Hotline After Dark: The O'Rudy Factor

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was in the "Situation Room" and was asked about his son joining the Marines:

McCain: "Well, I don't believe that my son would be any different and I hope not treated any differently than the thousands of sons of mothers and fathers all over America. And I know they're proud and I know they're concerned."

More: "I'm very proud of everyone's son who is serving" (CNN, 8/2).

Rudy Giuliani stopped by the "O'Reilly Factor."

On the situation in the Middle East: "If you look at the Middle East, you have a lot of incompetent, irresponsible, oppressive government. And the leadership there has been able to get away with blaming their problems on us."

Asked about Iraq: "I don't think we're losing the war in Iraq. I think the war in Iraq is now an opportunity to create an accountable government in Iraq."

On illegal immigration: "When I got into office I had 400,000 illegal immigrants, give or take 100,000. ... The Immigration and Naturalization Service would only deport 1,500 to 2,000 a year. So I said to myself I have 398,000 illegal immigrants because the federal government is not going to do anything about this. It can't. So I had to figure out how do I deal with it. ... We made sure that their children were allowed to go to school for which we were criticized. But if I didn't do that, I would end up with children on the streets. ... And we tried to make their lives reasonable."

More: "You've got to take a practical approach to it. There are 12 million illegals in this country. We got to stop illegals from coming in. And a tremendous amount of money should be put into the physical security that's needed to do that."

At the end of the interview, FNC's O'Reilly told him he looked forward to his '08 run, to which Giuliani responded: "I look forward to the Yankee pennant race" (FNC, 8/2).

Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) was on "LKL."

On the situation between Israel and Lebanon: "The president should appoint a special envoy. He should appoint former Secretary Baker or former President Clinton to be the envoy to negotiate that arrangement" (CNN, 8/2).

NBC's Russert was on "Hardball" to talk about elections '06:

"Among Democrats, there's conversations beginning now, saying should a campaign theme be, maybe it's time to reach out and talking to people. Look for the Republicans to counter that saying that doesn't get you anywhere. This is war. People want to kill us. People want to eliminate Israel from the face of the earth. We have to take them on. If we don't fight in the Middle East, we're going to be fighting them here."

Russert, on CT SEN: "If Lamont beats Lieberman it will send shock waves through the Democratic party, through the Internet community, through the political consulting communities and I think through the country. I've talked to people in that campaign, covering that campaign and the sense is the momentum is with Lamont."

More: "If Ned Lamont wins, I think it will be a precursor for the Democratic primary. You've seen every major candidate, John Edwards, Joe Biden, John Kerry, all say they regret their vote for the Iraq war. Only Hillary Clinton seems to be out there saying, well, I regret the way the president has managed the war. I think a Lamont victory will increase pressure because it will energize the supporters of his candidacy, folks from the Internet, Net Roots volunteers and supporters, and it also will say to Democrats, the war is the issue that our party is passionate about" (MSNBC, 8/2).

Tom DeLay, on Lieberman: "Lieberman is a liberal. ... He is a liberal on everything but the war, and he's very good on the war. He understands how dangerous fighting the Islamic terrorists, and he's going to fight that. And it just shows you how weak the Democrats are to take on Lieberman when he supports 90 percent of what they believe in" ("Hannity & Colmes," FNC, 8/2).

WELL THAT WAS INTERESTING

Ex-CBS anchor Dan Rather was on the "O'Reilly Factor" to discuss the situation in the Middle East and Fidel Castro. Plus he talked about his upcoming HDNet gig. Rather: "Hard news needs backer who don't back up" (FNC, 8/2).

WE'LL FILE THIS UNDER IT MUST BE AUGUST

On "Scarborough Country" last night, show prod. Mike Yarvitz drank enough alcohol to match Mel Gibson's blood alcohol level. MSNBC's Scarborough: "As our motto at MSNBC has been for, you know, I guess for the 10 years we've been in existence here, We drink and you decide."

Yarvitz, on how he's feeling: "I'm feeling OK right now. I'm definitely impaired. I probably shouldn't drive. I'm above the legal limit in New Jersey for being drunk, but I'm not at the point yet where I feel like spouting out any anti-Semitic comments."

More: "That was about four drinks, between four to five drinks, and that got me to a .12" (MSNBC, 8/2).

And "Hardball" had its political roundtable of Bob Shrum, National Review's Kate O'Beirne, and Vanity Fair's Todd Purdum discussed Gibson. Shrum tried to be it back to what he does best: "If a president said it, a politician said it, a CEO said it, they'd be drummed out of the business."