Tony Snow: Bush 'Doesn't Absorb a Rejection' in Election [View All]

[Jon8503]

By E&P Staff - Published: November 09, 2006 4:25 PM ET

NEW YORK At his afternoon briefing today, Press Secretary Tony Snow naturally fielded many questions about the Rumsfeld exit and the president's response to the mid-term elections. The Senate, as well as the House, was about to swing the Democrats' way, with Sen. George Allen admitting defeat in Virginia, but Snow painted the president as not feeling personally rejected by all this.

He said Bush did not view this as a rebuke and added, "The President doesn't absorb a rejection."

Snow also stated that any shift in strategy on Iraq that left that country still "riven" with violence, or not "stable," with a U.S. exit was "off the table."

Asked if the president had fudged any other information in recent chats with reporters -- beyond his strong support for Rumsfeld last week -- Snow denied that any other statements were now "inoperative."

Here is the relevant portion of the transcript.
*

Q I'm just wondering what's the President's mood in the last 36 hours? He's been given this -- what many people are interpreting as a rebuke. How is he handling this? What are you seeing?

MR. SNOW: Look, he's handling it the way he handles all these things. I mean, I was up watching election returns. The President is not a guy who's -- I'm afraid he doesn't get on the couch, Jim. What he does is -- the statement he's made many times is, "What it is is what it is." And what you have to do is now figure out how you're going to proceed.

Q But what it is is a rebuke.

MR. SNOW: No. What it is is it's an election return, Jim. And elections -- the President understands, especially in six terms of presidency. The message in the election return is you're going to have a Democratic House and we'll see what happens in the Senate. But the other things is that as President you figure out the best way to move forward with the things that are important to you. And, I've mentioned many times, the President is going to be absolutely aggressive on making sure that these last two years are years in which we do accomplish a lot of the people's business.

Q Tony, isn't the message -- is the message the people have spoken? This was largely a referendum on his policy in Iraq. We don't like the policy in Iraq comes the message back from the voters. So he's having to absorb this rejection.

MR. SNOW: Well, no. The President doesn't absorb a rejection. A couple of things: In ten of the races, you had members of the House of Representatives on the Republican side who have been tainted by scandal. I'm not sure Iraq played a big role in those races. The voters said, you know what, we expect you to come to Washington and do the people's business. And when people lose sight of that, voters tend to remind them of the priorities. That's 10 seats right there.

**

Q The President said in the Rose Garden that he's open to any and all suggestions and ideas on Iraq. Does this mean that he's now willing to consider a change of strategy as well as tactics?

MR. SNOW: No. I mean, again, the strategy is clear. Any and all ideas that are going to lead us toward that independent, free-standing Iraq. In other words, if the idea is an Iraq run by al Qaeda, sorry. That's off the table, not interested. If you want an Iraq riven by violence with outsiders coming in, that's off the table. What the President is interested in is a free, democratic, and stable Iraq that is able to be an ally in the war on terror.

That's unchangeable. Ways to get there -- open for all suggestions.

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