Ross McGowan, News Correspondent, speaking with the Honorable George Miller

Vice President Cheney yesterday criticized Democrats for being soft on the war on terrorism, with a strategy of resignation and defeatism. Representative George Miller joins us live from Washington, DC. Can we get your reaction to what the VP said?

Miller: Good morning. Well, clearly the VP is making an effort to divert attention from the National Intelligence estimate that concludes that the war in Iraq has served as a recruiter for new terrorists, has made the job of containing terrorism much more difficult, and has not made the nation safer.

You just heard Director Negroponte, and he did not dispute the conclusions of that national intelligence estimate. So Mr. Cheney is clearly trying to kick up from the dust. This comes on the heels of the 9/11 Commission, which gave the administration D’s and F’s in securing the homeland.

You just had a piece on homeland security, on securing our ports in the San Francisco bay area. They've decided that they’re not going to check the ports before they come into the ports into the United States.

So the Bush Administration is now reeling from its conduct of Homeland Security and its conduct of the war in Iraq. We’re now having military personnel tell us that terrorists that have trained in Iraq are now returning to attack our troops in Afghanistan and attack the government there. This is new…but these people have now been trained in Iraq and are returning to Afghanistan.

McGowan: In fairness to the Vice President, we really haven’t heard a comprehensive plan from the Democrats. How would you -- you, the Democrats, your party -- how would you make this country safer than it is today?

Miller: Well, you've got to go back to the peace process between the Palestinians and the Israelis. You can't ignore that as the Bush administration has for five years. It’s critical to achieving peace in the Middle East. You’ve got to conduct the war in Iraq in a smart way. You have to start the withdrawal of American troops so the Iraqis stand up for their own government. The president says we will withdraw when they stand up. They won't stand up until they see the Americans are going to leave and give them the responsibility. We have 150,000 of their people trained. They’re not showing up for work. We’re paying them everyday. They won’t go to Baghdad to fight. They won't leave their homes to fight. We’re subsidizing that behavior by the Iraqis with the killing and the maiming of American soldiers. We shouldn't do it any longer.

McGowan: When you say withdraw troops from Iraq, what do you mean by that? Bring them home? Re-deploy them outside the country?

Miller: I think you do both. Some will come home, some will be redeployed, perhaps to Qatar, where we have a big facility. Some will -- we conduct what we've done -- did successfully for 50 years, that's to have a Navy task force in the area to deal with that kind of violence. But the most important thing is that the Iraqis take ownership of the government. As imperfect as it is. They don't have to do that as long as Americans are making up for all of their problems and patching it over and dealing with -- with the death and the maiming of our soldiers. I think that's the clear answer. We’re asking the president to be smart about the war on terrorism. Be smart about homeland security. And the vice president, of course, wants to equate that with some other activity.

McGowan: With that little dust up between the former President Clinton and Chris Wallace on Fox News the other day, does that help the Democrats or hurt the Democrats? Has he been able to get the country's attention on security, saying Democrats can do as good a job or better -- a better job than Republicans? Is that what you needed?

Miller: I don't think there's any question that what President Clinton was doing was not letting them get away with what they've been trying to do over the last two weeks. That is to suggest that any failures in terrorism are Bill Clinton’s problem. They went back to 1993. And as President Clinton laid out, his record was very clear and their attention to the matter when they came into office -- when the Attorney General did not want to have a briefing on terrorism, wanted to have a briefing on pornography -- that tells you where their priorities were at that time when the threat was growing and they said all lights were flashing red.

McGowan: You quoted some of the stories we did before I introduced you. We also did a story with Condoleezza Rice saying that the Clinton Administration did not leave a comprehensive anti-terrorism plan for the Bush administration.

Miller: But it was also very clear that the Clinton Administration people tried to brief the incoming Administration. But they didn’t want anything to do with what was done in the Clinton Administration. So they had to start over. They didn’t make a segway and get that seamless system. That’s also very clear on the record.

McGowan: Congressman, good talking with you this morning.

Miller: Thank you.