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Fox News: Hannity & Colmes

COLMES: Joining us now "New York Times'" best-selling author Newt Gingrich. His newest book from his action-packed World War II series, "Days of Infamy."

You got those coming out like all the time.

NEWT GINGRICH, AUTHOR OF "DAYS OF INFAMY," FMR. SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Well, we have lots of stories to tell.

COLMES: You ride on airplanes, right? Is that what you said?

GINGRICH: That's exactly right.

COLMES: Let's talk about -- we'll get to the book. What I want to talk about, obviously, what we've been talking about tonight Jeremiah Wright.

Is this a distraction? Is this a real issue? I know Barack Obama said to Chris Wallace, yes, I don't, you know, it is a legitimate issue, but, as I said to Dick Morris, are we being cheated because we're not talking about presidents can effect when they're in office?

GINGRICH: Well, let me say, first of all, I think that there are a lot of other issues that matter. I think health matters, the environment matters, the economy matters, a lot of -- energy matters. But where I think it's hard to even explain this, and you're going to hate this answer...

COLMES: Thanks for letting me know ahead of time.

GINGRICH: ... is Jeremiah Wright is actually not so much representative of the black church as he is representative of the hard left. He's much closer to -- to Noam Chomsky. He's much closer to Bill Ayers. He's much closer to a tradition that sees America as the center of evil in the world. And that's actually an ideological base.

I thought the most devastating thing he said today at the National Press Club was that he actually prayed with the family in the basement just before the announcement.

And the reason I thought it was devastating is that it's clear that Senator Obama can't decide what the relationship is. Is this somebody he's proud of and he wants next to him or is this somebody who he can cut loose from? But there's something almost bizarre about saying, "I can't have you up here with Dick Durbin, but let's get together in the basement and pray in secret."

COLMES: When you say the hard left, and you mention Noam Chomsky, and people who have some very strong views about our role, our foreign policy and that come back to haunt us and hit us.

That does not represent mainstream Democrats. It does not represent the overwhelming majority of people who vote Democratic.

GINGRICH: That's exactly right.

COLMES: So please don't make the suggestion that just because you're on the left that that is somehow representative.

GINGRICH: I don't. But the challenge for Senator Obama -- I mean, if you were talking about Jim Webb or you were talking about Mark Warner or a wide range of people, even Jay Rockefeller. There's a lot of people out there who may be liberal. Or Hillary Clinton.

Senator Obama decided over the last 20 years that he was comfortable having his children listen to a pastor who is the authentic deep anti- American left. And look, I say this with great respect. I believe that Jeremiah Wright believes what he says. The fact that it's nuts.

COLMES: Are you anti-American if you think that our policies -- Michael Scheuer, "Anonymous," who worked for the CIA for many years, who said they hate us not because of who we are, but because of what we do and blamed our policies. Are you anti-American because you think our policies may have influenced people?

GINGRICH: Michael Scheuer never said -- and I know Michael pretty well. He never said that the United States deliberately fostered AIDS in order to kill black children. He never said that we deliberately engaged in terrorism in Grenada or Panama. He knows that's a lie.

Now, what's frightening is I suspect that Jeremiah Wright actually believes this stuff, and they're absolutely fundamentally false.

HANNITY: Hey, Mr. Speaker -- by the way, good to see you. Congratulations on the new book.

GINGRICH: Thank you.

HANNITY: You know, when we first started discussing the issue of Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers, the question that we -- when I first asked you this question -- what? What?

GINGRICH: This is like the fact that I was sure (ph) that Hillary would roll to victory. And that she may win.

HANNITY: She sure didn't roll to victory. You thought I was going in another direction.

GINGRICH: For several months I thought you were a little whacked.

COLMES: Only several months?

HANNITY: Did you really? You honestly did?

GINGRICH: Yes. Because I'd call in, and typically on your radio show -- I mean, you're a little more controlled on TV. On the radio show you'd be going on -- you'd be talking about these two guys. And I'd be thinking, what is...

HANNITY: What is he talking about?

GINGRICH: This can't be a real issue, and it wasn't, frankly, until on this show I saw the video.

HANNITY: Yes.

GINGRICH: And I suddenly thought...

HANNITY: Hannity...

GINGRICH: ... whoa, there is something very deep and very real there. And then the more we've learned about Bill Ayers, particularly in the modern period, in the last decade...

