May 26, 2006
From The Hotline: Iraq
Occasionally, a Hotline story slips through the cracks of our production system.
Fortunately, On Call is there to pick it up. After the jump: Hotline coverage of yesterday's mea culpa-filled joint Iraq presser.
In an hour-long joint press conference, Pres. Bush and British PM Tony Blair acknowledged "a series of errors in managing" the occupation of Iraq. Bush said the "biggest mistake" was the Abu Ghraib prison scandal: "We've been paying for that for a long period of time." Though Bush has "increasingly" acknowledged missteps, his comments last night "represent his most explicit acknowledgment" that his admin underestimated the difficulty. Blair, who just returned from Baghdad, appeared "dour and exhausted" (Kessler/Justified, Washington Post, 5/26).
Bush admitted that he regrets his "tough talk" such as telling insurgents to "bring it on" and that he wanted Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive." Bush: "I learned a lesson about expressing myself in a more sophisticated manner. In certain parts of the world, it was misinterpreted, so I learned from that." Bush credited FLOTUS Laura Bush for urging him to lose the cowboy talk (Bazinet, New York Daily News, 5/26).
Bush made the comments, deemed the "freshest" of the presser, when asked by a member of the British media what "missteps and mistakes" he regretted the most. Bush responded "with uncharacteristic reflection." Bush: "Kind of tough talk, you know, that sends the wrong signal to people."
Bush continued to say the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib was the "biggest mistake that's happened so far." Bush: "We've been paying for that for a long period of time. Unlike Iraq, however, under Saddam, the people who committed those acts were brought to justice." This was the 3rd time at a news conference Bush has been asked about mistakes -- the 1st time he responded by saying he couldn't think of any and the 2nd time he said he miscalculated the insurgents' lasting strength (Sandalow, San Francisco Chronicle, 5/26).
Bush and Blair "looked less like cheerleaders" and "more like world-weary leaders who had met their match." In "possibly their last joint appearance," Bush "displayed almost none of his trademark backslapping bonhomie" and Blair, who is "under siege to quit" before his term ends in '09, looked "dour" (Gearan, AP/Washington Examiner, 5/25).
More Bush: "We did not find the weapons of mass destruction that we all believed were there, and that's raised questions about whether the sacrifice in Iraq has been worth it. Despite setbacks and missteps, I strongly believe we did, and are doing, the right thing." The WH spend the day "downplaying expectations" that both men would announce troop withdrawals, "but that was the subject of most of the questions" (Curl/Dinan, Washington Times, 5/26).
"Speaking in subdued, almost chastened, tones" both leaders refused to discuss a schedule for pulling out of Iraq. Blair, whose approval ratings are lower than Bush's, said he particularly regretted the decision to strip most members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party out of govt, leaving many Iraqi institutions short on expertise. The "overwhelming sense" from the presser was of "two battered leaders who, once confident in their judgments on Iraq, now understood that misjudgments had not only affected their approval ratings, but perhaps their legacies" (Sanger/Rutenberg, New York Times, 5/26).
Bush said last weekend's selection of a new Iraqi govt was proof of "progress is being made," but added he wouldn't know whether those gains would translate into troop withdrawals until a defense minister is named. Blair said "it's possible" for Iraqi forces to take over by the end of '07, like Iraq PM Nouri al-Maliki says he wants (Davis, Baltimore Sun, 5/26). Maliki said he might be ready to pick his nominees for defense and interior ministers today (AP/Wall Street Journal, 5/25).
Blair: "The people who are fighting us there know what is at stake -- the question is, do we?" Blair called it "utterly inspiring" to see new Iraqi leaders working together: "All of them wanted us to stick with it." Bush on Blair's possible exit from his post: "I want him to be here so long as I'm the president" (Orin, New York Post, 5/26).
Bush repeated his position that he would only reduce troops after military commanders told him Iraq could be defended by Iraqi police and military. Bush: "It's important for the American people to know that politics isn't going to make the decision as to the size of our force level" (Richter, Los Angeles Times, 5/26).
