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By Mark Kilmer Posted in Special Features — Comments (9) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Sunday, August 19, 2007

On MTP, Karl Rove averred that the 2006 midterms were typical for midterms and were very close. He said that what hurt the Republicans the most were corruption and spending (earmarks). He also said that Dick Cheney was right about Iraq in his '94 comments but that 9-11 had changed things since then.

On FNS, he said that his criticisms of Democrats on the War on Terror in a recent speech were directed at MoveOn.org, Michael Moore, and Dick Durbin's "American troops are Nazi war criminals" speech. He accused host Chris Wallace of being an unwitting "agent" of Pat Leahy and Hank Waxman. And I liked this Rove quip: "I'm a myth. I'm Beowulf; I'm Grendel. I don't know who I am."

The Democrats debated at Drake University in Iowa this morning, and that was ABC's This Week. The candidates yelled at each other, and some folks liveblogged it.

On FTN, as on the other shows, they talked about Rove's assertion that Hillary Clinton is a "flawed candidate." By this, Rove said, he meant that she's coming into the election with the highest negatives of any candidate in history. Rove said that it was someone else's idea for him to appear on the "trifecta" of network Sunday morning talk shows. He said that though it was difficult for a party to win three consecutive Presidential elections, the Republicans had great candidates and could do it next year. He listed four by name: McCain, Giuliani, Thompson, and Romney.

On LE, Wolf talked to an Iraqi Kurd member of parliament who said that the Iraqi parliament could make progress by September, but if not, it's time to think about a change. Next, Wolf had three campaign consultants for the Democrat campaigns on to revise and extend what their candidates said in the debates.

Missouri's Kit Bond came onto LE and said that the NYT story suggesting the Congress had accidentally given President Bush dangerous new spy powers was "flat wrong." He had offered to put a rebuttal on their pages, but the times, fearing that their narrative would be shattered, refused.

Next on LE, was Pennsylvania's Bob Casey, jr., who blandly mouthed Democrat talking points. He said that the White House planned to distort the September Petraeus/Crocker report. He implied that as long as we left Petraeus and Crocker in charge in Iraq – the current course – nothing will change.

Yikes.

Read the show-by-show summary beneath the fold. …

KARL ROVE ON MTP. It's a shame, but Tim Russert was no there for the Karl Rove interview on NBC's Meet the Press. The insufferable Dave Gregory handled this one, and he began by attacking Rove for evidently believing that he is larger than life. Rove quipped that he had used "not enough wisdom and clearly not enough patience." Gregory shot back with the theories of Rove's critics, and Rove replied: "My critics think all kinds of things about me. I don't really care."

David Gregory called Rove the architect of the lasting Republican majority, or some such, and Rove answered that he was the architect of two Presidential election victories. Be that as it may, Gregory did a pre-Bush look at the Republican Party in Congress vs. where the GOP in Congress stands today. They've lost their majorities. Rove replied that every "academic critic" thought that Al Gore would win the 2000 election easily, but the President had pulled off an upset.

Gregory started in with the losses in 2006. Rove acknowledged an "unpopular war" but stated that the big issues which hurt the Republicans were corruption and spending (earmarks, etc.). Gregory started in with the polls again, and Rove stopped him: "You quote polls, I'll quote polls." He said that it is difficult for a party to win three Presidential elections in a row but that the GOP was in a good position because of its quality contenders. Gregory quoted Mitt Romney as talking about "change in Washington" and argued that this meant "change from Bush." Rove said that of course that's what it was. Romney had it right, because elections are about the future. The Democrats, he said, are campaigning in the past.

Rove said that the President was not sitting on his hands and doing only what was popular; he was taking on challenges. David Gregory kept interrupting, yapping, and Rove asked him to stop. He did for a while, and Rove pointed out that we should not, as a society, judge everything minute-by-minute, day-by-day, losing the long term picture. He remarked about the history of the world if we had given up in North Africa in WWII or had a media complaining about too many casualties at Normandy on D-Day.

