Redstate

By Mark Kilmer Posted in Elections — Comments (22) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Leading off each show, especially ABC's program, was word on ABC co-anchor Bob Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt, who suffered head injuries when the Iraqi vehicle in which they were riding was struck by an IED in Iraq today. It is so right to stop the terrorists who do these things.

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A few themes caught my ear this morning. The hosts wanted to know if the Administration, given the recent election of Hamas to the Palestinian Authority, now regrets urging democracy in the Middle East. It's not a solid point for gotcha, but it had to do. They also wanted to know about the President ignoring laws he considered to be outdated. They want Katrina docs and Abramoff docs. And there's the thought that the tedium of day-day-day governance might transform Hamas from an angry gang of masked gunmen into a peace-loving political force.

Frist wasn't convincing on MTP, but he did manage that the President governed more along the lines of "pro-growth" rather than as a conservative. Mike Pence on FNS reiterated a previous statement that the President was a conservative guy who "has not practiced a conservative agenda at home."

Howard Dean on FNS accused terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden of "lollygagging." He also suggested that Hamas should be "prodded."

'T was a nice interview, Bob Schieffer and President Bush on FTN. The President, not directly, reminded us that he did not design the NSA program; rather, he reviewed it and approved its implementation.

On LE, Dan Bartlett reacted to a clip of an Al Gore speech by suggesting that it is a good thing that Gore was not President. Also on LE, Senators Roberts and Joe Biden agreed that Hamas was a terrorist organization and we should not deal with them. Joe Biden, who has claimed co-authorship of the 1979 FISA law, said that he did not know whether the President had broken that law. And Joe Biden says he will vote against cloture for Sam Alito on Monday, though he admits that this will be entirely symbolic.

On TW, Barack Obama said that the Alito will be confirmed because the Dems failed to convince the American people that their values are under attack. Also on TW, Chuck Hagel declared the President and Congress to be "co-equal" on matters of national security.

The show-by-show is below the fold.

BILL FRIST ON MTP. Tim Russert spent today's episode of NBC's Meet the Press hammering away at Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. What do you think, Frist, when the Pentagon's own study says the army is stretched too thin and will never defeat the insurgency?

"Tim, it is serious," Senator Frist answered. "It's going to take security, and it going to take a political process." We have 100 trained Iraqi battalions that we didn't have last year, Frist offered, and 200,000 security forces.

Well, Frist, in hindsight, should we have put more troops on the ground in Iraq? Senator Frist answered that he might with hindsight, but we'll never know if things would be different if there had been more U.S. troops on the ground initially. At the time, he said, they thought it best to leave the number of troops up to the commanders on the ground in Iraq.

Well, Frist, no WMD. Was it a war of necessity or of choice? The Senator answered: "To me, it was a necessity that we remove this tyrant." He reiterated the theme the President had been sounding since before the invasion, that the removal of Saddam Hussein would transform the Middle East.

Russert, of course, wasn't buying it. What happens, Frist, when we have democracy sweeping the world but we don't like the results? Senator Frist admitted disappointment in the electoral success of Hamas in the Palestinian Authority, but he pointed out that this shows the rise of "Islamic terrorism." He did caution, however, that he doesn't know if the election of Hamas were related to security concerns, corruption in the P.A., or the desire on behalf of the Palestinians to see more terrorism.

On the NSA, Russert asked Frist if it were okay just to ignore laws that a President thinks are outdated. The Senator explained that he doesn't think FISA applies to current circumstances, and that the President derives the power to surveil al Qaeda calling the U.S. from his Constitutional powers as Commander in Chief and from the resolution authorizing the use of force against Saddam Hussein. He mentioned that Arlen Specter will be holding hearings which will determine of FISA does apply to the current situation.

Russert pointed out that Senators Vitter and Collins have complained that the White House is not cooperating with their investigation of what went wrong with disaster relief after hurricane Katrina. Frist said that the White House should give the Senators all the information they requested and that the response from all levels of government should be investigated.

Frist portrayed the President as "pro-growth" rather than conservative, adding that the federal government was taking in more revenue now than it ever had because of that growth. He faulted entitlement spending for eating the budget, and he mentioned that the war and Katrina have cost money, as well. Russert asked why the Democrats should increase the debt ceiling when spending is not under control. Frist answered that the Democrats simply want to raise taxes. They will not address entitlement spending.

Russert hammered Frist for political grandstanding over Terry Schiavo, of issuing his own diagnosis based on a televised videotape. Frist explained that the tape he reviewed was not the TV footage, but rather some made by a neurologist who argued that she was not in a persistent vegetative state. All the Congress did, Frist explained, was attempt to allow the evidence to be reviewed using modern methods so that a determination could be made. Terry's blood relatives, after all, objected to removing the feeding tube. But Frist conceded that the "American people don't want you involved in these decisions."

