Tammy Haddad spoke with satirist Christopher Buckley for the Sept. 12 edition of "National Journal On Air." This is a transcript of their conversation.

Q: From one bestselling author to another: Christopher Buckley, "Supreme Courtship." You are the man: on the front page, quotes about Sarah Palin, your book review. I don't know how you get those book reviews out of the New York Times.

Buckley: I pay them.

Q: Well, that's -- nicely paid. Nicely paid.

Buckley: And it's darned expensive, let me tell you. The cost of bribing a New York Times book reviewer has gone up.

Q: Oh, my goodness.

Buckley: Well, you know, they're desperate for revenue these days, they're down 14 percent.

Q: Are you sure it is because they're not so thrilled with you taking on the Supreme Court?

Buckley: No, no, no, no. It has nothing to do with that. It's a strict cash transaction.

Q: My favorite thing about your books is that you understand how important television is to pop culture.

Buckley: Well, the setup of this book is that a president is frustrated because his archenemy, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, keeps shooting down his Supreme Court nominees. So one night, he's channel-surfing -- looking for a bowling tournament -- and he sees this very attractive TV judge named Pepper Cartwright. She's got a -- she's very sexy -- she's got one of those TV court shows. So he thinks, hmm, OK, let's see him shoot this one down. So he nominates her to the Supreme Court. So, if I may, Tammy, the antagonists of this book -- which I handed in in January -- are, on the one hand, a cosmetically enhanced chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who has run for president multiple times and who can't shut up, versus a glasses-wearing, gun-toting TV hottie.

Q: So yet again you are ahead of the curve.

Buckley: Well, I'm just -- I'm going to take this opportunity to announce my retirement from satire.

[Laughter]

Buckley: But he is actually based on Joe Biden, whom I -- for whom I have a sort of a sneaker; I even love his bloopers. And he -- there's a wonderful story in the paper today about all his recent gaffes, he -- Joe Biden on the campaign trail. He apparently was on stage with a senator who is paralyzed, in a wheelchair, and he said to him: "C'mon, Carl, stand up so everyone can see you."

Q: Oh -- [laughs]

Buckley: He didn't realize that the poor -- but you know, there is something charming to it. He's just -- he's gaffe-prone. He's a gaffe-rich environment.

Q: I know he's been busy, but have you heard from him since the book's come out?

Buckley: No, I suspect he's otherwise occupied.

Q: Have you heard from Sarah Palin?

Buckley: I suspect she, too -- she's boning up on the Bush Doctrine.

Q: I was going to ask you -- that's the first question of every guest today. Can you explain the Bush Doctrine?

Buckley: Well, you know, honestly, I watched the interview last night, and when Charlie Gibson said, "Well, what about the Bush Doctrine?" I was reaching for the mayonnaise or something in the refrigerator, I was making dinner -- I had to stop myself. And I follow these things pretty closely -- mm, Bush Doctrine. Right, which one is that? We get to go to war? Is it that one? I thought -- you know, she, poor thing, she has been thrown into the deep end of the pool -- but I thought she did actually OK, although I do not share her enthusiasm for committing America to go to war over Georgia.

Q: That doesn't seem to be the reason to do it.

Buckley: No, no. I think maybe the Ukraine? OK. But Georgia? Mm, ixnay.

Q: But what can you say about a VP candidate, right now on Fox News the line, the chyron, says: "Palin went back to work three days after giving birth to fifth child." What does that do to the rest of America?

Buckley: Oh, do you mean does it, you mean --

Q: Intimidate?

Buckley: All those mothers who like to take three months off?

Q: Yes.

Buckley: Well -- uh --

Q: Or the ones like me, who wanted to take the rest of my life off.

Buckley: Well, you know, I -- you know, the "first dude," as he calls himself, Todd, is obviously a very capable guy. Any guy whose idea of fun is spending six days on a snowmobile traveling at 80 miles an hour, you know, can probably handle baby Trig. You know, baby Trig's name is said to be, isn't it, Norse for "brave spirit"?

Q: Right.

Buckley: I think in fact it's Norse for "annoys the media."

Q: Oh my god. Well when their young daughter licked her hand and pressed down his hair at the convention --

Buckley: Was that a Hallmark moment?

Q: Honest to God.

