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Featuring the three most lame brained U.S. Senators

By Mark Kilmer Posted in Special Features — Comments (10) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Well…

INTRODUCTION

John McCain gave a standard, political interview to lead off FOX News Sunday, but he did say that California was in play this election.

After McCain on FNS, it was John Kerry who reported for duty. He basically agreed with Howard Dean that John McCain was a "blatant flip-flopper," yet claimed that he himself was not a flip-flopper; his vote against the war after he voted for it was, rather, a "vote of principle."

On ABC's This Week, Jim Webb stared at the camera and blinked a lot. He recited that President Bush went into Iraq with "no intention of leaving." He said that the Senate does not need to hear from General Petraeus next week; rather, they should be hearing from Admirals Michael Mullen and William Fallon. Appearing opposite Webb, Lindsey Graham announced that John McCain was the most qualified candidate to be Commander in Chief in decades and one of the most overall qualified ever.

On MTP, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell was the Hillary surrogate and PA Senator Junior Casey stood in for Obama. Rendell said that the DNC should count the popular vote in Michigan if not the delegates because in Michigan, Hillary was running against herself which is the hardest thing to do politically. Casey was confronted with his statement on March 6 that he would not commit to supporting any candidate before Pennsylvania held its primary. He countered, in typical Junior Casey form, "The reason [I changed my mind] was, uh, because I was, uh, when I said that, an undecided voter. I became a decided voter, and at that point, you have to make a decision."

On CBS' Face the Nation, host Bob Schieffer asked DNC boss Howard Dean about the Clintons' claim that Barack Obama could not win the general election because he's an African American. Dean said that all candidates say that about the other, but that he doesn't think the Clintons would mention that it was because Obama was an African American.

On LE, famed Nazi hunter Dick Durbin demanded a second stimulus bill and blamed the White House for not helping to get one. John Cornyn said we should "slow down" and not add to the deficit unless it is properly targeted.

Later on LE, former Clinton labor secretary Robert Reich charged John McCain with taking a "let them eat cake" approach to our current fiscal crisis (or whatever he called it).

Read on for the details.

JOHN MCCAIN ON FNS. Opening this week's FOX News Sunday, host Chris Wallace aired his interview with John McCain taped Friday at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. Nothing new came from this. Wallace pointed out that McCain was campaigning in various places, and McCain talked about the party of Lincoln and the party of Reagan, reaching out to everyone. He said that California is in play this election.

On the economy, McCain pushed a limited role for the federal government but a robustness of purpose where the feds are required to act.

Wallace told McCain that the Iraqi's Basra operation had failed to remove the militias, and McCain countered that the results were mixed. He opined that Maliki should have waited until after the ongoing operations in Mosul had been completed, but that now the Iraqis have Basra and its valuable ports. He pointed out that it was Moqtada al Sadr who asked for the cease fire, and winner's seldom do that in warfare. In his estimation, the Iraqi government performed "pretty well."

JOHN KERRY ON FNS. Wallace's next interview was with 2004 Dem nominee and Obama supporter JF Kerry, and you have to think that Wallace's producers chose to interview Kerry as Obama's spokesman, that Team Barry did not offer this guy to speak for them. (It's a maybe cynical view of the producers, but it is generous to the acumen of Obama's peeps.)

Wallace quoted Kerry in 2004 as saying the Presidency was not the place for on-the-job training in foreign policy. This would apply to Obama, right? Kerry explained that Obama had more foreign policy experience than did Presidents Reagan, Bush, and Clinton coming in.

Citing "experts," Kerry said that McCain's Iraq policy, securing the country, attracts jihadists and promotes violence, so by seeking to keep troops in Iraq fore 100 years, McCain was promoting violence. Wallace countered that this was not what McCain meant when he said that we could have a presence for 100 years, and Kerry argued that he was; to "prove" it, he cited an interview McCain gave with Charlie Rose four months ago in which McCain said we couldn't keep troops in Iraq. Wallace accused Kerry of conflating the two interviews. Kerry said that he was not conflating them.