Gregory played the tape of former SecDef Dick Cheney in '94 taking about why we didn't march on Baghdad in the first Gulf War. Rove shut him up nicely by pointing out that though Cheney was right in 1994, the world had changed since then. The events of 9-11 had changed things.

Gregory, still playing an amateurish game of gotcha, cited Rove as declaring that the part of the Bush Doctrine about those who harbor terrorists being the equivalent of terrorists would last beyond his term. Then why is Bush talking to Iran, Gregory demanded? Rove explained that the United States would use all the tools on the table to take care of the matter. Iran will back down, he suggested, because they know the consequences.

Gregory played a clip of the President saying that he would find and deal with the person who leaked Val Plame's name, yet Rove emerged unscathed. Rove was not the leaker. Gregory asked about Bob Novak saying that Rove had affirmed that Val Plame was a secret agent, and Rove said he remembered it differently. He said that he didn't know Plame's name and we still don't know that she could be classified as a secret op. Gregory insisted that Novak knew best because he had taken notes at the time. He asked if Rover were ever "held to account." Rove explained that he had cooperated fully, and no action had been taken even against Dick Armitage.

Gregory asked Rove: "Do you owe Valerie Plame an apology?" He asked if Val Plame were an "appropriate target" for Rove. Rove told Gregory that he was using the media's terminology. He explained that Joe Wilson had lied about his mission, his mission to Niger provided no conclusive evidence but served, if anything, to buffet the claim by British Intelligence that Saddam had tried to purchase yellow cake uranium from Niger, a claim by which the Brits stand to this day.

Gregory wanted to know how Hillary Clinton was a "fatally flawed" candidate, as Rove had stipulated. Rove said that her negatives going into the election are the lowest in history, and Gregory laughed that Bush's are now lower. Rove repeated that Hillary's negatives going into an election are the lowest in history.

Could Russert have done better? Probably not, but it would have been more interesting.

ROVE ON FNS. Next up, Karl Rove was Chris Wallace's guest, live on FOX News Sunday. Wallace wanted to know what had happened to the Republican Party over the last three years. Rove explained that 2006 was a "typical off-year election" and that the Republican losses were close. He listed candidates from the Republican Presidential nomination, and if the order in which he thought of them means anything – which is, at best, improbable – the list went: "McCain, Thompson, Romney, Giuliani, and others."

Wallace played several clips of Karl Rove criticizing the Democrat stance on the War on Terror, and Rove said that he had a copy of the latest speech with him, which he vocally doubted Wallace had read, and he was taking about MoveOn.org, Michael Moore, and the Dick Durbin speech in which the Senator accused our troops of being Nazi war criminals.

Wallace asked why Rove would not testify before Congress under oath concerning the firings of the U.S. Attorneys. Rove answered that it was because of the U.S. Constitution. Imagine the outcry, he said, if the President were to demand the testimony of Congressional aides and Supreme Court clerks. He accused Wallace of being an unwitting agent of Pat Leahy and Henry Waxman.

Wallace asked him about Val Plame. Finally: "What do you think of Joe Wilson?" Rove said, "I'm not going to comment on that. Nice try." He asked Wallace what he thought of Joe Wilson, and Wallace likewise refused comment.

ROVE QUOTE: "I'm a myth. I'm Beowulf; I'm Grendel. I don't know who I am."

Wallace played a grainy clip of Bill Moyers hissing that Rove was an agnostic who had snookered the evangelicals. Rove explained that he was a Christian, an Episcopalian. Wallace asked about that Press Club hip hop dance, and Rove explained: "I'm Norwegian. I don't dance." He said he was selected out of the crowd, and he had a choice: seem the dour, evil man by refusing or playing along with it.

At the close of the interview, Rove said that he "left on my own power." Wallace countered: "That's your story."

DEM DEBATE ON TW. ABC's George Stephanopoulos, host of This Week, moderated a Dem debate at Drake University ("Go Bulldogs!") in Iowa. That was his show. Steph's got vid and stories at his web site, and they liveblogged it -- on Central Time -- at their corporate Political Radar blog. The NYT also liveblogged the gawdforsaken thing.

