February 21, 2007
Hotline After Dark -- 1 If By Air, 2 If By Iraq
With British PM Tony Blair announcing this a.m. a withdrawal date for British troops, TV speculated what this would mean for the WH:
CNN's Malveaux: "The White House is really trying to paint this as a success story. ... The White House saying that this is simply a success, a sign that things are working in Basra" ("Situation Room," 2/20).
MSNBC's Scarborough: "The news couldn't come at a worse time for a president who's watching his own party as they eat their own" ("Scarborough Country," 2/20).
ex-WH adviser David Gergen: "That's obviously a big, big development, a big story, both militarily and politically. Politically, it will leave President Bush ... with much more isolation. ... That's going to give ammunition to people who say, even with a surge in American troops, once we leave, that there's going to be a slaughter" ("AC 360," 2/20).
Newsweek's Fineman: "The American public's already extremely dubious about the war in general, and the surge in particular. Even if they don't want us to pull every last soldier out there tomorrow, they want us to be gone. And they're naturally going to ask, If the British can go, why can't we?" ("Countdown," MSNBC, 2/20).
DEVAL DIVULGES NOTHING
Gov. Deval Patrick (D-MA) was in the "Situation Room":
On who he'll endorse in WH '08: "I do expect to get involved in the race, including in the primary, but, for the time being -- I have been in office less than two months -- I have got to concentrate on my knitting right here."
On Mitt Romney: "Governor Romney deserves some credit for helping be a part of the coalition that brought us a health reform legislation, a very big and broad step forward. And I'm proud of that. It falls to us, now, to implement that. And we are working on that very hard" (CNN, 2/20).
AND THE LIBBY TRIAL GOES TO THE JURY
MSNBC's Shuster: "The headline is that both sides were very emotional. Ted Wells at the very end broke down and had tears in his eyes. ... And prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald finished with a flourish, getting very emotional himself as he said the defense wants you to think that you should be angry about this prosecution" ("Hardball," 2/20).
Newsweek's Isikoff: "What today's closing arguments really underscored is why the White House was so nervous about this trial, why they were so reluctant to talk anything about it" ("Hardball," MSNBC, 2/20).
BILL KEEPS ON TRYING
FNC's O'Reilly broadcast his show from L.A.: "I tried to buy a ticket to the Obama fundraiser. I had my $2,300, much of it in pennies, ready to go. But the Obama people would not sell me a ticket. I don't know why" ("O'Reilly Factor," 2/20). [EMILY GOODIN]
Posted at 07:11 AM
Comments
Since the White House said "This is simply a success, a sign that things are working in Basra," then why couldn't we succeed with more than ten times the number of troops in Baghdad?
Robert Li | 02.22.07 10:06 PM
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