July 31, 2007
Hotline After Dark -- The Doctor Is In
Lots of '08ers on TV last night:
Mike Huckabee and Bill Richardson were in the "Situation Room" for a joint interview:
Huckabee, asked if troops could be out of Iraq by the end of the year: "First of all, even if we made the decision today, I don't think there's a plan in place. We couldn't get them out that soon."
Richardson: "What I believe needs to happen is a six-month withdrawal. If it takes another month, it's important that we make that happen, because, otherwise, our troops have become targets."
Huckabee: "I don't want us to end up having to do over what we didn't do right, and that's why we have got to stay until the job is done. General Petraeus was given until September. It is incredibly to me inappropriate for to us be talking about withdrawing before he's even had a chance to put the surge into place."
Richardson: "Every month that goes by is over 100 of Americans soldiers die; 25,000 are wounded. This is not working. This surge is not working. You can see it every day with violence increasing, but also instability in the region. Here's my point. We have a major war against al Qaeda. We have to fight it. But diverting our resources in Iraq, in a war that is not working, takes us away from the real focus of our national security interests, fighting international terrorism, nuclear terrorism, nuclear proliferation, a world that is very dangerous and unstable. And perpetuating our policy in Iraq is part of the national security problem that we're in today."
Huckabee: "If we pull out prematurely, the one thing we won't have is stability. And I think that's why many of us believe that, as painful as it is to stay, it's more painful to disappear, lose any chance of stability" (CNN, 7/30).
THE HUNT IS ON
Duncan Hunter played "Hardball" last night:
On Iraq: "All of us, Republicans and Democrats, have been with this operation for the last four years, and I think that we should see it through. I think we should accomplish this mission, finish this mission."
Asked about Gonzales: "I haven't been reading the transcripts, watching the hearings, so I don't want to disserve him by just repeating the headlines and statements by senators. So unless I was in those hearings and had a chance to really examine the record, I don't want to trash Attorney General Gonzales. I would say that the Democrats have a major responsibility here under the so-called FISA legislation. According to our intelligence people, we have a major gap in intelligence reporting because terrorist communicators who are outside the United States but who make a communication that goes through the United States, through our communication apparatus, we are now barred from wiretapping those particular communications. And that is depriving us of essential information for the security of this country. I think that's more
important than what happens to Mr. Gonzales" (MSNBC, 7/30).
ANOTHER SCANDAL FOR THE MEDIA TO LOVE
There was also late-breaking news on Sen. Stevens:
CNN's Johns: "The feds have been eying the Stevens' house for some time. Back in 2000, the senator and his wife commissioned extensive renovations, doubling the size of the place. Stevens insists he paid for the remodeling out of his own pocket, but the feds are looking into whether an Alaska oil company called VECO could have helped foot the bill" ("AC 360," 7/30).
MSNBC's Olbermann: "Senator Stevens this evening resorting to the same tactic the administration used for Scooter Libby, saying in statement: 'I will continue my policy of not commenting on this investigation until it has concluded'" ("Countdown," 7/30).
CNN's Toobin: "The U.S. attorney in Alaska did not make this decision alone. To seek and obtain a search warrant against any member of Congress, but especially someone who has been in the U.S. Senate since 1968, is of enormous significance and it certainly had to go to the top of the Justice Department, Alberto Gonzales had to approve it or his designee, the director of the FBI, Robert Mueller, had to approve it. They would not have taken such an extreme step without approval all the way up the chain of the command, and one has to conclude, without a serious reason for doing it" ("Situation Room," 7/30).
PLAYING DOCTOR
And there was talk on SCOTUS Chief Justice John Roberts health:
NBC's P. Williams: "None of this came up in his confirmation hearings" ("Nightly News," 7/30).
CNN's Toobin: "From a historical perspective, there have been 43 presidents of the United States and only 17 chief justices of the United States. So, that gives you an idea of how important a position this is. What makes this especially shocking is that of the nine justices, John Roberts is the youngest. He's 52 years old, 35 years younger than John Paul Stevens, the senior in age member of the court. So to say that a health problem in John Roberts is a surprise is really an understatement" ("Situation Room," CNN, 7/30). [EMILY GOODIN]
Posted at 09:11 AM
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