*** ADDENDUM *** Chris Cillizza also liveblogged the Dems, wrote that Biden, Richardson, and the rest were rhetorical no-shows.

KARL ROVE ON FTN. Host Bob Schieffer's first guest on CBS' Face the Nation was Karl Rove. Rove told Schieffer that "someone else had made the decision for me" to go on the network Sunday Shows this morning.

Schieffer characterized Rove as the template for the modern political advisor, and he listed some things which were Rove according to observers. Rove disagreed slightly, pointing out that you don't win elections by "playing to the base." He said that you have to have a broader strategy, attracting other voters: Democrats for a Republican candidate, Indies, and previous non-participants.

Schieffer asked if politics today are meaner than in the past. Rove explained that they were pretty mean in our country's early history but that the instantaneous media has added a new dimension, where the Senate Majority leader can call the President a liar on one day then demand to work with him the next.

Rove explained that Democrats have wanted to work with him on such things as Social Security but said that they were denied the opportunity by their party's hierarchy.

Schieffer asked why President Bush was so unpopular. Rove explained that the President was not yet done with his work, and there was a lot he would still do.

Schieffer asked if when Rove said Hillary was "flawed," did he mean her character? Rove explained that she entered the race with high negatives. He said he didn't hope she was the nominee, because he didn't vote in the Dem primary and had no control of it.

Rove acknowledged that it was difficult for a party to win three consecutive Presidential elections, but the Republicans had great candidates with a positive message: "Senator McCain, Mayor Giuliani, Senator Thompson… uh. Mayor… uh, Governor Romney."

Rove said that he didn't know who the nominee would be, "and if I did, I wouldn't tell you."

MCCAIN ON FTN. Next, Schieffer interviewed one of Rove's Republican critics, U.S. Senator John McCain.

McCain said that Rove would be judged as the President would be judged, and the President will be judged on Iraq. He suggested that the President might abandon the surge and we'd then lose the war.

He said that the Democrats would propose surrender when the September report comes in.

He said that we cannot stand by and watch events play out in Iraq, as some soldiers have evidently suggested in an article. He said that they were proposing "going back to the failed strategy of [the past] four years" without giving the new strategy a chance to work.

McCain said his campaign is "in good shape" and he feels fine about how things will go. He explained that people have no confidence in the federal government to enforce the borders, what with all the failures in Katrina and Iraq, but he also wants to take care of those already here.

McCain said that he knows what is best for America and can sleep well at night.

Schieffer asked McCain if he agrees with Rove that Hillary is a "flawed candidate." He said that she's been an effective Senator and will be a formidable candidate. He said that he looks forward to debating her.

Schieffer said that he agreed with Rove that politics now were no meaner than before, and McCain said that people think the country is on the wrong track. He blamed immigration and said that "as President, I will secure the borders." He's going to reach out his hands to the Democrats and he wants the American people to force the Dems to reach out their hands to him. He said that politics in the Senate now were worse than ever.

McCain stalked of stopping illegal immigration by stopping them from getting jobs. He wants a temporary worker problem, "and I mean temporary."

Schieffer asked McCain who he sees as his chief rivals, and McCain said that he doesn't pay attention. He's the most qualified to take on this transcendent issue, radical Islamic extremism.

Schieffer asked McCain what General Petraeus will say in his report. McCain answered that we are succeeding militarily, but the political process will take a while. "But we are succeeding, and that's what's important.

OTHMAN ON LE. CNN Host Wolf Blitzer opened this morning's episode of Late Edition by talking to Iraqi parliament member Mahmoud Othman, an Iraqi Kurd. Wolf first asked him about Major General Rick Lynch's recently expressed that the Iranians have people in Iraq training Shi'ite militants. Othman thinks he's right, though he doesn't have the details. Wolf pointed out that al-Maliki, friends with the Iranians, refuses to acknowledge that Iran has anything to do with anything. Othman thinks the question of Iranian involvement is important and must be answered.

