Hannity and Ted Kennedy in Radio Showdown

A day after he publicly called President Bush a liar, Sen. Ted Kennedy got an in-person dressing-down from an unlikely source – none other than conservative talk radio host Sean Hannity, who told the top Democrat that he'd taken Washington rhetoric "to a new low."

The unexpected fireworks took place while Hannity was on location broadcasting before a live audience in Dallas. During a previously scheduled interview with Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who was speaking from the Senate cloakroom, the conservative talker asked, "Just between us, you don't see Ted Kennedy back there, do you?"

When Hutchison answered yes, Hannity pledged $1,000 to her favorite charity if she could get the Massachusetts Democrat to come on the line. After she was assured he was serious, Hutchison answered, "Hold on, I'll see if he'll do it."

A few minutes later Kennedy's booming voice materialized on the line. The exchange went like this:

KENNEDY: Sean, Ted Kennedy. Listen, when are you going to have me on your program? You have all these other people - I'm trying to get on that program and talk with you people.

HANNITY: Hey, Senator. Senator ...

KENNEDY: I want to have some fun. I want to answer some of these questions you got for us. I don't want any of these softballs that you give to all these other conservatives.

HANNITY: Oh yeah, right. Hey, Senator, I'll give $1,000 to your favorite charity if you'll come on my show for an hour one day. Do you accept it?

KENNEDY: Oh, that sounds like fun. We'll try to sort of do it but I'm [crosstalk] on that thing.

HANNITY: Oh, whoa, whoa - I'll give you $2,000 for an hour on the radio show.

KENNEDY: It's going up - I've got a $2,000 offer here. Well, listen, it was nice talking to you.

HANNITY: Well, Senator, can I - can I - wait, wait, wait, wait - I gotta ask you a question. Senator, you really tore into George W. Bush and called him a liar yesterday. And I'm going to be honest. I'm trying to be as gracious as I can be here, because I'm in Texas and that's the way people in Texas - Senator, that was beyond the pale. Senator ... [Crowd cheers]

KENNEDY: There you go. What I've taken issue with is the false assumption on which our policy towards Iraq has been developed. As you remember, we were told we were going to find nuclear weapons. We haven't. We were told that there were going to be the weapons of mass destruction. There haven't been. We were told that al-Qaeda was down in there. [Crowd boos]

KENNEDY: Well, they may not want to hear it but they haven't found it.

HANNITY: Senator, Senator, you called the president a liar.

KENNEDY: Now you listen to me, Sean. You may have it with other places but you don't interrupt me when I'm talking.

HANNITY: Oh, no, I couldn't do that.

KENNEDY: They said that we were going to have - be able to rebuild all of Iraq without having all of this money ... we're just voting $21 billion now of your taxpayers' money and just three months ago the administration said it was going to be all done and ...

HANNITY: That wasn't my question. Senator, you called the President of the United States of America a liar and I could never find one instance where you called Bill Clinton a liar. Why are you taking the rhetoric of debate in Washington to a new low?

KENNEDY: [Handing off the phone to Sen. Hutchison] ... I look forward to it and here she is now. [End of excerpt]

Moments later Hannity offered the Texas Republican $5,000 for her favorite charity if she could get Sen. Hillary Clinton to come to the phone.

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