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Sunday, March 30, 2008

Leading off FOX News Sunday, Senator Jack Reed declared that we had to get out of Iraq, and Senator Lindsey Graham noted that this battle with Mookie al Sadr's militias were part of an Iranian battle: "Iranians are killing Americans in Iraq."

Tennessee's Dem Governor Phil Bredesen was up next on FNS, discussing his superdelegate convention. He wants this over before August, "then whoever wins can say their mea culpas." ("It's my fault for being so nasty in winning this thing, don't you know, but politics is like this, you buffoonish loser.")

Over on ABC's This Week, Obama surrogate John Kerry praised Barry for his unilateral military strike into Pakistan, as he promised at a debate last year, which killed al Qaeda leader Abu Laith al-Libi in January. Stumping for Hillary, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell boasted that Okinawa Jack Murtha had supported Hillary.

Next on TW, Joe Lieberman said that this was not the same Dem Party as nominated him to be veep in 2000; it had, he said, been hijacked by "hyper-partisans" and "isolationists."

On NBC's Meet the Press, host Tim Russert chastised CIA Director Michael Hayden for some "miscalculation" by Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki in throwing the Sadr-ites out of Basra; he quoted part of a Bob Woodward article from a June, 2007 Washington Post to prove that Hayden thought that the Maliki government could not govern Iraq. Hayden had said "in the short term," as Hayden pointed out and as Woodward had continued in his article. He accused the CIA of torture but let Hayden explain why the Army Field Manual could not be arbitrarily applied against the CIA and its agents in "different circumstances" than members of the Army.

On CBS' Face the Nation, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson opined that Barry had confronted the issue of Jeremiah Wright. Richardson said that he would not stoop to the gutter with James Carville.

Next on FTN, Philadelphia Mayor Mike Nutter, and Hillary supporter, said that the superdelegates ought to consider which candidate would be best for the party and for the country. Schieffer asked him what African Americans would do if Hillary were perceived as having stolen the election from Barry, but Nutter said that this was about more than race.

On CNN's Late Edition, James Carville (Hillary surrogate) kept repeating that she has not been nasty, and besides, the Republicans will be worse in the general election. Jamal Simmons (Obama surrogate) was rational throughout, allowing even that Obama could "fall apart."

Read On for the Show-by-Show review. …

GRAHAM AND REED ON FNS. Let us deal first with Iraq. Two Senators who have been in the ground in Iraq "a dozen times" are Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Dem Senator Jack Reed, host Chris Wallace's guests on this morning's FOX News Sunday. Wallace wanted to know what was happening with Moqtada "Mookie" al Sadr vs. Maliki and the Iraqis. Graham said that Maliki was finally taking on the Shi'a militia in the south of Iraq, but he questioned how well Maliki had planned his offensive: "We'll see if they did a good job planning this."

For his part, Reed declared that this new fighting was an example of the infighting between Iraqi factions. He called it "political posturing," a grand attempt to appeal to the Shi'ite majority in Iraq. He predicted that this sort of thing will continue and it will "spin out of control."

Graham pointed out that Mookie is in the minority amongst Shi'a and the government has things under control in Iraq. Reed countered NO, we must get out and let the Iraqis do whatever needs to be done. Graham countered that this would lead to chaos, that our armed forces are bringing stability to the region. We are, he said, fighting Iranian-based militias.

Reed said that we have to withdraw our forces. He basically said that he had no confidence that our military could withstand this test. Graham countered that the surge is working. He called the fight in Iraq, "an ideological struggle," and he pointed out that "Iranians are killing Americans in Iraq."

BREDESEN ON FNS. Next on FNS, Tennessee's Dem Governor Phil Bredesen was on to discuss his plan for his party: having the Dem superdelegates meet in their own convention to fight this out before the DNC in Denver. "This is hurting us [Dems]," he lamented. The superdelegate convention could allow his party to move forward and concentrate on attacking John McCain.

"There's not just two candidates, there's a party to think about."

Host Wallace asked him if Hillary is forced to drop out, would it backfire with women. (A bigger question, not asked, was would it backfire with African Americans if Barry were forced from the race, as Hillary's desperate maneuvers, if motivated by more than a will to power, would consider this.) On the Hillary question, Bredesen said that the process must be fair, but it must not be the "party bigwigs" making the decision.

He said it should be done before August so that the winner "can say their mea culpa's." ("It's my fault for being so nasty in winning this thing, don't you know, but politics is like this, you buffoonish loser.")

Bredesen does not see Al Gore as a possibility. Both candidates – Barry and Hillary – are great candidates. Implied: Either would be better than Gore.

