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By Mark Kilmer Posted in Elections — Comments (2) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

There was no real theme or point to this week's Sunday shows, but it made for good morning television. Five hours of banter about John Bolton and Kim Jung Il.

Gary Schroen said that he thinks Pak is afraid to capture bin Laden. Chuck Schumer accused the Republicans of blocking the Bolton nomination. In support of Bolton, Dick Lugar offered the words "intimidating" and coercive." Chuck Hagel is still undecided on Bolton. The Dems want bilateral talks with Kim Jung Il, but the Republicans aren't certain what that would accomplish.

And Jack Welch wants Jeb Bush as the GOP nominee in 2008.

Read on the for the review.

(don't sweat the word count)

EX-CIA ON MEET THE PRESS. - Ex-CIA man Gary Schroen was on NBC's Meet the Press with Tim Russert to hawk his book, First In: An Insider's Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror in Afghanistan. The man knowledgeable and nice enough, no Dick Clark-esque foam forming at the mouth, which was nice. No per se political news.

What we did get was that Schroen believes the capture of Abu Farj al-Libi, supposedly the #3 Qaeda, shows that Pakistan has the will to go into the tribal areas to hunt the bad guys. When asked by Russert, he admitted to agreeing partially with Dick Clarke, who said that al Qaeda was nothing at this point, other dangerous groups are now in control. Schroen agreed only far enough to conceded that Qaeda has been greatly diminished in power and authority.

He posited that the Pakistanis were afraid to capture Osama bin Laden for the effect it would have on the masses. It "would cause the foundations of the Pakistani government to be shaken," Schroen said. He further said that he doubted the Pak government would capture bin Laden even if we the United States were to tell them exactly where he was. (He did not stipulate that we know where OBL is.)

He has "no doubt at all" that bin Laden was in Tora Bora, a statement Russert attempted to twist into extreme and open disagreement with the Bush Administration, which has cited General Tommy Franks in saying that we are not certain if he were there or not.

Schroen said that the effort in Iraq was diverting resources and jeopardizing the efforts in Afghanistan, and indeed the drive to bring democracy to South East Asia in general.

SCHWARZENEGGER ON FNS. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was host Chris Wallace's first guest on FOX News Sunday. The governor insisted that California needs pension reform and that he hadn't backed down. He's simply trying other means, and he said it was similar to how Wallace could "retape" his show "if the answer [to a question] didn't work." Quite an accusation, but Wallace didn't react.

He said, basically, that if the legislature won't act on his reforms, he'll take the matter directly to the voters in a referendum this November. He added that he's willing to negotiate -- "my doors are open" -- with Democrats and Republicans.

We saw Arnold scowl. He spoke of the "unions and special interests" who oppose reform. Sure, he was elected in the Recall, he said, but "the same forces… are still there." He is fighting them, he insisted.

He accused Washington of trying to "tiptoe around" the immigration problems. He said that immigration problem is easy to solve: "It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure this out." His solution: "having more border patrols."

Arnold's wife, Maria Shriver, keeps saying that she wants him back in Hollywood with their kids. Arnold said that it is "wonderful to be wanted."

ALLEN AND SCHUMER ON FNS. Senators George Allen (R-Virginia) and Chuck Schumer (D-New York) are becoming regulars on Sunday morning, talking about the contentious Senate, "abandon all hope, all ye…" FNS host Wallace asked Allen if the Dems were doing "dirty work" on the nomination of John Bolton, and Allen replied that the Dems were "bringing innuendo… and all of it has been refuted."

Schumer countered that the Democrats were not blocking Bolton; rather, he said, it was the Republicans: Voinovich, Chafee, etc. Colin Powell -- whom he called an ultimate team-player -- had not endorsed Bolton, Schumer added.

Acknowledging that there must be a quorum present in the Foreign Relations Committee for a vote on the Bolton nomination to take place, Allen conceded that the Dems may, in desperation, simply not show up, denying a quorum and a vote, and delaying the nomination further.

They switched to a discussion of the judicial nominees. Schumer said that it was not about the judges: "This goes beyond the fight over whether or not there should be judges" confirmed. He took his new tack, unveiled in his response to the President's Saturday radio address, that this is about "small groups" who accuse the Democrats of being the KKK and judges of being worse than terrorists. He criticized the Republicans for not denouncing this.

Wallace offered Allen the chance to denounce a statement by Pat Robertson:

"It depends on how you look at culture. If they look over the course of 100 years, I think the gradual erosion of the consensus that's held our country together is probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings. And I think we have controlled al Qaeda. I think we'll get Osama bin Laden. We've won in Afghanistan. We won in Iraq. And we can contain that. But if there's an erosion at home, you know, Thomas Jefferson warned about a tyranny of oligarchy. If we surrender our democracy to the tyranny of oligarchy, we've made a terrible mistake.”

