Pat Buchanan Responds to Scathing New York Times Editorial

This is a partial transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," October 11, 2006, that has been edited for clarity.

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BILL O'REILLY, HOST: "Back of the Book" segment tonight: The New York Times roughed up author Pat Buchanan today in an editorial marking the census of 300 Americans.

The Times opined: "The doomsayer's torch has lately been grabbed by cultural sentinels like Pat Buchanan, whose new book warns the United States is being reconquered by disease-carrying Latinos. Unless Americans of white European descent can Ziploc the borders and start churning out babies, he says, their age of civilizing domination is done for."

Joining us now from San Francisco to reply, the author of the best-selling book "State of Emergency," Pat Buchanan.

You getting the key to the city in San Francisco? Is that what's going on there? Are you and Nancy Pelosi going to dinner tonight?

PAT BUCHANAN, AUTHOR, "STATE OF EMERGENCY": That's not why I'm out here, Bill, but I will say this: I read that editorial on the plane and handed it to my wife and laughed. And I said, "Look, they're going to trash me, that's fine, but they ought to have at least the courtesy of mentioning the name of the book in the editorial."

O'REILLY: Well, they'll never do that. No, you'll never get it reviewed. They'll never mention the book. Same thing with me. So you're in good company.

Now, they're clearly trying to paint you as a racist. That was what the disease thing was all about. Does that offend you?

BUCHANAN: No, it doesn't. And as a matter of fact, it's one of the facts in my book, I believe. The New York Times itself had a big story saying one in seven East Asians in New York, I believe, had either hepatitis or T.B., and I've got that fact in my book.

And the truth is tuberculosis is rampant in this country, and a lot of diseases are coming back. And it's because these 12 million illegals are coming across the border. Many of them have diseases. And they're not checked.

You've got malaria, dengue fever, A. flavus disease. Polio is coming back. They even had the plague in south Texas. Leprosy is making a comeback.

The New York Times — this thing is simply a screed, and it's written by people who have lost the battle.

Look, when Hillary Rodham Clinton votes for 700 miles of security fence herself along with 79 other Republicans and Democrats, those of us who fought for border security have won the battle with the American people.

O'REILLY: But my question is a little more subtle than policy. I agree with you: Most of the American people want secure borders, and they want an orderly immigration process.

But the newspaper is attacking you and wants people to believe that Pat Buchanan is a rank racist who hates Latinos and wants to do them harm. That's what this newspaper wants their readers to believe. Does that offend you?

BUCHANAN: Look, the personal insult as the last recourse of an exhausted mind. These terms — racist or xenophobe or nativist — that are used on folks that want to secure the border, these are the cusswords of the establishment that has lost the country. They're name-calling.

They are trying to brand and stamp people like you and like me and others who have argued this case as beyond the periphery, outside the pale of legitimate argument.

What the New York Times does is tries to define the borderlines of legitimate argument. They consider themselves in the center. There is a center right which can be heard, and folks on the left, all the way over to the Marxists can be heard.

But on the right, or on the populist right, the libertarian right, if you take positions which they detest, they will try to define you outside the realm of legitimate discussion. They will basically tell people: Don't pay attention to him because he's a racist.

But they've used these things so many times that they no longer have the toxic power they once had, Bill.

O'REILLY: OK. "State of Emergency" is a best seller. "Cultural Warrior", my book, is No. 1 on The Times list this week. They ignored them.

Is that — see, I was surprised they attacked you by name because the usual tactic is ignore Buchanan, ignore O'Reilly because as you said, they're just not worth thinking about. Yet they chose you today to make an example of. Why?

BUCHANAN: Well, from their standpoint, it was a stupid thing. I mean, they haven't reviewed my book. They're saying, in effect, even though it spent five weeks in a row on the best-seller list, six or above, what they're saying in effect is his views are irrelevant, they're not really anywhere near the mainstream. They're in the extreme.

Why they would take this occasion to go at length on me personally without mentioning the book escapes — it helps me.

O'REILLY: It does.

BUCHANAN: But it escapes me why they wouldn't mention the book.

O'REILLY: They despise the book, that's why. I mean, you know, we were all surprised to see that. We were.

All right, Pat, good luck to you.

BUCHANAN: Must have gotten under your skin.

O'REILLY: Tell everybody you see in San Francisco that O'Reilly said hello. And have a good time with Nancy Pelosi tonight.

BUCHANAN: I'm going to have a great time in San Francisco. Take it easy.

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