Rumsfeld and Bob Graham on Meet the Press

[Armstead]

Not together, but Russert just said Rumsfeld then Graham.

Will be interesting to see how the two are handled.

[jab105]

1. PLEASE UPDATE!!

I dont have cable or NBC, LMK what is going on!!

I'm stuck watching Fox, Rice is getting practice on here...lob that softball right this way....

[nostamj]

3. rummy is on ABC right now (EST)

This Week with George Stephanopolous

blowing it off as 'nothing'

tenet and the intelligence services to a good job ?????????

yeah, tell that to the 9/11 families

[karlschneider]

7. Timmy is actually pushing him fairly hard about number of troops & the

quagmire. Rummy spinning like a dervish. He just said we "...have
already formally requested NATO for help..." I never heard this before.
:eyes:

[Rose Siding]

25. Last DEC!

He'd mentioned that in the hearing last week- they then asked when. He had to "get back to them" after the break and said the request was made last Dec. Remember? They tried to get NATO into Turkey to "protect" it? NATO said no because the members opposed the war!

They haven't asked after the fact as a method of fixing the HUGE problem of having no cred and no plan.

[Armstead]

2. "We're making progress in Iraq..."

but unfortunately the more progress we make, the more vicious the attacks will become." -- Rummy

(Will try to provide highlights, but am also doing something else, so anyone who can pick up slack wold be good,)

[Cooley Hurd]

8. Did he actually say that??? What a DOPE!

"...the more progress we make, the more vicious the attacks will become."

Does that even make sense?

[karlschneider]

21. "Beatings will continue until morale improves"...

One of my favorite taglines from the old Fido network.
:crazy:

[Kahuna]

4. Rummy's on This Week right now in NYC market...

Steph asking about how Niger got into the SOTU speech. I two VCRs going this morning to tape all of the Sunday shows.

[jab105]

5. I get ABC....

it's on at 10:30am for me though.....

[Armstead]

6. Rumsfeld now mentioning Bosnia

"They didn't know cost then." Using it to justify higher costs.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

10. Rummy

looks like he's about to blow a fuse...

[UTUSN]

11. "I don't KNOW how many.....I don't KNOW..."

He said when Gen. SHINSEKI(sp) said stabilizing would take "several thousand" troops, that "SEVERAL" means 300,000 and above, that there are 148,000, that he DOES NOT KNOW how many it will take. (How come G.E.RUSSERT pinned DEAN to a NUMBER about the military 3 weeks ago?)

Darth RUMS testy. About France participating, "I've ANSWERED that FIFTEEN times. YES."

G.E.: "The INFAMOUS words pResident (Shrub) uttered." Rums: "The use of the word 'infamous' is (sputter sputter)."

[DoYouEverWonder]

12. Would someone tell him

That Bosnia was a NATO mission, not a US mission. There's a big difference. Besides, how many troops did the US lose in Bosnia? And how many lives were saved by ending a brutal civil war? In Iraq, the society was functioning and we went in and destroyed it. There is no comparision between the two conflicts.

[Armstead]

9. NATO

Russert mentioning Senate vote to bring in NATO. Will we request NATO?

"We already have requested that. Back last year."

"15 of 19 NATO countries already assisting in Iraq."

France and Germany?

"I don;t know. It's up to them."

(He's very testy.)

[nostamj]

13. "pieces of indications"

of suggested possibile cooperation btw SH and al Qaeda...

sheesh!

[RedSock]

14. oh boy

"pieces of indications"

oh man, and they complain about Clinton parsing words. ... shit he could take serious lessons from these criminals.

[Norbert]

15. Rummy is groping, people

Russert hit him with the "We know where the WMD are. He's reaching and his viens are popping up.

[glarius]

16. My God..Rumsfeld is slimy...& Tim pretending to "grill" him is sickening!

:puke:

[RichM]

17. It's 6:30 AM on the Left Coast. Interesting to get these previews -

Keep 'em coming!

MTP doesn't start for another 90 minutes out here.

[Armstead]

18. Graham

"Not a problem of intelligence. A problem with George Bush."

Going after the Big Picture.

[Armstead]

19. "Stretches belief..."

doubts Cheney would ask for investigation of Africa, and then not get a report back.

