September 11, 2007
Hotline After Dark -- Not Ready To Move On
Lots of talk about Gen. David Petraeus' and Amb. Ryan Crocker's testimony last night:
Petraeus spoke with FNC's Hume: "I do believe there will be further reductions in forces. ... There are not dates attached to these. ... But the recommendation coming around mid-March or so. No later than that. And then the date to start that. And really, it's the slope of the line and so forth, would be made in mid-March" (FNC, 9/10).
NBC's Miklaszewski: "Petraeus told lawmakers today that given enough time the U.S. could possibly achieve its objectives in Iraq and then laid out a new strategy that sounds pretty much like stay the course" ("Nightly News," 9/10).
MSNBC's Shuster: "Petraeus did not testify about the lack of political progress, in other words, about the reason we are fighting the war" ("Hardball," 9/10).
FNC's Garrett: "Even before General David Petraeus described the successes and shortcomings of the military surge, the next stage of operations and the recommendations for future troop withdrawals, House Democrats preemptively dismissed his testimony" ("Special Report," 9/10).
NBC's Gregory: "By recommending a withdrawal of surge troops beginning in December Petraeus may have satisfied both sides of the aisle" ("Nightly News," 9/10).
CNN's Ware: "I'm struck by the way people are regarding General Petraeus' discussion of those troop levels until July of next year. People are acting like he has just announced some sort of phased withdrawal. Well, no, not at all. That was the timeline for the so-called surge in the beginning. Indeed, it wasn't a surge. It was a one-year escalation of U.S. forces. And the clock was due to run out on that escalation in the summer of next year anyway. So, that is not a revelation at all" ("AC 360," 9/10).
ABC's Karl: "For all the talk of a withdrawal today the bottom line is, by next summer, some five years after the start of the war, there will more 130,000 U.S. forces in Iraq" ("World News," 9/10).
FNC's Kondracke: "I think that Petraeus said that there are going to be troop withdrawals. I think that's the most important thing politically that he could say, that there are going to be troop withdrawals beginning soon, some this year, and that we will be down, he said, to 130,000, the pre-surge level sometime next summer" ("Special Report," 9/10).
MSNBC's Matthews, on Petraeus' testimony: "Was it another one of those Lucy and Charlie Brown things where she holds the football up and at the last minute, come fall she drops the football, and he kicks it in the air?" ("Hardball," 9/10).
Chicago Tribune's Zuckman: "Republicans were ready to bolt for the exits and now they have settled down. They're sticking with Bush. The Democrats won't have the votes to do anything of substance, not even get anything out of the Senate" ("Hardball," MSNBC, 9/10).
Newsweek's Fineman, on the purpose of the testimony: "It was about trying to shore up Republican support -- forget the country as a whole, they've lost the country -- but Republican support to keep Republicans from defecting. And there was just enough in the report, just enough plausible, just enough statistics so that Republicans could hang their hats and not bolt" ("Countdown," MSNBC, 9/10).
Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), on Petraeus' testimony: "I don't think there was anything new. I think we learned what we've been hearing in the last weeks and expected to hear. I think the most important thing ... was the fact that you had a general testifying as to tactical military gains, but a diplomat and the person in charge of the politics who really could not report on any progress in the one area that is going to resolve this crisis" ("LKL," CNN, 9/10).
NOT READY TO MOVE ON
Petraeus was asked about the Moveon.org ad: "I did give my assessment and my recommendations to my chain of command, which extends all the way to the White House. But the testimony that I provided today was mine. ... I wrote it. I did not clear it, nor even provide a copy of it to anyone in the Pentagon, Congress or the White House" (FNC, 9/10).
Crocker spoke with FNC's Hume and was asked about the Moveon.org ad: "I gave the president and Secretary Rice an oral assessment exactly a week ago, when the president came to Iraq. He didn't influence it. He didn't seek to influence it. And the testimony, again, was my own. I did not show it to anybody. I did not clear it with anyone. It was prepared by myself and my immediate staff. And the first that the White House saw of it or Secretary Rice saw of it was when it came out this morning in the Congress" (FNC, 9/10).
MoveOn.org exec. dir. Eli Pariser, on the ad: "If we had run an ad in 2003 taking apart General Colin Powell's statement to the U.N., you know, I think a lot of the same characters would have come after us. But, sometimes, it's right to call a spade a spade. And, if someone had done that then, we might not be in this mess."
Asked if they'll do more ads: "Yes, I'm sure we will."
On calling Petraeus "General Betray-us": "What I know is the fact pattern. And the fact pattern is that, again and again, General Petraeus has spun the facts, has misled the country about what is going on, on the ground in Iraq. You can call that betrayal. You can call it lying. You can call it whatever you want. It's a problem" ("Hardball," MSNBC, 9/10).
DailyKos' Markos Moulitsas: "It's almost amusing to see how, in Washington, D.C., everyone is all up in arms over an ad. You know, we are in the middle of this bloody war, almost 4,000 dead, half-a-trillion dollars spent. And people are going to talk about how inappropriate an ad is? I think it's patently ridiculous. And most people outside of the sort of beltway environment really don't care about an ad. They want to see our men and women coming home safe and sound to their families" ("Hardball," MSNBC, 9/10).
Chris Dodd, asked about the moveon.org ad: "This is not about the personality of General Petraeus. I have respect for him as a military individual here giving his best assessment. And even his assessments indicate this is not going to be easy at all, even under the best of scenarios they're describing here. So the debate ought not to be about the personalities. The debate is about the policy" ("Situation Room," CNN, 9/10). [EMILY GOODIN]
Posted at 09:47 AM
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