Read the complete transcript of the Chris Matthews show ('Hardball') in where Pat Buchanan tries to defend Sarah Palin's absurd statement on the role of the Vice President vis a vis the Senate. They also discuss the repercussions of Bachman's controversial statement questioning the patriotism of Barack Obama.
MATTHEWS: Pat, you`re laughing. And, if it was anybody else, you would be jumping on them like a vulture.
PAT BUCHANAN, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Come on. She`s talking to second- and third-graders.
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: She`s talking like a second-grader.
(LAUGHTER)
BUCHANAN: Chris...
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: What did -- what did -- what did she mean? What did she mean?
BUCHANAN: What is this hostility to this woman?
MATTHEWS: No, what did she mean? Don`t get into the personal stuff here, Pat.
BUCHANAN: Well, I`m not.
(LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: What did she mean? She`s up for the vice president of the United States.
BUCHANAN: She probably -- my guess is, she meant that she`s going to work with the Republican caucus to try to change policy, kids, and make the country better. Clearly, Reid is going to run the Senate. He may have 60 votes. She ain`t going to be able to do it.
MATTHEWS: No, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute.
BUCHANAN: She made a mistake.
MATTHEWS: The vice president of the United States is the legislative leader of the Senate?
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: Don`t you have to be a senator?
BUCHANAN: Look, she`s the president of the Senate.
MATTHEWS: No, but she`s not a senator.
BUCHANAN: No, she`s the president of the Senate.
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: If you`re not a senator, you`re not a member of the Senate.
BUCHANAN: You`re the president of the Senate.
MATTHEWS: What`s her role? What`s her role?
BUCHANAN: The president of the Senate.
MATTHEWS: Presides.
BUCHANAN: You haven`t read the Constitution.
MATTHEWS: Presides over the Constitution -- over the Senate.
BUCHANAN: Right.
MATTHEWS: That`s the only role, has no role, except to break ties.
BUCHANAN: Well, no, look, she`s the president of the Senate of the United States.
MATTHEWS: We`re not getting anywhere, Pat.
BUCHANAN: Well, you know, I`m saying...
MATTHEWS: You`re saying she has a legislative role?
BUCHANAN: I`m saying she`s the president of the Senate.
MATTHEWS: Does she have any legislative role?
(LAUGHTER)
BUCHANAN: Not unless she can get the Republicans and Democrats to work with her.
MATTHEWS: When in history has a vice president been given a legislative authority over the majority or the minority or any senator in the United States Senate?
BUCHANAN: Chris, she`s talking to second-graders.
MATTHEWS: OK.
Let me tell you why this is a serious question here. Because, when she was talking to Katie Couric and answering questions, she talked in a language I have never heard about some flexibility within the Constitution, Mark, about some new authority for the vice president, which has never been understood before.
Now, maybe this derives from the sense that the people around Dick Cheney have about the role of the vice president, but I have never heard anybody say the vice president has legislative authority of any kind or any consequence. It`s extraordinary for her to teach people -- she`s got a teaching role. She`s telling those kids something that`s wrong. She`s not talking down to them. She`s giving them wrong information.
The vice president of the United States has two roles, to succeed the president, if that`s a necessity, and to preside over the Senate and break ties. And that`s it, under the Constitution.
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: To argue that it has a legislative authority within the grasps of the vice president is unconstitutional. Am I right or wrong?
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