for virtually all of those options. So there's nothing left for Howard Dean to propose.

O'REILLY: Did -- what -- did you ask Dean that would it be OK with him if Saddam were still in power? Did you ask him about the successful Iraq election? Did you try to pin him down?

PERLE: He was positive on the election. I have to give him that. And he said now it was important that we succeed in Iraq. And I give him credit for that as well.

As to whether Saddam should still be in power, I think he made it very plain during the campaign that he would not have taken military action against Saddam in which case, of course, he would be in power.

O'REILLY: All right, one of my analysis here -- and I think the Bush administration has made some mistakes in Iraq -- and I've been critical of their aftermath planning. I hope it turns around. I was -- we were all thrilled with the election results. All good Americans are.

But I haven't been rubber stamping the president. But one thing I showed, and it was very effective, was the map of Syria, Iraq, and Iran all together in a big terror belt, which is what you would have had, had you not gone in to remove Saddam. And that -- you know, from the Mediterranean to the Afghan border, to have all of those countries terror-friendly, you know, we have problems with Iran and Syria now, Mr. Perle. That pretty much says it all. I'll give you the last word.

PERLE: You're absolutely right. If we have to live in a world in which states can welcome terrorists on their territories so they can plan and plot against us, we're in deep trouble.

O'REILLY: Big, big trouble. Mr. Perle, thanks very much. We appreciate it. Howard Dean welcome on this program any time.

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RICHARD PERLE - TRANSCRIPT OF "BILL O'REILLY: PERSONAL SEGMENT" by Richard Perle Fox News February 18, 2005

RICHARD PERLE - TRANSCRIPT OF "BILL O'REILLY: PERSONAL SEGMENT"
by Richard Perle
Fox News
February 18, 2005