RENDELL AND KERRY ON TW. Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell stumped for Hillary opposite Senator John Kerry sitting in for Barry on host George Stephanopoulos's This Week, over on ABC. Kerry stipulated that Hillary's run must end soon, as it is giving time to Bush & McCain to attack. He complained that Hillary keeps "changing the bar" for which delegates should be counted. Kerry expressed confidence that in the coming weeks, the Dems would come to a consensus on this matter.

Ed, as I call my governor, declared that no one is worried about Dem unity. He added that the people of Pennsylvania want the delegates selected from Florida and Michigan to be counted. Kerry complained that Hillary doesn't want the party to be unified, pointing out that she had complained about Jeremiah Wright to Richard Mellon Scaife's newspaper (the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review).

Kerry argued that Obama showed the right judgment on Iraq and Afghanistan, and that others had criticized Barry's statements about unilateral strikes in Pakistan but they were all wrong because – HA! – Bush had just unilaterally attacked Pakistan and killed a member of al Qaeda's leadership. (No praise for the President; to Kerry, this was Barry's idea.) On the matter of Hillary joining the ticket, Kerry thinks Obama can do whatever he wants to do.

Rendell boasted that Okinawa Jack Murtha had supported his gal, Hillary. That's desperation on Ed's part.

JOE LIEBERMAN ON TW. Next on TW, independent Senator Joe Lieberman noted: "The Democratic Party today is not the party it was in 2000," when he ran to be Al Gore's veep. The Dems have been taken over by "hyper-partisans," he said, with an "isolationist" agenda. On the other hand, he pushed John McCain as the heir to John F. Kennedy. ("Ask not…" and all that.)

Lieberman said that today's "hyper-partisanship is not good for the country and it's not good for my party." His party, indeed. He praised John McCain for his ability to "reach across the aisle." While he and McCain disagree on many things, Lieberman said, they agree on "the important things," like putting the national interests ahead of partisanship.

Lieberman predicted a Dem year in House and Senate races, but he is confident that voters will select the best candidate to be President. (Ergo, he sees no McCain coattails, so he can keep his chairmanship of Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.)

Lieberman boasted that McCain agrees with him on such things as global warming and the 9-11 Commission. John McCain, he said, is "ready to move this country forward."

GENERAL HAYDEN ON MTP. Tim Russert's guest on NBC's Meet the Press was the CIA director, General Michael Hayden. He wore four stars on each shoulder.

Russert asked General Hayden what was happening in Iraq. The general replied that this was a "decisive act by Prime Minister Maliki to get personally involved" in using what he has at his disposal to put parts of Iraq under central government control which had not been under that control. "It's a very decisive moment." Hayden said that the situation in Iraq will be better when this mission is finished than it was before it began. Russert complained that Maliki had "miscalculated" the difficulty in rooting out the Shi'ite militiamen. Hayden agreed that it is difficult but I pointed it out that Maliki was doing it "largely with the ISF, the Iraqi Security Forces."

Hayden pointed out that many people [read: Dems] have been complaining that the Iraqis have not taken advantage of the space given them by the surge, and this was an example of Maliki doing just that.

Russert quoted from this Bob Woodward bit from the July 12, 2007 Washington Post:

Early on the morning of Nov. 13, 2006, members of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group gathered around a dark wooden conference table. … CIA Director Michael V. Hayden painted a starkly different picture for members of the study group. Hayden said "the inability of the government to govern seems irreversible," adding that he could not "point to any milestone or checkpoint where we can turn this thing around," according to written records of his briefing and the recollections of six participants.

"The government is unable to govern," Hayden concluded. "We have spent a lot of energy and treasure creating a government that is balanced, and it cannot function."

Russert asked Hayden if Woodward's assessment of what he said at the meeting was accurate. (Woodward, accurate?) Hayden diplomatically said that it was an "incomplete assessment," that he was talking about the ability to govern "in the short term." He used a sports metaphor dealing with a point in the Pittsburgh Marathon, about mile 22, where you knew if you made it that far, the conditions made it a breeze after that. There were not "natural breaks" at that point in Iraq, Hayden argued.

To be fair to Woodward, which Russert was not, it was Russert who was incomplete. Woodward's article continued:

Later in the interview, he [General Hayden] qualified the statement somewhat: "A government that can govern, sustain and defend itself is not achievable," he said, "in the short term."

Russert asked if Maliki could have been successful in Basra with U.S. air support. Hayden said, "We'll see."

Russert asked if Maliki's military crackdown in Basra were a "setback in the political process." Hayden said, look, Tim, "this was something we all knew that we had to go through…. This had to be resolved." The second-largest city in Iraq could not remain "beyond the control of the government."

Looking to the past, as he likes to do, Russert asked him if there was a "colossal intelligence failure" leading to the invasion of Iraq. Hayden acknowledged a mistake by the intelligence community, saying that he was not with CIA but was a part of that community and had voted yes on the report. Russert asked why it had failed, and Hayden suggested that they had relied on carrying through old intelligence, believing that what was true yesterday had to be true today because there was no reason for it to change.

