This is a rush transcript from “Hannity,” June 18, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Over the course of the last week, surprise Democratic candidate Alvin Greene of South Carolina has been called a lot of things including unqualified and even a Republican plant.
Nonetheless, Democrats in that state have officially reaffirmed his nomination which means he will in fact appear on the ballot this November, going head-to-head with Republican Senator Jim DeMint.
And not surprisingly, many on the left are feeling uneasy about the unemployed, Army vet’s chances, considering he has a potential criminal charge pending against him.
But despite all of this my next guest says Greene is probably the most qualified Democratic candidate she’s ever seen.
She is the author of many New York Times bestsellers, including the latest book which is “Guilty,” available in paperback, the one and only Coulter.
All right. I read the column. You’re being sarcastic.
ANN COULTER, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST & AUTHOR: No
HANNITY: No, me? Ann? Sarcastic?
COULTER: I didn’t say the most qualified candidate.
HANNITY: Democrat. Yes.
COULTER: I said the most qualified Democrat. I mean he’s than Barbara Boxer. He’s only been accused of a felony as opposed to convicted like Alcee Hastings. He hasn’t lied about his military record like Dick Blumenthal running in Connecticut.
HANNITY: Yes.
COULTER: He is the most qualified Democrat I’ve seen. And I do think it’s very important that this moment not be lost to history that we have David Axelrod, plus the third ranking Democrat in the House, Jim Clyburn — no, no, not.
HANNITY: No, Jim Clyburn.
COULTER: OK. Jim Clyburn.
HANNITY: Right.
COULTER: You have the entire primetime line-up of MSNBC accusing the Republicans of committing a dirty trick. But no one stopped to say, what was the trick? What did we do again?
HANNITY: Yes.
COULTER: All we did was get more votes.
HANNITY: That’s all we did. And we —
COULTER: What we have here is the opposite of a scandal. If the guy had gotten no votes but had lots of fancy campaign ads then you might say, you know, maybe that guy was a Republican plant.
No, he had no campaign but he got more votes.
COULTER: How can the Republicans do that?
HANNITY: Well, it is — it is — I’m not going to — I’m not going to dispute with you. It’s great.
You know, the funny thing is he’s got these charges. I mean they’re serious charges about allegations —
COULTER: Well —
HANNITY: — that he sent pictures to a college girl and wanted to meet up with her. And then on the other hand he got an honorable discharge but he was forced to leave the armed services.
COULTER: Well, he did show a college co-ed some Internet pornography but —
HANNITY: Oops.
COULTER: It’s part of the campaign. It’s called pressing the flesh.
HANNITY: Oh, geez — did you hear him on — he was on Mark Levin’s radio show. And he barely knew who he was running against. It was pretty bad. It was bad. You missed that?
COULTER: Look, nobody is going to beat Jim DeMint.
HANNITY: No, without — well, that’s a good point.
COULTER: And moreover, I mean, the one thing that is questionable but I don’t know why Republicans would do it, is it does seem suspicious that it’s a $10,000 filing fee and it doesn’t look like this guy could buy a sandwich. So someone may have paid his filing fee.
HANNITY: He says no.
COULTER: Well, OK, but it could have been ACORN. It could have been some of that great stimulus money we’re getting from the president.
HANNITY: Yes.
COULTER: Even if the Republicans did it —
HANNITY: So what?
COULTER: It’s not half as bad as what the entire liberal apparatus, Hollywood did to the very serious Republican nominee running against Patrick Leahy back in ’98.
HANNITY: Now that’s a good point.
COULTER: Which everyone has forgotten about. And that was outrageous. They ran the feeble-minded dairy farmer.
HANNITY: Let me pick your legal —
COULTER: Fred Tuttle. Fred, Fred, Fred.
HANNITY: Let me pick your legal mind for a second here because we’ve got this controversy obviously with BP.
COULTER: Oh yes.
HANNITY: Well, OK, but here’s — but on the legal side of this there is a law in place. And the law says that they are responsible financially for all the cleanup plus $75 million.
COULTER: Right.
HANNITY: Right. So — so we have Congressman Barton says well, wait a minute this is a shakedown. He apologized to BP, didn’t like the way they — have been treated from the beginning. And then he’s forced to rescind his apology.
COULTER: Right.
HANNITY: And, you know, I thought about it, I didn’t like the way they treated — look, it’s almost as though there’s this conspiracy among Democrats that BP wanted this to happen. I don’t believe that.
COULTER: I think it’s very important in the middle of the most damaging environmental disaster in history that we have lots of congressmen grandstanding.
HANNITY: Grandstanding and lawyers —
COULTER: Well, I loved that. There is nothing more important. What does the country need more now than — you know, you show me a video of one of these Democrats standing up and denouncing BP’s safety procedures six months ago then I’ll be impressed.
But they waited for the disaster to happen. Now they’re wasting everyone’s time with this. I really don’t need to hear from Henry Waxman. As for Barton and what should be done about BP’s legal liability — Richard Epstein, the great libertarian law professor at the University of Chicago, wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal, I don’t know, today or yesterday, it’s linked to the AnnCoulter.com — in which he points out if only we would have private insurers insuring these oil rigs in the first place, they would have made sure they had — they had proper safety procedures —
HANNITY: Wait a minute. But here’s —
COULTER: — they would not have had a $75 million limit.
HANNITY: Wait a minute. Here’s the point I make.
COULTER: Only the government would be that stupid.
HANNITY: Every step of the way, from the approval process —
COULTER: It’s the government.
HANNITY: Well, it’s federal waters. They lease it to BP, and every step of the way they’ve got to sign off on everything. It’s as if they have no culpability here.
COULTER: Right.
HANNITY: And similarly, to say there was an incestuous relationship with regulators and the oil industry.
COULTER: Right.
HANNITY: They were getting gifts. They missed inspections. They gave this rig a safety award.
COULTER: Right.
HANNITY: And they’re acting as though they had no responsibility.
COULTER: No.
HANNITY: When are we going to put them under oath and ask them —
COULTER: Right.
HANNITY: — about their culpability?
COULTER: Right. And by the way, I don’t want to even do that in the grandstanding way the Democrats just did to BP. I just want people to understand we don’t want the federal government running education, health care, our pensions, and we certainly don’t want them running our insurance for oil rigs.
HANNITY: Yes.
COULTER: Nor for nuclear power plant.
HANNITY: Ann, do you know what I want them to do?
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: I want them to plug the damn hole and clean up the mess. Is that too much to ask?
COULTER: Oh yes, and by the way, you’ve been magnificent on the Jones Act. The only point I want to add to what —
HANNITY: Yes.
COULTER: — you have been saying, and I have been watching you religiously and you’ve been great. This is — the reason Obama wouldn’t waive the Jones Act and let foreign ships in because it’s a protectionist law. This was another Democrat —
HANNITY: A union law.
COULTER: — sucking up to the unions.
HANNITY: By the way, you were at Rush’s wedding, I saw you there. How great was that?
COULTER: It was amazing.
HANNITY: Wasn’t it great? It was — it was pretty amazing.
COULTER: I expected it to be magnificent.
HANNITY: And it was.
COULTER: It was beyond what I expected.
HANNITY: All right. Ann Coulter, the one and only, appreciate you being here.
COULTER: Thank you.
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