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Biden, McCain, Graham, Levin, and Hagel.

By Mark Kilmer Posted in Special Features — Comments (15) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Sunday, January 21, 2007

On MTP, John McCain held forth that our policy in Iraq has been a failure – as detailed by Tom Ricks – but they we had a chance to get it right this time. He is not certain that the 20,000 troops are enough, so he has an out if this fails.

On FNS, Carl Levin said that there was a Democratic Tide in America because the American people are looking for a Democratic alternative to Bush's policy; now, he said, the Democrats had to figure out what that alternative is. Joe Biden took credit for starting the Civil War meme and admitted that he has drafted a resolution declaring the initial use of force resolution "null and void" because Saddam is gone and we are in a civil war.

On TW, Sam Brownback said he's running and his largest obstacle is name recognition. Bill Richardson said that he is running but not as an Hispanic.

On FTN, Chuck Hagel had calmed down. He is insisting that he and Olympia Snowe are pushing their resolution in order to start a national dialogue about Iraq.

On LE, Pat Leahy ranted about Vietnam and getting OBL, two tones for easy public consumption. Lindsey Graham rejected the Vietnam analogy and Leahy's threats to use the "power of the purse" – defunding the troops – to end this war as a past Congress ended Vietnam. In defeat.

Read More for the show-by-show review.

MCCAIN ON MTP. It is Tim Russert's job to be something of a cuss, and he even tries it with John McCain. The Arizona Senator, who would not say when he would announce his Presidential intentions, was Russert's first guest. John McCain expressed concern that the 20,000 troop addition would not be enough. He'd like more, but he pointed out that he trusts General Petraeus. He just wants more, and he wants to get them there quickly rather than in the "piecemeal" manner suggested by "some in Congress." (The "not enough troops" bit gives him an easy out should this prove not to be successful.)

Russert told McCain that he learned from Vietnam that you can't win a war which the public does not support, and polls show the public opposes the surge in troops. "Why not listen to the American people?" McCain explained that the American people are "frustrated, angry, fed up." He said they need to see progress in Iraq.

Russert asked McCain about General George Casey's nomination to be Army chief of staff. McCain has "very serious concerned" because of Casey's failed Iraq policy, and he is now leaning toward a "no" vote on that.

Russert asked if Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki would be an ally in the war on terror, based on his historic statements defending Moqtada al Sadr, etc. McCain explained that "sometimes in politics, people make statements for local consumption."

Russert asked McCain why he had called Iraq a "train wreck." McCain said that it was because it had been well-documented by Tom Ricks in his novel Fiasco.

Russert asked McCain about the Democrats applying the term "McCain Doctrine" to the surge in troops proposed by the President. McCain said that he knows that the "McCain Principle" says that when you vote to put our troops in harms way, you vote for them to win. He added a little snark: "Not everyone gets a doctrine named after them."

Russert asked McCain about the MoveOn.org commercial blasting him. He played the commercial, and McCain quipped: "I like the shot with the sunglasses." He noted that MoveOn.org was a 527 organization and he had taken steps to quiet such groups.

Russert first mentioned Hillary's candidacy 15-minutes into his talk with McCain in making the point that she wants to cut off funding for the surge. McCain said that they cannot Constitutionally do that and to try would be a vote of "No Confidence" in the troops. He added that accusing the President of hurriedly deploying troops for political reasons, as Nancy Pelosi has done, is "beneath the level of acceptable behavior" for Congress.

Russert asked McCain what he would do if we were still failing in six months. McCain said that there has been so much failure that we cannot "retrieve the situation" in a few months.

Russert asked McCain if the Bush Administration, rather than trying "Cut and Run," was ready to use "Cut and Blame" when they failed to secure Iraq, blaming Maliki for his own failure. McCain sighed that if we fail, "there will be plenty of blame to go around," including to himself.

Russert tried to tweak McCain into attacking James Dobson, who has said he will never support McCain. McCain said that he would not "reach out to Dr. Dobson," but he'd talk to him if he wanted to do so, just as he would to any other leader..

McCain said, "I'm a conservative Republican."

Russert pulled out a new Newsweek which shows Hillary beating him in a hypothetical match up: 48 to 47. He quoted McCain as saying that she would be a "good President." McCain said that he meant that she "would make a very serious President," but that she would try to implement policy with which he disagrees.

TED KENNEDY ON MTP. Russert's next guest on the NBC show was Ted Kennedy, and there was a modicum of antagonism in this interview, as well. But Teddy was allowed to drone aloud. Moe Lane speculated that Teddy was talking that way because he need not worry that his plans will be implemented. Teddy knows that the President is going to do what he thinks is right regardless of his complaints.

