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Hawking Woodward's novel for him and plugging the interviews.

By Mark Kilmer Posted in Special Features — Comments (8) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Sunday, October 1, 2006

This week, we learned that the omniscient Bob Woodward has penned another novel. Dan Bartlett says that he wrote the conclusion before he conducted the interviews, but Steph on TW seemed not to think so. Bob Schieffer ran his Face the Nation show as a plug for the Woodward novel and for Mike Wallace's 60 Minutes interview with Woodward. (He also plugged a new Any Rooney book.) On LE, Wolf Blitzer excerpted the Woodward tome with authority, as if it detailed accounts of what actually happened, written by an all-seeing entity.

Jack Murtha on TW agreed with Bob Woodward that General John Abizaid had told him that the two of them were "this close" on when to withdraw from Iraq, then he admitted that it might not have been about that – he didn't remember – but he did remember Abizaid saying that they were "this close" about something.

Pervez Musharraf was hawking his book on MTP when he told Russert that Hamid Karzai knows nothing but talks about everything.

I won't score the DeWine-Brown debate, but I can say that DeWine appears more credible and speaks with more authority. I wasn't sure what Sherrod was trying to accomplish, and he and Senator DeWine ended up in a shouting match about Sherrod's failure to vote ten times to increase funding for intelligence gathering and his vote against the Patriot Act. (Kowalski has liveblogged the debate for us.)

Schieffer plugged Woodward's book and Wallace's interview, and Joe Biden insisted that he told the President and the Vice President that Cheney and Rumsfeld should resign, but that he wasn't serious because they can't be taken seriously. Schieffer thought Biden had told the President to resign.

Chris Wallace wanted to know who was better on terror, Clinton or Bush? He talked to Newt Gingrich and Jane Harman about it, and Jane Harman told us that she's a grandmother who thinks the House Dem leadership should have been told of Mark Foley's perversion. Newt talked of wars between those who think one thing and those who think another. (Terrorism as a war or a police action, for example.)

Chris Wallace then had a panel discussion of was better on terror, Clinton or Bush?

On LE, Blitzer pushed Woodward's novel hard in an interview with Zalmay Khalilzad. He accused Hank Kissinger to his face, as did Woodward behind his word processor, of setting Bush policy on Iraq. Kissinger called this absurd, claiming that he meets with the President for an hour every six weeks or so.

I was surprised that there was so little talk of Foley and so much hawking of Woodward's novel.

Read More for the show-by-show review…

DAN BARTLETT ON TW. TW host George Stephanopoulos, hereafter referred to as "Steph," first spoke to Presidential advisor Dan Bartlett this morning. Bartlett explained that the Administration had "worked with Bob," but it became evident that he had already formulated the conclusions he would reach. He wanted to tell a specific story, with a specific plot and conclusion, "even before the interviewing began." Steph said that saying that Woodward is a "biased reporter" is a "pretty serious charge." (Is Stephanopoulos living in a box?!? Journalists are no longer objective deliverers of pristine facts; they have attitude and angle.)

Bartlett said Woodward's thesis, that the President is in a state of denial, "quite frankly is not backed up by the own facts [sic] in the book." Steph repeated that it was a very serious charge, that Woodward was not an honest reporter. Bartlett said that he wasn't saying Woodward was not an honest reporter. Rather, he said, Woodward approached this with a set of conclusions.

Steph accused Bartlett of cooperating with Woodward, singing his praises, when he writes a positive book but accusing him of having an agenda when he takes the Administration to task.

Bartlett clasped his hands quickly and looked skyward, as if thinking. He said that Woodward "doesn't connect his own dots." He said Woodward paints a gloomy picture of Iraq and the President not sharing the information with the American people but he "reference throughout the book, time after time after time, where the President was being presented with the bad information, was pushing in internal process to make sure that we were adapting to the enemy, and was sharing this news with the American people." Steph than cited an excerpt in today's Washington Post in which Woodward claims that the Joint Chiefs of Staff reporting a secret report of terrible violence in Iraq getting worse when the President was telling the public that it wasn't as bad and would get better. Bartlett explained that this memorandum was only "one data point." The President uses comprehensive reports.

Steph talked about a meeting DCI George Tenent and counterterrorism due Cofer Black had with then-NSA Condi Rice on July 10, 2001, at which Tenent and Black tried to tell her that al Qaeda would attack any day now. Bartlett said, basically, that Woodward made this up. He said that this period, pre-attack, was the most examined period of any Administration in history, and no one had found a hint of what Woodward describes.

Heck, maybe Woodward meant a composite of meetings between composites of people during a composite of times and a hypothetical conversation during which time at a composite President Lincoln hypothetically shouted, "I got your habeas corpus right here" to a crowd of astonished and composite party guests, one of whom was a composite Keith Olbermann who hypothetically couldn't hold his liquor. But it's a nice book to read to the children before bedtime.

JACK MURTHA ON TW. More of the same from Jack Murtha on ABC's This Week, while peopled marched for and against Murtha in his Pennsylvania CD.

