Talking Points Live

washingtonpost.com Chief Political Correspondent Terry Neal took your questions and comments on politics, politicians and his latest columns Friday, Sept. 30, at 11 a.m. ET.

Read more Talking Points.

The transcript follows.

____________________

washingtonpost.com: GOP Ignores Lessons of Democrats' Past Mistakes , ( Sept. 28, 2005 )

Echoes of 1994 With Current Scandals? , ( Sept. 27, 2005 )

_______________________

Terry Neal: Good morning everyone...Welcome back to my weekly chat on politics. Lots to talk about this week, so let's jump right in.

Terry

_______________________

Washington, D.C.: Terry,

Why the sudden about face for NYT reporter Judith Miller? Wasn't she nearing the end of her jail stay?

Terry Neal: According Ms. Miller, her source freed her from their confidentiality agreement. Simple as that, as far as I know.

_______________________

Philadelphia, Pa.: People have said that the latest Republican problems don't necessarily help Democrats because the Democrats don't have a positive agenda. That is completely wrong. The Democrats do have a positive agenda. It is entitled The American Promise: A Future of Security, Opportunity, and Responsibility. It is on the Web site democrats.gov . Why don't reporters and pundits acknowledge that the Democrats do have a positive agenda?

Terry Neal: I don't think it's a matter of pundits and reporters acknowledging that Democrats have a positive agenda. I think it's up to the public to decide whether that agenda is positive.

Of course, you could argue that the media doesn't cover the Democrats' agenda enough. But that's always a problem for the minority party. Republicans complained pre-1994 that the media didn't cover their agenda enough. And by shear will, the hoisted their agenda upon the public consciousness. They did this by sticking together and practicing the kind of message discipline that you rarely see from Democrats.

_______________________

Albany, N.Y.: Does the latest development in Judith Miller's role in the leak investigation, particularly the timing, make any sense to you?

Terry Neal: No, not really. But as I keep reminding people, this is a grand jury process and is secret by definition. There are a lot of things, I'm sure, going on behind the scenes that would explain all of this. We just don't know it all yet. We will in time, though.

_______________________

Houghton, Mich.: Good Morning Terry, In my estimation, DeLay's indictment won't change a things in the voting booth. Party loyalists won't waiver, while the nomadic independent voter will just cast the whole lot of politicians into the same "corrupt" pile.

But I wonder, and would hope you could possibly comment on, how this may play among the House GOP? Do you sense there's a certain amount of glee in the cloakroom as the Texans' hold on that Party diminishes -- ostensibly paving new paths to leadership that don't wind through gardens of yellow roses and fields of crude oil?

Terry Neal: First of all, I'm not sure I agree with your premise. As the president's and the GOP Congress's approval rating has decline in recent months, we've seen increasingly that the reason is declining support among independents and self-identified moderates.

Look, I don't know what's going to happen a year from now in the midterm election. That's an eternity in politics. But if the election where held today, yes, I believe the GOP would have a problem with independent voters.

_______________________

Terry Neal: By the way, we have a lot of questions about Judy Miller today...Just FYI, there will be another live online chat today at 2 p.m. with Lucy Dalglish, exec director, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, who will be addressing the Miller issue.

_______________________

New York, N.Y.: Re: Miller. You said "simple as that" Excuse me but are you kidding? This woman was a mouthpiece for this administration in the run up to an unnecessary war. I'm sorry but she is not holding up some journalistic standard but went to jail to cover her behind. This story is FAR from simple.

Terry Neal: The question I was responding to was, essentially about why the change of direction for Miller. And I answered that. The question was not an invitation to bloviate about the larger political implications of the Judy Miller story.

_______________________

Washington, D.C.: "It is entirely possible both that your enemies are out to get you and that you did exactly what you are being accused of doing. The two concepts are not mutually exclusive."

Every politician, in every level of government, should be forced to write this 100 times with a stubby pencil before taking office.

Well said Mr. Neal.

Terry Neal: Thank you

_______________________

Kensington, Calif.: In re: the Amy Waters quotation, Charlie Cook and his shop tells it fairly straight but they are unwilling to go-out-on-a-limb to predict a THROW THE INCUMBENTS OUT (i.e. GOP) midterm election:

Don't see it as a zero-sum game...and reading between the lines, I doubt you're willing to assume that it automatically accrues to the added seats - benefit of Democrats? Is that accurate??

Terry Neal: I think Amy and Charlie know better than making predictions about an election that is more than one year away, that's all.