HANNITY: Yes.

GINGRICH: ... which I think puts in question the tenured faculty at that university in general...

HANNITY: University of Illinois.

GINGRICH: ... if they think he's an acceptable faculty member.

HANNITY: Well, I guess you talked about America's chickens who'd come home to roost, G-D America, we created the AIDS virus. I agree with your assessment. I really believe that Reverend Wright sincerely believes this.

The question -- when I first asked you about this when it was becoming an issue, your answer to me -- this is about honesty and this is about judgment. I don't have any doubt at all, having listened to this entire weekend -- you know, a speech, you know, junket of his that Barack Obama knew very well where he was coming from, which means for a year he's been dishonest with the American people about what he really believes. And it's frightening that the media hadn't picked up on that.

GINGRICH: I think the interesting comment that Dick Morris made in this show is that after today's National Press Club, Senator Obama owes us an Indianapolis speech to finish what he didn't say in Philadelphia.

HANNITY: Well...

GINGRICH: Because...

COLMES: And would you buy whatever he said as truthful and...

GINGRICH: Well, I think you'd have to listen to him and have him explain it to you. I mean, why did he hide Reverend Wright the day he announced in the basement? How could he possibly tolerate some of the things Reverend Wright is now saying?

And I think that, frankly, for him to be a viable candidate this fall, he virtually has to totally repudiate what Wright has been saying recently, because he can't hide from it. He can't say this isn't true.

COLMES: We're going to pick it up right there with the speaker.

Checking in first with Greta Van Susteren, telling us what's coming up right after "Hannity & Colmes."

Good evening, Greta.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, HOST, "ON THE RECORD": Good evening, Alan.

We are going to pick up right where you left off on Reverend Wright. We were actually at that press club speech today, and we have guests who were there, as well. And we'll have the very latest, the inside behind the scenes and much more.

Back to both of you.

HANNITY: All right. And Greta coming up right after "Hannity * Colmes."

We'll have more with Speaker Gingrich right after the break.

And a new Republican campaign as -- it's a brand-new one -- features the Jeremiah Wright issue. As much as Barack Obama has separated himself from this man, will he ever be able to shake him? We're going to ask.

More with Newt Gingrich and then later Ann Coulter, straight ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Travis Childers, endorsed by liberal Barack Obama. Obama says Childers will put progress before politics, but when Obama's pastor cursed America, blaming us for 9/11, Childers said nothing. When Obama ridiculed rural folks for clinging to guns and religion, Childers said nothing. Travers Childers, he took Obama's endorsement over our conservative values.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: That was Republican Congressman Greg Davis looking to attack his Democratic rival by linking him to Senator Barack Obama.

Now, these type of attack ads seem to be growing in popularity. Just last week we told you about a North Carolina GOP ad tying Barack Obama to their state's Democratic gubernatorial candidates.

So does this signal trouble for Democrats if, in fact, Barack Barack Obama wins the nomination?

We continue now with the author -- this is a brand-new book just out today, "Days of Infamy." Former speaker of the house, Newt Gingrich.

John McCain excoriated North Carolina for running that ad, which I thought was a mistake. Now he says, because Barack Obama said it's legitimate, as he did with Chris Wallace on Sunday, now it's OK to tell people...

GINGRICH: Look, I think Senator McCain ought to relax a little bit and take a deep breath. People are allowed to do what they want to do, and he doesn't need to run around and be policeman for his own team.

In 1964 Howard "Bo" Callaway was running for the first time. No Republican had won a seat in Georgia since Reconstruction. He was up against a very popular Democratic lieutenant governor.

They had one 30-minute debate in late October, and 22 times in 30 minutes he said to him, "Are you voting for Goldwater or are you voting for Johnson?"

Let me tell you, the number of marginal Democratic districts, if this thing continues with Reverend Wright, where the Democratic incumbent is going to face a Republican challenger with no money and a simple message.

HANNITY: Right. Can I tell you? First of all, never underestimate the ability of a Republican to lose election -- an election. But with that said, I think if Senator McCain -- if this keeps going, if Ayers keeps going, if there's another San Francisco mistake, this could be a 40-state victory.

But I don't want to ask you about that; I want to ask you about your book. You came out with a brand-new book today, "Days of Infamy." This is you and your researcher friend.

GINGRICH: Bill Forstchen.

