New Jersey's race to replace the Torch

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(CNN) -- Doug Forrester, R-New Jersey, hopes he's the key the Republicans need to retake the Senate. A recent poll shows Forrester slightly behind his Democratic opponent, Frank Lautenberg, who is a former New Jersey senator. Lautenberg is running in place of Democratic Sen. Robert Torricelli, who dropped out of the race two weeks ago because of an ethics scandal over accusations he improperly accepted gifts.

Forrester joined "Crossfire" hosts Tucker Carlson and James Carville to talk about some major issues and his opponent Lautenberg.

CARLSON: Mr. Forrester, one of the reasons I hope you win is because I look forward to seeing more ads like this one, six years from now. This is one of the greatest ads of the season. This is yours. Here it is.

Begin video clip:

CHILD: If I fail this test, can I have Frank Lautenberg take it for me?

MALE: Torricelli and Lautenberg are teaching our children the wrong lessons.

CHILD: Oh! I'm losing. I quit. Let Frank Lautenberg play for me.

End video clip:

CARLSON: Now, I guess my first question is -- is Frank Lautenberg a good basketball player? And two, the implication is that former Sen. Lautenberg getting into the race, really is corrosive of the American political system. Do you think that's true?

FORRESTER: Well, I think his voting record is corrosive of the American political system, I will tell you that. One of the good things about running against Mr. Lautenberg is that his voting record is so bad. Obviously, I'm not happy with what happened because I happen to believe that once an election starts, we shouldn't be in a position of stopping it and canceling ballots out.

But I think we have a chance to remind New Jersey that Frank Lautenberg's record is so bad on defending the country in terms of defense expenditures and FBI expenditures. He voted to cut the intelligence budget. He voted to make the intelligence budget public. He voted seven times against the death penalty for terrorists. He is the guy who participated in putting the tax on Social Security benefits. I mean, these are the kinds of things that we just don't want to have.

CARLSON: Well, and I can see why. Good for you. But you just said that you wished that Senator Torricelli hadn't gotten out, but of course, you called on him to resign even before he did get out.

FORRESTER: Well...

CARLSON: Isn't that an inconsistent position?

FORRESTER: Well, we called on him to resign from the Senate. He has not done that. For him to stand for the judgment of the voters, I think would have been appropriate. But you know, we were winning, and what happened is that just because we were winning, the power brokers decided to swap him out for somebody else.

Now, Mr. Lautenberg is the seventh candidate that I have run against in the past nine months, and I'm confident that we will be successful in that engagement as well.

I assume that November 5 is the last day of the election. Who knows? We're going to be ahead on November 5 [in] the vote count and somebody's going to run, and say give democracy another chance. I'm going to be running against Barbra Streisand in December.

CARVILLE: You would not ask a potential Supreme Court nominee what his position on Roe v. Wade was, and you would vote to confirm that person, even if he would overturn it?

FORRESTER: I am pro-choice, but my determination with regard to Supreme Court justices, which has to be one of the most important decisions a senator would ever face, has to do with intellectual integrity, judicial temperament, and personal integrity. That's what we need to look at.

CARVILLE: Let me ask you one more thing. Do you support the plan of the Social Security commission to privatize 25 percent of Social Security?

FORRESTER: I do not, and one of the things that is most disturbing about this Torricelli-Lautenberg machine... is that Mr. Lautenberg has inherited Mr. Torricelli's campaign, including the attack ads against me. This is one of the points that have been made. I am not in favor of privatizing Social Security, never have been. That is just one of the distortions that [his] campaign has been about.

CARVILLE: What's your position on Social Security? What is your position on it?

FORRESTER: I am not in favor of privatizing Social Security. We need to pass the Social Security Guarantee Act. We need to make sure that Mr. Lautenberg's votes are not carried forward. You know, he voted to transfer $208 billion from the Social Security Trust Fund to pay for other federal projects. He is the one that put the tax on Social Security benefits. This is incredible. Every citizen � every senior in New Jersey has to pay $945 on average in Social Security taxes because of Mr. Lautenberg, and the people who voted with him. That's not what I call protecting the Social Security system.

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