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By Mark Kilmer Posted in Elections — Comments (6) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

This morning, Biden and Dodd didn't care what Durbin said. Bob Schieffer asked Joe Biden, before their show began, how CBS could get flag-draped coffins for their evening news show. Curt Weldon is being lambasted for lambasting the CIA. Chris Dodd is Chris Dodd.

Joe Biden is running for the Democrat nomination unless someone can prove that he cannot raise the money or generate the support he'll need.

Tim Russert said that Terri Schindler-Schiavo was less than human because her brain capacity was diminished, and John McCain express that perhaps Congress "didn't use our brains as well as we should have."

Read on for the review:

MCCAIN ON MTP. Senator John McCain was the sole guest on NBC's Tim Russert vehicle, Meet the Press. Russert confronted McCain with a survey which indicates that 60% of the American people think that things are going badly in Iraq. McCain indicated that the war is "a slog." And the Senator disagrees with the Veep's old statement that the Iraq insurgency is "in its last throes."

McCain railed against poppies in Afghanistan. Russert asked him what happens if the military's recruitment falls 40-percent short over the next year, and McCain acknowledged that we'd have a problem. He suggested increasing the incentives for recruits -- "make sure it's a very rewarding enterprise" -- and appealing to their patriotism, the "need to serve."

Russert wants McCain to shut down the camp at Guantanamo Bay, but McCain said that the camp itself is not the problem. The problem, he said, is "what are we going to do with these people?" He suggested adjudicating their cases, not holding them indefinitely and without due process. He invoked the quasi-Joe Biden themes that such behavior hurts our reputation and helps terrorist recruitment; the difference is that Biden talks of the camp itself, while McCain speaks of the act of holding the people. He said that we cannot lose the "high moral ground" when it comes time to appealing for our own prisoners of war.

McCain said that Durbin "does a disservice" with his words about the Nazis and the gulags. Russert asked if Durbin should apologize and if the Senate will discipline him. McCain's re[;u indicated that this interview was taped in the middle of last week: "I predict for you that by the time this show is aired next Sunday," Durbin will have apologized. He hasn't.

Russert indicated that Terri Schindler-Schiavo was not a human being -- "brainwaves half of what is expected in a human being" -- and demanded that McCain condemn Bill Frist for giving a damn. McCain indicated that based on what was seen at the time, she appeared to have hope, and the emotions indicated that her family should have been allowed to take care of her. He further indicated, in a very unfortunate choice of words, that "maybe we didn't use our brains as well as we should have."

McCain patted himself on the back regarding The Deal, asserting that everyone was happy he'd saved the Senate from certain destruction. Russert asked him about future judicial nominees and "extraordinary circumstances," per The Deal, and McCain quipped: "With due respect, it's not up to 45 Democrats or 55 Republicans. It's up to the fourteen of us who made the deal."

POWER!

Russert quoted McCain from 1999 indicating that Justice Scalia would be his choice to become the next chief justice. Russert asked him to back down from that irrational statement. McCain said that he thinks Scalia would be approved by the Senate, not filibustered. Russert said that Scalia thinks Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided, does McCain agree? McCain said that he agrees, as Roe was not decided using good science; however, McCain added, "give the political climate," he doesn't think Roe can be overturned.

McCain differs with the President on manmade Greenhouse Gases causing global warming, so Russert asked him about that. McCain laughed at Philip Cooney, the former Council on Environmental Quality chief of staff who now works for Exxon. Cooney had weakened portions of a climate change report which claimed that mankind was causing the alleged phenomenon. McCain argued of global warming: "It's upon us," but we won't be able to tell this for about thirty years. I'm not sure of the empirical basis, in his mind, for thinking as he does, but he's John McCain.

CONDOLEEZZA RICE ON FNS. Host Chris Wallace's first guest, live from Israel, was Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who intoned that "the Middle East came to us on September 11." She spoke of a "young Iraq," in political terms, and about America's "generational commitment" thereto. She referred to the "few terrorists-insurgents" as "outliers." She indicated that the Iraqi forces "are getting better," and that when all is said and done, "we are making progress on what will be a strategic breakthrough for the United States."

Wallace asked her about Cheney's old "last throes" remark, and Rice indicated that insurgencies are defeated not only militarily, but also politically. With the Iraqi elections, government-forming, constitution-writing, the insurgency is losing, she said.

