Clash of the Titans panelists debate war, abortion, taxes

VIRGINIA BEACH

Six political heavyweights squared off Friday afternoon at Regent University's annual "Clash of the Titans" event, debating one another with more civil discourse than what has been seen in the presidential campaign.

Steve Forbes and Mike Huckabee, who each previously ran for president, were joined by former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum in representing the political right. Former vice presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro - who ran with Walter Mondale in 1984 - joined Fox News pundit Alan Colmes and political commentator Donna Brazile in speaking for the left.

"Any conservatives here?" Colmes asked, then joked after hearing the response. "I'm in big, big trouble. I do have a food-taster."

The debate's format permitted panelists to put questions to each other, and they quickly got to the heart of major issues.

Colmes to Huckabee: You talk about the sanctity of life; would that apply to starting a war in Iraq?

Huckabee: "The difference between a war that is primarily designed to protect innocent people from being slaughtered is a very different thing from an individual making a decision to terminate another life because a life has gotten in the way of another."

Santorum: Should we be raising taxes that do not result in more revenue to the federal government, simply because it is fair, as Barack Obama has said?

Moderator Norah O'Donnell, Washington correspondent for MSNBC, asked Santorum to whom he had directed his question.

"Any of you," he said. "All of you."

Colmes: "If we are going to raise taxes, that money goes into the government. We're in an unusual situation here. We're a nation at war, and we have not been asked to sacrifice."

Ferraro: "I'm sorry, but we have gone this way before. Steve Forbes did not get elected president when he was pushing the flat tax."

In his opening statement, Santorum said that he didn't think Obama knew who the enemy was - Islamic fundamentalists running a faith-driven effort to attack the United States because of "who we are."

"Not one person on this panel would have predicted on Sept. 12, 2001, that we would not have had another attack," Santorum said. "That is not a mistake."

Ferraro countered that the lack of assaults on the United States was not because of what went on in Iraq, and said that the reason given for the Iraq invasion was because the country was believed to have weapons of mass destruction.

"And if I'm correct," she said, "Osama bin Laden is still somewhere in Afghanistan."

Ferraro and Santorum sparred for several minutes, before Huckabee grabbed the microphone and joked: "I was beginning to feel as if I was back at the Republican debates," a reference to being shunted aside.

Huckabee took the talk back to the economy, and taxes.

"How do you ruin an economy?" he asked. "If you create a tax system that punishes you every time you get to the next rung of the ladder. Why do we punish the folks who get the kind of jobs that I wanted when I grew up?"

Throughout the event, several of the panelists urged the listeners to set aside vicious views of the other side. Huckabee said he was honestly proud to see an African American at the head of one of the tickets, and to those who think it will be "the end of civilization, it won't be."

"Here's my pledge," Huckabee said: "If he's elected, I'll pray for him every day and pray that he's a good president."

Brazile made history herself as the first African American woman to lead a presidential campaign when she managed Al Gore's run for the White House in 2000. She grew up in Kenner, L a., and spoke eloquently about how Americans from all over pitched in when Hurricane Katrina savaged her home state.

"Three years ago when that terrible storm hit our shores, you came to our rescue," Brazile said. "Now it's time that we come together as Americans to save our country."

Lon Wagner, (757) 446-2341, lon.wagner@pilotonline.com