Live Blogging JK on Hardball
JK is going to be speaking out again on Hardball and we’re all ready to do another live blogging session.
While we wait for JK’s appearance on MSNBC’s Hardball program at 5 pm EST, you can take a listen to JK’s chat on Monday with the bloggers on the Heading Left BlogTalkRadio show.
If you haven’t checked lately, the count at setadeadline.com is up over 31,000.
And just to confirm that we’re in good company with the rest of America, there’s this analysis from Jonathan Singer at myDD.com
There is a sense among the pundits and even many within the halls of Congress that while the American people are strongly opposed to the Iraq War and specifically to President Bush’s proposal to increase the number of American troops in the conflict, voters would not welcome the type of actions required to stop the escalation—either cutting off funds for new troops or passing legislation limiting the President’s ability to widen the war. Not so, however, says new polling (or other polling in the recent and somewhat recent past, for that matter).
A new CBS News survey of American adults in the field Thursday through Sunday with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points finds that a majority of Americans want to see Congress use the power of the purse to block the so-called “surge” in troops, with a 45 percent plurality favoring cutting off funding for more troops and an additional 8 percent backing a complete freeze on spending. This 53 percent combined figure compares favorably to the just 44 percent who support Congress passing a non-binding resolution on Iraq, though it is significantly lower than the 68 percent who disapprove of the President’s handling of Iraq, the 67 percent who believe the U.S. military can effectively stop violence between Iraqis and the 63 percent who oppose sending 20,000 more American troops into the country.
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Alrightie, only 10 minutes to go, everybody got their keyboards sharpened and their digital ink wet?
Ready and waiting.
Tweety is doing promo blahblahblah now, opening credits are ready to roll, the world is waiting with bated breath—well, at least a small electronic part of it, anyway. So here we go!
ok David Gregory asked W if he was fabricating evidence for Iran as he did for the WMDs in Iraq. Bush sidestepped the question.
Gregory makes it clear that Bush said that he’s going to do something about it.
The waiting is the hardest part.
:-)
They’re doing a summary of W’s press conference between Chris and David Gregory, in case you didn’t figure that out from my prior comment.
I missed something - when did Hillary Clinton become a war critic?
Tweety now talking to Chuck Todd and Chris Cilizza about W’s press conference.
Darn that pesky president, how dare he hold a press conference and eat up extra new cycles on a day where we’re all eagerly waiting to liveblog an interview with Senator Kerry?
Todd - HRC is so afraid of being like JK that she’s acting like GWB.
The “patriotic” language discussion is pretty fascinating.
Alright, the interview with the Senator is running now (finally)—he looks good, sounds good, and it’s clear that he’s in command of the Kerry-Tweety interface here.
JK up, Looking good.
JK is on… Chris asking if we’re facing a wider war as we did with Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
JK up now.
Pres. shoule be served notice that he does not have authority on Iran.
Kerry: Bush has noticed that he does not have authority to move against Iran without full & specific approval of Congress.
No doubts that Iran is making mischief, but experts are in agreement that Iran only wants US bogged down in Iraq, nothing worse.
Legitmate to ask for effort to deal with borders, but Iran probably does not want complete chaos in Iraq, we can work with Iran to deal with Taliban, keeping drugs out of Afghanistan, etc.
Kerry: there are no doubts that Iran is making mischief in Iraq, but they also don’t want there to be complete chaos there either. So it’s in both their interests and ours to talk about how to avoid meltdown in Iraq.
Kerry on escalation: he’s agin it.
Supports the non-binding, but must move immediately to a binding resolution
Congress must make sure troops are properly trained, back-door draft unfair, reservists are losing businesses.
US should announce that we would NOT have permanent bases in Iraq.
Permanent bases in Iraq would be a disaster. What is missing in ME is diplomacy.
The U.S. should announce that we’re not going to have permanent bases.
What’s missing is a legitimate diplomatic effort.
Talking about how he raised the issue of a backdoor draft during the campaign.