Russert confronted Teddy with McCain's assertion that his resolution was a vote of No Confidence in our troops. McCain prattled about how he respects John McCain – great war hero, [fill in banal platitudes], etc. – but it is not being "loyal to our troops" to deploy then "in the middle of a civil war." The American people did not authorize, Teddy averred, putting troops into the "middle of a civil war." We've had four surges already, Teddy said, and none have been successful. He said that if this were a baseball game, we'd be out.

Russert confronted Teddy with the Nancy Quote -- "The– The President knows that because the troops are in harms way that we won't cut off the resources that's why he's moving so quickly to put them in harm's way." – and Ted explained that the President has had two months to decide to send more troops; Congress "should have two weeks."

Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) said that if the President continued to "defy the people, defy the generals, and defy Congress… we have a Constitutional duty" to defund the troops. He then explained that the withdrawal would be "orderly" and that the troops would be given the body armor they need to withdraw, something the President has refused to give them.

Russert said that the Maliki government seems to be asking for one last chance. Teddy said that their best last chance is for the United States to "deescalate." Anger entered his voice; it was quavering when he shouted that the "President has been wrong!"

Ted re-explained his position. He's for "orderly redeployment" and training the Iraqis. Russert played a John Negroponte quote from Congressional testimony in which the former Intelligence chief said that Iraq would slip into chaos if we left. Ted reiterated that this was a civil war, and the withdrawal would be orderly. It would take a year, he said.

BIDEN AND LEVIN ON FNS. FOX News Sunday host Chris Wallace talked to "the Senate's two leaders on national security": Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joe Biden and Armed Services Committee Chair Carl Levin. Wallace began by asking Biden about Hillary's candidacy: Does she blow everyone out of the water? Biden said she's the frontrunner, "but this is a marathon. We've a long way to go." Wallace asked him if the nomination were Hillary's to lose. Biden answered: "I don't think so." He refused to elaborate. He said Hillary has to "make her best case," which is not necessarily better than his best case "or Barack's best case."

Wallace asked Levin about the proposition that Hillary could win the nomination but could not win the election because of her "baggage." Levin responded that there were a lot of candidates who could win the election, and he spoke of a "Democratic tide." He said that six years of Bush have made people look for "Democratic alternatives," and now the Democrats merely had to show the American people "what those alternatives are." (What are they, anyway?)

He asked Levin about the "scramble to pass a resolution" in the Senate, but mentioned the "good news" out of Iraq: Sadr's lieutenants busted, the constitutional amendment on oil revenue sharing, etc. Is Levin writing off a policy which could succeed? Levin said that the policy has been a failure since the beginning and the only way to tend it was a political solution. He blamed the violence on the "political leaders of Iraq." Even Maliki acknowledged this, he said.

Wallace asked them about the Cheney line from last week, that the Dem resolutions would send "precisely the wrong message" to the enemy, what bin Laden has been preaching, that Americans don't have the will to fight. Biden argued that no and that everyone thinks "the Vice President has always been wrong." The veep should be dismissed out of hand, and "bin Laden isn't the issue here." (On CNN's Late Edition, though, Pat Leahy said that bin Laden is the issue and must be captured to end the war on terror.) The issue, Biden said, is that there is a civil war. He said that he was the first to identify it as such.

Wallace asked Levin about the criticizing them for not going far enough, for saying that a resolution was meaningless and they must defund the troops. He cited Chris Dodd and the proposed arbitrary cap on the number of troops in Iraq. Levin said that the resolution will be a "powerful message." He said that it will be bipartisan because Hagel and Snowe like it. He said that if the resolution is defeated, the President will use it as a sign of support for his policy.

Wallace asked Biden if he would try to come up with some compromise between the five or six resolutions floating out there, so as not to send a muddled message. Biden said the message will not be muddled, and he opposes troop capping because it "represents the status quo."

Biden wants to render the initial resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq, "null and void," as Saddam is gone and we're in a civil war.

Wallace asked Levin about Jay Rockefeller's insistence that the President wants to invade Iraq. Levin said that the President only wants to keep the option on the table, but that some of his recent rhetoric has been extreme. Levin wants to retreat in history to Teddy Roosevelt's strategy of "speaking softy and carrying a big stick."

