What's Good for the Liberal Goose Is Good for the Conservative Gander

This is a partial transcript from "Hannity & Colmes," August 26, 2004, that has been edited for clarity.

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SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: Do Christian conservatives feel unwelcome at next week's convention?

Joining us, the chancellor of the ever-growing Liberty University, good friend Jerry Falwell.

How are you, Reverend?

JERRY FALWELL, CHANCELLOR, LIBERTY UNIVERSITY: Hello.

HANNITY: Good to see you.

FALWELL: Good to see you.

HANNITY: We never get to see you in the studio when you beat up Alan.

FALWELL: Alan's my friend.

HANNITY: I know.

ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: He's a good Christian. He would never do such a thing.

HANNITY: Alan just admitted I was right in my little bet.

COLMES: What I said was that Kerry did say some things but I think in the context, Kerry was talking about government policy.

FALWELL: As an impartial observer, you just won a hundred thousand dollars, from a fellow who's incapable of paying.

HANNITY: I'll tell you what. I'll make a deal. If he pays me, I'm going to donate it to Liberty University. How's that?

FALWELL: I have a good memory.

HANNITY: You feel welcome here, don't you?

FALWELL: By all means. We have VIP credentials through the years.

HANNITY: There was a report that you weren't invited. That's not true?

FALWELL: I don't know where that came from. From the first day we were planning, we have our reservations. I think it was just an attempt to make it appear that social conservatives are alienated.

The fact is that our people are more energized in support of George W. Bush than almost anybody and coequal, I think, with Ronald Reagan. This man has won our hearts.

HANNITY: I agree.

FALWELL: His values, his character, his integrity...

HANNITY: Moral clarity.

FALWELL: We know where he is it on everything and we like it.

HANNITY: I agree with you. He has tremendous moral clarity. One of the things that has bothered me, some reports out about you is that your good friend Barry Lynn is after you again. I don't see...

FALWELL: Reverend Barry Lynn.

HANNITY: OK, Reverend. I never heard anyone complain that Al Sharpton gets to go into churches and use it as a political platform at times, the same with the Reverend Jesse Jackson. I know he's done that. A lot of candidates have done that.

FALWELL: Last Sunday John Kerry was in an African-American church and just recently he was introduced in such a church saying the next president of the United States, I don't have any problem with that.

HANNITY: Neither do I.

FALWELL: What's good for the liberal goose is good for the conservative gander.

HANNITY: They're coming after you.

FALWELL: Well, the IRS is — let me defend the IRS. Not many people do that.

They have never said a word to me. This is just Barry Lynn trying his perennial election year scare tactic on conservative pastors and churches.

HANNITY: Are you concerned at all about any of the social issue? For example, Vice President Cheney came out in support of a fairly liberal position on gay rights this week.

FALWELL: Yes, yes.

HANNITY: Although it differs from the president's position.

FALWELL: If does. But he concluded by saying, "The president sets the policy for this administration, and we know what that policy is.

Well, the fact is, if you had — you know I have three children. And eight grandchildren. If I should have a child come to me and say poppy, I'm gay, I would tell them, you're still my daughter, my son, my grandson...

COLMES: I'm guessing you wouldn't officiate at the ceremony, right?

FALWELL: And I would tell them what you're saying to me is wrong and I'm going to pray for you and I'm going to counsel you out of it, meantime nothing has changed, that's still your bedroom.

COLMES: Reverend, do you represent all Christians?

FALWELL: Nobody represents all Christians any more than anybody represents all liberals.

COLMES: I certainly don't do that. That's a very good come back. I'm very impressed.

What percentage, though, I mean there are a lot of Christians who consider themselves more liberal, who don't buy into your particular brand of...

FALWELL: Well, I'm an evangelical, meaning I believe, in the words of the Bible. In the salvation in and through the shared blood of Christ solely, and I believe in his bodily resurrection, his second coming. I also believe that life begins at conception. I wouldn't vote for my mother if she were pro-choice.

COLMES: Let me ask you about this. Because at the Republican National Convention, many of the prime time keynote supports, George Pataki, Rudy Giuliani — go down the list — Arnold Schwarzenegger, pro-choice.

And yet the Republican platform clearly wants a constitutional amendment to ban abortion. So are they cosmetically covering up what they really think?

FALWELL: The Republican Party is the Republican Party.

COLMES: But that's not who's speaking at the convention.

FALWELL: And may I say that there are political conservatives. There are fiscal conservatives. There are social conservatives. And they're not all intermingled. I happen to be all three. But many political and fiscal conservatives are not social. Now, we need all three to win.

COLMES: But the people they are showcasing at the convention, for the most part, fall into the liberal branch...

FALWELL: I'm not sure if that's not the way I'd do it, too. The Democrats didn't do a bad job of acting pro-war. And...

COLMES: They didn't act pro-war. I don't think they acted pro-war at all. That's not what I was hearing at all.

FALWELL: That's how I came across where I was living. But I really do believe that — that the president is trying to represent all of the party.

But he himself, on Thursday night, will be our representative as a social conservative, No. 1 social conservative.

COLMES: Does it disturb you how many liberal, socially liberal Republicans are actually given prime time slots at this convention? It doesn't represent the plank of the party.

FALWELL: I'm hoping that Schwarzenegger can help the president maybe do real — much better in California than last time.

COLMES: It means they need the moderates to win.

FALWELL: Well, I agree with that. And I've never said get out. I just said don't give us anyone at the top of the ticket but social conservatives. And so far since Reagan they haven't.

HANNITY: Hey, Reverend, I've been trying to Hannitize him for eight years. Is this one of those moments of prayer and fasting?

FALWELL: You've got to think of this thing commercially. If this guy got converted, it would ruin the show.

HANNITY: You know he's really a liberal?

FALWELL: That's with him down the road somewhere.

HANNITY: All right. We'll do it later in life.

All right. Good to see you Reverend. Appreciate you being here.

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