Canadian Hostility for U.S. Peaks; Washington Post Shuts Down Blog; Anti-American Leader Taking Power in Bolivia
DOBBS: Canadians go to the polls Monday after an election campaign dominated by the supposed influence of the United States on Canada's economy, its politics and culture alike. Darn those Americans. Canadian hostility toward the United States is nothing new, of course, but the level is reaching the upper limits. The liberal party of Prime Minister Paul Martin has taken it, in fact, to a record level. Bill Schneider has the story.</s>WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST (voice over): Just listen to the terrible things Canada's liberals have been saying in their ads about conservative party leader Steven Harper.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Canada may elect the most pro-American leader in the western world. A Harper victory will put a smile on George W. Bush's face. Well, at least someone will be happy. Eh?</s>SCHNEIDER: Anti-Americanism right next door. You never hear anti-Canadianism in the U.S., now do you? Actually, you do. In the animated 1999 movie "South Park," the U.S. goes to war with Canada hurling anti-Canadian insults. Here's the president declaring war on America's northern neighbor over an American hostage in the 1995 movie, "Canadian Bacon."</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I want to say to Prime Minister McDonald, surrender her pronto or we'll level Toronto.</s>SCHNEIDER: Those movies don't ridicule Canada as much as they make fun of the U.S. We asked Mike Duffy, a Canadian TV host, what Canadians make of all this.</s>MIKE DUFFY, HOST, CTV'S MIKE DUFFY LIVE: Canadians take it as a matter of pride that we get mentioned in American popular culture.</s>SCHNEIDER: Here's the important point about anti-Americanism in Canada. It's not working. Harper is leading liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin in all the polls.</s>DUFFY: Canadians have heard all of those scare stories before, and it doesn't seem to be working this time.</s>SCHNEIDER: This time, Harper's conservatives have an issue, corruption. They use it in this ad attacking Martin, which includes their own little dig at the United States.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He said the liberal party was not corrupt, but they were named in a judicial investigation on corruption. He says he opposes U.S.-style private health care, but he personally uses a private clinic.</s>SCHNEIDER: We found this war plan at the National Archives that outlines the strategy approved in the 1930's for a U.S. invasion of Canada. Right here, it talks about an early joint overseas expedition against Halifax. Can't trust those Nova Scotians, eh--Lou.</s>DOBBS: You spent time in the archives to look up a 1930's invasion plan of Canada?</s>SCHNEIDER: We found it.</s>DOBBS: Bless your heart. I'm pleased to remind all of our viewers, who I'm sure took powerful note of the fact that all of the anti-Canadian references you found in modern American culture were in entertainment, not in the equally occasionally fictitious public life of this country.</s>SCHNEIDER: That's right.</s>DOBBS: Does it look like the conservative is going to win this Monday?</s>SCHNEIDER: All the polls point to a conservative victory, and, you know, a lot of American conservatives are going to say, you see, it's a friend of George Bush. Things will get better. But I'm not sure it's because of the Canadian love for the United States or George Bush. It's despite their reservations about Mr. Harper, and it's because of the liberal government which has been in for 12 year. It's because of their wrongdoing.</s>DOBBS: It may be. In fact, a clarifying event in North America, Paul Martin leading a government beset by scandal. We'll see how Americans interpret the situation in Washington by November.</s>SCHNEIDER: Exactly.</s>DOBBS: Thank you, Bill Schneider.</s>SCHNEIDER: Sure.</s>DOBBS: Tonight Google says it will vigorously find a subpoena from the federal government. The Justice Department wants Google to hand over records from millions of web sites and Internet searches. The federal government saying it needs those records as part of its effort to revive a child pornography law that the Supreme Court rejected two years ago. Google has refused the request calling it overreaching. The Justice Department says other companies including America Online, Yahoo and Microsoft have all complied with similar requests. "The Washington Post" has shut down one of its blogs after a "Washington Post" executive wrote that disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff gave money to Democrats as well as Republicans. The comments weren't well received by many "Washington Post" blog readers. In fact, using the blog to launch highly personal attacks against ombudsman Deborah Howell. For the record, about one-third of the money from Jack Abramoff and his clients did, in fact, go to Democrats and two-thirds to Republicans. That's the reality. Don't blog me. It's the fact. And poor "Washington Post" ombudsman not being able to deal with reality on their own blog. Frightening, scary. They shouldn't shut it down. Should they? Joining me now here, Joe Klein, columnist for "Time Magazine," the eminent columnist for "Time Magazine," Jeffrey Toobin, our eminent legal analyst and in Boston, Massachusetts, former ambassador to four presidents, yes equally eminent, David Bergen. Good to have you all here. Well, let's start with "The Washington Post" shutting down a blog for crying out loud, Joe Klein, because the ombudsman is assailed personally?</s>JOE KLEIN, COLUMNIST, TIME MAGAZINE: Well, I vow to nobody in my disdain for bloggers. You know, they are all opinions and very little information. But this is freedom of speech, and it's "The Washington Post," the great defender of freedom of speech. It's ridiculous.</s>DOBBS: Yes, I agree. And David let's turn to some of the other issues. We have a president, some are telling us is on the rebound in the midst of a right to privacy, a limitation of executive power, debate an argument with Al Gore accusing him of breaking the law. How is he doing?