[Armstead]

20. Selective use of intelligence

supportive evidence was hyped. Contraditory evidence put in back seat.

[UTUSN]

22. "neurotic, obsessive, bizarre" - the Notebooks

Wouldn't these be used as a tool, subpoenaed by KLAYMAN or whomever, any time they wanted to hassle and harass us?

G.E.: "Why should Dems nominate Bob GRAHAM (last in the polls/money). (Running for re-election/senator?"

"I am RUNNING for POTUS." (repeated 5 times.) Way to slam G.E. upside the head.

Am cutting G.E. off before he returns with the Classic MtP Moment, since it is a reminder of how good the real deal journalists of the past were. Same as with This Weak, I cut out right after the round table, before George "Debate Books" WILL spews his Deep Thoughts at the end, or when he expects to win whimsy points by his raptures about baseball.

Anway, words for captioning: "SIXTEEN WORDS." ("Infamous" optional for now.)

[Changenow]

23. You are right about the subpoenas

Then again it would keep him honest, wouldn't it?

Didn't he vote against the War resolutionn because he didn't think it went far enough?

[lkinsale]

31. He voted against Iraq because he said it was the wrong target

Senator Graham's Floor Statement on the Iraq Resolution


I would also like to reinforce my conviction that this resolution forces the President to focus our military and intelligence on the wrong target. A historical example, which has been used in this debate, is the example of the 1930s? that England, France and other nations would eventually join in the world's greatest alliance, slept, while Hitler's power grew.

Senator Graham's Floor Statement on the Iraq Resolution


They say that passing this resolution is the equivalent of if the Alllies had declared war on Hitler. I disagree with that assessment of what this lesson of history means. In my judgment, passing this resolution tonight will be the equivalent of declaring war on Italy. That is not what we should be doing. We should not just be declaring war on Mussolini's Italy. We should be declaring war on Hitler's Germany.

Now, there are good reasons for considering attacking today's Italy, meaning Iraq. Saddam Hussein's regime has chemical and biological weapons and is trying to get nuclear capacity. But the briefings I have received have shown that trying to block him and any necessary nuclear materials have been largely successful, as evidenced by the recent intercept of centrifuge tubes. And he is years away from having nuclear capability. So why does it make sense to attack this era's Italy, and not Germany, especially when by attacking Italy, we are making Germany a more probable adversary?

Madam President, the CIA has warned us that international terrorist organizations will probably use United States action against Iraq as an indication for striking us here in the homeland.


******

He did use say the resolution was "timid, limited and weak," in the context of not addressing the real issues of terrorism and al Qaeda. He's not a dove.

[TheBigGuy]

24. Seems like Rumsfeld intimidated Russert...

Rumsfeld put on a pretty good performance...he comes on hard, and it seemed like Russert was sort of thrown by him.

[TheBigGuy]

26. Graham: "Selling you swampland". Also, the notebooks.

Graham did a good job laying out the chronology about the Niger/SOTU issue, who did what, when, and then closed with the quip about "Selling you some swampland in Florida" re the denials and statemenst coming out of the Whitehouse.

Also, that info about Grahams personal notebooks was pretty funny. Sort of a personal eccentricity. He keeps notes as to what he had for breakfast and the time he had it...well, thats pretty harmless. Its on of those details that sort of humanizes a candidate.

[Catt03]

28. I really like Graham....

he has done the best interview, in my opinion.....second would be Kerry...on MTP that I have seen.

[wtmusic]

29. Russert must have been castrated

since his interview with Dean. No cojones whatsoever. Rummy had him fumbling worse than Dean was, and its evident that Russert is somehow in awe of him. Pathetic.

He was asking the right questions, but no followup. Why did the President make the statement when it was based on intel that was deemed faulty a year earlier? Simple question. Wasn't asked.

[wes_clark_for_pres]

30. Agree....sounds like the

"there you go again" playbook

[FlashHarry]

27. Rummy's hands are shaking!

When Tim called him on the "double the cost" line. He was nervously rubbing his hands. It was a beautiful sight.

Jesus! Rummy's squirming and parsing like a motherf#cker. He's giving Tim the definition of "several hundred thousand." Wow. I guess that's the definition of "is."