NEWT ON FNS. Wallace next guest was Newt Gingrich. Wallace reminded Newton that he had complained that the President's plan had gone only half way to what was needed in Iraq and had only a twenty-percent chance of succeeding. He seems to be agreeing with Biden and Levin. Newt responded that Biden and Levin have to ask themselves how important winning in Iraq is, what with Iran and Syria. Newton said that what we have to do is "dig in" and come up with a "serious plan" for what to do. Newton added that 80% of his serious plan had nothing to do with troops. He said that problem is the "failure of the American bureaucracy to function."

Various executive agencies and departments have not been reformed, he said, and this is why we are losing in Iraq. Between 50 and 70 percent of our youth are unemployed, he said, and this is because our government is more incompetent than the Iraqi government.

Newton said the President needs a deputy chief of staff to brief him every day on what the military chiefs (Fallon, Petraeus) will need. "The President should be issuing orders."

Newton wants to fix the inter-agency problem.

Wallace wanted to ask him about the war. Newt said that yes, "absolutely" the Democrats have a point about the war, but they're bad at explaining it. Newt said we had to restructure the American system and Iraq is only a piece of the larger war.

Newton complained that no one listens to him.

But he doesn't know what to do in Iraq.

Newt praised the way Rahm Emmanuel and Nancy Pelosi "put together the '06 campaign." They've been effective but "typically Democrat." Starting out with a tax increase, he mentioned, and next week's "strange idea" of "empowering American Samoa and Guam and the Virgin Islands to equal Alaska, Montana, and Wyoming in voting in the Committee of the Whole." He thinks that will "backfire a little on them."

Newt thinks the GOP had better plan to be competing against a first rate opponent in Nancy Pelosi who won't hand them anything. With Hillary's entry into the Presidential field, he credits Barack Obama with forcing her hand "by weeks." He said that Obama "has gained ground so rapidly that she's sorta had to remind her friends that she's still around." He doesn't care what anyone thinks, Bill and Hillary are the best political couple in America. He's the smart one, she is disciplined and hard working, he said. And Newt, who seems to have discovered baseless odds, proclaims that Hillary has "better than a six out of ten chance of being the Democratic nominee."

Wallace asked him if by delaying his Presidential decision 'til September, Newton isn't admitting that Giuliani, McCain, and Mitt have to stumble before he can emerge as an alternative. He said that if one of them walks away with the nomination, he doesn't have to run, and he's happy with his initiative about American Solutions. He said he will run for President only if that will help his American Solutions initiative, but if he can help it more by staying out of the race, he will do that.

SAM BROWNBACK ON THIS WEEK. On ABC's This Week, host George Stephanopoulos asked Kansas Republican Senator Sam Brownback, of course, about abortion. Brownback explained that the issue should be approached positively, stressing individual lives. He told Steph that a Constitutional Amendment was not now the best way to address the abortion situation; rather, he wants to appoint more strict constructionists to the Court who would send the matter back to the States for their decisions.

Steph pointed out that Mitt Romney was pro-choice when running for the Senate several years ago and "now is trying to send a different message." Brownback stressed his own pro-life credentials and said it would be up to the voters to decide if Romney's switch be genuine. Steph added that Rudy Giuliani was avowedly pro-choice.

Senator Brownback said that his main obstacle was name recognition.

Brownback sees Iraq being eventually divided into three provinces, which Steph pointed out was the Biden proposal. Brownback, with embracing Biden on a personal level, repeated that he sees that as the eventual solution.

BILL RICHARDSON ON THIS WEEK. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson to Steph that he is against the troop surge and America is ready for an Hispanic President, although he will not run as an Hispanic. He will run.

He had written in his book that we cannot leave Iraq without first being certain that they can maintain their own security. Steph asked why he had changed his mind, and Richardson said that it was because the President has not made the Iraqis take care of their own security. You figure it out, as I give up.

CHUCK HAGEL ON FTN. On CBS' Face the Nation, Bob Schieffer spoke with Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel. In the studio.

He cited a WashPost story claiming that Maliki had asked for no more troops in Iraq, U.S. troops to flee Baghdad, and all other U.S. troops to secure the borders. Schieffer said that this sounds like Baker-Hamilton. Hagel agrees that it is the "foundation of the 79 recommendations" of Baker-Hamilton, which he supports as a "diplomatic framework."

He thinks the President has "made a mistake" by not adopting Baker-Hamilton.

Schieffer asked Hagel if he would leave the Republican Party "in order to underline his opposition to the war." He said that if he runs for the Presidency, it won't be based on the Iraq war; rather, it will be his entire set of positions. If he runs, he says, he will run as a Republican.

Hagel said that there is a "reformulation" and "transformation" of American politics, and the GOP has to get back to fiscal restraint, free trade, etc. The GOP has to get back to that. Schieffer asked if he were thinking of "becoming a Democrat." No, said Hagel.