Secretary Rice referred to the Iranians, who held elections yesterday, as "out of step." She said that yesterday's Iranian elections, with a religious council removing reformist candidates and women not recognized, should not "be give that title [elections]."

Wallace asked her if it were time to soften the rhetoric with North Korea, to stop referring to Kim Jung Il as "Mr. Kim" and to the regime as an "outpost of tyranny." Rice replied that "[t]he nature of the North Korean regime is self-evident." I'll add that Kim Jung Il is not the president of the DPRK. That title officially belongs, in perpetuity, to his deceased father, "The Great Leader," Kim Il Sung. Kim Jung Il is commander of their army and general secretary of their communists.

NEWTON AND MITCHELL ON FNS. Wallace next talked to former House Speaker Newton Gingrich and former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell on their U.N. reform commission. Newt said that Kofi's part of the problem, but we shouldn't personalize it to him, as that would be a distraction to the reforms. Mitchell agreed: "Our mandate was to look at the institution over the long term, not individuals over the short term."

JOE BIDEN ON FTN. Bob Schieffer's guest on Face the Nation (CBS) was Delaware's Joe Biden, with Time mag's Karen Tumulty helping him to ask questions. Joe Biden's Joe Biden, and Schieffer introduced him as "emerging as one of their [Democrats'] main spokesmen." He later suggested that Biden had become the spokesman for those Democrats disenchanted with Howard Dean's role as Dem spokesman. Joe Biden is the anti-Dean, then, which is a term we've not used since early last year.)

Schieffer asked Joe Biden about the Vice President's old "last throes" remark regarding the Iraq insurgency, and he characterized Rice on MTP as having agreed without qualification. (She had qualified by pointing out that the insurgency was being politically defeated.) Joe Biden said: "It's nowhere near the last throes… worse not better." Schieffer mentioned that CIA Director Porter Goss had agreed with Cheney's statement, and Biden said that Goss is not talking to his agents in Iraq.

Joe Biden said that Iraq is now a training-ground for terrorists, a place where they are trained then moved elsewhere. Although he didn't mention Afghanistan, he's saying that Iraq has taken pre-9-11 Afghanistan's place in that role.

Joe Biden declared, as he had kept repeating on MTP last week, that the President must "level with the American people." He said that he's been trying to understand why the President is not telling the American people the truth, and he has concluded that either "they don't trust the American people" to accept the truth and thus lie about it, or they are "not fully informed, or… well…" He called the President stupid by pointedly not completing his statement.

Joe Biden complained that he was not allowed to visit the body of a slain constituent without the express approval of, he assumes, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. He note that before the show, Schieffer had asked him -- "maybe I shouldn't say this" -- if it would be possible for the CBS Evening News to get shots of flag-draped coffins for their broadcasts.

Tumulty asked him about Durbin. Joe said that Durbin need not apologize, and that it was a bad move for Frist to ask him to do so, as Frist would then have to "apologize for Schiavo." Joe Biden declared that Durbin's point that something needs to be done about Guantanamo was correct, and that there should be a "panel" set up to investigate it and make recommendations. The Administration, he argued, "has no coherent plan."

On the matter of John Bolton, Joe Biden intends to continue his block. "This is not about him," Biden argued. It's about the Senates right to have information which a few Senators deem they ought to have. Tumulty asked him what would happen if the President used a recess appointment for Bolton, and Biden said that the President did not have enough political clout to do so. It would hurt Bolton at the UN, he argued.

Joe Biden warned the President not to nominate Justices Scalia or Thomas to fill a vacancy which would occur when Chief Justice Rehnquist retires. Biden thinks Scalia would be confirmed and that he could do the job, but a Scalia nomination would "generate a firestorm. This is not the time to do that." He argued that we have to stop being, as a country, so divided.

Is he running for President? We won't know for sure, he said, until November or December, but: "I'm taking my game on the road" to see if he'll have the support and can raise the money.

"My intention now is to seek the nomination."

I'll have more to say about a Biden candidacy…

STEPH TALKS TO RICE ON TW. On ABC's This Week, host George Stephanopoulos spoke with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He asked her if the mullahs had rigged the Iranian elections, as some candidates claimed. Rice didn't know about their allegations, but she said that it was not a legitimate election, "out of step with the way elections are being held in the region."

Steph brought up the old "last throes" quote from the Veep, and Rice responded with the military and political dualism of defeat for the insurgency. "More and more Iraqis have chosen that political path." She said that killing other Iraqis, as the insurgents are doing, has no political future.

