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By Mark Kilmer Posted in Special Features — Comments (29) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was first up on FOX News Sunday, and she explained that we have made progress against the Axis of Evil, despite Iran and NK pursuing nukes actively, because we have removed Saddam Hussein united the world against Iran and North Korea. JF Kerry told Chris Wallace that we should jawbone one-on-one with Pyongyang because it worked for President Reagan with Mikhail Gorbachev.

On MTP an TW, Ambassador John Bolton refuted allegations in the WashPost that the recently passed UNSC Resolution against North Korea was meaningless because the PRC was going to ignore it.

On TW, Congressman Harold Ford defended taping campaign commercials in church and distributing the Ten Commandments on campaign literature. Bob Corker said he was the one who best represents Tennessee values. Ford says he's never partied at the Playboy Mansion.

On MTP, Minnesota Republican Senate candidate Mark Kennedy told Russert that we can't "play rewind with reality" and enter his hypothetical world where the CIA decides before the vote to go to war that Iraq has no WMD. Amy Klobuchar, the DFL candidate, wants the Senate to authorize the Joint Chiefs of Staff to overrule the President (Commander-in-chief) on the Iraq war.

On FTN, the New York Times' David Sanger insisted that the United States blew its best chance to attack North Korea before we went into Iraq. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told him that we wanted to handle this diplomatically and we had to "build a coalition which had just the right amounts of sticks and carrots."

Also on FTN, John Warner said that the PRC wanted world clout, and "this is there test": how they handle the resolution and border searches. Sam Nunn said that North Korea had built its nuclear program because they are paranoid, afraid we are going to attack them.

On LE, Blitzer offered Bolton the opportunity to retract his comparison of North Korea's hissy fit, stomping out of the U.N., with Soviet dictator Nikita Khrushchev's shoe pounding incident at the U.N. in 1960. Bolton would not and seemed amuse that Blitzer would seriously insist that he retract it.

Also on LE, Carl Levin noted of Iraq: "If they're going to have a civil war, they'll have to do it without us." Chuck Hagel agreed with Levin on every point but was tricked by a clever Blitzer into admitting he was a Republican. He did hint, however, that he though a Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin could help remove politics from the equation of the Iraq war.

READ THE REST beneath the fold...

SECRETARY RICE ON FNS. Chris Wallace's first guest on FOX News Sunday this morning was Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. They started with the sanctions, which he said stopped short of threatening military intervention and did not contained the Japan-backed sweeping trade restrictions: "Do you really think that preventing Kim Jung Il from getting his cognac is going to stop his nuclear ambitions?"

She replied that this regime likes luxury for itself while starving its people, so this probably "got their attention." She said it was bigger than that, though, as it showed that the world was united against North Korea. It also leaves open the option of NK rejoining the six-party-talks and implemented the 2005 Joint Statement.

Wallace pointed out that the PRC was not going to run border inspections on its border with North Korea. Rice explained that this was a "remarkable unity" and some of the details have to be worked out. She added that the PRC agreed to the resolution, so she's sure that they will enforce it. "This is the toughest action that China as ever signed onto" with regards to North Korea.

Wallace asked if the US would be willing to from a "coalition of the willing," outside the UN, to "interdict all shipments in and out of North Korea." Rice is going to the region to work on enforcing the Chapter 7 resolution with which we are satisfied. She said that we may need to take "other steps," depending on "North Korea's behavior."

The picture and the audio were breaking up, and Wallace cut to a commercial.

Coming back, Wallace played the clip of the 2002 State of the Union speech, the "Axis of Evil." He said Iraq had no WMD and North Korea and Iran were building nukes apace. Hasn't Bush failed? Rice answered that the world thought Iraq had WMD and Iraq had used WMD in the past. "Iraq is not a WMD threat." Iran, she said, was under international pressure to knock it off. It is multi-lateral. With NK, which has been pursuing nukes since maybe the 1960s, we have a "coalition of State" pressuring them.

Compared to 2002, Wallace insisted, Iran and North Korea had become more dangerous. Rice countered that having the PRC, Russia, and the whole world united against Iran and NK has somehow made us less successful against the Axis of Evil.

WALLACE AND JOHN KERRY, REPORTING FOR DUTY. Wallace's next guest was an irrelevant has-been, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts. He went straight to Kerry, in studio, after disconnecting with Secretary Rice.

