December 05, 2007
Hotline After Dark -- Gone To Press
Pres. Bush's presser got a good bit of coverage last night:
CNN's Henry: "Classic President Bush. Confronted with new facts on Iran, he insisted the national intelligence estimate changes nothing" ("Lou Dobbs Tonight," 12/4).
ABC's Raddatz: "The president was adamant ... he would not change policy toward Iran" ("World News," 12/4).
NBC's Gregory: "The president dug in, continuing to take a hard line" ("Nightly News," 12/4).
FNC's Baier: "One day after U.S. intelligence officials revealed that Iran's nuclear weapons program has been dormant since 2003, President Bush told reporters says he sees the new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran as ammunition against Tehran" ("Special Report," 12/4).
MSNBC's Matthews: "Bush faced some tough questioning at his morning press conference, but the key question is still, What did President Bush know, and when did he know it?" ("Hardball," 12/4).
FNC's Angle: "Some Democrats jumped on the president's remarks today, accusing Mr. Bush of intentionally misrepresenting the intelligence on Iraq when he made statements this fall warning Americans about Iran's nuclear weapons program" ("Special Report," 12/4).
RUNNING WITH THE ISSUE
And Joe Biden got a decent amount of TV time to respond to him:
First he played "Hardball":
Biden: "The policy's no different now. ... The rhetoric is going to change. ... I've laid out in detail over the last five years exactly what we should be doing with Iran, which is diametrically opposed to everything this president is doing. ... The good news is it makes it harder for these cowboys to go to war. The bad news is we have been further damaged, and that hurts America's interests in a big way."
Asked if he wants to review his repeated call to impeach Bush should he pursue military action in Iran: "I want to stand by that comment I made. The reason I made the comment was as a warning. ... I don't say those things lightly. ... I say it because they should understand that what they were threatening, what they were saying, what was adding up to be what looked like to the rest of the world what we were about to do would be the most disastrous thing that could be done at this moment in our history that I can think of" (MSNBC, 12/4).
Then he was on "Out in the Open":
On Bush and Iran: "I call it irresponsible, is what I call it. I call it a rerun of the same kind of run-up to Iraq, where he misrepresented, cherry-picked the intelligence. And now the president is parsing his words."
More: "I think this administration, he and Cheney, are looking for a war with Iran. I think their neoconservative notion of how to protect America's interests tells them that we should be using force against Iran. I hope I'm wrong about that. That's why I went further to say I have had a group of constitutional scholars draft a memorandum for me that I'm going to distribute to the Senate pointing out that if the president uses his power to go to war with Iran, absent congressional authorization, I would call for his impeachment" (CNN, 12/4).
JUST ASKING
The "Evening News" discussed its Questions to the Candidates series last night and showed highlights of the questions to come:
Asked what one book besides the bible she would bring to the WH, Hillary Clinton: "I would certainly bring my copy of the constitution because there apparently was not a copy in the Bush White House as best as I can determine."
Asked about people not feeling comfortable supporting someone who is not faithful to a spouse, Rudy Giuliani: "The only thing I can say to people is that I am not perfect."
Asked what he fears losing most besides the election, John McCain: "My country."
Asked the most impressive person he's met, John Edwards: "My father."
Asked the most impressive person he's met, Fred Thompson: "My dad."
Asked about the last time he lost his temper, John McCain: "Probably about 10 minutes ago."
Asked the worst piece of advice he's ever given, Mike Huckabee: "Somebody who'd say vote for me" ("Evening News," CBS, 12/4). [EMILY GOODIN]
Posted at 08:56 AM
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