HANNITY: Bill Forstchen.

GINGRICH: And -- my co-author, and the great teacher of American...

HANNITY: He's a brilliant historian, like you are.

GINGRICH: And the two of us plus Steve Hanser, who you know, love the write in acts of history, where we take an event and we show you -- remember we were last together out at Pearl Harbor.

HANNITY: Right.

GINGRICH: And we started with the idea of what if the Japanese had sent their most aggressive, most air-power-oriented admiral to Pearl Harbor? What would have been different?

And now we pick up in "Days of Infamy" with the idea what if, having had a terrific opening day at Pearl Harbor, he didn't leave? And what if he went hunting for Admiral Bill Halsey and The Enterprise? Halsey was a very aggressive admiral who we know would have gone hunting for the Japanese.

And "Days of Infamy" is about as action-packed. Every military person who's read it so far has give us notes and just said this is so amazingly intense and so vividly real.

And what we're trying to show people is, much like we're living through in this presidential race, history wasn't automatic. It didn't have to happen exactly the way you memorized it. And you have to look at a scene and you have to think about a scene.

And you have to ask yourself could it have been different? And what does that teach me about the decisions I'm going to make about the future?

COLMES: Well, I want to pick up on that for a second. It's this idea -- the unique idea of going back and rewriting a little bit n terms of what, if this piece had been moved over here like a chess piece, how everything subsequently would be different?

GINGRICH: Well, what we're trying to do, and we started this with you, because Bill and Steve and I would get together, and it drives us crazy when people say they're bored with history, and they had to memorize all this stuff, and they don't understand it.

So we started with "Gettysburg" and worked with the Army of War College and designed a campaign that was technically exactly right, and we could have won it. Then we began last year at "Pearl Harbor," and now with "Days of Infamy."

And we're beginning to show you a Pacific war, in which a handful of changes, all of them practical, all of them real, all of them fitting the characters of that period, would really have stunningly changed the outcome of the war and made it a much different event.

COLMES: So you could have been running for president this whole time. Right? You could have been in the middle of all this. They could have found out who your pastor was. They could have found out who you had dinner with nine years ago.

HANNITY: Me.

COLMES: What house you went to for your fundraiser. This could be you. This could be your life.

GINGRICH: Tapes of you and me on your radio show. That's all we need.

COLMES: You're done. You're finished. All right.

McCain advisor Charlie Black, who says McCain believes candidates can not be held accountable for the views of people who endorse them or people who befriend them, and you know, then McCain calls the Obama/Ayers relationship into question. So which is it? Either you are responsible for everybody you've associated with or you're not?

GINGRICH: Well, I think -- I think it's -- in the real world it's somewhere in between. Pastor Wright is somebody whose church he attended for 20 years and to which he gave thousands of dollars.

Ayers is somebody with whom he did events. It's somebody with whom he held conferences. It's somebody who he served on the board with and gave away money, often to very left-wing groups.

COLMES: And there were Republicans on that board of the Woods Foundation, by the way, as well. Should they be questioned because they were on that board?

GINGRICH: I think the question about Ayers should be asked, sure...

COLMES: I mean...

GINGRICH: ... particularly after Ayers in 2001 came back and said that he regretted not having planted more bombs. I mean, this is where Senator Obama, I thought, on Chris Wallace was just very disingenuous and not candid when he said, "Well, it was 40 years ago."

No, no, on September 11, 2001, Ayers was saying he still regretted not having planted more bombs.

COLMES: By the way, the interview was printed that day. He actually did the interview a couple of days before September 11. But that's significant, because he didn't, the minute September 11th happened, say that stuff.

GINGRICH: No, but my sense is, this is a guy -- and I think it tells you about modern academia, that his books are used widely. And if you read what he says, by the way, about what kindergarten teachers should be like. He basically says they should be revolutionaries taking on the capitalist system, seeking to foment revolution.

COLMES: Is there any evidence that Barack Obama believes any of that?

HANNITY: Why is he friends with him?

COLMES: I'm friends with you. Do I believe anything you say?

HANNITY: I never set -- I never set a bomb.

COLMES: Thanks very much for being with us.

HANNITY: I never bombed the Pentagon or the Capitol or police headquarters.

COLMES: Neither did Barack Obama. He's denounced all this.

HANNITY: I just use verbal combat against liberals. Ouch.

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