Matthews talking about permanent bases now. JK says it would be disasterous. (He’s stressed that for some time.)
What’s missing is a legitimate diplomatic effort.
JK answering Chris’s question about continuing US presence: US should announce that they won’t have permanent bases in Iraq. Would take away some of the motivation of the jihadists.
Kerry on
Asked if we are faced with a wider war such as the invasion of Cambodia. Kerry says he doesn’t have authority.
Kerry - there is a reason to secure the border. Iran is making michief, but doesn’t want complete chaos.
Deal with Iran on Taliban, drug traffic tec
Is for the non-binding . Is for Murtha’s idea of dealing with too soon rotations and people not trained enough. Some losing businesses.
Asked do we want long term involvement - Kerry- that would be catastropic. Says they should annopunce no permanent bases. Taliking of summit. Not military. Doesn’t like that soldiers are trapped, while politics not worked on.
Tweety: not being an active candidate may have cleared your vision on this a bit, what kind of long-term future do you see for us in terms of Iraq entanglements?
Kerry: we need to announce that we are *not* going to have permanent bases there; legitimate diplomatic effort to resolve core issues is still missing and must be there before any solution, it can’t be made to happen at gunpoint; no Americans should have to be killed or maimed while Iraq gov’t diddles around with internal posturing; setting a firm deadline is the only thing that has been proven to work there as with the elections, the Iraqi constitution, etc.; there can and will be no permanent American presence in Iraq.
Deadline is all that will stop Iraq using American lives as a security blanket.
Said set a deadline.
A deadline will be the only way to let the Iraqis know that the US will not continue to be security blanket.
And that’s that for JK on Hardball—next up Shuster about the Scooter Libby trial.
A deadline is the only way, soldiers are trapped by Iraqi politics.
Wow! - that was fast
Good interview. JK made a good point when he said that if we make it clear that we have no long term interests in Iraq, it will lessen the recruitment for Jihadists.
Typical Tweety—fast and shallow. But the Senator made his points anyway, and came across quite well in the short time allotted to him. (And in all fairness, had the Bush presser coverage not eaten up so much time on the front end, Kerry might have had a little more time in which to speak on the show.)
Max Cleland on with Wolf Blitzer and he’s not letting Wolf push him around.
He’s defending the soldiers. Go Max!
Way too short, but he was wonderful! And he looked great, too. ;-)
Posted by Violet | February 14, 2007 5:36 PM
Max was right on, he also gave a shout out to the Dems in Congress “either put-up or shut-up”, you tell ‘em Max.
Man, I missed half of the interview!
Thank you all for the awesome liveblog. Almost like being there. :-)
Hey, doesn’t this repeat at 7 tonight?
Kerry looked and sounded firm and friendly, but wish he could have been able to discuss the deadline plan, rationale and details, a lot longer. Tweety had interruptis.
Interesting, too, is the Finnerman audio link here, which included co-host Wendy. Upset with America’s damaged reputation, afraid to leave, as if to say, we’ll win by not leaving and having to admit defeat.
Kerry, of course, laid out realistically what is success, failure, and necessary. Don’t know the show, and if she is the resident hawk conservative, or just legimately concerned, like many, of how the end game looks.
Happy V-Day, all.
Marjorie, thanks for pointing out that interview. The Senator gave some excellent answers to Wendy’s questions. She seemed an awful lot more concerned about us looking like “big fat losers” (her words) than she is with the actual conflict. I guess she still thinks there’s a military solution to this quagmire.
Wake up, Wendy. There’s no such thing as winning someone else’s civil war.
The only way to win is not to play.
I just saw the Hardball appearance and heard the interview on local radio with Tom Finneran. I thought both appearances were spot-on. Sen. Kerry repeated his main points that there is no military solution to the problems in Iraq and that it is a matter of motivation and willpower on the part of Iraqi politicians that stands in the way of getting this conflict under control.