In May, Othman had told Blitzer that Maliki had to get tough or he'd be gone in three months. It's been more than three month, and Othman now thinks it is weak. He thinks that they can still do something, but if they don't by September, it is time to start thinking of change.

Blitzer quoted Iyad Allawi as accusing, in the WashPost, Maliki of "squandering" Iraq's credibility in the Arab world, and that Maliki must go. Othman won't go that far. He added that the United States had been "ill-informed and ill-advised" going into Iraq and have had to adapt.

Othman blamed al Qaeda for the latest spate of suicide care bombing.

Wolf asked Othman if Iraq should be partitioned. Othman said that some people talk about that because things aren't going well. He thinks that people might be gradually moving in that direction.

DEM CAMPAIGN ADVISORS ON LE. About Steph's Iowa debate, Wolf next spoke to a bunch of Democrat advisors to various of those campaigns: Hillary, Obama, and Edwards. They talked about when to talk to our enemies and dictators and that old rehash stuff from some other debate. They debated excerpts from the debate, advisors revising and extending what had happened earlier on ABC.

LAURA TYSON AND STEPHEN MOORE ON LE. Clintonista economist Laura Tyson and CATO Institute economist Stephen Moore talked about the economy and the financial markets. Wolf asked them if they trusted the Secretary of the Treasury (Hank Paulson) and will they be looking for bargains on the stock market. Yes, and they will.

KIT BOND ON LE. Wolf's next guest was Senators Kit Bond (R-Missouri). Senator Bond, whose son his now in his second tour of Iraq, praised the work of our military. For security reasons, he can't mention where his son is stationed right now, but he said that his son tells him they are making progress and that local police are now keeping order.

He said that the approach we'd been taking was the wrong approach, but the Petraeus approach, don't leave a secured area until its ready, is working for us to "gain control permanently." Wolf threw in the caveat of Iraqi politics not getting the job done, and Bond mentioned the early years of this country, after our revolution. He said that either Maliki's government would get the job done, "or another government.

Wolf asked Bond about the Iranian National Guard which might be in Iraq now training the insurgents, and Bond said that "we are going to capture them and kill them all." If Iran comes in, he said, the Sunni states would "come in from the other side." This, the Iraq government wants to avoid.

Bond explained that we had cut our human intelligence from the Middle East in the mid-1990s, and we're rebuilding that.

Wolf asked Bond about the awful things Congress has authorized our spies to do, and that the people who wrote the bill did not understand what they were writing. Bond wrote the bill, and he brought a copy with him. The NYT story to that effect is dead wrong. (It's another piece of Risen/Lichtblau garbage/.) Bond pointed out that "President Clinton searched the home of Aldridge Ames without a warrant," but nothing in this bill authorizes warrantless searches. He's offered to write a rebuttal for the NYT, but they have refused. The New York Times wants their false narrative to be preserved, and nothing is new about that.

CASEY ON LE Blitzer's next guest was Senator Junior Casey (D-Pennsylvania), who is really named after his father, Bob, and who ran for the Senate last year as his father. Wolf asked if the surge were working. Casey changed the question to: is this increase in troops leading to political process? It's not, and he doesn't trust Maliki to create a "government of national unity."

He memorized his talking points.

Casey met with Petraeus and Crocker. He had Dick Durbin had dinner with them. He "sensed" that they were frustrated.

Casey said he will consider their recommendations very carefully, but he added that the White House would spin their report "in a manner contrary to reality." The reality, he said, is that we are involved in a civil war.

Casey called for a "phased redeployment" (timetable/date certain) to convince the Iraqis that we are serious. Wolf played a clip of McCain saying that we'd have chaos and the terrorists would follow us home. Casey said McCain doesn't know, no one knows, but Pennsylvanians are dying. Mouthing Durbin/Schumer talking points, he accused the Republicans of mouthing White House talking points.

Casey said that if we leave Petraeus and Crocker in charge, "we'll see more of the same."

This was embarrassing, and the best for which the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania can hope is that the Democrats are returned to the Senate minority and national news organizations no longer have any reason to talk to the bland drip.
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That's the report. Have at it!