Of course, Wallace did not repeat the full statement, in which Robertson made a legitimate intellectual point, attacked out-of-context by the unbalanced left. (Nevertheless, it was a stupid thing to say on national television where the left could shake it from its context and splash it on their billboards. Or use it in disingenuous radio addresses, as in the case of Schumer.)

Allen said that Robertson's statement had been taken out of its context but that he did not agree that judges were worse than terrorists. (Not what Robertson said or meant.) He added that Robertson does not have a vote on the judges.

But are there the votes for the rule change? Schumer thinks not, "as far as we can tell." If the votes were there, he insisted, Frist would have done something already. Allen said the votes were there and noted that the "architect of the obstruction," Tom Daschle, "is [now] a former Democratic leader."

Wallace asked Allen about a National Journal survey of "political insiders" which put Allen at the top of the list for the GOP Presidential nomination in 2008, ahead of John McCain, Bill Frist, and Rudy Giuliani. Allen said that he "find[s] the results very flattering" and cited his football coach father to point out that, for him, the future is now. He's concerned with the job at hand, and the rest will follow.

BIDEN AND LUGAR ON FTN. John Roberts was the substitute for Bob Schieffer on CBS's Face the Nation, and he spoke with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Dick Lugar (R-Indiana) and Joe Biden (D-Delaware), ranking Dem. Biden said that he was demanding information on intercepts from the State Department, and that this was the same information he had received on John Negroponte when he was before the committee to become U.N. ambassador. He wants to know, he said, if Bolton "stretched the envelope" on intelligence.

Not commenting directly on Biden's postal accusations, Lugar said that he expects the Foreign Relations Committee to hold five hours of debate, from 10a 'til 3p on Thursday, then vote on the nomination. He acknowledged that there were "any number of parliamentary ways" the Dems could block the vote, but he hoped that they would not. He predicted that the final vote, if it is taken Thursday, would be 10-8, but he would "not comment on individual" Republican votes. He thinks they will all vote for Bolton, though.

Biden accused Bolton of creating a "climate of intimidation, a culture of conformity." He said he is counting on the intercepts information and expects the vote on Bolton to take place after the five hours of debate on Thursday.

John Roberts asked whom we should believe on Bolton: President Bush or Colin Powell's erstwhile chief of staff Larry Wilkerson, who had said that Bolton would be "abysmal."

Lugar said that the President wanted a "blunt" ambassador at the U.N. (Lugar admitted that some would consider Bolton to be "more than" blunt, and he volunteered in addition the words "intimidating, coercive.") He explained that this was needed at the U.N. if we wanted the organization to reform. The President, he said, "should get his man." It's not for this or that chief of staff to set the foreign policy of the United States.

On Iraq, Roberts pointed out that 300 people were killed in Iraq last week and asked: "Will U.S. troops ever be able to come home from there?"

Biden says yes, if the Iraqis get a legitimate government, if the U.S. builds their capacity, and if we start distributing money correctly.

Lugar suggested that the resistance was now mostly "old Saddam types," and that "we can count on, ultimately, Sunnis getting tired of being killed." For the al Qaeda types, he said, we have to keep them out by installing more border security. (This is what Arnold prescribed for America to stem the tide of illegal immigrants; perhaps they ought to compare notes.)

Roberts quoted Russian Prez Vlad Putin as saying that "democracy must not be exported"; it must happen from within a country. But now that we're there, Putin added, we have to be successful. Biden agreed. (This ignores the fact that in the countries where there is no democracy, the government prevents it from forming from within.) Biden added that this is what the French have been saying and that we should "reach out to the French" to train people.

Lugar averred that it was "helpful" that the Russians wanted to restart the six-party talks with North Korea, where they had been less helpful in the past.

Asked about a story that North Korea is about to test a nuclear device, Biden said that we should have held direct talks with North Korea, alongside the six-party talks. We should have told the North Koreans that this is how it is, lay down the law, do it our way. Yes, Joe Biden sounded like a "go-it-alone cowboy."

JACK WELCH ON ABC's THIS WEEK. On ABC's This Week, George Stephanopoulos asked "America's CEO, Jack Welch" if America could survive without the big three auto companies.

Steph said that Pat Robertson had said that the judiciary was a greater threat than terrorists to the U.S. "What do you think is the biggest threat?" The former CEO of General Electric said the greatest threat to the United States was competition from foreign countries.

(I wonder if MoveOn.org will make an anti-Welch commercial, if Chuckie Schumer will say he is demonizing foreign competitors.)

He thinks the President "will get some movement on private accounts by the end of the year." Steph said: "I know you are a strong supporter of the President." Steph asked him about Hillary, and Welch mumbled platitudes. When asked, Welch said that he wanted Jeb Bush as the GOP nominee in 2008, but he added that Jeb might not be willing.