Wallace pointed out that Kerry had asked John McCain to be his veep in 04. Kerry explained that McCain in 2004 was different from McCain today ("the nomination McCain"); Wallace said that McCain has always been the same on Iraq. Kerry said that he and McCain had never really gotten to the point of a veep discussion. Kerry said that we could not keep a base in Iraq like we have elsewhere because Japan doesn't have an insurgency problem. Kerry said that Iraq was in chaos and Afghanistan and Pakistan were failing.

Wallace asked Kerry to react to Howard Dean calling McCain a "blatant opportunist." Kerry wouldn't criticize Dean, suggesting that he was merely pointing out McCain's "flip-flops" on Iraq, the Bush tax cuts, and global warming. Wallace suggested that Kerry was agreeing with a blatant insult of a war hero. Kerry shot back: "Chris, please, you almost insult my intelligence." Then Kerry went on a little tirade about he did not flip-flop, voting for the war before he voted against it. His issue then, he said, was making sure the war was paid for, so his flip-flop was really a "vote of principle."

Kerry retreated to his initial position and attacked McCain for attracting terrorists to Iraq and ignoring Afghanistan and Pakistan. Barry, he said, has vision and would "create real diplomacy. (With Ahmadinejad and the Iranian mullahs, with Junior Assad, etc.)

GRAHAM AND WEBB ON TW. Host George Stephanopoulos opened this week's This Week on ABC with a discussion with Lindsey Graham and Jim Webb. Graham explained to Steph that the fighting in Iraq was stressful, but that the military is meeting its recruitment and reenlistment goals.

Steph brought up that not only does Iran promote Mookie al Sadr's little band of terrorists, but they also provide political support for the Maliki government. Graham explained that the Shi'ite government was not governing only for Shi'ites, that they were working with Sunnis, Kurds, etc.

Steph played a vid of McCain saying that he thought we could be in Iraq for the next 100 years, provided there were no more U.S. deaths. Webb stared blankly at the camera: "We're an occupation." He accused the President of going into Iraq "with no intention of leaving."

Graham explained that John McCain wants to win in Iraq, not 100 years of war. Webb again stared blankly into the camera and muttered that we needed to hear from people like Admirals Mike Mullen and Bill Fallon – both sometimes critical of the Iraq war – and not General David Petraeus. [NOTE: the "Mullen and Fallon" line is not original to Webb, who can only parrot others. In this case, Webb copied Carl Levin.]

Webb argued that people are not reenlisting in the armed forces to fight in Iraq; rather, they are reenlisting because they love their country and want to serve. (Then it's because of Iraq, Webb, where we are currently fighting.) Webb argued that we need "good leadership" in dealing with Iraq, just as we had "good leadership" {President Richard Nixon] in dealing with the People's Republic of China.

Steph asked Webb about his role as Dem superdelegate, and Webb showed some animation, slipping out of his monotonous trance. Webb told Steph that gol, hic, "I haven't looked at how all that works."

Steph asked Lindsey Graham about General Petraeus as a possible veep candidate for McCain, and Graham said that Petraeus is needed where he is. He added that McCain will be the best Commander in Chief which we've had in decades, and that he is one the most qualified Presidential candidate that we have ever had.

PENNSYLVANIA SURROGATES ON MTP. On NBC, Meet the Press host Tim Russert spoke with two surrogates from Pennsylvania, Governor Ed Rendell for Hillary and Senator Junior Casey for Obama. He repeated a few quotes from Hillary's peeps reflecting her invincibility in the commonwealth. Ed said that while it's a "great State for Senator Clinton," she cannot afford to be overconfident when she is "outspent, three-to-one." He predicted a Hillary victory, but it will be "between 5 and 9, 5 and 10 percentage points."

