Tip Sheet for the Week of Dec. 3 - 8

This partial transcript of The Beltway Boys, December 1, 2001 was provided by the Federal Document Clearing House. Click here to order the complete transcript.

FRED BARNES, CO-HOST: Here's our "Tip Sheet" for next week's action, Mort.

MORT KONDRACKE, CO-HOST:  Ready.

BARNES:  Item number one, despite Saturday's violence in the Mideast,  Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is still scheduled to meet with President Bush  next week.

KONDRACKE:  This will be three meetings with Bush and Sharon to zero  for Yasser Arafat and Bush.  And at the rate things are going, Bush may  never meet with Arafat, because he's increasingly a fading figure on the  scene here.

What — the meeting was going to be about the United States's effort  to get Sharon to get into peace talks with Yasser Arafat.  But instead,  it's going to be Yasser — Sharon's enlisting President Bush to condemn  Palestinian violence -- terrorism and to lean harder on Islamic Jihad,  Hamas and Hezbollah, the terrorist groups that afflict Israel.

BARNES:  Mort, let me mention — ask you about the, the moderate so- called Arab nations, which are always urging the U.S. to lean on Israel to  make concessions to the Palestinians.  Shouldn't Egypt, Saudi Arabia,  Jordan, and some of those countries lean on Arafat and say, Look, you're  not going to get a deal until you stop this terrorism.  Otherwise, if it  doesn't stop, you — there — you're going to be booted out, the Israelis  are not going to accept you as a partner.

KONDRACKE:  Well, I mean — well, you know, it — the — unfortunately, the so-called moderate Arab countries regard Hamas as a  freedom-fighter organization, not as a terrorist organization.

BARNES:  All right.  We're going to have to move fast through these  other five.  Item — other four.

Item number two, the House will vote on a trade promotion authority  bill, also known as fast track, next week.  Mort, you're a big fan of trade  promotion authority.

KONDRACKE:  Well, I am, I am.  White House says that they're confident  about this.  There are only 16 or 20 Democrats who are going to support it,  which means that every Republican's got to be leaned on.

BARNES:  Yes.  Yes.

KONDRACKE:  I don't know.

BARNES:  I think he'll get them.

KONDRACKE:  OK.

BARNES:  I think Bush will.

KONDRACKE:  Well, we'll see.

BARNES:  All right.  Item three, the United Nations will vote on a  compromise resolution for Iraqi sanctions next week.  The changes call for  a new oil-for-food program.

KONDRACKE:  Well, this is a temporary stopgap measure until we start  really leaning on the world to force U.N. inspectors in...

BARNES:  Yes, yes.

KONDRACKE:  ... on weapons of mass destruction and then start bombing.

BARNES:  It's what the U.S. does, not what the U.N. does, that  matters.

Item four, the 60th anniversary of Pearl Harbor is this Friday,  Dec. 7.

KONDRACKE:  A poignant moment.  I think that recollections about the  courage of the World War II generation has a lot to do with the response of  America toward the terrorist attacks.

BARNES:  All right.  Item five, the Senate has two important votes on  the table next week, a long-awaited energy bill, already passed by the  House, and a temporary ban on human cloning.

KONDRACKE:  In one amendment...

BARNES:  Right.

KONDRACKE:  ... that Trent Lott, the Republican leader, is going to  present as an amendment, and it's going to get voted down.  It won't pass  cloture.  And it's kind of silly that he's doing two at one time, because  people can vote against the thing and no one will be held accountable.

BARNES:  Process, process.  Look, can Tom Daschle really sustain this  argument that he's not going to bring up an energy bill, or a temporary ban  on cloning, or any of that stuff because the railroad retirement bill is  too urgent that he has to pass?  I don't think he can handle that.

KONDRACKE:  It is for the AFL-CIO.

BARNES:  Yes.

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