Kerry said that North Korea was a "renegade nation." He thinks the Administration is "living in a world of make-believe, Fred." He said the United States has lost its credibility and leverage because or Iraq, so we're having trouble with Iran and North Korea because we cannot bring countries together in the way that we used to. "This Administration... is allowing North Korea to get away with doing what it's doing." The sanctions are not tough and bold. He said that the PRC would refuse to enforce the border because "it's too dangerous for [the] region."

What would he do differently? He said he'd do what he's said he would do for the last five years: "Engage in bilateral, face-to-face negotiations with North Korea." This leads me personally on wonder if he would "jawbone them," as he promised he would do to the Arabs if they didn't cut gas prices back in 2004. He would make it clear to North Korea that "we are not intending to invade and have a regime change." And he would work on the "entire set of issues which have been outstanding since the armistice with the North." (The armistice was signed on July 27, 1953.) In other words, Kerry wants us to tell the North Koreans that they've done nothing wrong and we want to make up for the bad things we've done over the past 53 years.)

Wallace played a clip from Kerry's 2004 campaign where he said we had to build alliances, "not go-it-alone." He asked him if it weren't still the best course to go multi-lateral instead of bilateral. John Kerry answered that just like President Reagan would negotiate one-on-one with the Soviet Union, so we should negotiate with North Korea. The man stuns me. He wants to retreat into Cold War tactics when there is no enemy like the Soviet Union had been. Besides the obvious geopolitical differences, look at the leaders. Soviet dictator Mikhail Gorbachev was arguably sander than is North Korean totalitarian Kim Jung Il.

Sorry. There's nothing to be gained from this drivel.

JOHN BOLTON ON MTP & TW. U.N. Ambassador John Bolton was first up on both NBC's Meet the Press and ABC's This Week. Russert quoted from a Washington Post piece describing the recently passed sanctions against North Korea as "water[ed] down" and charging that the PRC ("China") would selectively enforce them, ignoring the part about border inspections. On MTP, Bolton said that the resolution was "under Chapter 7," thus the PRC had to abide by it. On TW, he pointed out that the PRC had voted for the sanctions and has an obligation to enforce it. They can inspect on the border as they wish, he said, and we will see what the PRC does. (This seemed to indicate that Bolton thinks the PRC's public statements were for show and that they will go along with the resolution.) He said to Steph: "I can't believe you're saying the China won't enforce the measure." Steph pleaded that he was only reading the WashPost.

Bolton added that Pyongyang's nuclear test "has to be humiliating" to the PRC.

On MTP, where Russert wanted to underscore his notion that the President wants to invade everything, Bolton told Russert that the President wants a "peaceful and diplomatic solution," and that the "choice is in North Korea's hands." Russert wanted Bolton to pledge "retaliation" if Pyongyang sells nuclear material. Bolton said that we'll protect ourselves (without the UN), but with the UN, "we're trying to get North Korea to see reason." Impossible, but so like the United Nations.

On TW, Bolton stressed "multi-lateral diplomacy."

On MTP, Russert asked: "Will North Korea have a nuclear bomb when George Bush leaves office?" Bolton said that we'll "ratchet up the pressure" and "increase North Korea's isolation."

FORD AND CORKER ON TAPE ON TW. Steph did another of his skits where he interviews both candidates in a Senate race and rolls the tape. This time, he talked to Harold Ford and Bob Corker in Tennessee. Ford said that he filmed an ad in a church and printed the Ten Commandments on campaign literature because he knows "the difference between right and wrong." He grew up in a church, he said, and though he's flawed, he derives strength from someone Who is not. He wants to reduce abortions after the first three months and faulted the Republicans for doing nothing on this. Steph mentioned the Partial Birth Abortion ban, which Ford initially voted against, and Ford said that he's seen the light and realized it was wrong. (If it works for Romney...) Ford loves his family, he says, but is not a part of the corruption. And, he says, he's never partied at the Playboy Mansion.

Corker pointed out that Ford has been a politician from birth, and his voting record differs from his campaign rhetoric. His race with Ford, he says, is about "sending to Washington someone shaped by Tennessee values."

KENNEDY VS. KLOBUCHAR ON MTP. Republican Congressman Mark Kennedy sat next to his opponent, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota's Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) party. They're running for the U.S. Senate, and Russert talked to them about... Iraq.