Frist said he'll go home after the Senate term is up and consider a Presidential run.

HOWARD DEAN ON FNS. FOX News Sunday host Chris Wallace spoke to DNC boss Howard Dean, who appeared to have taken his medication. He suggested that Democrats share the Republicans concern that Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization, but added that they should be "prodded into being a responsible government." He wants to prod a bunch of dudes with masks and semi-automatic rifles. Good luck with that.

Dean declared that we've not enough troops in Afghanistan, thus we've been allowing Osama bin Laden to – Dean's expression – "lollygag." I've used the word in the past, but never to describe the activities of a terrorist mastermind. But this is Dean's World.

General Michael Hayden recently told the Heritage Foundation that the disputed NSA program was a legitimate anti-terror tool. Dean told Wallace: "I don't know General Hayden, but it's been reported that the NSA taps into the phone bank for patterns…" Dean made it clear that the Democrats now support the program and efforts to stop terrorists, but that they want the President to "follow the rules."

Dean suggested that the President "shaded the truth" about Jack Abramoff. He proclaimed that the President had lots of photographs taken with Jack Abramoff, which proves that the two know each other well. Dean asserted of Abramoff: "He's met with Karl Rove in the past." (He seemed uncertain, but he declared it anyway.) "It's a Republican scandal," Dean insisted, but any Democrats who might have been involved should be punished.

THUNE AND PENCE ON FNS. For the other side of the story, Wallace interviewed Senator John Thune of South Dakota and Representative Mike Pence of Indiana. Pence opened by asserting that the GOP had a "commitment to fiscal discipline." Thune agreed and stated that the real problem was entitlements.

Wallace asked Pence about a quite wherein the Policy Committee chairman stated that the President was a conservative man who did not govern as a per se conservative. Pence explained that President Bush has not "practiced a conservative agenda at home."

Wallace asked Pence if the "dirty little secret" was that the GOP liked spending as much as do the Dems. Pence called for the repeal of the Budget Act of 1974 and the reinstatement of the line item veto ("bring back the line item veto").

Thune suggested that the House and Senate would have a spirited debate about earmarks, and that they do not enforce the rules they have.

Wallace wanted to know why the White House refuses to release all of its records regarding contacts with Jack Abramoff. Thune said that they should release every record, but not the photographs, as they would wind up misused in Democrat political ads.

Pence agreed that all the records should be released, and he campaigned for John Shadegg to be the next House Majority Leader: "He came in '94 and never lost his zeal for reform." Wallace joked that he would not charge Pence for the commercial airtime.

POTUS ON FTN. FTN Host Bob Schieffer interviewed the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush in the Cabinet Room. The President said that Hamas must get rid of its armed wing and its vow to destroy Israel, "or we won't deal with them…. We won't be providing help to a government that wants to destroy our allies and friends." He described elections as a "windowpane" into the condition of societies, and he attributed the election of Hamas to the corruption and lack of security. Schieffer asked the President about prodding – he didn't use the Dean word – Hamas, and the President says that he is talking to them.

The President said that we have to talk to the government of Iran and to the people of Iran. Separately. To the people, he said that we have to tell them that we don't want to run their lives but we want them to be free. To the government, he said that they have to play by the rules if they want to join the civilized nations.

Schieffer said that public opinion turned against the war last summer. The President explained that people were seeing deaths but no progress. In his role as "Educator in Chief," he's trying to get the word out.

Schieffer asked Bush if there were anything a President could not do if he deemed it necessary. The President admitted limits: assassinations, torture. It is a Constitutional question, he said: during war, can the President do what he has to do to protect the American people?

He didn't design the program, he said tacitly, but he reviewed it after it was proposed to him.

He talked about his duty to "do what he can to protect the American people with the tools provided to me." That was a better answer to the earlier question about doing whatever he thinks necessary.

The President agrees with the NY Times' Tom Friedman that we have to wean ourselves off foreign sources of oil. (The President used the term "hydrocarbons.")

Schieffer quoted Hubert Humphrey and accused President Bush of "losing the moral high ground." The President called Abu Ghraib, "a disgrace." He said that Hubert Humphrey was right, in that the actions we take elsewhere define who we are.

The President called Hillary: "formidable."

Schieffer asked if the Presidency had changed him. Bush replied: "I hope not. No, that's not the right thing to say." It hasn't changed his values, who he is, he said; and he said he'd do it again in an instant: "I highly recommend this job."

