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Joe Biden admonishing Tim Russert: "Look, this is not a game show."

By Mark Kilmer Posted in Special Features — Comments (17) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Joe Biden was pure Joe Biden on MTP, and we're not sure what that was all about. He likes Roe v. Wade and trimester-theory as a "template." Tim Russert asked him why he had been "so wrong" about voting for the Iraq resolution, and Biden explained that all the evidence pointed to Saddam possessing WMD, and global intelligence agreed: "This was not some Cheney pipe dream. They [Iraqis] had them [WMD] catalogued."

On FNS, John McCain would not talk about being accused of flip-flopping by Mitt Romney, would mention that he ran around the rim of the Grand Canyon, and said that he does not throw temper tantrums.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, appearing with George Stephanopoulos on TW, talked of Tenet and "imminence" -- "the question of imminence is not one of whether somebody's going to strike tomorrow" – and asserted that the President made the decision to invade Iraq based on "totality" of the situation with Saddam Hussein in Iraq. (Didn't the American lefties scream about WMD?)

Next on TW, Senator Sam Brownback stressed the need to "aggressively" push for a political solution. Senator Russ Feingold intoned that "American troops are dying for no good reason. … They are being sacrificed because people want political comfort in Washington."

On FTN, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice talked about George Tenet's book in which he evidently freaks out in his paranoia about "slam dunk." Rice said that she took the "slam dunk" comment to mean only that Tenet thought the evidence against Saddam was pretty strong. Everyone else thought that, as well. She's going to resist Hank Waxman's subpoena, and she does not rule out talking to the Iranians in Egypt next week.

Jack Murtha was next on FTN, and he's still unglued. He said that the Administration has intimidated our military into lying according to an Administration script. Murtha threatened impeachment if nothing else convinced the President to do things the Jack Murtha way.

On LE, Blitzer pointed out that Clinton (Bill)'s peeps had warned that the sanctions against Saddam were working but Bush invaded anyway. Secretary replied that the sanctions had clearly not been working – Oil for Food was an example – and that the choice the Administration faced was to stop the problem now or wait until later when it was much more dangerous.

Read below the fold for the show-by-show review….

JOE BIDEN ON MTP. Host Tim Russert's first guest on NBC's meet the press was Joe Biden. Russert asked him about the version of the Pelosi-Murtha war supplemental passed by the Senate. Joe Biden explained that the function of the bill was to try to force the President to strange his strategy. He wants our military to train Iraqis, fight al Qaeda, and decentralize the Iraqi government in accordance with the Leslie Gelb-Joe Biden Iraqi Confederacy plan.

Russert played clips from January when Joe Biden told him that it was probably Unconstitutional to micromanage the war, usurping the President's power as Commander in Chief. Biden explained that Congress has "the responsible to tell him [President Bush] what the mission is."

Joe Biden pushed the plan developed by Leslie Gelb and adopted by Joe Biden which calls for decentralizing the government of Iraq so that the main power to govern belongs to the three main factions separately. Joe Biden said that right now, he would not vote to shut off funding for the effort and would not vote to withdraw all troops.

Russert quoted Biden from 2002 as declaring that Saddam Hussein had to go. "I was right," responded Joe Biden. Everyone though Saddam had WMD, he explained: "This was not some Cheney pipe dream. They had them [WMD] catalogued." In other words, the evidence pointed to Saddam having WMD.

Joe Biden said we needed the international community to keep Saddam "in the box," to pressure them to keep up the sanctions on Saddam's government.

Russert: "How could you, as a U.S. Senator, have been so wrong?"

Joe Biden explained that he wasn't wrong, and that Saddam was a threat.

Russert: "How was he a threat?"

Joe Biden explained that Saddam could have purchased nukes, which he had developed the power to deliver. Joe Biden explained that Saddam was a threat because he violated every UN sanction passed against him. "He did have material which could theoretically be weaponized."

Joe Biden accused the President of having "deliberately misused" intelligence by not reporting the doubts. Joe Biden explained: "I voted to give the President authority to avoid war." He explained how the Biden-Lugar plan, much less warlike than what eventually passed, was undermined by Joe Lieberman and Dick Gephardt.