Buckley: You know, listen, Tammy, I write satire for a living. You know, I spend 10 hours in room, you know, trying to think stuff up -- I couldn't have come up with this. It's just -- it's beyond -- it's meta satire. She's out of central casting. Its like she's computer-generated.

Q: Well, as you know, among the board of the Miss America Pageant, and as you probably know, she was first runner-up in Miss Alaska.

Buckley: And she was Miss Congeniality, was she not?

Q: Of course she was -- which, by the way, went by the wayside for 10 or 15 years because no one wanted to know the friendly one. That's another -- that's another Miss America story. But there is something to all of this about presentation. I was out in Fairfax at the rally two days ago, John McCain standing next to her, he stood 10 feet tall next to her. She made him great. Doesn't this point out that women should have been chosen years before?

Buckley: Well, absolutely, Tammy. [Laughter] But we've come a long ways from Margaret Chase Smith. I thought Biden's comment a couple of days -- or two days ago about how [Barack] Obama should have -- this obviously shows that Obama should have picked Hillary [Rodham Clinton] -- was quite fascinating. It's one of the reasons I like Biden, because he just, you know, he speaks what's on his mind. But it is being interpreted as a gaffe, which is interesting to me. But had Obama -- well you can play the subjunctive game endlessly -- but had Obama picked Hillary, well, we would be having a different discussion, would we not? It's quite possible that -- well, who knows?

Q: If McCain wins, and you had the choice to go back into the White House, you were a speechwriter for a while --

Buckley: I want to work for her. [Laughs]

Q: I was going to say, that was my question.

Buckley: I want to carry her garment bag.

[Laughter]

Buckley: Don't they call it the body keeper?

Q: That's it -- it's the body man.

Buckley: It's the person who -- Obama's is a guy named Reggie Love -- he, you know, he arranges the meals, he carries the garment bag. I want to be the body handler.

Q: And who do you think's going to win the election?

Buckley: Oh gosh, um, I don't know. I think an electoral -- you know, we're all fascinated with Sarah Palin right now, but I think the electoral math is tough for McCain. What does -- you know about Intrade, the Internet futures market, where you can buy contracts on political candidates as to where, as to who is going to win; that's the reliable predictor of these things, apparently, even more statistically than polls, and I think Intrade has Obama quite considerably ahead. So --

Q: So we have to believe the Internet. Now you sound like Steve Schmidt of the McCain campaign: "It's all about the Internet."

Buckley: Well you want to be, and again, you want to be the underdog, you know.

Q: Oh, so that's why Sarah's ahead? See, I call her Sarah. I keep asking --

Buckley: So you see, it's working. You know, you are already on a first-name basis with her.

Q: Well, also the fact that my children know her name, and know Joe Biden's name.

Buckley: Well, look at it this way. How many names -- how many people do you suppose could name the children of previous vice presidential candidates? I think I could probably name all of Sarah's children [laughs].

Q: That's right.

Buckley: I bet most of America could, too.

Q: Instead of having --

Buckley: So this shows, you know, the absolute fascination. McCain has done a very shrewd thing. You know, it's certainly -- you could argue that it was cynical, but he changed the conversation. You know, every time I turn on the TV, it seems -- or listen to, of course, you, my favorite radio station -- I hear Obama sort of making comments about her, as if he's running against her. Meanwhile, you know, McCain is sort of riding high.

Q: He sure is.

Buckley: But you know, things will -- things will change.

Q: Well, we can only hope so, and we can only hope you'll come back. Christopher Buckley -- we don't even need to talk about the book because you know it's going to be a bestseller. "Supreme Courtship," where he actually predicted, he actually made these characters -- Pepper Cartwright, right? What is the Biden's character's name?

Buckley: Dexter Mitchell.

Q: And Dexter Mitchell. Right there. We've got--

Buckley: There you go, you heard it here first.

Q: That's exactly right. I love the Pepper Cartwright, though. I love all people named Pepper. Although I like Piper now.

Buckley: Well you were in my -- I put you in my most bestselling novel.

Q: I know, Thank You for Smoking.

Buckley: You're a character in Thank You For Smoking.

Q: Which Jon Meacham tells everyone: "Christopher Buckley used her. You can't even make her up."

[Laughter]

Q: Thank you, Chris Buckley.