Were the election to be held this November instead of the next, they--and I--might be more willing to go out on a limb.

_______________________

East Windsor, N.J.: What is your explanation for why coverage of last weekend's large demonstration against the Iraq was so scant? I was disappointed that the New York Times gave this important story only a thumbnail sized picture on page one and a rather minimal story on page ten of the Sunday paper. What gives?

Terry Neal: I can't answer for the NY Times. But the Post ran it's story on the front page the next day. Hard to get better than the front page.

_______________________

Kansas: In regard to your article about DeLay, "GOP ignores lessons . . .", in addition to his enemies being after him, isn't it true that DeLay's allies are after him, too. One interpretation is that DeLay is getting blamed by the Party faithful as being someone who will heap pork at a moment's notice if it will help the party win a seat or anything. Do you think there's anything to this analysis?

Terry Neal: I don't see much evidence that his allies are out to get him. Nor do I buy the argument that there is an "anti-pork" contingent in this Congress. If anything, his willingness to "heap pork" has endeared him to his followers.

_______________________

Oklahoma City, Okla.: There is no clear evidence of a crime in the indictment of Tom DeLay. The DA, Mr. Earle, apparently had a camera crew following him as he built the case to record a political documentary. Earle has indicted other Republicans, only to have the cases collapse as obviously flimsy or politically motivated. He seems to have extorted money for pet causes from targets of past indictments in return for dropping those charges. Please! We are supposed to take this "scandal" seriously????

Terry Neal: Well, the evidence may not be "clear" to you. But that doesn't mean that there is no evidence. You don't know what Mr. Earle and his prosecutors have been able to dig up in the grand jury process, which as I said before about the Miller case, is a secret one.

As for Mr. Earle, it would not be unusual for an elected D.A. to do some grandstanding. They are elected officials. But whether he is a "partisan zealot," as DeLay called him is another question.

Earle has prosecuted more Democrats than Republicans. But by your logic, he is a partisan because one or more of his prosecutions of a Republican fell through? Huh? Not sure I understand that one.

At least one of his high-profile prosecutions of a Democrats fell through, as well. Does that mean he's anti-Democrat?

Look, prosecutors are not always successful.

And as I said in my column the other day, it is entirely possible that DeLay's enemies are out to get him AND that he did exactly what he is accused of doing.

DeLay is innocent until proven guilty, and a citizen jury--not Ronnie Earle--will ultimately decide his fate.

_______________________

Washington, D.C.: Hi Terry, is there a better word than bloviate? I think not!

Terry Neal: I rather like it.

And I rather like doing it sometime, too.

_______________________

Ellicott City, Md.: What current story do you see not getting the attention it deserves?

Terry Neal: The run-away, budget-busting spending of the federal government and its long-term implications.

_______________________

Memphis, Tenn.: Terry,

Can you discuss your thoughts on the reports coming out about the lack of violence in New Orleans after Katrina hit? There were no raped babies, snipers, etc. etc. I personally believe that there was a racial aspect to people believing these stories. It is also clear that these stories delayed the relief effort because aid workers believed the area to be more dangerous than it actually was. Thoughts?

Terry Neal: This is a good question, and I think the answer is complicated. I think it's too easy to make race the sole element or the discussion of this issue. Many of the stories about raped babies and the like apparently came from people in the dome and the convention center.

Reporters reported a lot of the stories they were hearing without verification. But they considered the sources valid. Even the mayor of New Orleans, who is black, was talking at the time about the urgency of the situation, given the violence that was occurring.

So this is not clear cut. More so than the actual reporting of some of this stuff, I have a problem with some of the conjecture from pundits that was attached to it. And I blame the media for not putting it into perspective--at least in the first few days after the storm. Some of the TV reports in particular made it seem like everyone was raping, pillaging and looting, when in fact it was a relatively small percentage of the vile criminal element that exists in everywhere.

And yes, I do believe race played a factor in the way people perceived this.

I remember a day or two after the hurricane, when helicopters were trying to deliver food to the Superdome, I believe, I happened to run into one of my neighbors on the street, and she was ranting, "Can you believe these people are shooting at the helicopters. Don't these people understand they're their to help them!" She was astonished at how "these people" behaved, as if everyone had their guns in the air, firing at the helicopter and were too stupid to know when someone was trying to help them.

It was crazy.

_______________________

Terry Neal: Folks, I hate to cut it off a little early, but I have another commitment that I need to tend to right now. Sorry I couldn't answer every question. Let's chat next week, same time, same place.

Terry

_______________________

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.