Russert asked if we were safer with Saddam Hussein gone. Joe Biden answered that we are less safe because we have lost readiness and global credibility. He emphasized: "We are worse off than we were when we had Saddam sitting there." (He threw in the requisite bits about Saddam being evil, special place in hell, etc.)

Russert played the clip of Harry Reid saying the war is lost. Joe Biden said Reid does not speak for him. Russert asked Joe Biden if he believes the war is lost, and Biden's answer deserves an ovation:

"Look, this is not a game show."

Biden complained that the way we leave Iraq is important, as it will mean whether his son and his grandson will have to go. (He mentioned that his active-duty son might be sent.)

Russert insisted that Biden admit that the war is lost, but Biden said that "we have to salvage our interests." He asked what is a loss. No democracy? "We lost that before we ever got there," meaning democracy is impossible for Iraq in Biden's world. He said that it is not lost, because we can still achieve stability.

Russert pointed out that the Baker-Hamilton commission says his Iraq plan wouldn't work. Joe Biden retorted that James "Baker is in the minority." He boasted that Hank Kissinger and Maddy Albright had signed onto "his" plan.

Joe Biden said he supports the ban on partial-birth abortions, but he does not like Justice Kennedy's dicta in the recent decision. He supports Roe v. Wade, he said, because the trimester formula is the only way to keep society together on this issue. He likes Roe as a "template." He mentioned Aquinas and Pius IX, and said that he believes viability begins at conception on faith, but he conceded that he has trouble with that formulation.

JOHN AND CINDY MCCAIN ON FNS. John and Cindy McCain were Chris Wallace's guests on FOX News Sunday this morning. McCain talked about embattled Presidencies "circling the wagons." He talked of loyalty as important, but loyalty has to go both ways and cannot override what is best for the country. Yes, this was Alberto Gonzales chatter.

As President, John McCain says he will improve our global image. To do so, he will shut down Gitmo and sign onto the global left's entire line concerning global warming.

On torture, Wallace quoted George Tenet's new book as saying that the various techniques (waterboarding, etc.) were necessary to gain tremendously useful intelligence from high value captives. McCain disagreed, saying that no matter how valuable the intelligence, the torture is not justified. And it damages our international image. (Doesn't pass the global test?) He took a swipe at President Bush's lack of military experience: "Anyone who's been to war [says no to torture]."

Wallace told McCain that Mitt Romney was accusing him of flip-flopping on various issues. He asked: "How do you feel about being accused of flip-flopping by Mitt Romney?" McCain dismissed it: "I'm not going to get into that. My record speaks for itself."

Repealing the President's tax cuts, McCain said, would be a tax increase. Wallace asked him if he pledged "no new taxes," and McCain answered: "Of course." Then he said that he doesn't take pledges.

Asked about his age, McCain seemed to take a shot at his friend, Fred Thompson, when he said that there was "no room for on-the-job training." Cindy said that "age isn't a factor at all," explaining that her husband had just run the rim of the Grand Canyon. Age will not be a factor in selecting a running mate, McCain said, and he would not commit to serving only a single term. (Such a pledge would give him lame duck status going in, he said. Plus, he has just said that he doesn't take pledges.)

Wallace asked Senator McCain about his temper, and of how his colleagues talk about being victim of a "McCain moment." McCain said that Bush had tried the temper bit in 2000, but "it's not true." He has had no "quote, 'temper tantrums.'"

"If I've lost my capacity to anger," McCain explained, "I've lost my ability."

McCain said that "99.6-percent" of journalists are "professional journalists," those who leave their personal views aside when writing a story.

McCain doesn't believe that he's on a mission from God, a pre-ordained President, but he does think he's "here to serve."

SECRETARY RICE ON TW. ABC News' George Stephanopoulos opened this morning's This Week by talking to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. She asked him about the possible compromise on the supplemental. Rice said that he would "certainly" veto a timeline for withdrawal. He's going veto the current version of Pelosi-Murtha, and then he will invite the Congressional leadership down to the White House to haggle. The Iraqis already have the benchmarks but codifying them ties the hands of the General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker.