CARL LEVIN AND CHUCK HAGEL ON TW. Levin said that he wished the attacks were the last gasp, but everyone is disgruntled in Iraq and "it is just as big a challenge as the security situation." He said that no more than a quarter of the 168,000 trained Iraqi forces are "willing to take on the insurgents."

Chuck Hagel said we don't know who are the insurgents, how the insurgency is being coordinated, how it is being financed. It will get worse, he said, because of a "strain of nationalism."

Hagel said we have "less time than we think to shape and mold" Iraq.

Levin said that if the Iraqi people don't get serious about democracy by next year, we will have to "rethink our presence."

Hagel agreed that it is up to the Iraqis and that we can only "buy some time" for them.

Hagel proclaimed: "The United States is no longer the dominant power in the world" as we had understood it.

Levin suggested direct talks with NK Kim "in addition to" the six-party talks. Steph asked skeptically what could happen in these talks? Shouldn't we just get used to a nuclear North Korea. Levin said that there was no excuse not to hold direct talks with Kim, "on the chance" that they will produce good results.

Hagel said "we have to come at this a little more imaginatively than we have." He doesn't want the U.S. "to stand outside the ring."

Hagel said that he has not seen anything that would keep him from voting for John Bolton's nomination. He added that he hasn't heard anything yet, "as of this moment," but he's going to listen to the debate Thursday.

Levin declared that "we should not give up on the principle" of the right to filibuster judges, including Supreme Court nominees. He said that it was "important to have the power of minority rule." He quickly corrected, "Not minority rule." He added that "we should not throw out the rule book."

MOHAMED EL BARADEI ON LATE EDITION. On CNN's Late Edition, host Wolf Blitzer talked to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohamed El Baradei, who express concern about the "political implications" of a possible nuclear weapons test by North Korea. Blitzer wanted to know if the U.S. was giving him their intelligence, and El Baradei said that he didn't want it. Blitzer talked about a columnist's (David Ignatius) make-believe scenario of a cloud of radioactive dust caused by this experiment drifting towards Japan. El Baradei expects "a lot of fallout" and hopes the test "won't take place."

He said that North Korea "has been seeking a dialogue with the United States," and may be bluffing to foster one. "But that is not the way to do it," he admitted.

Blitzer kept asking this weapons inspector for his political opinions. Yikes. El Baradei wants world leaders to call Kim and beg him not to conduct the test.

He said that Iran was five or six years from nuclear weapons capability. And he acknowledged that "Iran has the right to enrich uranium, but that's not the point." If we let them enrich uranium, they can build a bomb and everyone can build a bomb. He wants to control "centrifugal technology," it seems, in a similar manner as he controls nuclear weapons.

He disagreed with a U.S. statement that Iran is not cooperating fully on the nuclear matter, stipulating that they were doing so, "but not quickly enough."

Enough of that.

ROBERTS AND FEINSTEIN ON LE. Wolf Blitzer asked Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kansas) if President Bush hadn't chosen "someone perhaps less controversial." Roberts said Bolton was the man the President want. Blitzer asked him if it were right for Bolton to try to get people fired for disagreeing with him, and Roberts said that this hasn't been proven.

Feinstein "began to pause and think about it" when she "received a letter from sixty -- six, oh -- former foreign service agents" who didn't like Bolton. She doesn't like how Bolton treats people or his bombast.

Roberts said he would not be surprised if North Korea conducts a nuclear test: "It's the only card he has to play."

Diane Feinstein wants Secretary of State Rice to go over to North Korea to talk to Kim Jong Il, as that will allow him to "save some face." She said that "the big banana in all this" is the U.S.A., and Kim just wants to talk to us.

Roberts reminded her that we had done that during the Clinton Administration and were snookered. "This is not a regular government," he stipulated. He didn't see anything to gain from a bilateral discussion. "He lied before, he'll lie again."

Blitzer asked Roberts about Schroen's statement on Meet the Press that Musharraf is afraid to capture bin Laden because of the international backlash, and Roberts said he didn't know about that. He said that he knew that bin Laden's supporters would be upset.

Feinstein said that al Qaeda has now spread across the world but was active mainly in Iraq. She added that taking out a leader would be a big deal.

Roberts suggested that if we capture OBL, "others are going to take his place." (Isn't al Qaeda ultimately a one-man show to that extent, though?)

Roberts: "Happy Mother's Day, Diane!"

Feinstein: "Thanks, Pat."

Comity. Comity, comity, comity.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Not an intellectual explosion that would leave a weak mind smoldering, methinks, but it was refreshing to see a less innuendo and anger. Schumer has toned down his vitriol, as he did in his response to the President's radio address yesterday, so one can assume the focus groups didn't dig it. Even the cantankerous Levin was on his best behavior, though Joe Biden was as unctuous as ever.