BushLies™, Murtha insisted, and the new Bob Woodward novel is proof. Rumsfeld must go. General Abizaid had told him that they were "this close" on a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, just like Woodward claimed, and Murtha has witnesses, though General Abizaid may not have been talking about a timetable for withdrawal. Everybody wants to withdraw troops, Murtha insisted, because "we have become the enemy."

Steph played a clip of Bush critic General John Batiste arguing that there should be no timetable or premature withdrawal, as that would cause a civil war which would escalate into a regional conflict. In response, Murtha started prattling about Vietnam and LBJ. He wants to "redeploy out of Iraq," he insists, because India once had a civil war and got better. This time, he did not mention Okinawa when discussing his redeployment plans.

PERVEZ ON MTP. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf continued his book tour; if you care, read his book, $17 at Amazon.

He did manage to blast Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who had insulted him last week on MTP about catching Osama bin Laden. Pervez said that he wouldn't take Karzai's example of saying anything with knowing nothing. He said that his government would not topple if he they captured bin Laden because everyone knows what he's trying to do.

Yeah. Sell books.

THE DEWINE VS. SHERROD DEBATE ON MTP. Senator Mike DeWine and Representative Sherrod Brown mixed it up on Meet the Press in what Russert and his peeps call a debate. Kowalski has done an excellent job of blogging the debate here at RedState.

Sherrod Brown was "on message" from one end of this debate to the other, repeating and hammering home Democratic talking points on everything from Iraq to the GWOT to the economy. He was also pretty evasive and seemed ashamed and defensive about his voting record in Congress, which DeWine took pains to demonstrate was consistently to the left of his own party. The exchanges got heated on a couple of occasions and degenerated into a minor melee about things such as the choice of photographs in campaign ads.

There is also a new forum called Debate Scoop, which liveblogged and it and provides extensive coverage, including a blog roundup featuring Alex's great work here. The blog features Professor Steve Mancuso, Director of Debate at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, so it is a serious endeavor.

A few points which I noted include that Russert has his agenda: get the Bushies. He quoted from the recently released NIE: "The Iraq conflict has become the cause celebre for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of US involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement." Therefore, Russert declared, terrorism had increased and the invasion of Iraq had made the world more dangerous. Dewine replied that there would always be something to stir the ire of the terrorists: if not Iraq, then Palestine, etc. He cited the rest of the paragraph from the NIE which Russert had begun: "Should jihadists leaving Iraq perceive themselves, and be perceived, to have failed, we judge fewer fighters will be inspired to carry on the fight."

Russert asked him if he would have voted to invade Iraq had he known: no WMD, no al Qaeda connections. DeWine said no. Russert then suggested that DeWine regretted his vote. DeWine said no. Based on what the world thought it knew at the time, the vote was the right one. He said that if we knew then what we know now, the President would never have asked for a vote. DeWine added that the world is much better now without Saddam and that what our troops are doing in Iraq is very important.

Sherrod and DeWine got into a shouting match when DeWine accused Sherrod of voting against ten efforts in the House to increase appropriations for intelligence and for being one of only 66 Democrats to vote against the Patriot Act. Sherrod tried to bring up other matters, and DeWine spat with incredulity: "You're unbelievable!"

Russert was ignored for a time but eventually restored order.

Brown has certainly memorized his talking points flash cards, so he gets points for that. DeWine walked well the line between standing for principle and seeming to accept the President's word as his own.

NEWTIE AND JANE ON FNS. New Gingrich and Representative Jane Harman met up with host Chris Wallace on FOX News Sunday. Newt said that Mark Foley and his page were involved in a "male-male relationship," and Congress has an in loco parentis responsibility when it comes to pages.

Harman declared: "This should be investigated objectively!" The Democrat leadership should have been told of Congressman Foley's ongoing perversions, as she is a mother and a "newly minted grandmother." She doesn't think referring it to the Ethics Committee for investigation is "enough."

Wallace played a clip of Clinton declaring last week that he was a tough hombre when it came to terrorists. He cited no less an omniscient than Bob Woodward as declaring that then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice blew off then-DCI George Tenent at a July 10, 2001 meeting. He asked Newt who was better against terrorism, Bush or Clinton. Newt answered that Clinton has criticized the Bush Administration and Bush has criticized Clinton. We should find solutions, Newt offered, instead of throwing blame around.

He asked Harman the same question, and she blamed Reagan and "Bush 1" for gutting our defense and intelligence after the Cold War. Clinton had to rebuild these things, she explained, and he prevented the Millennium Plot. She wants to investigate the July 10th meeting.

Wallace asked Newt if the President were misleading people. Newt said that there is a fight between those who want to stay the course and those who wish to rethink our strategy. Harman congratulated Newt for having opposed the occupation of Iraq. Wallace persisted, asking Harman why the President's public statements don't reflect the private reports he received. Harman said, "BRING IT ON!" She said the Constitution gives Congress the power to regulate captures and captivity, and McCain and Congress had unconstitutionally tried to give that power to the President. "A blank check!"

Wallace asked Newt if the GOP were going to pull a Karl Rove, blaming the Dems for being soft on terror if they opposed the latest terror treatment measure. Newt said that there was a war between those who think that we are involved in a brutal war and those who think terrorism should be treated with police action.