Steph cited the Washington Post using that old media buddy Ahmed Chalabi as declaring that the Iraqi government was not acting on the matters to which they'd agreed.

She said that we need not wait until September to see how the new Iraq strategy is working.

She described the oil law as being "very close to being completed."

She told Steph that she would not rule out meeting with the Iranian foreign minister at next week's Sharm al Sheikh summit, but this is "not a negotiating session between the United States and Iran." The goal will be to stop the flow of foreign fighters, arms to foreign fighters, IED tech, etc.

Steph began talking about the Tenet book. (More info on that in the sections on Rice's appearances on CBS' Face the Nation and CNN's This Week.)

Looking back, Rice thinks "Iran posed a threat." She did not use the word "imminent," as Steph had asked. She explained that Saddam was not a "benign presence in the Middle East."

"George, the question of imminence is not one of whether somebody's going to strike tomorrow"; rather, it is if the situation will worsen. "This is a threat which needed to be dealt with." It was the "totality" of the Saddam situation which compelled the President to act when he did, but only after he had given the United Nations one last try.

Steph asked Secretary Rice about the Hank Waxman subpoena and the Sixteen Words. She said that she has answered the questions for Hank; she had made clear that the "Niger issue was in the National Intelligence Estimate." She doesn't remember a CIA memo from three months before the State of the Union. She called this "one of the most investigated issues."

She asked people "to go back and read" all that's been written on this issue.

She said that it is an "important Constitutional issue," on of Separation of Powers.

BROWNBACK AND FEINGOLD ON TW. Steph spoke next to Senators Sam Brownback (in New York) and Russ Feingold (in Topeka). Russ said that he's "stunned" that Rice is ignoring the "will of the American people" as expressed last November and by Congress this week. The American people want Congress to end the war with a timeline and he doesn't think they should back down. He accused the President of wanting to fight the war "as long as he wants it," ignoring both Congress and the American people, who want a timeline.

Russ's brain dead canard: "The American people have spoken in November."

Levin and other Congressional Democrats oppose a deadline, Steph pointed out, calling it "political suicide."

Sam Brownback said that after the veto, they'll talk benchmarks. He said that we need to go for a political and diplomatic effort as aggressively as the military effort. He wants Secretary Rice to be engaged in this diplomacy.

Russ intoned: "American troops are dying for no good reason. … They are being sacrificed because people want political comfort in Washington."

Steph asked Russ if he agreed with Senator Reid, "that the war is lost." Russ said that Reid was saying what General Petraeus had said, that the military strategy is not working. He said that we are "losing ground against al Qaeda internationally."

Steph asked Sam Brownback if he thought September should be the deadline for the Iraqis getting their act together, and Brownback did not commit to that month. He agreed, though, that we do not "have infinite time." He called for Bush to pull a Clinton-in-Bosnia and force the Iraqi leadership to take "the hard decisions on the tough issues."

SECRETARY RICE ON FTN. Host Bob Schieffer led CBS' Face the Nation immediately – the opening theme hadn't yet ended – with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in an interview taped earlier this morning.

Schieffer told the Secretary didn't know where to start, as he'd seen no less credible Administration since Watergate. He asked about George Tenet's new book, another assault of the Administration's cred, which says that there wasn't a debate about going to Iraq. Rice explained Saddam's various violations and the attempts to try "other efforts," and the Tenet allegations were not true.

Schieffer played a clip from tonight's 60 Minutes, in which Tenet accuses then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice of not taking him seriously about al Qaeda and the need to attack al Qaeda. Rice replied that this is not what Tenet told the 9-11 Commission, whom he told that the Administration "got it" on al Qaeda.

Schieffer asked, "Why would he say something like that?" Rice said she didn't know.

Schieffer asked about the Slam Dunk comment. Rice said that at the time, it meant to her that Tenet thought the intelligence was strong, like everyone else.

Schieffer asked her about Hank Waxman's subpoena. She replied that the sixteen words have been examined by Robb-Silberman, the Senate Intelligence Committee, etc. She respects the oversight functions of Congress, but "this is a White House issue." She'll resist Hank's subpoena.

