June 10, 2008
Hotline After Dark -- Happy To Help
Ex-WH press sec. Scott McClellan appeared on "Countdown" last night to talk about why he agreed to testify before the House Judiciary Cmte on 6/20.
McClellan: "The House Judiciary Committee reached out to me. They invited me to come testify. As I said before, I'm glad to share my views. And I told them I was glad to share what I know about the Valerie Plame leak episode."
McClellan, asked if he will tesitfy about topics outside of the Plame outing: "We'll see. The letter they sent said specifically about the Valerie Plame leak episode, and the potential concerns that there might have been a cover-up, I think is the way Chairman Conyers phrased it in a letter. If they get into other questions, we'll go from there" (MSNBC, 6/9).
House Judiciary Cmte member/Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), asked what the cmte hopes to get from McClellan: "To basically see what the depth of the deceit was in the Valerie Plame case and how high up it goes and how high up it went in this administration. There's a lot that we can learn about Scott's communications with Karl Rove, with the vice president, with Scooter Libby and the others, and it's going to be incredibly important for us to open up some of those big questions we've got."
After the jump, more Schultz and McCain compares Obama to Jimmy Carter.
(KATHERINE LEHR)
Schultz, asked if the cmte intends to ask McClellan questions beyond the Plame episode: "Well, whenever someone comes in front of the judiciary committee to testify, you know, they are subject to, you know, a whole range of possible questions. One of the things that I really want to ask him about is the runup to the Iraq war, and I know he's described in the book that there was quite a bit of planning and shaping the runup for the Iraq war. ... That's a really deep concern that we've had for a long time, and it's something I want to ask him about."
Schultz, asked if the WH will invoke executive privilege: "From what I understand, Scott submitted his book to the White House before it was published and they asked him to excise certain portions under the claim of executive privilege. He rejected their assertions and so, now, we've been down this road before. And we don't believe the White House is going to be able to prevent his testimony in any way" ("Verdict," MSNBC, 6/9).
READY, SET, COMPARE
NBC's Williams talked with John McCain last night.
McCain, asked if it's going to be tough to run with an incumbent party for the WH, given the economic backdrop: "It's tough. But I think the American people didn't get to know me yesterday. They know me. They know that I have fought for restraining spending, which Senator [Barack] Obama has been a big part of, with earmarking pork barrel projects. They know that I have been a strong fiscal conservative, and they know I understand the challenges that they face. They need a little break from their gasoline taxes, and they know that we've got to get spending under control. And we've got to become independent of foreign oil. Senator Obama says that I'm running for a Bush's third terms. It seems to me he's running for Jimmy Carter's second."
Williams: "Why do you say that?"
McCain: "Because spend, spend. Tax spent. He's got a proposal that would ... raise spending by $1.4 trillion over five years. And no way to pay for his programs. That would put us further in debt. I have a plan to balance the budget. I have a plan to get us energy independence and get America going again" ("Nightly News," 6/9).
SO FRESH AND SO CLEAN CLEAN?
Meanwhile, there was a lot of discussion on FNC last night about Obama VP search cmte member Jim Johnson's "long-standing ties" to Countrywide Financial Corp., a company Obama has denounced for its practices.
Pat Buchanan: "The problem for Mr. Obama is, he's Mr. Clean. He's the new politics. He's fresh. And you get something like that, you say, how fresh is this guy if he's got friends like this? These are pretty sleazy characters and they're corner cutters. ... So it's not good news for Barack Obama" ("Hannity & Colmes," FNC, 6/9).
FNC's Barnes, on the Obama camp saying it's the height of hypocrisy for the McCain camp to make this an issue: "McCain's campaign are correct in saying that was a phony analogy. Here is the problem for Obama on this -- one, he is the guy campaigning about changing the political culture in Washington and cleaning it up. ... And here he names Jim Johnson to play the key role in the most important decision he will make as the nominee" ("Special Report," 6/9).
Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer: "There is nothing illegal here. ... The Wall Street Journal story itself said it is impossible to know if this was in any way improper. ... So as of now, there is no scandal at all here. I think what is going on here is a very odd phenomenon. Candidates are being attacked for second order associations. ... To attack a candidate on the associates of his associates, I think, is insane. We won't have anybody advising anybody" ("Special Report," FNC, 6/9).
TIPS APPRECIATED
There was also some reaction to Obama's economy speech in NC.
Ex-WH adviser David Gergen: "The problem with his speech today was that it had too many different pieces. There was no central theme. And he needs to simplify this. In the hands of a Clinton, this speech could have been really more powerful today. ... It almost sounded as if he didn't write this speech or didn't have much to do with it. He is a better speaker than this speech was. ... It's a little too Washingtonian right now. It's got to have a little more Reagan, frankly, and a little more pop to it" ("AC 360," CNN, 6/9).
NBC's Todd: "You'll notice in it, he started borrowing from [Hillary] Clinton. He started ... being a little more prescriptive. ... Like every good nominee ... you borrow your opponent's better playbook" ("Hardball," MSNBC, 6/9).
Ex-WH press sec. Dee Dee Myers, on what Obama needs to do to convince voters he is best on the economy: "He needs to talk about some short-term solutions to people who are really feeling the pinch. ... At the same time, he needs a long-term plan. But the third piece of this for him is that he really has to connect with voters, that he has to make sure that he not only has a 10-point plan, but that he goes around and connects with the Democrats that he didn't necessarily connect with in the primaries. And a lot of working-class Democrats voted for Hillary Clinton on economic issues across the last three months. ... So, he needs to go back, dig in, connect his big ideas with the details that will make people's lives better. And I think he has the opportunity and the potential to do that" ("AC 360," CNN, 6/9).
Posted at 09:19 AM
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