Dennis Miller on Petraeus Protesters, Olympic Torch Backlash

This is a rush transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," April 9, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

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BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the "Miller Time" segment tonight, it is Dennis vs. the protesters.

You may remember the protesters interrupted testimony by General David Petraeus yesterday and had to be removed from the room. Also, the Olympic torch is on its way all over the world, San Francisco today, and protesters who don't like the China situation in Tibet are using the torch to vent that displeasure.

Furthermore, Hillary Clinton and others are calling for President Bush to boycott the opening Olympic Games ceremonies in Beijing. He says the president does. He will not do that. Joining us from Los Angeles, radio talk show star Dennis Miller.

All right. So you're watching the Petraeus hearings, and you see these pinheads screaming and yelling. What goes through your mind?

DENNIS MILLER, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, first I thought Henry Waxman had gotten a toupee. But then I looked a little closer. And I remember thinking as Petraeus sits there, he's always gracious, but you can see him thinking, can I get back to Baghdad, where it's 120 degrees and yet I have less bothersome gnats circling my head?

I thought he gave a sober appraisal. That's why Teddy Kennedy didn't recognize it. And I don't know — like I said, I think he's a fine man, and when he has to come back here and answer and put himself through stuff like this — well, the answering part, that's unfair. He should have to come back and talk to these people. I just wish that they would be more mature in their approach to it.

You know, Hillary with this 60-day thing she won't get off of. Hillary Clinton self-admitted she's never been in a kitchen in her life. The only time she's ever set an egg timer on is this war in Iraq.

I'm reading Sally Bedell Smith's book right now about the Clintons in the White House. Trooper-gate, Rose law firms, Travel-gate. She wanted to set up a war room on all of them. The only thing Hillary Clinton doesn't want to set up a war room on is the actual war of our lifetime.

O'REILLY: Now, the protesters, if they were to call into your radio program, would say: "Listen, Miller, I'm just exercising my constitutional right to make my point that this is important to me. And I want people to know it's important to me. And I'm willing to go to jail and pay the fine." And you say?

MILLER: It's not exactly Henry David Thoreau, is it? You know, Warhol told us that everybody would have their 15 minutes. I didn't think most of the people who got it would be so tedious they'd need an intermission break to fill it out.

This 60-day thing is like something out of grade school, for God's sakes. If we're going to make it 60 days, why not make it a week? What are you going to tell the family of the troops who are lost in those interim 53 days? It's simplistic to put a time limit on this.

And when Barack Obama says he wants to talk to Iran, I just got back from visiting the Intrepid Rehab Center in San Antonio, Texas, seeing American heroes rehabbing wounds suffered at the hands of RPGs and improvised explosive devices provided by Iraq. And if he wants to take that meeting with Ahmadinejad, he should only do so like Michael Corleone did: set it up in an Italian restaurant, have Clemenza put the gun in the bathroom, come out and take that guy apart, because when you see the damage that Iran does to our great young men and women, enough!

O'REILLY: And we're working on an investigation. Not next week, but the week after it, a couple of days after the Pennsylvania primary — to pinpoint Americans who are helping Iran. And this is going to be something.

But again, Barack Obama, if he were to call into the Miller radio program and say: "Listen, I want a surge in diplomacy, and I'm willing to talk to Ahmadinejad because I want to save American lives. I want to convince these people in Iran to knock that off. So let's get a peaceful solution to save Americans from wounds and death." And you say?

MILLER: You meet with them, you give them credence in the eyes of the world. He's not worth our time. The devastation that he has impinged on American boys, girls and their families does not dictate that you meet with him.

O'REILLY: I'm very angry about Iran. And I think it is the most important issue beside the economy, which the presidential candidates can't do anything about. But Iran is really it.

All right. Now the Olympics. You've got the little flame running around, and you've got the people who are mad at the Chinese in Tibet. And Hillary says to Bush, "Don't go to the opening ceremonies." And Miller says what?

MILLER: Well, Hillary not only said boycott the opening ceremonies, but she also said that she wants to count China's super-delegates, which seemed like an odd departure to me. But I guess she knows what she's talking about.

Listen, these Chinese Olympics, it's a mistake, but it's going to happen now. I think we should treat it — let's call it the Chinese takeout Olympics. Why don't the athletes get together and boycott this?

And I would tell you one thing. I would make every country's national uniform be those red monk robes. You want to send a message to those people, don't boycott it. Have everybody walk into the stadium that night wearing that crimson Tibetan monk robe, and just let them know that...

O'REILLY: That's a good idea. If the athletes themselves from all the different nations would get together in some kind of Internet, you know, communication and say, "We'll do this to show the world that Tibet needs freedom."

But here's something interesting. And one of our correspondents in a letter segment wrote this as well. In 1996, China was brutalizing the Tibetans like crazy, and Bill Clinton was president and sold China high-tech stuff that they used on weapons and Hillary didn't say anything. So that would be the question I would ask her. You know, now you're real mad, and you should be. You know, China is brutalizing these poor people in the Himalayas. But back then it was like, "Eh." You know, what happened in the ensuing 12 years, Senator Clinton?

MILLER: Well, you know, that just does the Biblical thing like begat, begat, begat, and then they say at one point we were in bed with Saddam Hussein. Listen, the world is held together by very fragile tectonic plates. Occasionally, you're going to have the strangest of bedfellows.

Now, there's a way to embarrass China. Those people don't like to lose face. And if they, everybody — I'm telling you, I mean that about the athletes. Everybody should come out…

O'REILLY: That's a brilliant thing.

MILLER: And wear those red monk robes.

O'REILLY: All right. So, look, Miller and I, we're — let's just do this. Miller and I, we're going to suggest to the athletes that get together themselves, come up with some kind of arm band or ribbon or something like that. And when they all march out there, then the whole world will see it, and we'll publicize it. And everybody will know what it is. All right?

MILLER: I had a brilliant caller today on my radio show who said, "Listen, the reason I don't like the Olympic torch is it's causing global warming." I'd stick with that.

O'REILLY: Do you know who that caller was?

MILLER: I think his name was Johnson. I forget his first name, but I said I'll try to remember your name.

O'REILLY: No, that was Henry Waxman. He called me right after that and said that.

Dennis Miller, everybody.

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