THE O'REILLY FACTOR, February 10, 2000, Thursday
O'REILLY: Thanks for staying with us. I'm Bill O'Reilly.
In the "Personal Story" segment tonight, why not Al for president?
Not Al Gore. Al Franken. His new book out is in paperback. It's called "Why Not Me? The Inside Story of the Making and Unmaking of the Franken Candidacy" -- or presidency, I should say.
Candidate Franken joins us now.
You're milking this candidacy thing good. This is a -- good timing for you with the paperback book out.
AL FRANKEN, "WHY NOT ME? THE INSIDE STORY OF THE MAKING AND UNMAKING OF THE FRANKEN PRESIDENCY" AUTHOR: Good for the paperback. I'm not really actually...
O'REILLY: You're not really...
FRANKEN: I'm not really...
O'REILLY: You're not the...
FRANKEN: But the book did so well. I'm glad you had Forbes on because the -- the book did so well, I'm now for the flat tax.
O'REILLY: Are you?
FRANKEN: Yeah.
O'REILLY: You are for it because you're making so much money...
FRANKEN: Yeah, I think if my royalties are taxed at 17 instead of 39.6 percent, it would really help unleash my creative energies.
O'REILLY: And you live here in New York, so you have to pay state tax on your royalties, city tax on your royalties, and 50 cents a gallon on your heating oil and gasoline. This is a good place to live, right? But Hillary Clinton's going to change all that.
FRANKEN: This is a good place to live.
O'REILLY: You know that?
FRANKEN: She's going to...
O'REILLY: If she gets elected senator, she's going to change all that.
FRANKEN: I'm all for that.
O'REILLY: She's going to raise it. You'll pay more taxes.
FRANKEN: No.
O'REILLY: Oh, yeah! Yeah!
FRANKEN: What would she have to do with the state government?
O'REILLY: Because she -- no, it's - she wants to raise taxes to pay for more entitlement programs, like health care for everybody, condos for the homeless. Did you hear about that? Condos for the homeless.
FRANKEN: Well, I would like the homeless to live somewhere.
O'REILLY: Right.
FRANKEN: That would be nice.
O'REILLY: And it would be -- but does the government have to give them the house? See, that's -- that's the question. I think...
FRANKEN: I think -- I think it -- it's best for people to own homes. I think that -- I mean, Kemp was talking about home ownership as a -- an incentive for people to take care of their homes.
O'REILLY: Well, you and I disagree philosophically. You're a bit -- a little more left than I am.
FRANKEN: Yes.
O'REILLY: I mean, I would...
FRANKEN: I would say that. You're to the right of me.
O'REILLY: Of Al Franken.
FRANKEN: Yeah.
O'REILLY: I'm to the right of Al Franken, and you're...
FRANKEN: Right.
O'REILLY: You're to the left of Al Franken or...
FRANKEN: I'm to the left of you.
O'REILLY: You are Al Franken. Hillary -- you know her.
FRANKEN: Yeah.
O'REILLY: What do you think?
FRANKEN: I like Hillary. I -- and there's -- Hillary's like a goofy, funny person if you get to know her.
O'REILLY: Really?
FRANKEN: Yeah. And -- but she doesn't show it, and I think it's to her disservice -- her own disservice.
O'REILLY: She could be a "Saturday Night Live" cast member or...
FRANKEN: No, she's not...
O'REILLY: Not that goofy?
FRANKEN: She's not that -- that -- she doesn't do impressions and stuff like that, but she's pretty funny.
O'REILLY: Is she?
FRANKEN: Yeah.
O'REILLY: See, it's hard to be funny when you're married to Bill Clinton, though, isn't it?
FRANKEN: I think it would make things...
O'REILLY: A little...
FRANKEN: ... harder sometimes.
O'REILLY: Yeah. There's a little less jocularity when you have Monica running...
FRANKEN: Yeah.
O'REILLY: ... running down the hallway.
FRANKEN: How's your marriage?
O'REILLY: Whose? Yours?
FRANKEN: Yours.
O'REILLY: Mine's -- everything's fine with me.
FRANKEN: I'm just -- OK. Good, good, good. I'm just -- you know, I don't want to get into that.
