Dr. James Dobson

This is a partial transcript from "HANNITY & COLMES", July 15, 2004, that has been edited for clarity.

ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: We get right to our first guest tonight. Joining us from Colorado Springs, the founder of Focus on the Family and the author of numerous best selling books, Dr. James Dobson.

Dr. Dobson, thank you for coming on once again. Good to see you.

JAMES DOBSON, FOUNDER, FOCUS ON THE FAMILY: Alan, it's always good to be with you guys.

COLMES: Thank you very much.

The conventions are coming up. The Republican convention has in prime time a bunch of moderates: George Pataki, Rudy Giuliani, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Where are the social conservatives? And are you disturbed that more people on your side of the Republican Party are not being represented in prime time speeches at the Republican convention?

DOBSON: Well, Alan, we haven't yet seen the entire list. Of course, the president will be speaking. And he's a conservative. And Majority Leader Frist is involved. He is the chairman of the platform committee. And I assume he's going to be speaking.

There will be other conservatives. So I'm not yet ready to pass judgment on what they're going to do.

COLMES: What's interesting, Paul Weyrich, who -- you and he agree on a lot of stuff, he's very upset. He says that -- he wrote a piece for his organization, the Free Congress group, and upset most of the speakers are against the -- they're pro choice. They are against the amending of the Constitution to protect marriage. And these are people the Republicans have representing in the prime time slots at the convention.

DOBSON: The answer to that is, well, that's true. I would have come up with a different list. But there are some reasons for what they've done.

You know, Pataki is the host state, represents the host state, and then, of course, Bloomberg represents the city. And is there for obvious reasons.

So I'm not sure that Paul is right on that, although I can tell you, I usually do agree with him on most things.

COLMES: He's also spoken out about how some other Republicans about what they're calling Kerry Catholics. These are Catholics who don't abide by, in their view, everything the church says, and that disturbs some social conservatives and feels those should not be representing the Republican Party.

DOBSON: Well, they shouldn't be representing either party in my view, and certainly not if they come as a Catholic. I'm not a Catholic. But there are certain -- certainly many senators and congressmen such as Ted Kennedy and others who are pro-abortion. They stand full square against the teachings of the church and the holy father. So, you know, I would question that in both political parties.

COLMES: People like Rudy Giuliani, pro choice, Pataki, pro choice.

DOBSON: Yes, they're not -- they're not my -- they're not my people. But they do represent that area of the country.

COLMES: Is there a rift between social conservatives like yourself, on the right, and the moderates of whom we spoke? Is there that rift in the Republican Party?

DOBSON: Well, Alan, there's always differences of opinion within any social group.

First of all, I'm not a Republican, and I don't propose to represent the Republican Party. So I stand for the moral principles and the values, and anyone who contradicts them, I disagree with.

But I'm not one to say, you know, I'm here representing a certain wing of the Republican Party. There are many more important issues than I care about than that.

COLMES: You may not vote -- you may not call yourself Republican, but I'm guessing your cast your vote that way, you throw in your lot politically with those on the conservative side of things. That's just a wild guess. Am I wrong on that?

DOBSON: On the conservative side of things but I might surprise you with the way I voted in the past when politicians have parted from the things that I believed.

SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: Dr. Dobson, welcome aboard. I'll put Don Olden (ph) and John McCain and Rudy and while I have disagreements with all these guys respect and like all of them. And most of them are personal friends.

But I'll compare that lineup -- if you want to look a liberal lineup, look at John Kerry, Senator Edwards, Ted Kennedy, Al Gore, Howard Dean, Al Sharpton. There is no comparison.

I mean, take the more moderate Republicans and compare them to the hard-core left wing summit let's say summer we have coming up. And by the way you had better say a prayer for me while I'm at the Democratic convention. See what I have to put up with for a week?

DOBSON: Yes. You may be in jeopardy there. I don't know.

HANNITY: I don't think I will be loved.

DOBSON: The Democrats have linked themselves to the likes of Michael Moore and Whoopi Goldberg. I'm not sure they can complain at what the Republicans are doing at this time.

HANNITY: Well, I want to get to that hate issue in just a second here, because there's so much extreme rhetoric, I think, being used against the president.

How important, in this election, are social issues to conservatives inasmuch as I think George Bush has solid conservative credentials. He's socially conservative. Economically, he's conservative in the tradition of Reagan and certainly, he's facing evil in our time and he's had a lot of moral clarity about that.

Isn't that the person conservatives ought to be looking at, especially social conservatives?

DOBOSON: Well, again, I'm a chairman of a large pro family organization that's a 501c3, so I'm not in a position to endorse candidates here.

But can I tell you that in my view, George Bush is one of the most conservative presidents we've ever had. He is the strongest pro-life president we've ever had. He had the courage to stand up for family and for marriage and no one else has, to this point. He rolled back taxes on the family.

He's done a lot of very, very good things, and I believe -- I believe this is going to play a major role in November.

What happened yesterday also is going to be very, very important with regard to what the Democrats and five Republicans did with the Federal Marriage Amendment in the filibuster yesterday. People are going to remember in November.

HANNITY: What do you think of John Kerry? I'm not asking you to speak as the chairman of Focus on the Family, but for somebody who's an outspoken social conservative. What do you think of John Kerry? DOBSON: Well, I think it's a well-known fact that he's one of the most -- one of the leading liberals in the Senate and Edwards is another.

