‘What She Can’t Do Is Have It Both Ways’

What are the major failures of the Bill Clinton presidency?
Issues like health care. She wants to take credit for having tried but there were a lot of big mistakes in preventing us from getting health care back in 1993 … What was she involved with? Where did she participate? Where did she not participate in decision making? And that's one of the reasons why these papers that are currently in the presidential library could be helpful in sorting that out.

Was Hillary's answer on driver's licenses for illegal immigrants an example of [being transparent, which you say will be a hallmark of your administration if elected]?
Look, watch the videotape. She said that she was for the [New York Gov. Eliot] Spitzer plan and in the span of two minutes said she wasn't for the Spitzer plan. That wasn't something that was prompted by me or anybody else but it was characteristic of her answers on Social Security and her answers on the papers from the Clinton years. Look, I actually recognize that this sort of straddling is oftentimes considered politically savvy in Washington … It's been rewarded. Her ability to finesse her vote to authorize the war during the course of this campaign is something that she has been complimented for on the front page of The New York Times as being politically deft. So I understand where it arises from. The perception is that if you don't allow yourself to be pinned down, then you're making yourself a smaller target in the general election. That's the conventional wisdom. I think it is the wrong way to govern. I think it is not what we need right now.

Do you think the majority of the American public is in favor of giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants?
Absolutely not. I'm sure they aren't.

But you are in favor.
What I have said is that it is better off that we know that people who are driving know the rules of the road, are subject to insurance, are making sure that we know we can track them if they get in an accident. A lot of security experts agree with me on this issue. It's not optimal. What we need to do is make sure that we don't have undocumented workers coming into the country in the first place. But here's the more important point: people know where I stand on this and we can have a serious conversation and debate about it.

Where are you on UFOs?
I have not seen any signs of alien life forms. I leave this between [Rep.] Dennis [Kucinich] and Rudy Giuliani. I'm sure they would have very different approaches to aliens, though. Dennis is much more welcoming.

They would get driver's licenses.
They would get driver's licenses, exactly. Rudy: ready to shoot them down.

© 2007