Russert quoted Casey from March 6 saying that he would remain "neutral throughout our primary…. [W]e need people in the middle to bring people together." Which means nothing, but that's standard Junior pabulum, exactly one month old. Casey explained: "The reason [I changed my mind] was, uh, because I was, uh, when I said that, an undecided voter. I became a decided voter, and at that point, you have to make a decision." He's more inspired by Obama than by anyone else he's seen in his life, because, he says, Barry "can bring about the change we need."

Russert suggested that Junior might have personal reasons for supporting Obama, citing Shailagh Murray at Washingtonpost.com:

For Casey, Obama's base of college students, African Americans and upper-income voters is vital to broadening the 47-year-old former state auditor's appeal beyond the smokestack set.

Smokestack set, Murray says, are "older, working-class, white voters."

Casey said he'd "leave that to others to analyze" then followed the notes that Obama was not only committed to change but had enacted change already, etc. One of the reasons Obama is the candidate to enact change, Casey said, was that "he's raised more money than anyone else."

Russert pushed Casey on his sudden flip-fop on Obama, pointing to a CNN interview where he was asked who was the stronger candidate to face McCain and answered, like a deer caught in a spotlight: "Oh, I don't know. I don't know the answer to that question." Casey answered that "we'll see in the next couple of months." He added that Barry's "speech on race" proved that he could run an effective general election campaign, but he added that Clinton could do so as well. He's sure that Reverend Wright's comments hurt Obama in "parts of Pennsylvania," but that was a "leadership test" which Barry passed with an "A+" because he was honest. It was an example of the "new kind of leadership, the new kind of politics." (Another empty statement from the Obama campaign's cue cards.)

Russert gave up on Casey and turned to Ed Rendell, reading to him a New York Times/CBS News poll of Democratic Primary voters. Of the respondents*, 56% claimed that Obama was the strongest Dem against John McCain, while 32% though Hillary would be. Ed explained that the poll respondents were "not doing the electoral math very well"; Hillary's winning the big electoral States. Casey responded that you cannot predict a general election based on a primary. Rendell quoted polls from the six largest States and charged the Dem superdelegates with considering that.

Casey said that Obama can attract voters that no Democrat ever has, "and you need that in order to govern."

Rendell said that if they go into the convention with Obama leading in pledged delegates and popular vote, he should be denied the nomination because she's leading in the big electoral States and he thinks "the popular vote will narrow decidedly." He added that if you count Michigan and Florida, Hillary would win the popular vote. Russert went full stop on him and said that Hillary had tried to move the goalposts yesterday. He played a clip of Hillary in Oregon saying that the popular vote in those two States had already been officially tallied, certified, and counted. He quoted Hillary from last October saying that Michigan election "is not going to count for anything." He quoted Rendell as saying that Michigan's vote should not count because Hillary was the only person on the ballot. Ed countered that he was "talking about seating the delegates," not the popular vote because she was running against herself, the hardest thing, he said, for any politician. (He'd have been better off if he'd just played the Bob Casey "I'm a moron" card.)

Common ground and all that. The End.

HOWARD DEAN ON FTN. This morning on CBS' Face the Nation, host Bob Schieffer spoke with DNC Chair Howard Dean, from Burlington, about his party's crisis. Dean would like the remaining 300+ undeclared superdelegates to declare by July 1. He said that they will, because this race is "much bigger" than Barry or Hillary. McCain = four more years of Bush, etc.

Dean accused those Democrats who ask him to pressure the superdelegates of really asking him to pressure them to vote for their particular candidate.

"We only have two nominees," Dean explained.

Schieffer pointed out that though most people who respond to polls think this country is going in the wrong direction, the polls of the Dem vs. McCain are about even. Dean said that a lot of good things are happening because of this Dem split, such a new Dems signing on to vote.

Dean said "a lot of people think he [McCain] is a flip-flopper, which he is."

Schieffer asked Howard Dean about the Clintons' suggestion that Barack Obama cannot win "because he is an African American." Dean said that either candidate could win, but that they do have to get this over with. Schieffer asked Dean if he had asked the Clintons' about their argument that Obama cannot win, and Dean said he didn't think they used Obama's race as an excuse and that all candidates say the other cannot win.

