From "Hardball". Showing how Kerry mutates his policies depending on who's listening. The ANWR bit is particularly amusing. I think "Hartkey Burke" probably was meant to be "Hawley-Smoot," the tariff act that dragged the Great Depression down even further, but I'm just guessing.

It's a little tough to follow, because as you know if you watch "Hardball," Matthews just will not shut the fuck up. But here it is:

MATTHEWS: OK, thank you, Keith Olbermann.

James Hoffa is obviously—as everybody knows, he‘s president of the Teamsters Union.

Mr. Hoffa, labor seems to be going gaga over John Kerry. What has changed in the last couple of months to make you guys like that guy?

JAMES HOFFA, PRESIDENT, TEAMSTERS UNION: Well, I think it‘s George Bush has made everybody come together around one candidate.

And, basically, we are all endorsing John Kerry because he is most electable and he has got a 92 percent rating on labor issues. He‘s coming around on trade. I think this is the candidate that can really win the race. And I think all the different groups, whether it‘s labor, civil rights, environmentalists, everybody is coming together because the main goal is to beat George Bush in the fall.

MATTHEWS: Remember the great scene in the movie “The Candidate,” with this good-looking California candidate, sort of a John Tunney-like, he meets with this tough, tough labor leader. And the labor leader says, we got a lot in common, and the candidate says, we ain‘t got nothing in common.

Do you have anything really in common with John Kerry, really?

HOFFA: Well, we sat with him. I interviewed him. I‘ve spent some time with him.

We are talking about jobs. We‘re talking about nine million people unemployed. We are talking about three million manufacturing jobs disappearing. He has got a plan to put America back to work.

MATTHEWS: Yes. But isn‘t he the same guy...

HOFFA: He‘s got a lot of plans.

MATTHEWS: Bill Clinton was for NAFTA. He was for NAFTA. George W. Bush is for NAFTA. His father was pushing it from the beginning. The Bushes basically are the godfather of NAFTA. And Bill Clinton and John Kerry signed aboard as consiglieres in that. How can you say that he is your guy if he on the other side of the main issue?

HOFFA: Because that‘s one of the key issues I asked him. I said, how can we vote for you after you voted for NAFTA and these other agreements?

MATTHEWS: And he said?

HOFFA: And he basically says, look, times have changed. When we voted for that, we thought it would work. He believes that it worked throughout the Clinton era. And now things have changed.

Now you‘ve got a hemorrhaging of jobs.

MATTHEWS: Right.

HOFFA: And now you have the second generation of jobs, the computer programmers, the software jobs, you know, going to India. So this thing has changed completely.

And he realizes something is wrong and he says he is going to form a committee. And I am going to be on the committee. In the first 120 days, we are going to review NAFTA, China and all the different deals.

MATTHEWS: How about ANWR? You guys want to see ANWR because you want to see guys working in your business. I guess there‘s a lot of Teamsters jobs up there lined up and organized, if you could put a pipeline up to the Alaska wilderness. He is against that.

HOFFA: Well, we talked about that.

He says, look, I am against ANWR, but I am going to put that pipeline in and we‘re going to drill like never before.

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: What, are they going to run water through it?

(CROSSTALK)

HOFFA: ... more jobs than the ANWR would have ever created.

MATTHEWS: What are they going to run through the pipeline?

HOFFA: And that‘s the position he‘s taking.

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: But he is against drilling up there. What are they going to run through the pipeline?

HOFFA: Well, they are going to drill all over, according to him. And he says, we‘re going to be drilling all over the United States. And he says that is going to create more jobs.

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

MATTHEWS: You got that guy rolling.

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: What position was he in when he made all these promises?

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

MATTHEWS: It just seems amazing that he has turned around on NAFTA, turned around on WTO, turned around on ANWR, anything to get the Teamsters.

HOFFA: Oh.

MATTHEWS: Who is going to be boss if he gets in there, you or him?

HOFFA: Well, I think that

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: It sounds like you are the boss.

HOFFA: He talked in front of the entire Economic Alliance about trade and about things that have gone wrong, about all the displacement.

MATTHEWS: Yes.

HOFFA: You can‘t campaign around this country and not feel the pain out there of all the people that have lost their jobs.

MATTHEWS: OK.

HOFFA: There‘s millions of them.

MATTHEWS: OK, let me ask you about something in America today.

HOFFA: And he‘s feeling that right now.

(CROSSTALK)

HOFFA: And I think that‘s why he‘s changing.

MATTHEWS: Mr. President, everybody knows the tradeoff here. You go into a modern American department store, whether it‘s Wal-Marts out in the country or it‘s any one of the stores in the big cities. You can walk in there and pick out anything you want.

The pants have—the trousers for men have cuffs already on them, get any size you want. You got full-body size, the skinnier size, the European cut. You get all those options because we have free trade in the world. You‘ve got stuff from Nautica. You‘ve got Hilfiger. You‘ve got everything in the world in those stores. The minute we shut down those trade walls, shut them down, we‘ll get nothing but the stuff, the old American products that are basically limited to one or two companies, lots of Dacron. You‘re not going to get all these options, are you?

(CROSSTALK)

HOFFA: You‘ve got that all wrong, Chris. You‘re all wrong?

