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In the Crossfire

Getting bin Laden: Did U.S. wimp out?

(CNN) -- Did the U.S. military let Osama bin Laden slip through its fingers in the December battle of Tora Bora? Crossfire hosts Paul Begala and Robert Novak went one-on-one over whether U.S. troops let pass the best chance to capture or kill the leader of al Qaeda.

BEGALA: Now it's time for "Round 6." No guests, no gloves. No sense. No, just Novak and me going after each other over tonight's issue, a report that the Bush administration may have blown a great chance to capture Osama bin Laden.

Bob, "The Washington Post" reported that they had him. They had this murderous animal cornered in the caves of Tora Bora and Bush wimped out. Like his daddy let Saddam Hussein off the hook, Bush didn't send the troops in to get him. Is there something genetic with the Bushes that they can't finish a fight?

NOVAK: I tell you something, Paul, if you had ever served in the military, as I did.

BEGALA: Or as Bush certainly did not.

NOVAK: Instead of getting your deferments while other people were...

BEGALA: I never had a deferment. I registered for the draft.

NOVAK: ...dying in Vietnam, you would know that military orders don't come from the president on a tactical operation like that. Now Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld today said that this story is incorrect, that he wasn't at Tora Bora. I don't know what the truth is. There's no correspondence up there. We take -- we have to rely upon what people tell us.

But the whole idea, I wish you'd get over this, of trying to attach every little story to some attempt to undermine President Bush. It really is unbecoming to you, Paul.

BEGALA: First, let me defend myself against your personal attack. I was 13 when the war ended in Vietnam, Bob. They weren't drafting 13-year-olds, I'm sorry. I did register for the draft when I turned 18. And I would have proudly served, unlike Bush, who went to the National Guard and then was AWOL for a year and failed to show up.

NOVAK: You have Bushitis. Everything is turned into a...

BEGALA: He's our commander-in-chief and is letting this murderer get off the hook.

NOVAK: You're not running a campaign here, you know. You ought to get over it. He's president of the United States. He's your president, too. And you ought to give him a little support in fighting a war. And I think that most Americans agree with me on this.

BEGALA: I gave him whole-hearted support in that war.

NOVAK: Oh, yes.

BEGALA: When he said -- oh, I did, Bob.

NOVAK: You gave him phony support.

BEGALA: Wholehearted support, because he said he was going to get bin Laden, who is, Bush was right, who is evil. Do you ever hear Bush mention bin Laden anymore? No, because again, a Bush wimps out. And I'm sorry, I supported him in the war. But now if he's wimping out, I got a right to call him on it.