Hardball transcript from last night, Matthews and Dean. Good interview.

[madfloridian]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5758619/

SNIP...."MATTHEWS: You know, back after 9/11, we were all warmed by the fact that the world cared about us when we were hit. Latest polling shows that two thirds of the American people believe we‘re not respected in the world, we don‘t have the reputation we once had. Do you fear—I do—that the next time we‘re hit, the world won‘t care?

DEAN: I think we are rapidly losing our influence under a president that has no idea, in terms of what the biggest—the big context, the big picture. I thought it was very interesting that Kerry said that he disagreed with the president‘s withdrawal. On the surface, it looks like some withdrawal of troops is not a bad idea. But Kerry‘s point, that it‘s the wrong time to withdraw when we‘re trying to disarm North Korea, is exactly the right point. The president, in fact, has ignored North Korea.

I said before, we are no safer since Saddam Hussein has been captured, and that‘s absolutely true. I think most Americans now agree with me. We‘re certainly no safer with George Bush in the White House, who has essentially allowed the North Korean...

MATTHEWS: Right.

DEAN: ... to build a nuclear weapon program while he is diddling around with a third-rate dictator who they found in the bottom of a hole someplace. We just need a president who‘s a grown-up.

MATTHEWS: Well, it‘s interesting that we targeted Jong Il as part of the “axis of evil,” and now we‘re dropping troops from his front."

This was an excellent interview. Matthews agrees with Dean on this.

[madfloridian]

1. Here is another good part where Dean defends Kerry and hits Bush hard.

SNIp..."DEAN: ... president. There‘s nothing conservative about this president. He‘s radical and inept. And I am cheerfully supporting John Kerry. Whatever differences John Kerry and I have, I want a competent, qualified person to lead this country, and that‘s going to be John Kerry.

MATTHEWS: John Edwards went out after the vice president today. He said that Halliburton just got a new $4.5 billion from the federal government because a phone call made. Are you as tough as John Edwards on that front, blaming insiders in the vice president‘s office, perhaps, for getting money for the old company?

DEAN: Well, I don‘t know if a phone call was made or not, and so I can‘t comment on the phone call. I do know, though, that this administration has had a lot of trouble with an appearance of impropriety: the close relationship between Ken Lay, the former chairman of Enron, and the president, the fact that Ken Lay was a big backer of the president‘s when he was in Texas, the fact that Dick Cheney continues to take money from Halliburton under deferred compensation, which is a violation of the federal ethics code. I can‘t understand why Dick Cheney‘s not being investigated by the Congress, other than for partisan reasons...."