MATTHEWS: Oh, yes?

HOFFA: Let me tell you something. We can do all that here in this country.

MATTHEWS: Why aren‘t we doing it?

(CROSSTALK)

HOFFA: We can have all this thing.

Let me tell you something. Right now, we‘re—the people that have lost their job, they don‘t have any money to go shopping. Let‘s get people back to work in this country. And I think you‘ve got something there.

MATTHEWS: But check your own pants. They are from China. All pants are from China now, aren‘t they? Isn‘t everything we wear from China or India or somewhere like that?

HOFFA: I don‘t think so.

I think—I think—you know, the reason why we have John Edwards.

He is talking about jobs. We have John Kerry talking about jobs.

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: Well, where were they when they were voting? Every one of these guys was off base for you guys. Now they‘re kowtowing to you guys.

(CROSSTALK)

HOFFA: Chris, listen to me.

You just said that the polling in Wisconsin said that jobs in America was the No. 1 issue.

MATTHEWS: No. 1.

(CROSSTALK)

HOFFA: Remember what the polls said. And that‘s what‘s going on.

People are concerned about jobs. You got to make things in this country. And that‘s what this campaign is going to come down to. In the fall, that‘s the major issue. Listen to the people.

MATTHEWS: Do you think that the candidates of the Democratic Party, whether it be Edwards or be Kerry, are they willing to sign up for basically the old Hartkey Burke (ph) approach, the old close down trade, raise prices and taxes on all imports, because, basically, when you talk about cutting down trade, you are talking about taxing imports. That raises the cost of consumer goods.

HOFFA: Well...

MATTHEWS: Are you willing to campaign on the issue you‘re going to raise the price of consumer goods?

HOFFA: Chris, you are going from one extreme to another.

What we are talking about is having fair trade.

MATTHEWS: Yes.

HOFFA: We are not talking about the kind of trade we have now, that it‘s lopsided with China and India.

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: How do you have fair trade with China?

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: Give an example. In China, they make 3 cents a year.

(CROSSTALK)

HOFFA: People will have an incentive to build and have good factories and keep factories in the United States. And you can do that through the tax code.

MATTHEWS: Right.

HOFFA: They are talking about changing the tax code. This is what John Kerry is talking about. Put an incentive for Americans to keep the factories open in the United States. And that‘s what‘s going to change this thing and keep jobs in America.

MATTHEWS: Is it fair to say that you have pulled Kerry into the boat?

HOFFA: Well, I don‘t know if I pulled anybody in the boat. But we certainly talked about it. And I made sure that he knew this is an important issue. And he is going to respond to make sure that Americans have jobs. He has got a plan for the future. And he is the guy that is going to beat George Bush.

MATTHEWS: How do you—how do you enforce the deal? How do you know, if he gets in office, he won‘t become a free trader, like he has been his whole career?

HOFFA: Well, you know, you have to trust people.

And, basically, the people that are talking to him, all of labor, other people who are talking—we have Dick Gephardt talking to him.

MATTHEWS: Yes.

HOFFA: We have a number of people saying, this is the way we have got to go to rebuild America. I take him at his word.

Somewhere along the line, there has to be act of faith.

MATTHEWS: Yes.

HOFFA: To say that I believe things have gone wrong in this country.

Millions of jobs are going overseas. You can‘t shut down America.

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: What happened to your deal you had with Bush?

HOFFA: You just can‘t have that.

MATTHEWS: Just talk about deals here. You got a deal with Kerry now. But what about the deal with Bush? You gave—he gave you guys ANWR, tons of potential Teamsters jobs. I thought the deal from your end was, you were going to back Bush.

HOFFA: Well, that didn‘t work out.

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: It didn‘t work out from your end.

HOFFA: Chris, let me tell you something about the Bush administration. I always say that they left me. You know, I didn‘t leave them. They just veered to the left and then to the right when they started talking about taking away people‘s overtime, exporting Americans‘ jobs.

MATTHEWS: Yes.

HOFFA: Getting rid of job safety. They went completely overboard after 9/11. And they have just completely veered to the right. And that‘s why we can‘t back them anymore.

MATTHEWS: But didn‘t you know, when you cut your deal with Bush, that he was sticking with NAFTA and the WTO and that whole free trade approach?

HOFFA: Well, you know, when he came in, if you remember, he was going to be the compassionate conservative. He has divided this city unbelievably, divided the whole country.

MATTHEWS: Yes.

HOFFA: And it‘s unbelievable what‘s he done.

What he said during the campaign, we have a different guy right now that rewards the rich and the big corporations and Halliburton...

MATTHEWS: Yes.

HOFFA: ... and doesn‘t give a damn about anybody else in this country. That‘s what‘s going on. And that‘s why everybody is getting together behind Kerry to go against Bush in the fall.

MATTHEWS: Did you say you were going to kick his ass today? Is that what you said?

HOFFA: No, I didn‘t say anything like that.

(LAUGHTER)

MATTHEWS: Well, why did I read it in the paper? You said it exactly like that. You don‘t like that lingo. Anyway, I wouldn‘t accuse you of using bad language anyway.

Thank you very much, Mr. President, James Hoffa of the Teamsters Union.