Schieffer asked Rice about the President's upcoming veto of Pelosi-Murtha. She asked, "Why tie our own hands… to try to get the right outcome?" Schieffer, playing Devil's Advocate, asked how it hurt us to tell the Iraqis to get their act together or we'll leave. Rice explained that it would incentivize "the wrong people." If we say, "If they don't do this, we have to do that," we "limit our flexibility and creativity."

Schieffer asked her about the international offers of aid for Katrina, why we didn't collect it all, and she said that it was a "new circumstance," and we were grateful for what they had done.

At the upcoming conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, she said, she will not rule out meeting with Iranians; however, "the proper channel" for talk about their nukes was through Javier Solana.

JACK MURTHA ON FTN. Jack Murtha was next for Schieffer. While Secretary Rice had been on tape, Murtha was life.

Okinawa Jack complained that we were overly optimistic about our relations with Iraq. He ignored that Rice said she was not blaming Tenet and said that she should not blame Tenet. He said that the Republicans blame the Democrats. He said that David Obey recalls George Tenet believed the Iraqis had WMD but wouldn't use them.

Jack Murtha said that the Administration has intimidated our military into lying according to an Administration script.

Murtha said that Congress has a responsibility "under the Constitution" to pay for the war. Murtha said the troops were "burned out." He wants to "put teeth" into the benchmarks.

Murtha accused the Administration of hurting the troops.

Murtha insisted that whatever happens, the Administration should "start to plan for redeployment now," as their going to have to do it anyway.

Murtha complained that the surge has only increased deaths of our troops.

Murtha would like to continue his micromanagement of the war in two months. Schieffer indicated that the President had so no. He accused the Administration of saying no "to everything."

Murtha said that one way to influence the President, if he won't listen to anything else, is through impeachment. It seems that impeachment, is a political tool rather than a remedy for high crimes and misdemeanors.

RICE ON LE. After CNN's Arwa Daman described the senseless violence "which is continuing all around Iraq," Late Edition host Wolf Blitzer interviews Secretary of State Rice. ('T was taped "within the last hour.")

Blitzer first asked her about Tenet's book. There was no serious debate within the Administration, Tenet wrote, about the "imminence" of the Iraqi threat. Rice explained that there were indeed such discussions, and that the President had tried first to strengthen the sanctions against Saddam; Don Rumsfeld tried to make "more robust" the no-fly-zones.

Blitzer said that Clinton's people had warned Bush that the sanctions were working. Rice said that the sanctions were not working, and Saddam had made a joke of Oil for Food. Wolf asked about imminence, she explained that the question was whether they wanted to act now or wait until matters got worse.

Tenet said that everyone had a sense that "war was a foregone conclusion." (Has he been reading about the Downing Street Memo again?)

She described that the decision to go to war was an "evolution" of thought. The notion that the President had decided to go to war going in "is just plane false."

Wolf played a 60 Minutes clip of George Tenet expressing bitterness over the use of his "slam dunk" comment. She explained that everyone "thought that the intelligence case was strong."

She did laugh that she looked forward to addressing these things in her book. That could have been a comment on the "everybody has a book" phenomenon.

After a commercial break, Wolf asked what the President will do after he vetoes the Murtha-Pelosi supplemental. She answered that they President would have meetings, etc., but that the benchmarks were already in place with the Iraqis, but we shouldn't tie our hands.

Blitzer pointed out that the Iraqi parliament was about to go on vacation for two months. Rice explained that she sees progress on various issues.

Wolf asked her if she'll meet with the Iranian foreign minister in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, next week, and she again didn't rule this out. She emphasized that this was not about the United States and Iran. If she meets with the Iranians, it will be about stopping the flow of fighters and tech from Iran.

With the caption "Shaky Ally" on the screen, Wolf grilled Rice about the behavior of Saudi dictator King Abdullah. The King has refused to see Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki, and Wolf had another quip from Abdullah, spoken at an Arab summit in March:

“In beloved Iraq, blood is being shed among brothers in the shadow of an illegitimate foreign occupation, and ugly sectarianism threatens civil war.”

Rice didn't accept the bait or the opportunity to belittle the oil-rich despot.

Blitzer asked her about Hank Waxman, and she respects oversight and will answer Hank's questions in an appropriate format.
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And with that, have at it.