Russert pointed to a Washington Post report which asserted that the U.S. was stepping up unilateral attacks against al Qaeda in Afghanistan because it believes its buddy Musharraf will lose lots of his power in the months ahead. Hayden said that he could not confirm or deny that. He believes that Osama bin Laden is in those hinterlands and that any future terrorist attack will originate from there, from the safe haven along the Afghan-Pak border. They'll attempt these attacks, he said, with people who "look Western."

Hayden believes OBL's role in al Qaeda is that of an "iconic figure," though he's not "operationally involved" in operations.

Russert accused the CIA of torture and went into the debates. Hayden denied it, and he explained that the CIA's operations and circumstances were completely different from those of the Army, limited by the Army Field Manual. He pointed out that applying the army Field Manual against the CIA was "arbitrary." ("If you want to limit what the CIA does, we'll live in whatever box you create," just make the box for the circumstances which apply to the CIA.)

RICHARDSON ON FTN. A bearded Bill Richardson, speaking from some the city of some governor's convention, said that Hillary has a right to stay in the race but that they have to come together "at the end of the June third day." He objects to this "intentional, personal blood-letting." (Like Demi and leeches.) Richardson likes Bredesen's idea, he says, but he doesn't want for the "party big shots" to choose the nominee. He wants party leaders – like Nancy, Al Gore, etc. – to work something out for the superdelegates.

Schieffer asked him about Carville's "Judas Iscariot" insult. (If it had been nearer the 4th of July rather than Easter, Schieffer paraphrased, he would have accused Richardson of being Benedict Arnold.)

Richardson said that he won't stoop to the gutter with Carville whom he barely knows. He said that he remains loyal to President Bill Clinton, but that doesn't mean that he'll follow him around. He accused Carville and "others in the Clinton campaign" of spewing venom out of a "sense of entitlement."

Richardson has heard that the Clintons were trying to enlist people to pressure him in a way that he felt to be "inappropriate."

Schieffer asked if Richardson thinks Barry "has done enough to distance himself" from Jeremiah Wright. "Is this going to hurt him?" Richardson feels that Barry confronted the issue directly and has distanced himself enough.

"Think of this man [Obama] as a symbol of America," said Richardson.

MIKE NUTTER ON FTN. Next up with Schieffer was Philadelphia Mayor Mike Nutter, standing in for Hillary. Nutter thinks that it's up to the American people to determine if Obama has put enough distance between himself and Jeremiah Wright. "Most Americans reject that kind of… hate-filled rhetoric." Nutter would have left the church if his pastor had made such remarks.

He talked about the problems in Philadelphia and other cites. Clinton has agreed to address them, he said, and Barry has not. (NOTE: Ed Rendell will throw money at Philadelphia and Nutter needn't even ask.)

Nutter talked about the veep choice being a very important one, but he wants to "stay focused on the election at hand," not put "the cart in front of the horse."

Schieffer asked what a superdelegate should do. Nutter said that as he understands it, it is the role of the superdelegates to select who would be best for the party and best for the country.

Schieffer asked him what happens if Obama is leading in every category going into the convention then the superdelegates overturn it. What will the African Americans do? Nutter said that this about more than race. Neither candidate can get enough delegates to win this thing without the superdelegates, "so let's let this thing play out."

CARVILLE AND SIMMONS ON LE. Wolf led off talking to Clinton-surrogate James Carville and Obama partisan Jamal Simmons. Carville said that Barry wants to "get some old white guys with white hair to get her [Hillary] to get out of the race." He said that Obama should instead be concentrating on getting votes in Pennsylvania and winning in North Carolina.

Simmons asked for "some level of civility," though he refused to call it a "blunder" for Pat Leahy to ask Hillary to quit.

Carville said that the Dem campaign has not been negative. He said that he has said the most negative thing (probably his labels for Richardson). He said that it's going to get a lot worse than this against McCain. Simmons recalled getting in fights with his brothers but pointed out that "you didn't sucker-punch your brother."

Carville said that he didn't think Hillary had done this, Simmons averted his gaze. Carville said that the "right wingers" do not care what they use against Dems. He pointed out that Hillary's big donors don't like to be told that their candidate should withdraw from the race.

Carville said, "I think the best thing we can do is get this settled by June 2nd." He said that telling Hillary to get out of the race is not working to get Obama votes.

Carville said that "this race is not particularly disruptive" because "it's nothing like what you're going to see in the general election."

Simmons sees the party coalescing behind Obama, but he allowed that Obama could "fall apart."

Carville called this a close race. He said that it hasn't been "particularly negative," and besides, he repeated again, the Republicans will be even meaner.

= = = = =

Have at it. (Or should we leave that to the Dems?)