WALLACE'S ROUNDTABLE. On FNS, Chris Wallace next held a round table of people arguing: "Who's better, Bush or Clinton?" I think there's a war between those who favored Clinton's paper tiger approach to terror and those who prefer President Bush's more combative approach.

JOE BIDEN ON FTN. Bob Schieffer plugged Bob Woodward's new novel about BushLied™. He played clips of Woodward's interview with Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes to air this evening. Four attacks an hour, Woodward asserted.

Schieffer talked to Joe Biden about this. Biden first asked Biden about Rice blowing off Tenent and Black asking Rice for emergency appoint with Rice, vis-à-vis al Qaeda attacking our country, but she blew them off. Biden said he knew about it, but he called it a rumor. He said that if the meeting really took place, why didn't Tenent tell the 9-11 Commission about it? He demanded to know why the President hasn't adopted every jot and tittle of the 9-11 Commission reports. Biden then said he did not know about it, but there is evidence that they were brushed off in "subsequent meetings." He said that Rice and Tenent "did not meet their obligations to the 9-11 Commission."

Schieffer said that Woodward reports that SecDef Rumsfeld was at odds with other members of the Administration. Joe Biden said he called for Rumsfeld's resignation. He said he told the President and Dick Cheney that he would call for Rumsfeld's resignation and for Cheney's resignation.

Joe Biden said that Rumsfeld was irrelevant now, and we have to change course.

Schieffer then thought Biden had called for the President's resignation. Biden talked for a while about how he should resign. Schieffer seemed surprised. Biden finally clarified, and BIden said he wasn't serious about the Veep resigning; rather, he said, that "no one takes them seriously." (And how serious can the President take Joe Biden when he is not serious about his calls for resignation?)

"There is a political solution needed, and the President is doing nothing, nothing, nothing."

DAN BARTLETT ON FTN. Schieffer next talked to White House advisor Dan Bartlett, and Bartlett said that the WH was surprised by the Woodward report. It wasn't in Rice's recollection --
She disputes it. Vigorously." -- And they hadn't told the 9-11 Commission. "This is the most investigated time in any Administration."

He said that the 9-11 Commission went through Rice's notes, schedules, etc. Bartlett said that this is not how Rice recalls it, and the 9-11 Commission had nothing on it. "I'm very skeptical about this." Schieffer asked if Woodward would just "make this up." Bartlett politely said that he didn't know.

Bartlett said that Woodward's claim that the Administration's private reports about violence don't match what's in Woodward's own book. Schieffer held up a page from the Washington Post with scattered quotes from the Administration which were too optimistic. Including that the Administration ignores the generals about troop levels. Bartlett said that this was not true. He pointed out that they believed that the Iraqi security forces would remain more intact than happened, but it didn't materialize. Like with all things, they adapt.

He sad that the President remains optimistic about Iraq, and that Joe Biden and the Democratic Party are more about getting out than winning.

He said that people are "conflating having differences of opinion and not talking."

BLITZER AND KHALILZAD ON LE. Wolf Blitzer started his interview with U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad by quoting from Bob Woodward's novel, claiming that we are all going to die next year. Khalilzad offered that the violence now is mainly sectarian, not insurgent (and some "Shi'a on Shi'a violence in the south"). He called it "very plausible" that the level of violence will decrease next year.

He said that al Qaeda has been diminished in the last several months.

Wolf wanted to call the sectarian violence, "a low grade civil war." Khalilzad said that it is a "matter of definition," but by his definition, it is not a civil war.

He quoted the Colin Powell character from Woodward's novel as if it really were Colin Powell speaking. Something about the Iraqi President Nouri al Maliki, how no one trusts him. Ambassador Khalilzad trusts him and rejects the Democrat notion that we should go after the Death Squads militarily. Khalilzad and Maliki said that there must be a balanced approach, political and military as a last regard.

Wolf cited the recently declassified NIE as stating that the war in Iraq is "exacerbating" the terror problem and making it worse. Khalilzad explained that there will be a greater terrorist problem if we were to leave Iraq now, before the Iraqis were prepared.

Blitzer asked more about Woodward's novel, as putting Khalilzad with Jay Garner in arguing that there should not have been a Coalition Provisional Authority; rather, we should have gone straight to an Iraqi government. Khalilzad said that he had been working on Afghanistan and that he wanted to do something similar in Iraq. He said Bremer replaced Garner and he was sent to Afghanistan. He denied Woodward's assertion that he wanted to resign. (Woodward quotes Khalilzad as saying he'd quit when Bremer was brought in to replace Garner. Khalilzad said that this was "not accurate.")

THE STATE OF LATE EDITION. Wolf Blitzer basically said that his entire show would be about Bob Woodward's novel, which asserts that Hank Kissinger has been an "outside advisor" to the President on Iraq. Kissinger said that it was absurd to make that claim when he saw the President only "once every six weeks for an hour or so."

Like FTN was a big tease for tonight's episode of 60 Minutes with the Bob Woodward interview, Blitzer plugged tonight's episode of Larry King Live, which will be an interview with Bob Woodward.
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What a morning.

Have at it!