Tip Sheet for the Week of Dec. 9-13

This is a partial transcript from The Beltway Boys, December 7, that has been edited for clarity. Click here to order the complete transcript.

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MORT KONDRACKE, CO-HOST: Welcome back to The Beltway Boys .

It's Tip Sheet time, and the world awaits getting ready to be enlightened by Fred's knowledge of this week's items.

You're ready, of course.

FRED BARNES, CO-HOST: I'm as ready as ever.

KONDRACKE: OK. Item one, Brazil's president-elect Lula da Silva will be in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday to meet with the president.

BARNES: Well, it's going to be an interesting meeting. I mean, Lula's a big-time leftie, he's president-elect, he -- I think he takes over in about three weeks. Bush actually helped him in the campaign when he insisted on, on coming out in favor of an IMF bailout for Brazil. He's having a lot of economic problems.

The incumbent government, the more conservative government, didn't want...wanted the White House to stay out of it, as if they -- Lula would not get a bailout if he got elected.

Anyway, I think they're going to get along fine, though the, the Brazilians are sort of unhappy about the U.S. trade policies.

KONDRACKE: Well, I hope Bush will say, Lula, look to what's happening in Venezuela. If you're too far left, what Hugo Chavez (ph) is undergoing now, namely another insurrection...

BARNES: Yes.

KONDRACKE: ... it could happen to you.

BARNES: Indeed.

KONDRACKE: Item two, Monday will see the start of a computer war game led by General Tommy Franks in Qatar, code-named The Internal Look.

BARNES: Yes, well, they're going to get -- this gets a lot of tanks and troops over there right on the doorstep of Iraq. It shows how serious Bush is about moving...about regime change there, and it's sort of a dress rehearsal for deposing Saddam Hussein.

KONDRACKE: Yes, it's not so much tanks and troops as it is...

BARNES: Yes.

KONDRACKE: ... the headquarters, I mean...

BARNES: Yes, right.

KONDRACKE: ... moving it from Tampa...

BARNES: Yes, yes.

KONDRACKE: ... to Qatar...

BARNES: Yes, but they...

KONDRACKE: ... to, to see whether it'll work...

BARNES: But they're deploying...

KONDRACKE: ... during...

BARNES: ... a lot of men and equipment over there.

KONDRACKE: All right.

BARNES: And women.

KONDRACKE: Yes, item three, next week we should start to see names of appointees to Henry Kissinger's 9/11 commission. And you'd like to see who? You've got a slate here?

BARNES: And I'd like to see, I'd like to see me on it, but nobody's called me. I, I mean, this is a very interesting and important commission.  But I've come up with a slate of people that I think ought to be on it. I mean, Republicans are headed by Henry Kissinger, who's the chairman, they get four others, Frank Gaffney, you know him, he's a hardliner on defense...

KONDRACKE: Yes.

BARNES: ... Bob Gates...

KONDRACKE: Very hardliner, yes.

BARNES: ... former CIA director, Newt Gingrich, you know who he is, Elisa Beamer, you recognize that name?

KONDRACKE: I do, yes.

BARNES: I think one family member should be on the commission, and of course her husband died in that crash in Pennsylvania.

Democrats, Jeanne Shaheen, outgoing New Hampshire Democrat, Jim Woolsey, former CIA director, Joe Reeder was the undersecretary of the Army and a very good guy, and Marty Peretz, who's a very smart guy, and, and the editor and owner of The New Republic.

KONDRACKE: Yes, but you've left off three indispensable people, Warren Rudman and Gary Hart...

BARNES: Yes.

KONDRACKE: ... were the heads of a commission that warned in advance...

BARNES: Yes.

KONDRACKE: ... about what was going to happen and called for a homeland security...

BARNES: Gary Hart, indispensable?

KONDRACKE: ...Well, they, they, they are experienced in this field.

And Paul Bremer, who was the head of another terrorism commission...

BARNES: Yes.

KONDRACKE: ... ought to be included as well.

Item four, senator and 2004 Democratic hopeful, presidential hopeful, John Edwards of North Carolina will host a political powwow next week at his home here in Washington, D.C. The guest list includes a bunch of key New Hampshire Democrats.

BARNES: You know, he really has a chance of emerging as the moderate alternative in the presidential race among Democrats, you know, the like, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton and so on. And he is backing Bush on the war, but I think most of his other policies are liberal. I think he needs to be a little more moderate.

KONDRACKE: John Edwards will be on the ticket in 2004.

Item five, by the end of next week, the Bush administration hopes to have found a new SEC chairman to replace Harvey Pitt.

BARNES: Well, well, they're having a hard time. Nobody wants that job. It's thankless. Either you regulate too much, or you don't regulate enough. They tried to get Peter Fischer, the undersecretary for domestic finance at Treasury to take it, he didn't want it....Michael Chernoff at, at, at Justice, that didn't work out. I don't know who it's going to be.

KONDRACKE: The -- well, they -- this, this agency needs attention, it needs a morale boost, and it needs money...

BARNES: Yes.

KONDRACKE: ... in order to, to carry out the, the purposes that the Congress and President Bush assigned it...

BARNES: All right.

KONDRACKE: ... under....

BARNES: All right. Yes, Mort again on the SEC.

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