’m still a sucker for Clinton. I was late joining his appearance on Larry King last night – and thereby missed the most important questions about Iraq and North Korea – but in case you missed all of it, here are some of the former president’s takes on the state of the union.

On tax cuts:
I don’t think you and I should be getting a tax cut, Larry. They can put more police on the street. If they have money left over, they can send kids to college

On today’s alert about Americans worldwide:
To be fair to our government, they’re in a pickle. If they don’t give their alerts, and something happens, they’ll always wonder if there’s something they can do.

King: What do you do with despots everywhere when you’re the only superpower?
Clinton: First of all, you can’t unseat them all. You have to have some authority in the UN. The biggest security threats we face are not necessarily from other governments but from terrorist cells. We need to be aggressive but we need to build international support. If we need to slow down, we need to slow down.

King: Should we [continue going] into space?
Clinton: I believe so. I gave the approval for the Israeli astronaut to go. I fought for the space program when I was president. I believe in it, I think we learn a lot from it. A lot of what we know about the earth’s environment we learn from space flight.
King: And robots won’t do that?
Clinton: Well, robots will do that, but … Space and the deepest depth of the oceans are our last frontiers, and I still believe in it.

King: Why won’t the tax cuts work?
Clinton: They’re spread out over too long a period to do a lot of good now, and they’re too heavily weighted to people who don’t need them, like me. I think the top rate on the last year’s tax cut should be frozen, this whole thing oughta be reworked. There oughta be a tax cut to middle-income people … It’s bad economics. I don’t think you can justify it. Everybody else is asked to sacrfice something for this war on terrorism, why not us?

King: Were you surprised about Al Gore not running?
Clinton: I was. A little. He’s the finest vice president this country has ever had. I wish him well, and I understand his reasons. He’s still a young man, his service is not over, his political career may not be over.

King: You’re still not going to host a talk show?
Clinton: No, I don’t think I should host a talk show. I’m not as good as you.

King: Do you fear another terrorist attack?
Clinton: I think it could happen, and I think we’re doing the best we can to deal with it, that’s why I think Hillary was right in fighting for more homeland security. Yes it could happen but we can’t be paralyzed by it. We must move on.

King: What are you doing with the Rolling Stones? [Clinton introduced the band at a recent concert]
Clinton: The Stones don’t ever do this. They’re doing this concert for free to highlight global warming. So they actually asked if I would come introduce them to make sure everyone would know they were serious. Global warning is real. We’ve got to get this up on the radar.

On his work with Tom Joyner, a popular black radio host with whom he collaborated with on ‘Eight Steps to Help Black Families Pay for College’:
We’re worried about the number of black kids going to college and finishing college. This is designed to make sure every african-american knows they can go to college and finish college and I think it’s very very important. A lot of people don’t think they can go to college. If this wroks, we’re gonna do it for Hispanic kids to. It’s absolutely critical for our economy and for their future.

King: Were you alarmed at Trent Lott’s remarks?
Clinton: I happened to be watching Strom Thurmond’s birthday when this happened. And when Trent said that I said, ‘Oh my God.’ 90% of that was enthusiasm, he was trying to say something nice about Strom Thurmond. What bothered me was I thought the way the Republicans treated him was bad. I thought he was made a scapegoat. [talks about other republicans catering to KKK members and other obvious racists.] Trent Lott made a boo-boo. They made him a scapegoat so that other people in the republican party weren’t doing that but I’m more interested in the policy. I don’t agree with what he said. But the r didn’t axed him for that, they axed him because he embarrassed them and threatened to undermine their policy and I don’t like their policy.

King: What is it like for you to finally have money?
Clinton: I’m glad cause I have a senator to support. We have a nice place to live in Washington. I’m grateful to live this life, but I wouldn’t be able to live this life if I didn’t live in America. There’s not a living soul who has benefitted more from the American Dream than me. I think I should pay my fair share.