First a little Pyongyang. Russert wanted Kennedy to say that the "Bush policy" would be a failure if he leaves office with Pyongyang possessing a nuclear device. Klobuchar said that we have to "keep ratcheting things up," which is the Bush policy. She did argue that we have to speak directly to North Korea like when we spoke directly to "Russia" during the Cold War. I'm not certain how she can equate the two geopolitical situations, so it is doubtful that she knows what she's saying.

Russert quoted Kennedy as saying, in 2003, that we were making progress in Iraq. "That's just dead wrong," Russert stated. Kennedy responded that it was right at the time. Russert accused him of wearing "rose-colored glasses," as we are not at all making great strides in Iraq. Kennedy responded that every time he goes back to Iraq, they are further along in the process of assuming control of their country, more troops trained, etc.

Russert asked his favorite GOTCHA question, the asinine hypothetical: If the CIA had told you then that there were no WMD in Iraq, would you have voted to invade? Kennedy told Russert: "You can't play rewind in the real world." He added that everyone believed that Saddam possessed WMD.

Klobuchar declared it a "civil war" in Iraq and pushed for a political and diplomatic solution. Russert pointed to a Kennedy statement last year in which the Congressman predicted that a "significant number of troops" would be home by the end of this year. "You were WRONG."

Klobuchar said that she wanted the Senate to authorize the Joint Chiefs of Staff to overrule the President with regards to the number of troops in Iraq. She wants them to draw up a plan to bring the troops home. "This is a civil war!"

CONDI RICE ON FTN, , Bob Schieffer opened Face the Nation on CBS by interviewing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Schieffer outlined the sanctions and asked Rice: "How will this be enforced?" She said that it was under Chapter 7 and was a 15-0 vote. "It will be enforced because members are under obligation to enforce it." She said that they would set up a committee to "iron things out" and work on the sanctions.

Schieffer wanted to know if the U.S. would board ships going to and from North Korea. Rice said we had to work out the details.

Then along came David Sanger of the New York Times, who said that the PRC has said that they would ignore the resolution. Rice told him that the PRC is bound by the resolution and will "undoubtedly carry out its responsibilities." Sanger averred that the United States blew its last chance to attack North Korea right before we invaded Iraq. Rice said that this was best handled diplomatically; we had to "build a coalition which had just the right amounts of sticks and carrots."

Schieffer asked what we do if North Korea declares war on us. The Secretary responded that Pyongyang "says a lot of things," and that there problem was with the world, not with the United States alone.

WARNER AND NUNN ON FTN. With David Sanger of the New York Times along to help ask questions, Schieffer chatted with Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner (R-Georgia) and former Senator Same Nunn (D-Georgia), currently Ted Turner's partner in something called the Nuclear Threat Initiative.

First Warner, who pointed out that the PRC is seeking world clout: "This is their test." He thinks we should move from a strategy of non-proliferation to one of deterrence, and we should get the world involved.

Nunn thinks the sanctions are "timely" and the unanimous UNSC agreement is "very important" and "sends a strong signal." He wants to get rid of all nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula, which is probably why Turner is paying him. He said that North Korea is important. He agrees with strong sanctions and we have to reassure Japan and South Korea that we'll take care of them.

Schieffer suggested that we sign a treaty with North Korea promising that we won't attack them. Nunn called them "paranoid" and afraid that we will attack them. This is why they're building their nuclear program, he said: to protect themselves from us.

Schieffer asked if the PRC will have to enforce their border with North Korea. Warner observed that a "chain is only as strong as its weakest link."

Warner stood buy his statement that "we're going sideways" in Iraq, not forward or back. He said that we're trying to take a "conventional-type military thinking" and apply it to an insurgency.

Sanger asked him what is the middle course between "stay the course" and "cut and run." Warner stressed that we can't let Iraq's oil supply become a "cash cow for international terrorism." Nunn pointed out that the "Baker-Hamilton report," when it is released, will be "very important." From the outside, Nunn said, it appears to him that a phased withdrawal negotiated with the Iraqi government is the way to go He said that now, with the Shi'ites involved, this has become a regional conflict, not just an Iraqi one.

BOLTON ON LE. Blitzer called it "the escalating crisis with North Korea," and he asked Ambassador John Bolton if this resolution precludes the use of force. Bolton said that this resolution was to impose sanctions. Military force was not now a part of the equation. He explained to Wolf that the resolution neither increases nor deceases current interdictions "on the high seas."