O'REILLY: Yeah, you still -- you guys are still --
You know, we did a story earlier on the disbarment of the president, you know. Are you for -- are you for that? Do you think he should be disbarred?
FRANKEN: Well, I don't know. I guess the state of Arkansas has to figure that out. I -- I think if that federal judge said he committed perjury, maybe he shouldn't be practicing law.
O'REILLY: Yeah, that might not be a good idea.
You made your reputation as a writer on "Saturday Night Live." The show's not what it used to be, I don't think. Do you agree with that?
FRANKEN: Well, I root for the show every week. I mean, I -- there's a lot of great cast members and...
O'REILLY: But consistently it's not as good.
FRANKEN: They -- you know, I wrote a lot of the political stuff with Jim Downey (ph) and other guys, and I'd like to think that what we did was maybe a little bit more sophisticated than what's...
O'REILLY: Last Saturday night, they had a skit about the Republican nominees, and they bashed Clinton-Gore. So they're...
FRANKEN: Candidates. Yeah.
O'REILLY: Candidates. I'm sorry.
FRANKEN: Yeah.
O'REILLY: And they had this John McCain thing with the prisoner of war thing on.
FRANKEN: Yeah.
O'REILLY: What did you think?
FRANKEN: I didn't -- I did not like that.
O'REILLY: Why?
FRANKEN: I thought it was unfair and tasteless and -- and, I mean, he really is a hero, and also -- I mean, this is something that -- that the Bush candidacy -- the Bush campaign is trying to do a little bit, is to get the -- assert the idea that he has a temper and that he's a little -- little unstable.
O'REILLY: Quirky.
FRANKEN: Quirky. Yeah. I mean, they're now -- I mean, we were talking about this before. They're doing push polls now in South Carolina. They admitted it. Push polls are calling up voters in South Carolina saying that you're a polling service, which you aren't, you're actually the Bush campaign, and then spreading rumors about your...
O'REILLY: Your opponents.
FRANKEN: ... your opponents. It was started by Lee Atwater in South Carolina. He did it for Carroll Campbell who's supporting Bush. He -- Campbell is running for Congress against the Jewish man, Max Heller (ph). "Would you be less likely to vote for Max Heller if you knew that he didn't accept Jesus Christ as his savior?"
O'REILLY: Those are -- that's what push polling is. It's...
FRANKEN: That is what push polling is, and the Bush people are doing it, and George Bush, of course, learned from Lee Atwater.
O'REILLY: Yeah, but I think the Bush people say they've now stopped it, since the story has broken, but we're looking into it.
FRANKEN: Yeah, they got caught.
O'REILLY: They -- yeah. It's a dirty business, as you know.
FRANKEN: Yeah. Yeah.
O'REILLY: If you can't be elected president, Al, and I think that's probably not going to happen...
FRANKEN: It'd be fair to say. Yeah. Sure.
O'REILLY: Yeah. That doesn't people shouldn't buy your book, but I don't think you're going to...
FRANKEN: The book is hilarious.
O'REILLY: All right. Now if you can't be elected, who should be?
FRANKEN: Well, I'm -- I'm for Gore.
O'REILLY: Are you?
FRANKEN: I'm for Gore. Yes, I am.
O'REILLY: You want to continue the...
FRANKEN: ... successes of the Clinton -- I -- well, I remember in 1993 every Republican voting against the deficit reduction plan.
O'REILLY: Right.
FRANKEN: I remember -- I remember every Republican saying this is going to cause a recession if this passes. It passed because almost every Democrat voted for it.
O'REILLY: And Gore broke -- broke the deadlock.
FRANKEN: Yeah.
O'REILLY: All right. So...
FRANKEN: And we have now the longest expansion in...
O'REILLY: I've got to break this to you. We only have 20 seconds left. If you do real well on the paperback book and Gore gets elected, more taxes, Al.
FRANKEN: Oh, I...
O'REILLY: There you go.
FRANKEN: He's a new Democrat. He's a new Democrat.
O'REILLY: All right, all right, all right. Thanks a lot, Al. We appreciate it.
Up next, Miss USA.
FRANKEN: Whoa.
O'REILLY: What a story. We'll be right back.