"Face the Nation" transcript: April 8, 2012

(CBS News) Below is a rush transcript of "Face the Nation" on April 8, 2012, hosted by CBS News chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer. The guests are Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Catholic Church. The roundtable featured Richard Land, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Ethnic Commission; Luis Cortes Junior, president of Esperanza, the largest faith-based evangelical network in the United States; Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles; Sally Quinn, founder and head of The Washington Post on Faith website; and Newsweek magazine's Andrew Sullivan who recently wrote that magazine's cover story, "Christianity in crisis."

BOB SCHIEFFER: Today on FACE THE NATION, word has reached us that the legendary Mike Wallace has died overnight, we will hear from his friend and colleague Morley Safer.

Then, we'll turn to religion and politics on this Passover and Easter week.

Is religion playing a bigger role in this year's campaign than usual? Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York says, no, and speaks out on the President's intention to cover contraceptive costs in his health care plan, even for Catholics.

So, are you good with that?

CARDINAL TIMOTHY DOLAN (Archbishop of New York): No.

BOB SCHIEFFER: And what about the candidate's religions?

CARDINAL TIMOTHY DOLAN: There may be reasons not to vote for ritt-- Mitt Romney as President of the United States that he's Mormon cannot be one of them.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Then, we will turn to our panel, Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention.

RICHARD LAND (Southern Baptist Convention): Let's stop the hypocrisy of one party being welded to one-- the religious left-- the-- the religious left is the Democratic Party at prayer.

ANDREW SULLIVAN (Newsweek): Oh, please.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Andrew Sullivan of Newsweek; Rabbi David Wolpe of Temple Sinai in Los Angeles; Sally Quinn of the Washington Post; and Luis Cortes, Junior, of Esperanza.

And our new feature, the Google Plus Hangout.



BOB SCHIEFFER: And good morning again. Welcome to FACE THE NATION.

We are beginning this morning with the news that Mike Wallace died overnight. Mike was ninety-three. He had been ill for many years. His colleague and his friend, Morley Safer, put together this tribute.

MIKE WALLACE (recording): He was doing what.

With you.





When you brought it down to low (indistinct).

You demanded special treatment.

You needed money.

It's almost an embarrassment, Sir, to hear this from you.


What did they want you to do?

Why are you so reluctant?

MORLEY SAFER: For half a century, he took on corrupt politicians, scam artists and bureaucratic bumblers.

MIKE WALLACE: Come on out.

MAN #1: No, just-- just--

MIKE WALLACE: You don't want to talk to me?

MORLEY SAFER: His visits preceded by the four dreaded words, Mike Wallace is here.

MIKE WALLACE: I don't understand. They must be ashamed of something.

How're you, Sir?

MAN #2: What is this?


MAN #2: Wow.

MIKE WALLACE: I mean, you're a crook.

DANNY FARIES: Doggone I wish they didn't say that, though.

MIKE WALLACE: Father, I want to read you some things.

MORLEY SAFER: Mike took to heart the old reporter's pledge to comfort the afflicted and inflict the comfortable.

STANLEY RADER: You're contemptible. I mean, it's not going to (indistinct) I would like you get out of here.

MIKE WALLACE: I am nosy and in-- and insistent.

MORLEY SAFER: So insistent there were very few 20th Century icons who did not submit to a Mike Wallace interview. He lectured Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, on corruption.

MIKE WALLACE: To get anything done, money.

MORLEY SAFER: He lectured Yasser Arafat on violence.

MIKE WALLACE: Mister Chairman, there are Palestinians who would like to kill you?

MORLEY SAFER: He asked the Ayatollah Khomeini if he was crazy?

MIKE WALLACE: And he calls you, Imam, forgive me, his words, not mine, a "lunatic."

MORLEY SAFER: He traveled with Martin Luther King.

DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING (1966): A large segment of white society is more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity.

MIKE WALLACE: He remains my hero.


MORLEY SAFER: He grappled with Louis Farrakhan.

LOUIS FARRAKHAN: I think you should keep quiet.

MORLEY SAFER: And he interviewed Malcolm X shortly before his assassination.

MALCOLM X: I probably am a dead man already.

RONALD REAGAN: I came here with a belief.

MORLEY SAFER: He was no stranger to the White House--interviewing his friends, The Reagans.

MIKE WALLACE: Why hasn't this job weighed as heavily on you as it has on some other occupants of this Oval Office?

RONALD REAGAN: Well, Mike, I don't know what the answer to that would-- would be. Well, maybe none of them had a Nancy.

MORLEY SAFER: There he was with John Kennedy, with Lyndon Johnson.

MIKE WALLACE: So you think that next time around.

MORLEY SAFER: With Jimmy Carter, even with Eleanor Roosevelt.

MIKE WALLACE: A good many people hated your husband. They even hated you.

ELEANOR ROOSEVELT: Oh, yes. A great many do still.

MAN: Make a noise.

MORLEY SAFER: Plus, all those remarkable characters.

MAN: Come on, Mike.

MORLEY SAFER: Leonard Bernstein, Johnny Carson, Luciano Paparazzi, Janis Joplin, Tina Turner, Salvador Dally, Barbra Streisand.

MIKE WALLACE: You would love to control this piece.

BARBRA STREISAND: Absolutely, are you kidding.

MAN: What are you trying to prove?

MAN: Nothing.

MORLEY SAFER: His "take no prisoners" style became so famous he even spoofed it with comedian Jack Benny.

(Excerpt from a spoof with Jack Benny)



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