Blitzer played a clip of PRC Ambassador Wang Guangya saying that it would not per se run border inspections. Bolton replied that the PRC had voted for the resolution and it is binding. "The burden is on China to comply with the resolution," Bolton reminded. He does not think they'd vote for it then say they wouldn't enforce it.

Wolf quoted the Russian foreign minister as saying that sanctions would disappear if they returned to the six-party talks. Bolton pointed out that the resolution left that option open. Blitzer said that there was a rift. Bolton pointed out that Russia had "voted for that paragraph, too."

Blitzer asked Bolton if he wanted to revise his statement that North Korea stomping out of the U.N. was like Khrushchev banging his shoe on a U.N. table in 1960. Bolton said that they were the same kind of statement.

Blitzer: "Then you don't want to retract or amend that?"
Bolton: "No."

John Bolton smiled a little in amusement.

---- COMMERCIAL BREAK ----

Bolton then played vid Pak Gil Yon, Pyongyang's ambassador to the U.N., rejected the resolution from his seat. Bolton pointed out that he had called the UNSC "gangster-like" and accused the U.S. of bullying everyone else into accepting the resolution. He said that he hoped the ambassador's speech does not reflect the "considered response" of Pyongyang. Blitzer played another clip of the ambassador, this one showing him threatening "counter measures" and "war." Bolton said that he hopes this was just "rhetoric."

Blitzer played a clip of Hillary blaming the President's "failed policy" for our problems with North Korea. Bolton turned down the opportunity to refute it directly, but he pointed out that President Bush had to deal with the realities forced upon the world by the failed 1994 agreement, which North Korea violated "before the ink was dry."

HAGEL AND LEVIN. Blitzer next spoke to Carl Levin, who found fault with "just about everything" John Bolton had said. He called the resolution weak. He suggested that Bolton had said that we had met one-on-one with North Korea after the President insisted that we wouldn't. Levin wants to meet one-on-one with NK.

Chuck Hagel was next. He called the UN resolution weak and said that we have to negotiate one-on-one with NK. Sanctions won't work, he said. Although the six-party talks are important, "we are the great power, we are the adult power" and have to have a "bilateral conversation" with them. He dismissed the talks mentioned by Bolton as "side talks" which were only part of the six-party talks.

He agreed with James Baker, that "we must engage our enemies."

He played John McCain pointing out that Clinton's one-on-one talks with NK were rewards to the North Koreans and made matters worse. Levin argued that Clinton was partially successful, saying that Clinton moved them from Plutonium to Uranium, and he said Colin Powell liked the Clinton strategy.

Blitzer asked Hagel if he blamed Bush for the crisis. Hagel said that we should put this all behind us, as it is too important "to be held captivate to politics." He praised Clinton's efforts but allowed that North Korea cheated a little.

He wants to build on success and be bipartisan.

---- COMMERCIAL BREAK ----

Levin agrees with British Army General Richard Dannatt whom Levin insists thinks we have to cut and run because our troops are making things worse. He said that the British generals know best "because they've been to war." (For General Dannatt's explanation of what he actually mean, see this article in the San Francisco Chronicle.) On Iraq, he noted: "If they're going to have a civil war, they have to do it without us."

Blitzer played a clip of John Warner, who was in Iraq with Levin, saying that if Iraq doesn't change in the next few months, violence reduced, we will have to look for a way to get out. Hagel agrees with what Warner said, which he thinks is what Levin said. Hagel pointed out that our U.N. mandate is up by the end of the year. He said that the Middle East was in worse shape than at any time since 1948.

Levin said that "we're on a downward spiral in Iraq. We're not succeeding in Iraq." He said that we have to pressure the Iraqis "to make those difficult decisions and compromises."

Blitzer accused Hagel of being a Republican and insisted that his party was in deep trouble because a CNN poll does not approve of Iraq or the President's handling thereof, and they also think BushLied™. Hagel has to be deeply concerned, Blitzer insisted.

Hagel said that the Republicans are accountable. He hopes that the Republicans win enough seats to stay in the majority, but he agrees with the people. If the people don't trust the Republicans, they should be in the minority. He hinted that with Carl Levin as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the country could start to come together and find a solution.
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Have at it.