</s>DAVID GERGEN, FMR. PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER: Well, he just achieved, I think, the most significant victory domestically of his presidency and with Judge Alito. And he's delivered now, Lou, on his promises to his base to take the Supreme Court in the conservative direction. And the Democrats failed to dramatize just how important this was. So he has got a big victory going into the State of the Union. But, you know, his momentum on almost every other front domestically is slowed down enormously. He's going to have a hard time on the immigration front. He's going to have a hard time on taxes this year. He's going to have a very hard time on most of the kind of things he wants to do on health care and beyond that, of course, the mess in Iraq. So I can't say that the president's in great political shape. I think he has got a great victory on the court, but you can't say he's in great political shape.</s>JEFFREY TOOBIN, SR. LEGAL ANALYST: What's been interesting about the NSA story is that the Republicans and the Bush administration were kind of paralyzed when it broke in December. But they've decided to embrace it. They've decided to say, you bet we're doing domestic spying because we're protecting your security. They're trying to turn it into not a legal story but a story about security. And they feel like they're on safe turf. And, frankly, there's not going be a definite legal judgment on it. So they're probably right that there's going to be no legal resolution so they can turn it into a political argument.</s>KLEIN: You know, and that is the most cynical sort of politics. This NSA program is an important necessary program. It can be made legal wit a very small adjustment that would bring the law up to date with the technology that now exists. If the Bush administration were really concerned about this and not concerned with scoring points against Democrats, they would change the law.</s>DOBBS: And, David, isn't -- and I think Joe makes a point certainly that I agree with. A great deal of cynicism, if not outright clumsiness, both political and in terms of governance on the part of the Bush administration. But an equal demonstration of cynicism on the part of the Democrats, who, rather than dealing with the substance of this issue, seemed to be taking on---this is a matter of political gainsmanship trying to score political points, rather than dealing with the national interests.</s>GERGEN: Well I think up to a point. But I have to say I do echo Joe Klein. I mean, it's a president who's in charge here of the executive branch. It's his NSA, and he's the one who ought to be, you know, very concerned to make sure he is within the law. I mean, there are very deep questions here about the legality of this. And it seems so simple to get a private agreement with Democrats, and how would you have reformed the law? And, you know, beyond the arguments about the past, we need to figure out is it going to be legal in the future and put some safeguards, by the way, on all the data that has already been collected so it's not used to smear people in the future.</s>DOBBS: Let's turn to our--on this broadcast, at least the moral equivalent of the Supreme Court, and that it is Jeffrey Toobin.</s>TOOBIN: Moral, certainly not the legal equivalent. but the irony here is they changed all the National Security Law. It was called the Patriot Act. They could have done this. The Congress was only too happy to give them all the power they wanted, but they didn't ask for it. And the problem they have now if they asked to change the law, it would be admission that they've been breaking it for these past few years, and they are not going to do that.</s>KLEIN: They're playing politics with the Patriot Act, too. I mean, there's been so much inaccurate--the administration. They really want that battle. That's one that they can win.</s>DOBBS: But haven't done so yet.</s>KLEIN: Oh, they will. They will. In fact, they wanted it extended until next summer so that they could have the fight over the permanent extension during the campaign season because they figure most Americans will support them in going after al Qaeda, especially in a week like this.</s>GERGEN: What they're setting up, Lou, is they are setting up the campaign theme for 2006. When Karl Rove when out today and beat the drums in one of his first public speeches in a long time, it's so clear that they're trying to set up who's tougher on terrorism as the main issue for 2006. Take it off the culture corruption. Take it off, you know, these other issues that have been really messy.</s>DOBBS: 2006 is shaping up as interesting, because the numbers have never been lower. You have to go back to 1994 and the Republican sweep into office. And these numbers approximate those.</s>KLEIN: I just got back from Ohio. I spent the week there. And the folks out there are just so sick and tired. They're sick and tired of being sick and tired, as someone said to me this week. And I don't know how it's going to turn out, but there is immense anger out there. Tremendous skepticism about the war and about the government.</s>DOBBS: We have been reporting, as Joe answers his phone here, we've been reporting this week on the Catholic churches position on support of illegal immigration, its opposition to tough border security legislation. David, have you -- can you remember a time in which the Catholic church and others have been as animated and vigorous in taking on a national issue?</s>GERGEN: Sure.</s>DOBBS: Besides abortion, I mean.</s>GERGEN: Yes, I was going to say, how about abortion?</s>DOBBS: Right.</s>GERGEN: You know, many people may object to the Catholic church getting involved with this, but a lot of them are the conservatives who didn't have any objection at all to the Catholic church getting involved in the abortion debate. They injected themselves heavily in that issue.</s>TOOBIN: I'm reading Taylor Branch's biography of Martin Luther King this week. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference led the fight for the Voting Rights Act. They've been involved in politics forever. I just think religious people have free speech rights, too.</s>GERGEN: It's the same kind of thing as the Christian Coalition.</s>DOBBS: What was all the stuff about the Evangelicals in 2004 and 2000? What was that all about, then?</s>TOOBIN: Exercising their free speech rights -- more power to them.</s>DOBBS: You wouldn't have thought so, watching the liberal media. It was like they were carrying on a Fifth Column.</s>KLEIN: Well, I thought that was overreaching as well. One of the biggest problems of the media is that it has never taken people of faith seriously enough.</s>DOBBS: Joe Klein, David Gergen, Jeffrey Toobin. Gentlemen, we're out of time. Thanks a lot. See you next week. Just ahead, more of your thoughts on another leftist comrade for Communist Cuba President Fidel Castro. Our SPECIAL REPORT on the latest anti-American leader taking power, not in Canada but in Latin America. Next -- stay with us.