From Larry King Live Oct. 30, 2008. Michael Medved has a bit of trouble getting his Joe Lieberman talking points past Arianna Huffington and Paul Begala.
KING: Michael Medved, could he turn some votes?
MEDVED: Sure, Bill Clinton still. However, most people already know that Hillary has endorsed Barack Obama. Bill Clinton has endorsed Barack Obama. I was with Joe Lieberman last night in Ohio, and Joe Lieberman made a terrific point which is that right now there is this simmering controversy about a tape involving Barack Obama and Rashid Khalidi. Rashid Khalidi, who was a PLO of the United States who apparently Obama, the "L.A. Times" is reporting, was toasting and praising just a couple of years ago.
Why won't they release the tape? Joe Lieberman made the point last night in Cleveland, Ohio, that if Barack Obama wants to put this to rest he should come forward and ask the "Los Angeles Times", please, make that tape public, put this issue to bed.
BEGALA: Come on.
KING: One thing before Paul responds, Michael, I believe that Khalidi denies ever being in the PLO and also has stated he and Obama disagree on almost everything about the situation with regard to the Palestinians.
MEDVED: So why not release the tape of an evening in which a number of people expressed determination to wipe out the state of Israel? Why not release it?
BEGALA: Michael, you're terribly troubled that six months ago the "L.A. Times" reported this, by the way. So it's an ancient news story in terms of political press cycles in a presidential campaign.
So six months ago it was reported that many years ago Barack Obama might have been at a banquet that included this guy Khalidi who is a professor who has views completely antithetical to Senator Obama's on Israel.
Are you equally troubled that Mr. Khalidi's group was funded to the tune of $450,000 by a group John McCain chairs, the International Republican Institute? John McCain was sending hundreds of thousand of dollars to Khalidi and Barack Obama apparently was eating a rubber chicken with him at a banquet one night and you're all up in arms and you and Joe Lieberman has his panties in a wad.
(CROSSTALK)
MEDVED: Why not release the tape? Why should the tape be held secret?
BEGALA: Michael, it is so beneath Senator McCain.
HUFFINGTON: Michael isn't even responding to what Paul is saying.
MEDVED: I will respond very gladly, Arianna.
(CROSSTALK)
MEDVED: First of all, the charges are not that they were at the banquet together. The charge is that Barack Obama offered a toast to Mr. Khalidi and said we're going to miss you and talked about how much he admired him.
HUFFINGTON: OK.
MEDVED: This is an individual who is committed to the destruction of the state of Israel.
HUFFINGTON: Michael, I do wish that that tape would be released.
MEDVED: Good.
HUFFINGTON: Because I'm tired of tapes being presented as fearmongering. We had the tapes, supposedly Michelle Obama who said something about whitey and for the entire primary, we're waiting for the whitey tape. And now we're going to be waiting for the Khalidi tape. The real fact that you are not answering is that $450,000 has gone to Khalidi's group by an organization chaired by John McCain. Just stop, Michael, it's frankly beneath you.
MEDVED: Frankly, Arianna, I know nothing about that organization. I will look into it.
BEGALA: Oh so, Joe Lieberman didn't mention that to you, Michael?
MEDVED: The point is that Joe Lieberman who you campaigned for, Paul Begala, rear enthusiastically as I recall.
BEGALA: No, rather reluctantly once he wimped out on Al Gore.
MEDVED: OK, he wimped out on Al Gore?
BEGALA: By the way, he's throwing McCain under the bus.
MEDVED: By saying the soldiers' votes should actually be counted even if they were overseas.
BEGALA: We can litigate that some other time.
KING: Let me get a final word here from Ben Stein. We're going to bring this whole group back. No matter who wins Tuesday, this whole group is coming back. Ben, you want to put a capper on this?
STEIN: I'm going to put a capper on this. There are a lot of flaws in Senator McCain's life. There have been a lot of flaws in his campaign, but this is a guy who gave his youth, his strength, his health for us when I was living it up on the campus of Yale and smoking dope. He was getting tortured and beat up and having his arms broken for the people of the United States of America. I will never turn my back on him.
KING: That's not a reason to vote for him.
STEIN: Yes, it is a reason to vote for him.
KING: It is?
STEIN: It is, because I think he's a person of magnificent character.
KING: So if I found someone more injured --
STEIN: No, if you found another presidential candidate who was even more of a war hero then I would be very, very impressed. He's been a maverick all his life. He's the most heated man in the Senate because he crosses party lines and he's not a reliable party hack. I will never turn my back on him.
HUFFINGTON: You know, this is actually a very interesting point because Ben is talking about voting on a candidate's story. And last night during the half hour infomercial, Obama is asking for the American people's vote based on reviving the American dream and this is really the distinction and that's what I think is going to determine what happens on Tuesday.