Hagel said he does not know how many Senators will vote for the Teddy Kennedy resolution. He said that he and Olympia Snow have written their own resolution, and that he wrote it to start a national dialogue about Iraq. He said that "we need to put the Congress on record" on this. "It is wrong to put troops in the middle of a sectarian resolution."

Schieffer told him that the Veep said it would undercut our troops. Hagel said that he served in Vietnam, and he would have loved for Congress "to pay attention" to what he was doing in Vietnam. He said that the troops "deserve a policy worthy of their sacrifice."

He said that 22 American troops died in Iraq in the past 24 hours, and those who don't want to talk about it have their "heads in the sand."

Hagel thinks it is "morally wrong" to send troops to a sectarian civil war.

Schieffer pointed out that the President says that pulling out would bring chaos to Iraq. Hagel said that Ed Meese is a conservative and he disagrees with the President.

Now, the Chuck Hagel we saw foaming at the mouth – "I will do everything I can to stop the president's policy as he outlined it Wednesday night! I think it is dangerously irresponsible!" – was not the Chuck Hagel who appeared on Schieffer's show this morning. This morning's Hagel seemed a rational man who had valid views to present. He's either running for something or someone told him that the moonbat act wasn't working.

GRAHAM AND LEAHY ON LE. Host Wolf Blitzer opened CNN's Late Edition with an interview with two Senators – Lindsey Graham and Pat Leahy – which is unusual for him. He usually opens with a foreign diplomatic, so I was expecting Iraqi Ambassador to the U.S. Samir Sumaidaie. But Lindsey (from Greenville) and Pat (in studio) it was.

Pat Leahy said that he is not ready to give the President's new plan a chance to succeed, because "none of his other plans have succeeded." The first "failure" he cited, oddly enough, was General Tommy Franks' "Shock and Awe" from the opening of the war, considered to be a wild success by most observers.

Graham understands the anger and frustration because we've made mistakes. He mentioned some historical benchmarks, the American Revolution to the defeat of Hitler in World War II, to stress that it takes time to set things up.

Leahy said that "we've been there longer than we were in World War II and it still hasn't worked." He said that there would not be chaos in Iraq if we left now because the Chinese communists did not "sweep ashore" in Vietnam when we left. (I don't get it, but…)

Leahy said we have to talked to the Iranians and the Syrians "and the others in the area" and to "bring the Europeans in."

Graham said that anyone who uses the Vietnam analogy is "dangerously wrong." He said that Sadr coming back into the government was a sign that he is feeling the pressure.

Blitzer asked Graham if he trusts Maliki to crack down on not only Sunni insurgents but also Shi'ite insurgents. Graham explained that the terrorists come after you in droves if you support the "concept of democracy anywhere in the Middle East."

Leahy laughed that al Qaeda was not in Iraq until we got there. Iraq did not threaten us, he insisted, but Osama bin Laden did. He said that we would have been much better off had we "kept our eye on the ball" and captured Osama bin Laden. He said that this would have been "a devastating blow to al Qaeda." (Man, I still don't get it.)

Wolf asked Leahy if he wanted to cap funds for the troops or simply deny funds. Leahy didn't answer that, but he said that the only way to stop the war was to stop the funding. Just like we did in Vietnam.

Graham explained that this was not "another Vietnam"; rather, it is "the first battle in World War III." He said he stands with General Petraeus.

Leahy complained about a "rubber stamp Congress." He said that now they would get the job done; his judiciary committee will hold hearings on the "illegal spying," whatever that is.

Blitzer played the clip of McCain from MTP about not supporting General Casey to be Army chief of staff. Leahy said that there will be "hard questions asked," but he should be held to account for the bad advice he's given in the past. He wants to know if Casey will help or hurt the Petraeus strategy to win the war. Leahy thinks Casey will be confirmed.

Blitzer brought up yesterday's news, Dick Clarke, who said that we should find Osama bin Laden, not "stir up a hornets' nest." Graham explained that setting up a Democracy in al Qaeda would be a bigger blow to al Qaeda than catching OBL.

Blitzer asked Leahy about FISA and the wiretapping. Leahy said that he was a "big fan of Ronald Reagan, trust-but-verify," and he was going to make sure the President was telling the truth about going before FISA. Leahy blatantly misused the words of a man the bottom of whose shoes he is not fit to lick to attack the current President in a fit of hyper-partisan urination. Graham agreed, "Trust-but-verify." Oh heck, it helped to end the Cold War favorably; perhaps it can bring a fitting end to this infantile circus.
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