They stand for higher taxes. They stand for abortion. They stand for homosexual rights beyond what everybody else is entitled to.

They're just many principles that he stands for, and I'm afraid that he will turn the country over to the United Nations, certainly the military. I don't believe he understands international politics. I have major concerns about John Kerry.

HANNITY: I do, too. Are you surprised, at least polling-wise has he has the support that he seems to have?

DOBSON: Polls at this time, I'm told, are very iffy. You can't depend a whole lot on them. They change radically. And most of those polls are taken in the cities where there is more support from liberals. So I don't know that I believe them.

I do believe the country is split down the middle, and that's why, Sean, that I said that I believe the social issues are going to make the difference in November. There were four million evangelicals who did not vote in 2000. Four million.

HANNITY: Will they vote this time?

DOBSON: I believe they will because of what happened yesterday and because of the social issues. They see the country sliding in the wrong direction.

I see them more motivated, far more motivated than four years ago. And it wouldn't take very many of those four million to make a big, big difference when the country is split.

COLMES: We're going to come right back with Dr. James Dobson after the break.

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: As we continue on HANNITY & COLMES, I'm Sean Hannity.

Still to come tonight, former presidential candidate Gary Hart. he has a new book and he's going to weigh in on what to expect from the upcoming Democratic convention.

First, we continue with Focus on the Family's Dr. James Dobson.

Dr. Dobson, there is a lot of hate towards President Bush. You have a former vice president, Al Gore, screaming at the top of his lungs, "George Bush betrayed his country."

You have Howard Dean advancing the theory he knew about 9/11 ahead of time.

You've got Michael Moore. You've got the words of Whoopi Goldberg. You go straight on right down the line. The NAACP had some horrible things to say about him this week.

Do you think it's connected to his moral positions? Why -- Why do you think this exists?

DOBSON: Well, I think they hate him for a bunch of reasons. One is that he won by 530 votes or whatever it was, and they still resent that. And they see this as the way to bring him down.

But it's really unfortunate, because you need to respect the presidency, even if you don't like the person that's in that office. I mean, this is the leader of our country, and we're all in that boat. And if he gets wet we all get wet to some degree.

HANNITY: Well, this time more than ever because the terrorists that want to kill us, they're not checking your voter registration card. They don't care if you're a conservative or a liberal or a Republican or Democrat.

What do you think about the idea -- are you happy with Dick Cheney on the ticket? There's been some talk about -- because I think he's been a great vice president. I think he's got moral clarity and great leadership capabilities. What do you think?

DOBSON: I think he's been a very good vice president, and it would surprise me if the president dumped him. I don't believe he's going to do that because they have a camaraderie and an understanding. This is a good team.

I've met with President Bush a number of times. He's really a very personable man. All of that hate, I don't understand that, because he is very stilted when he is making a formal speech.

HANNITY: Right.

DOBSON: But one-on-one, he's a very delightful, personable man, and he doesn't deserve this.

HANNITY: Let's go back to the gay marriage issue. You think this vote yesterday, although it's being downplayed in the media, will have a great impact on this election. Explain why.

DOBSON: I believe it will have a very serious impact and may well determine the outcome.

It may also result in people like Senator Daschle losing. I'm no pundit, but I think he's going to have to face the music. He and the others are going to have to face the music, not only because they didn't pass Federal Marriage Amendment, but because they wouldn't allow it to even be discussed or voted on.

You know, they used parliamentary procedure. They used the filibuster. That irritates people.

And remember this, 39 states have passed DOMA laws, defense of marriage acts. That tells you what the American people feel -- how they feel about marriage.

COLMES: Dr. Dobson, that's a lot different than adopting a constitutional amendment. We've only done it a couple of dozen times.

And I wonder what you make of Lynne Cheney, who differs from her husband on this, who said the states should decide this. This is what Mrs. Cheney -- she's certainly a credentialed conservative in her own right. And she came out and said the states should decide this.

Even among conservatives there are many who do not feel we should be amending our Constitution for this purpose.

DOBSON: Well, I would really like to talk to her about that, because I think she would have a hard time answering the obvious questions.

I mean, we can't have 50 different definitions of marriage. You can't do that. You can't be married in Oklahoma and not married in Connecticut. You've got to have a standard. Marriage has to mean something for the people. There has to be some commonality there.

And also, the states are not able to determine the definition of marriage. The courts are going to do that. The Supreme Court could throw out every state decision with regard to marriage.

COLMES: I often hear conservatives talk about states' rights. But look, I want to ask you about this.

You talk about how we have changed things in this country. You don't like the way things are going. Conservatives have the courts. They have the presidency, the executive branch. They have the House; they have the Senate.

You guys have been in control for awhile. So if you're complaining that things aren't going well and things have to change, why haven't those changes been made since 1994, conservatives have had the legislature?

DOBSON: Well, they may have a Republican majority. But as I said earlier, that's not the issue. The issue is, what do those Republicans believe?

The five Republicans or four of the five that voted in a wrong way, what we would consider the wrong way yesterday are pro-abortion, pro homosexual rights beyond what the rest of the nation has authorized.

I mean, they voted -- they're not conservatives. They may call themselves Republicans, but they're RINO Republicans. They're Republicans in name only.

HANNITY: Good to see you, Dr. Dobson. Thank you for being with us.

DOBSON: Good to see you guys.

HANNNITY: Appreciate your time.

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