My favorite quote was regarding his wife, First Lady Laura Bush, whom he holds in the highest of esteem: "I've got a 45 second commute home, so we spend a lot of time together."

He and Schieffer spoke of more personal things on the lawn of a little dog in the grass behind them. The President said some nice things about Bill Clinton, shared Schieffer's little joke that if Hillary is elected, the Presidential line of succession would go: "Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton."

It was a candid interview, a look at our President. Nothing sensational, nothing angry, nothing bitter. One of the downsides to being President is that he can't just pop down to Walmart like the rest of us.

DAN BARTLETT ON LE. CNN's Wolf Blitzer first talked to Presidential Counselor Dan Bartlett on his Late Edition program. Blitzer suggested that the U.S. might "regret what it wished for" after democracy in the Middle East gave us Hamas elected in the Palestinian Authority. Bartlett acknowledged that this was a "earthquake" (Blitzer's word) and a "wakeup call," adding that Hamas has to reject the terrorist aspects of their policy and lead.

Secretary Rice is meeting with the "Quartet," those who gave the region the famous "road map" so that they "speak with a united voice."

Blitzer suggested a democratically elected "Shi'ite led theocratic autocracy aligned with Iran" was about to take control of Iraq. Bartlett said that he believes in the end of the say, the three groups – Shi'ites, Kurds, Sunnis –- would come together to form a government.

Blitzer asked Bartlett about the "overstretched military" report. Bartlett acknowledged that "we're asking a lot" of our military, but pointed out that we're doing "quite well" in the areas of retention, recruitment, and morale. The "military is going through a rapid transformation," he said, during wartime.

Blitzer talked about "surveillance" and played a clip of Al Gore asserting that "the President of the United States has been breaking the law repeatedly and with insistence." Blitzer tacked Specter onto Gore's theme, and Bartlett reacted with "relief that he's [Gore] not President of the United States" at a time when we had to be serious.

Bartlett argued that the President has the authority to surveil the enemy as is necessary to protect the United States of America. Blitzer asked him why he doesn't go to Congress. Bartlett explained that it would be impossible to do this without "compromising the very nature of this program."

After the commercial, Blitzer played a clip of Joe Lieberman complaining that the federal response to Hurricane Katrina was "pathetically slow." He wants the WH to turn over all documents to Congress. Bartlett argued that Congress wanted internal documents. Blitzer said that then Lieberman and Susan Collins won't get the documents they want. Bartlett said he thinks Collins would be satisfied, but he said nothing about the Democrat Lieberman.

Blitzer demanded that the WH release the snaps of the President and Abramoff. Bartlett said that they weren't "relevant to the investigation." Blitzer asked about docs concerning the meetings between Abramoff and "various White House staff." Again, not relevant.

Blitzer played a clip of Chuckie Schumer complaining about the "appearance of impropriety" and impugning the integrity of the WH prosecutors. Bartlett pointed out that Schumer was head of the Senate Dems' campaign committee.

Bartlett said that from the President's State of the Union speech, we'll take away that we're living in extraordinary times and that America should lead, not have things dictated to us.

ROBERTS AND BIDEN ON LE. Wolf next spoke to Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts of Kansas and Foreign Affairs Committee ranking Dem Joe Biden. (Biden is just back from watching the Hamas elections.)

Joe Biden accused Hamas of being a terrorist group and suggested that "we do what the President says" and ignore them. He said that Hamas didn't expect to be elected and now are faced with a tough choice: whether to be the government and work with the international community.

Roberts thinks the victory occurred for Hamas was because "they provide social services." He said that "Joe is right," Hamas is a terrorist organization. "It's difficult to put democracy down like Astroturf on a rocky soil where it's never been before."

Joe Biden said, "An election does not a democracy make." It's "about compromise, it's about process."

Blitzer went into the "overstretched" deal. Joe Biden argued that they've "been overstretched since the time they walked in." He said that the military feels this way, as well. And we're "not taking advantage of the international community" by having them put political pressure on the factions to come together.

Roberts argued that the number of troops is not the question so much as having troops with the proper specialties. That was a problem at first, he argued, adding that the Iraqis "are getting fed up with Mr. Zarqawi."

Blitzer suggested that Saddam's trial was "becoming a circus." Roberts agreed and said that the Iraqis have to get it under control.

Joe Biden said he does not know enough facts to make a judgment on whether or not the President has broken the law. (He helped write the FISA law in '79.) He complained that there is a new bit of information coming out of the intelligence community on this matter. He thinks that the President spying on anyone he suspects to be al Qaeda for the duration of this war goes against what we believe in as a country.

Roberts criticized the New York Times for publishing the secret information, and he strongly asserted that "this is not domestic spying." He argued that using the FISA court is "fine for criminal proceedings."