Steph brought up Biden's point that there is a difference between what is happening on the ground in Iraq and what the White House says. Rice responded that the Iraq forces will one day "be in some ways better" at their particular tasks of fighting terrorism on the ground.

Steph asked what the American people. Rice said she would not "comment on the analysis of one, single general." She and the President, she said, go by the assessments of the National Security Council.

Steph wants the Administration to submit an exit strategy, rather than a timetable for withdrawal. The Secretary told him that they've already given a "success strategy."

Steph brought up the Downing Street Memo and played a clip of the mother of a casualty reading a statement declaring that the Memo proved that the Bush Administration went to war based on a lie. Rice repeated the quick case against Saddam, what the Iraqi people had gone through: "What about the responsibility to the Iraqi people?"

Steph asked if the White House was going to give Joe Biden the classified material he wanted in connection with the Bolton nomination. Rice replied that Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts has already addressed the nature of the intercepts. She called for an up-or-down vote, and she did not answer Steph's question about a possible recess appointment.

STEPH AND DODD ON TW From Connecticut, Chris Dodd accused the Administration of "filibustering their own nominee" by refusing to give Biden the 10 intercepts. He said that the Republicans "will not receive the 60 votes" to invoke cloture. Steph asked him if the "nomination was going down." Dodd snapped: "That's up to them."

Bolton's "not the man for the job," Dodd insisted, because there are Republicans who oppose him. He said that Republicans, "on numerous occasions," have requested the same information he wants.

Steph asked him about Durbin's absurd comments and his Friday night regret, then asked if Democrats understood how offensive some would think Durbin's comments. Dodd said that we should ignore what Durbin said and examine whether or not we should "maintain Guantanamo." He wants to shut it down, ship the thugs to prisons in Afghanistan and Iraq. (He should take that up with AI and some of his Democrat colleagues who have decried the possibility that the U.S. is sending prisoners to other nations where more coercive means are used to extract information.)

Dodd expressed his sympathy to every child who has a father serving in Iraq today, then he added that we need more troops there. He doesn't believe in a timetable for withdrawal, and that we have to get it right. He said that the Administration has to level with the American people, because the American people know that he's not.

WELDON AND HARMAN ON LE. Republican Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania and Democrat Jane Harman of California, Congress-critters both, talked to Blitzer on CNN's Late Editon. Weldon said that he, unlike DCI Porter Goss, does not have an excellent idea where Osama bin Laden is. Weldon is confident that OBL has been in Iran, in-and-out several times. Harman says she's "see no evidence" that he has been in Iran at all. She said it is hard to fine him in the clans in Waziristan. She added that al Qaeda is panicking about democracy.

Weldon said we need to reform our intelligence, and that he likes Porter Goss and John Negroponte.

Harman gave Negroponte six months to take charge of all the intelligence operations in our government, and she chided Congress for not yet implementing all of the 9-11 Commission's orders. She added that it is time for Congress to take over Guantanamo Bay.

Weldon, a head on a rectangular screen in front of Blitzer, is not for shutting down the prison camp. He agreed with Specter.

Weldon said that we should treat the monsters as human beings, but we have to take every precaution that we not release people who will come back and attack us.

Harman said that she doesn't know which laws apply to what, but that she is writing legislation. She further argued that "indefinite incarceration should never be the case in America."

After a commercial break, Weldon had to respond to Blitzer's repeat of the accusation that the secret Iranian source for his book, "Ali," is not credible. He said was asked to look into this with Democrat former Congressman Ron Klink of Pennsylvania. (Klink was also a local TV anchor.) He said he went through this process and that, and Ali is credible.

Harman said she looked into his reports, and his "heart is in the right place," but the source, "an associate of the late Shah's, did not have information she could use. She mentioned "Curveball," the bad source in Iraq.

Weldon repeated that the CIA was wrong about the Soviet Union, Iraq, etc. (He had quite a list.) "The agency needs to work in changing itself."

Harman said we don't need a purge at the CIA, because they are nice people.

Weldon said that our intelligence in Iran was described, to him and to Joe Biden, as a "blackhole."

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And this Sunday morning in television land was much like any other Sunday. I saw no mention of Jacko, which was nice. If you hold out hope that one day they'll mix it up a little, perhaps with a Ron Wyden or Johnny Isakson, there's always next week…

It's Father's Day.