Situation Room Transcript

This is a transcript of what was aired earlier this afternoon. A more complete transcript will be posted later. ---Ed.

BLITZER: Jack, thanks very much. We'll get back to you soon. Coming up, a Texas showdown at the U.S. Supreme Court. Political battlelines are at stake and possibly much, much more. We're going to tell you what's happening right now.

Also ahead, my interview with Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean. Is he fighting mad about the Dubai Port deal and the situation in Iraq?

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BLITZER: Democrats are eager to put their days as a largely powerless party behind them, so party leaders are seizing on the Bush administration's vulnerable points, including the port security controversy and the escalating violence in Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And joining us now is the chairman of the Democratic Party, the former governor of Vermont, Howard Dean. Governor, thanks very much for joining us.

HOWARD DEAN, CHMN. DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CMTE.: Thanks for having me on, Wolf.

BLITZER: Let's talk several subjects: ports first -- the Dubai port deal, specifically. The president says this represents no threat to U.S. national security. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: Let me just make something clear to the American people. If there was any doubt in my mind or people in my administration's mind that our ports would be less secure and the American people endangered, this deal wouldn't go forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Do you believe him?

DEAN: I think there's probably no doubt in his mind. The problem is, he hasn't gotten the information from his own administration. The Coast Guard raised the issue shortly before this deal was done, and said we can't guarantee the security here. So once again, the president doesn't seem to be in touch with folks in his own administration, who are telling him something and he's ignoring the -- he's doing the opposite.

BLITZER: He acknowledges that he wasn't informed as the committee -- the interagency committee -- was reviewing it, but since then, he has been briefed on what's going on. In fact, the Coast Guard now -- the admiral who's in charge of port security was here in THE SITUATION ROOM yesterday -- and despite some earlier misgivings, they say they have been reassured. Listen to this exchange I had with Rear Admiral Craig Bone. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Can you assure the American public that the threat level will not increase as a result of this Dubai firm taking over the British firm's operations?

RADM. CRAIG BONE, U.S. COAST GUARD: Yes. I can tell you that the measures that we've put into place will assure that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right. He's a professional, he's not a political operative or anything.

DEAN: Well, yes, we know.

BLITZER: He's the guy in charge of port security for the Coast Guard.

DEAN: Here's my concern about this, Wolf: first of all, I'm not sure that any foreign company-controlled government (sic) ought to be -- government-controlled foreign entity ought to be controlling our ports. The Chinese government controls Long Beach in Los Angeles. I don't think that's a good idea. I don't ...

BLITZER: Eighty percent of the port operations in the United States are controlled by foreign companies.

DEAN: Yes, but you know what? The ports aren't secure. The ports are not secure.

BLITZER: But that's the responsibility of the Coast Guard, the Customs Agency. The U.S. government is supposed to be in charge of security. They just handle the cargo, if you will.

DEAN: Well, there's another issue we're going to come to in a minute. But in terms of the safety, why would we let a foreign government control our access to our ports?

BLITZER: This has been going on for the past 20 or 30 years. The U.S. has basically stopped operating the ports and outsourced it to foreign companies.

DEAN: Yes, but that might not be such a good thing. For example, who is checking on the containers that are coming into this country? We know that 95 percent of them come in uninspected. Who is -- you know, who's checking on ...

BLITZER: The government's supposed to do that.

DEAN: Yes, they are supposed to do that. They're a miserable failure.

BLITZER: Let's talk about the war in Iraq right now. Listen to what the vice president, Dick Cheney, said yesterday, because he seemed to be taking direct aim at you. Listen to this.

DEAN: I doubt it, but ...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Some have suggested this war is not winnable, and a few seem almost eager to conclude that the struggle is already lost. They are wrong. The only way to lose this fight is to quit, and quitting is not an option.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: I said he seemed to be taking direct aim at you because you had been quoted as saying the war was not winnable.

DEAN: Well, I don't think the war is winnable under this leadership. This is a leadership that has made the biggest mess, not just of this war, but of our security in general.

Here we are, five years into the presidency of George W. Bush. The North Koreans still have nuclear weapons, the Iranians are about to get them. Our troops are sent into battle without adequate body armor. Our ports are not secure, and now we find that they're being run under the jurisdiction of other countries.

What is this administration? Karl Rove thinks that security is going to be the issue? It's going to be the issue, all right. It's going to be the issue that elects Democrats.

These people cannot figure out how to defend America in a reasonable way. And I think the American people are sick of this. And you've seen the polls as well as I have.

BLITZER: The Democratic Party, though, seems to be all over the place, from John Murtha saying a phased withdrawal is important, to Joe Lieberman, who said the other day this: "In my opinion, we are better off with Saddam Hussein gone, and we now have an opportunity to build within Iraq a self-governing, modernizing country that will really provide an alternative in the Arab world to the hatred and suicidal death that al Qaeda offers." So the Democrats don't speak with one voice by any means.

DEAN: Well, you're always going to get some outliers. I think everybody would agree that we're better off that Saddam has gone, but certainly not safer. But Joe is out there, with supporting the president.

I think most Democrats -- and Chuck Hagel sometimes supports us. You're always going to get a few people in each party that are with the other side, and that's fine. The truth is, there is something approaching consensus on the Democratic side. There's not a lot of difference between Joe Biden and Jack Murtha. There may be some difference on timing, but the -- we know we have to leave Iraq. We know we can't stay there. We know this president's idea of staying there forever or whatever it was that Dick Cheney said -- we've heard that in Vietnam. We're not going to make the same mistake twice.

BLITZER: A couple little political questions while I have you. Cash on hand for the Democratic Party as of January 1st, 2006: $5.5 million for the DNC; $34 million for the RNC. What happened to all that Democratic money?

DEAN: We're rebuilding the party. We've raised 20 percent more than we ever have before in an off year. We've got 200 operatives right now in every state in the country. And we've won four special elections in a row in Mississippi, seven out of eight in New Hampshire, first African-American mayor in Mobile, Alabama.

We now have the mayorship in the largest county -- a million people -- in Utah. We're starting to win in states that used to be core Republican states. If you want to build this party, you've got to invest the money to do it, and that's what I'm doing.

BLITZER: Senator Clinton of New York says Karl Rove, the deputy White House chief of staff, is obsessed with her. Do you think he is?

DEAN: I have no idea. I try to stay away from Karl Rove's thinking. It's gotten the president in a lot of trouble, and so I don't have any comment on what Karl Rove has to say.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And you can see my entire interview with the DNC chairman Howard Dean in the 7:00 p.m. Eastern hour here in THE SITUATION ROOM.

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