January 19, 2007
Hotline After Dark -- It's All Our Fault?
Hillary Clinton continued her media tour with stops on PBS and FNC:
PBS' Ifill: "There are those who say that your evolution on the war has been, number one, behind the public curve of opinion and, number two, right in line with your thinking on presidential aspirations. Is that so?"
Clinton: "Well, obviously, I don't believe so. What I've tried to do as a consistent critic of what they have done in Iraq is to search for common ground."
Ifill: "Well, and speaking of elections, 2008 looms. And I wonder to the degree to which you feel pressure, when you talk about the political pressure being brought to bear on this debate, whether you feel pressure from other aspiring Democrats, like John Edwards and Barack Obama, who right after you released your proposal yesterday released an identical one?"
Clinton: "Well, my view on this is, I have to do what I believe is right and what I think is responsible. Others will do what they choose to do. ... I don't think that, you know, rhetoric or political positioning is what is needed. I think that we have to work our way through this."
Asked if there is a connection between '08 aspirations and the Iraq debate: "I'll leave that to others to assess, because I have been, as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, you know, deeply involved in trying to fix what has been a disastrous policy. ... I believe that it's important that we try to forge a bipartisan consensus here in the Senate, disapproving this escalation as the very first step we take, and then move forward, using the appropriations process and the authorization process, which is kind of, you know, congressional speak for trying to put some limits and force some changes on the administration. And let's not kid ourselves. I think this administration is also focused on Iran. And I think we need to send a very strong message that an administration with its track record of failure, of arrogance, of refusal to listen and learn from the disastrous steps that have, unfortunately, been taken should not be rushing off and putting American servicemembers in harm's way and possibly widening the conflict. So there's a lot that we have to worry about" ("NewsHour," PBS, 1/18).
On arriving in Baghdad: "Unfortunately the weather was bad and so we were told we might have to divert. ... Our response was, let's try. ... We circled over Baghdad for about 90 minutes and we had a great crew. When you fly into a war zone like Baghdad, and I've done it numerous times now, there and elsewhere, you know, the C-130 does a kind of corkscrew landing and my colleague Senator Bayh, from Indiana, said to the crew, he said, you know, 'If you see an openings -- beers for everybody if you can get in.' ... We got through a sliver of, you know, space we could see to the ground, got on the ground. But, because the weather was so bad we couldn't helicopter to the Green Zone. So, we drove the highway from the airport there, and some people call it the 'highway of death' because of all of the bombs, the improvised explosive devices, now these new, shape chargers that are being manufactured and killing our guys and exploding even the armored Humvees. So, it was a bit of a challenge to get to our meetings."
More: "In '03, the first time I went, we drove from the airport into the Green Zone. We drove around Baghdad. We didn't have any problem getting around, we went to Sadr City to see the 82nd Airborne. You know? We were out in Baghdad. We went up to Kirkuk, drove into the city, met with leaders of the various groups in the city. It was not required that I wear body armor" ("On the Record," FNC, 1/18).
ME TOO
Joe Biden did his own media tour:
On the resolution: "What I think you're more likely to see is other Republicans coming up with their own resolution that essentially says what Hagel and Levin and I and Snowe say."
More: "I have a second resolution -- a law actually -- that I'm in the process of drafting. I will be seeking bipartisan support, making it clear that the authorization for the use of force that the president got three-and-a-half years ago does not -- emphasize does not -- give him the authority to attack Syria or Iran. That would be a disaster."
Asked if we'll still be fighting in Iraq in '08: "Yes, if the Republicans do not make it clear to the president. Now, look, we're in the majority by one. ... The thing that brought Nixon down and made it clear that he'd hand over the tapes wasn't
any vote in the Congress. It was when a group of Republican senators got in the car and went down to the president, said, 'Mr. President, the jig is up'" ("Hardball," MSNBC, 1/18).
More Biden on the resolution: "I know that the Republican leadership is surprised that the Biden-Hagel resolution was able to get two leading Republicans to sign onto. ... I think they're going to be surprised when we vote it out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. And evidence of the fact that they are worried about it, the word right now is -- and I don't know this for a fact -- is, the Republican leadership is talking about filibustering the ability to vote on this."
On '08: "I'm going to set up a committee, hopefully, by the end of this month. We're just doing the mechanics of it. But, in terms of the sort of fly-around, where you have large crowds, and announce, and all that, I probably won't do that until a little bit later. But I will be making it clear. I am running and setting up a Biden for president committee, not exploratory, flat Biden for president, and trying to raise the funds to be able to compete, which I think I can do" ("Situation Room," CNN, 1/18).
AND THE OTHERS
Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), on Bill Bennett calling from him to run in '08: "I'm not going to do that, of course. It's flattering that Bill would be talking about this, but I can assure that I will not be running for president of the United States. I just got re-elected to a great job by my constituents in Arizona. And being in the Senate, working on these problems, talking to you, there's a lot to that. I enjoy that and I'm going to continue to do that" ("Situation Room," CNN, 1/18).
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH): "I'm the only candidate who not only consistently opposed the war but who voted against funding the war. Today, the big debate is escalation. The debate ought to be ending the occupation, and it ought to be not funding the war, to bring our troops home" ("Lou Dobbs Tonight," CNN, 1/18).
Newt Gingrich, on why he's waiting until Labor Day to announce his '08 intentions: "I don't want to go around for the next eight months and go to six meetings a day begging for money."
On why people announce so early: "First of all, the two things that drive early candidacies are consultants who need to get paid and who are running around saying to all these guys, 'Hire me, hire me, hire me.' And, second, The Hotline, and the fact that there's a whole group of people like the three of us who every day have to have as much politics as we can get. And what are you going to do today? Those two things are driving it" ("Hannity & Colmes," FNC, 1/18).
CNN's J. King: "Two-time presidential candidate Jesse Jackson tells CNN, he is all but certain to endorse Barack Obama's 2008 White House bid" ("PZ Now," 1/18). [EMILY GOODIN]
Posted at 07:26 AM
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