Former White House Chief of Staff on Democrats Blaming Iraq for Slowing Down the Fire Fight

This is a rush transcript from "Your World with Neil Cavuto," October 25, 2007. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: We're going to have reaction now from a guy who knows the president very well, maybe can address some of this. I'm talking about former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card.

Andrew, good to have you.

ANDREW CARD, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Good to be with you, Neil. Thank you.

CAVUTO: What do you make of that? The governor raises the point that maybe the National Guard is stressed and Iraq is the reason.

CARD: I — it is incredulous.

And first of all, we know the nation is at war. We are in a war against terror. And we need to support the war, and we need to be successful in Iraq and in Afghanistan. And we don't want to have to fight the bad guys here.

But, at the same time, the National Guard can meet the responsibilities in California. After all, California also has a compact with other states. And they said they would send Guardspeople into California to help, if they needed it.

(CROSSTALK)

CARD: The general who is in charge of the National Guard says it will work.

CAVUTO: OK. Explain this to me. I'm kind of slow at the pace here.

But, if you need the National Guard, right, and you are heading the California National Guard, or you are the governor of that state, or whoever is handling the emergency relief, I assume you pick up the phone and say, how many Guardsmen do I have at my beckon call, right? I would like X number available.

The state told us that 1,500 was the request; 1,500 is what they got. Now, can they call back and say, we need 1,500 more, and, presumably, there are 1,500 more? How does it go?

CARD: Yes.

The adjutant general, who is kind of the general in charge of the National Guard for the governor, would be able to say, how many troops do you need? We will find them.

If he can't find them within his own units in California — and, by the way, they should. They have over — almost 17,000 National Guardspeople in California. If they can't find them in California, they have compacts that they have signed with other states, so they can borrow National Guardsmen from other states. They would come under the command of the governor of California, under the adjutant general. And they would have the resources there to meet their expectations.

At the same time, Washington has said, we will go out of the way to find the resources that we can, even inside the regular military.

So, I think there's lots of resources available to California to help meet this terrible disaster.

CAVUTO: All right. Andrew Card, thank you very much.

Fair-and-balanced. You heard both sides. You choose.

Andrew, thank you very much.

CARD: Thank you, Neil.

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