Hours before the presser, reporters were asking WH Press Sec Tony Snow if the meeting was a symbolic attempt to divert attention from low approval ratings. "Rather than tamp down expectations," Snow "tried to raise them." Snow said forming the new Iraq govt was "hugely important" and demanded face-to-face talks (Raasch, Gannett News Service, 5/25).
The two leaders' "frank assessment" of Iraq "contrasted with their effort throughout the news conference to stress progress in the country. CFR fellow Lee Feinstein called the presser "somehow a morose event." Feinstein: "Tony Blair looked quite exhausted, and the President was even more downbeat than Tony Blair was" (Rosenkrantz/Keil, Bloomberg News, 5/26).
All About That Presser
FNC's Cameron: "Blair really made the decision to come here to the United States and take part in this joint news conference and speak to the president both privately and publicly, at the tail end of his trip to Iraq" (5/25).
FNC's Hume: "The White House made quite an effort to get coverage for this event, staging it when they did, have it be an hour length, full-dress news conference. Once sensed that the reason was, in part at least to bring out Tony Blair" (5/25).
CNN's Crowley: "What you saw here tonight is precisely what history will record, that these are two men who started this war together, basically, and who stuck with it, and are sticking with it now, saying, we cannot leave" ("PZ Now," 5/25).
FNC's Barnes: "I thought this was a buck up press conference, trying to buck up America, buck up England" (5/25).
CNN's J. King: "The point both of these leaders wanted to make was, they're confident now that, finally, Iraq now has a government that will work, that will stabilize the country and eventually allow them to bring the troops home" ("PZ Now," 5/25).
Ex-WH adviser David Gergen: "I think a lot people watching tonight, the experts thought, as they watched President Bush and Prime Minister Blair, there was the sense of an end of an era, both people now fading" ("AC 360," CNN, 5/25).
About That Mistake
CBS' Plante: "The most extraordinary moment came when the president, who is not ordinarily one for much public analysis, was asked which missteps and mistakes he most regretted" ("Early Show," 5/26).
ABC's Yellin: "Bush struck an unusually introspective tone" ("GMA," 5/26).
NBC's Gregory: "I think a lot of critics would point out that these two were wrong on weapons of mass destruction, were wrong on anticipating the insurgency, and yet tonight, there's no question that that raised eyebrows, the fact that the president would admit that error" (MSNBC, 5/25).
NBC's K. O'Donnell: "This was a high-profile setting for introspection" ("Today," 5/26).
CNN's Blitzer: "It was fascinating to hear the president, someone who has in the past rarely acknowledged making mistakes, going forward and saying, yes, indeed, there were mistakes" ("PZ Now," 5/25).
MSNBC's Scarborough, on Bush's admission of making mistakes: "Here was a president with all that's gone wrong Iraq ... who can only find error in language that he used and not actions that he made. It was style over substance, it was the president confessing without really confessing. It didn't move me. ... It was rehearsed" (5/25).
Newsweek's Wolffe, on Bush's answer on his mistake: "It is very rehearsed, everything from the mannerisms you saw, the upwards glance up at the ceiling for inspiration. And for me, the big giveaway was at the end of that answer -- I don't know if you could see it on camera -- but the president flashed a big grin to those of us sitting in the front rows. It didn't seem that he was quite as contrite as his performance" ("Countdown," MSNBC, 5/25).
Dem strategist James Carville: "What it shows me is that when your wife is mad at you for something, you know about it. And he was pretty doggone contrite that night, and I think probably maybe Mrs. Bush gave him a wood shampoo on that thing. And it makes a difference. No matter if you're president of the United States or you're president of the plumbers union, if your wife gets on you, you're going to be one contrite little puppy, I'll tell you that, and I know that from personal experience" ("PZ Now," CNN, 5/25).
MSNBC's Olbermann: "In the middle of all the political scandal and chaos, the president did try to rewrite the headlines perhaps with success, in a primetime news conference finally answering questions about his biggest regrets. But why did it take three-and-a-half years for him to talk about a mistake in the phrase 'dead or alive'?" ("Countdown," 5/25).
Posted at 03:45 PM
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