Dean wants the Michigan and Florida delegates to be seated in a "reasonable, thoughtful way." He said that they cannot be seated as is, as Hillary suggests, and they cannot be ignored, as suggested by Barry.

Then Schieffer went on to talk to several journalists about Iraq. One of them was the McClatchy Pentagon reporter.

DURBIN AND CORNYN ON LE. CNN's Wolf Blitzer began this week's Late Edition, by talking economy with Dick Durbin (in Pittsburgh for Barry) and John Cornyn (at home in Texas). Wolf played a clip of Bernanke saying that a "recession is possible." What's Durbin going to do about it? Durbin said that the checks were in the mail and they are working on a stimulus bill, but they need to do more to stimulate the economy. Bush's tax cuts for the very wealthy, he said, won't stimulate the economy. Durbin wants to extend unemployment benefits, putting money into the economy.

Blitzer played a clip of Chuckie Schumer complaining in a Presidential year that Bush is not helping with a second stimulus package. Cornyn said slow down, don't add to the deficit unless it's targeted to "help those who need it most." Bringing down the price of gasoline and making health care more affordable are two ways to do it, Cornyn said. As for unemployment benefits, Cornyn said that we're at about 5.1% unemployment nationally, which is almost "full employment."

Durbin complained that the war was adding to the deficit daily. The Republicans should be spending that money on creating well-paying jobs. Cornyn argued that raising taxes "to pay for all these bailouts" is going to require a tax increase which "has to come from somewhere" and which will "depress the economy."

Blitzer showed a CBS poll saying that votes who participated in the survey thinks things are going in the wrong direction. Durbin blamed this on the "record-breaking number" of filibusters (62) enacted by the Senate Republicans. He accused John McCain of "running on the Bush Iraq policy and the Bush economic policy."

Blitzer played a clip of Barry McCaffrey saying that the Maliki government was "completely dysfunctional." Cornyn said that he is concerned and that we have to leave Iraq with a functioning society. He praised Maliki's initiatives against the Shi'ite militias in Basra. Wolf asked Durbin about this, and Durbin said that he agreed with McCaffrey, that Maliki was dysfunctional. He said that if the surge had worked, our troops would be way on their way home.

Blitzer asked Cornyn why McCain wants to keep the troops in Iraq for a hundred more years. Cornyn explained that this is not what McCain meant; rather, it was a security arrangement like that we have with other countries.

Blitzer asked Durbin about Ed Schultz calling McCain a "warmonger." Obama's peeps released a statement disagreeing with Schultz, but Blitzer wanted to know if Durbin thought Obama should go further. Durbin responded by in essence calling McCain a warmonger, wanting to keep troops there for a hundred years and stretching the army too thing.

Cornyn said we do not want to risk creating another Taliban state like Afghanistan after the Soviets fled.

ROBERT REICH AND DOUG HOLTZ-EAKIN ON LE. On the economy, Blitzer talked to Clinton labor secretary Bob Reich and McCain senior economic advisor Douglas Holtz-Eakin.

Reich said we're in a recession, and that the technical definition doesn't matter. Holtz-Eakin said that "Bob's right," that the American families were hurting. He played a clip of Hillary talking about a 3a phone call about the economy and letting the phone ring.

Holtz-Eakin decried "playing politics" with this and that McCain is concerned about American families; we should bail out them, not big banks and speculators. Reich argued that McCain is not coming up with any specifics. The goal, Rich said, was "keeping people in their homes."

Holtz-Eakin praised the stimulus package for how quickly and decisively passed but he supports a second stimulus package specifically targeted. Reich said that this was a "serious economic problem," the likes of which we hadn't seen in "thirty, forty years." He said we had to get Dems and Republicans together to understand the depth of this crisis.

Reich accused John McCain of having a "let them eat cake" attitude.

= = = = =

We're survived possibly the three dumb guys in the Senate, in order of intellectual vacuity: Jim Webb, Bob Casey, and John Kerry.

Have at it!