Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in New York this last weekend for his whirlwind tour. He was at Columbia University Monday.

This is a state sponsor of terrorism, a man who has sworn the destruction of the United States and Israel a number of times, and the people at Columbia think they are opening themselves up to ideas, and, “We must listen to what these people think. We must listen to their ideas for us.” These are basically liberals who hate this country or find great deficiencies in this country, and they embrace totalitarian dictators and our enemies as though they have all the answers. Of course, this president of Columbia is nothing more than a dupe.

You know, they talk about free speech. Remember what happened to the Minutemen, the anti-illegal immigration group? They got booed off the stage by the students, and nobody did anything about it. They’re not interested in ideas there. They hate George W. Bush.

“They’re really worried that the whole world hates us. They’re so scared that we’ve lost our reputation in the world,that they hope by opening their arms to this thug Ahmadinejad that he will end up liking us more and pose less of a threat.” I know how these people think. Now, Ahmadinejad was on 60 Minutes Sunday, Pelley flew over to Tehran last Thursday to interview him.

The first question: “President Bush has pledged that you will not be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon and will use military force if necessary.”

AHMADINEJAD (via translator): I think Mr. Bush, if he wants his party to win the next elections, there are cheaper ways…and ways to go about this. I can very well give him a few ideas so that the people vote for him. He should respect the American people. They should not bug the telephone conversations of their citizens. They should not kill their sons and daughters of the American nation. They should not squander the taxpayers’ money and give them to weapons companies. If — and also help the people, the victims of Katrina. People will vote for them, if they do these things.

He’s by basically reciting the Democrat Party platform! This guy could keynote the 2008 Democrat National Convention after he finishes at Columbia. He’s reciting the Democrat Party platform? Katrina? He was actually praising, the ’06 election results. He said he was encouraged! Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was encouraged by the ’06 election results.

PELLEY: “When I ask you a question as direct as ‘Will you pledge not to test a nuclear weapon?’ you act…you dance all around the question. You never say ‘yes,’ you never say ‘no.'”

AHMADINEJAD (via translator): Well, thank you for that. You are like a CIA investigator and —

PELLEY: I’m just a reporter!

AHMADINEJAD (via translator): (giggling)

PELLEY: I am a simple, average American reporter.

AHMADINEJAD (via translator): This is not Guantanamo Bay. This is not a Baghdad prison. This is not a secret prison in Europe. This is not Abu Ghraib. This is Iran! I am the president of this country!

He is regurgitating Democrat Party talking points — not “liberal” talking points. He is reciting what he has heard said on the floor of the United States Senate by people like Dick Durbin, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, and people like Harry Reid — and over in the House, Nancy Pelosi. If I were an elected official of this country and somebody like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a state sponsor of terror, starts mimicking and reciting my talking points — personally, I get mad and embarrassed. I don’t know that the Democrats have that ability to be embarrassed by this. I sit here and marvel at the similarity.

Forget the Democrats. What about the American people who saw this, who pay attention? Did they not recognize that one of our sworn enemies is reciting Democrat Party talking points in an effort to try to sway the American people? He’s basically, Ahmadinejad is, saying to these people in the audience, “Hey, I’m no different than your average Democrat, and we’re very encouraged by the election results in ’06.”

This ought to be shameful. This should be embarrassing these people all to hell, but I guarantee you it’s not. It’s making them proud, probably making them happy. Because the focal point of all this is they hate Bush, and anybody else who hates Bush is on the same page.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

The liberals refute it with, “He’s got a right. What about the right to free speech?” There’s no obligation for Columbia to invite him to speak.

Nobody is under any obligation to invite him to speak, and nobody — including Ahmadinejad, nobody — in this country has the right to be heard. Everybody confuses the right to free speech with the right to be heard. There’s no such thing. You have to earn the right to be heard. This guy doesn’t have the right to be heard by anybody.

He’s been invited to the United Nations. That’s a different thing, but it’s going to be the same diatribe.

Of course, the liberals are out there saying, “Well, we’re going to ask him the tough questions.”

Really?

They say…”I’m helping to preserve and provoke this continued partisan divide in this country, because all you do is talk about liberals.” “You know what? We’ve gotta get rid of the partisanship. There’s too much of this blue and red divide out there. We’ve gotta start bringing people together.”

Get along with them? Anybody heard of the new tone? Who among you thinks we can get along with them? I mean, you can get along with them civilly, one on one in a lot of places, but when you boil it all down, we’ve always had these arguments about what’s best for the country, what we need to preserve about the country, how best to do that — and those arguments are never going to go away unless one side cedes. Now, I am fully willing to talk to people on the left to try to persuade ’em. But the idea that I somehow should tone it down or stop focusing on and reminding people about liberals so much is intriguing to me, because that, to me, is a recipe for our defeat.

They want to control as much of your individual life as they can. What do you think that’s about, getting along with you? They have contempt for the average American. You’re not smart enough to do anything on your own, and when you exhibit the ability to be smart enough to do anything on your own, you genuinely don’t vote for them, and that’s a threat, so they gotta stop that somehow!

George W. Bush has reached out more times than anybody I can think of, and what has it gotten him? Pure, unadulterated hatred.

Is it a coincidence, for example, that they both recite the Democrat Party platform? Is it a coincidence that they recite the Democrat Party talking points from both the floor of the House of Representatives, the floor of the US Senate, and many of the major American newspaper editorials? Is it a coincidence that you can’t tell the difference between Ahmadinejad, Bin Laden, al-Zawahiri, Dick Durbin, John Kerry, Harry Reid, take your pick, Nancy Pelosi, John Murtha? Is it any coincidence that both Ahmadinejad and Bin Laden talk about Abu Ghraib and Hurricane Katrina and Club Gitmo, and they both cite the election results in ’06 and say that they were encouraged? Is it a coincidence? It cannot be, ladies and gentlemen. It cannot be a coincidence. Why, then, do both Bin Laden and Ahmadinejad obsess on this country’s political systems and send messages in their speeches for America to follow the course of Democrats?

I’m getting tired of the president of Columbia University, Lee Bollinger and all these other people involved in this patting themselves on the back, talking about how brave they are, how courageous they are to extend this controversial invitation to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Mr. Bollinger and all of you new castrati at Columbia University, and at Harvard, and at Yale, wherever you are found in academe, let me tell you the truth. It doesn’t really take much courage to speak in this country. You know where it does take a lot of courage to speak, Mr. Bollinger?

Iran.