Joe Biden will vote to continue the debate on Judge Alito, but for him, he said, it's largely a symbolic vote. It's a done deal, and he thinks it will not divide the Democrats. He doesn't think Alito is on the best, but he criticized the filibuster attempt as "not the best thing to do." Both Joe Biden and John Kerry want to be President, and Biden is positioning himself as the rational candidate and Kerry as the lunatic.

OBAMA ON TW. On ABC, THIS WEEK host George Stephanopoulos spoke to Illinois Dem Senator Barack Obama. Steph showed an ABC News/WashPost poll result for a single question: Should the country go in Bush's direction or the Dems'? Fifty-one percent of those surveyed want the country to follow the lead of the Democrats, while only 35% selected President Bush's direction. (There were no specifics about what those directions actually were, and one doubts that pollsters or journalists, or folks called at dinnertime, know these things.) He asked for "a paragraph" Obama wants to hear in the President's SofU. Obama wants the President to discuss two things: health care and education. And, he added, energy independence. "We have not had a serious energy initiative out of this President," Obama insisted.

Obama said he will vote against cloture on Monday because he thinks Judge Alito is "contrary to core American values." Obama wants "checks on the executive." He added that the Dems have to do a better job of convincing the American people that their values are under attack; it was because they have failed to do this, he said, that "Judge Alito will be confirmed."

Steph repeated reports he's heard that Obama is arguing against the filibuster strategy inside the Dem caucus. Obama said he won't tell what happens in caucus, but he argued against measures to block the President (obstruction) instead of offering a proactive agenda.

Steph quoted the Washington Note blog about Reid's rejection of a bipartisan effort to reform lobbying. Obama accused the Republicans of "muddying the waters" by saying that the Dems engaged in the bad practices when it is a purely Republican scandal. He added, though, that "the Democrats are not without sin."

Steph then suggested that it was a lie that Harry Reid had given Obama "marching orders" to make an issue out of this rather than get this something done. Obama said that Reid knows him well enough to know that this wouldn't happen, that he wants to work with Republicans "who are serious about wanting reform."

Obama would not say that he and Reid "are on the same page," but he did express that he thinks Reid wants to rid Washington of corruption.

Steph asked Obama about wiretapping and if it could become a losing issue for Dems. He said that Dems care about national security but also care about the Constitution. They don't want to give the President a "blank check." He has kids, he says, so he cares as much about preventing terrorism as the President.

Obama wants to "draw the right balance," citing agreement with McCain and Specter. He thinks the President "is in violation of the FISA law." He wants to know what the President is doing so he doesn't overstep the boundaries and pry into American life.

Obama agrees with the President that we should cut off aid to the Palestinian government unless or until it amends its charter, recognizing Israel and renouncing terrorism. He hopes that now that the Palestinians are faced with day-to-day realities of governance, they'll wake up to reality.

CHUCK HAGEL ON TW. Steph next spoke to maverick Republican Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. Hagel said that we have a law against assisting foreign organizations which engage in terrorism, and Hamas will have to recognize Israel, renounce terrorism, and reform or the world will reject them. He expressed optimism that the new reality facing Hamas will change them. Steph suggested that Hamas would then turn to Iran. Hagel admitted that they probably would but added that the world of foreign affairs is complex.

Steph asked Hagel about "creative diplomacy." Hagel hopes that the Administration is quietly working on ways to "break the impasse with Iran." And working to change Hmas (Dean's "prodding"?). He said that we cannot isolate the problems with Iran from the problems with Iraq from Israel's problems. They're all interconnected, which was a thesis that has been expressed by Hagel's foreign policy mentor, Joe Biden (among many others).

He sees the need to find "common interests" between these countries. And the United States.

Steph played a Karl Rove clip about Republicans living in a "post-911 world" and the Dems in a "pre-911 world." Hagel complained that Rove had framed terrorism "in a political context." He thinks National Security is not a political question. Steph accused Bush and Rove of using it as a political matter for the '06 elections, and Hagel predicted defeat.

Hagel criticized the President's refusal to work with Congress on his problems with FISA. He declared that Congress and the President are "co-equal" on questions of national security. He thinks the President does not have the authority to circumvent the FISA just because he thinks it is outdated.

Hagel wants the President to release the snaps taken with Abramoff and all the meetings, etc.

Hagel wants the President to address health care, deficit spending, "open fair trade," a "Manhattan Project focus" for energy – and unfortunate choice of words when Iran is threatening to open a nuclear program, it says for energy but the world argues for weapons. But he says he's written a letter to the President about it.

Hagel concluded by saying that when one weakens or debases the "currency" of trust, they cannot govern.

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Have at it.