Kerry also stressed, in both interviews, that he is not calling for a sudden withdrawal of troops. He sanely recognizes that the withdrawal would be gradual and that our troops would be in an ‘over the horizon’ location so that they could be called back into Iraq should some dire need occur. There would still be US troops in Iraq under his plan, they would be there to assist in the training of Iraqi troops, complete the mission of finding and destroying Al Qaeda forces and provide security for the US troops and personnel still in that country.
I was especially pleased to hear Sen. Kerry talk on the radio about the difference between criticizing the strategy and supporting the troops. Military service and serving one’s country is a very, very noble and honorable thing to do. The good people who are in Iraq, Afghanistan and other strategic spots in the world are due respect and they are also due the pay, services and honest regard of this Congress and this White House. The troops are not responsible for the failures of this Administration and its lack of planning and carry-through on Iraq. That simply can’t be said enough. If anyone has suffered from this failed policy, it is the individual soldiers and their families and that is just plain wrong.
Tay, thank you for elaborating what Kerry said about really supporting the troops, and what the thorough exit plan really looks like, not leaving precipitously.
We have a disconnect from the bigger truths of this, either from the out now crowd, or with those who haven’t considered beyond the indefinite military solution.
I have seen and listened to most of John Kerry’s recent media appearances and I think they are strong and smart. Eventually more and more people will get to hear the substance of his strategy for Iraq. While the media has not given Kerry his due I am glad he is keeping focused and admire his dedication to finding solutions for the challenges in Iraq .
It’s heartening that someone of John Kerry’s stature keeps fighting for us. That is why we need to keep supporting his efforts, he is willing to find the truth on Iraq and put us on the right course.
And he is in the position to keep pushing progressive policies we need on energy independence, the environment, sustainable development, the economy to keep us competitive and secure in the world.
He seems to be getting his messages out on the internet and he should also keep making inspiring speeches at Faneuil Hall and other venues.
I think it would be great to see him create some kind of leadership institute on the constitution, and the important roles of duty and dissent, to create leaders and more patriots like John Kerry. I think John Kerry is a large figure in shaping our Country and there is still more he will do.
I heard the local radio appearence. The senator debated that Wendy woman really well. His message was also consistent.
She seemed snarky on Iraq, but I agreed with her about the comment that Obama seems to have gotten a pass by the media for his “wasted” comment while all Kerry did was drop a prounoun, which she think cost him his chances for 08.
He didn’t seem to take the 08 bait either, which was also good.
“HRC is so afraid of being like JK that she’s acting like GWB.”
Posted by democrafty | February 14, 2007 5:13 PM
(Democrafty—this is perfect!)
“Tweety: not being an active candidate may have cleared your vision on this a bit” Posted by Otter | February 14, 2007 5:25 PM
(Otter—I thought I’d add that Kerry nodded firmly when Tweetie said this)
“Typical Tweety—fast and shallow. But the Senator made his points anyway, and came across quite well in the short time allotted to him” Posted by Otter | February 14, 2007 5:30 PM
(Otter, this was also perfect!)
Iraq war planners forecast only 5,000 GIs in ‘06
Top generals envisioned stability, democracy after Saddam’s ouster
WASHINGTON (AP) - Some of the planning by Gen. Tommy Franks and other top military officials before the 2003 invasion of Iraq envisioned that as few as 5,000 U.S. troops would remain in Iraq by December 2006, according to documents obtained by a private research organization.
Slides obtained by the National Security Archive under the Freedom of Information Act contain a PowerPoint presentation of what planners projected to be a stable, pro-American and democratic Iraq after the ouster of Saddam Hussein.
“Completely unrealistic assumptions about a post-Saddam Iraq permeate these war plans,” said National Security Archive Executive Director Thomas Blanton in a statement posted on the organization’s Web site along with copies of some charts used in the PowerPoint presentation.
“First, they assumed that a provisional government would be in place by ’D-Day’, then that the Iraqis would stay in their garrisons and be reliable partners, and finally that the post-hostilities phase would be a matter of mere ’months’. All of these were delusions.”
The organization said it initially requested documents related to the 2001-2003 planning sessions in 2004 and received them last month.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17164765/
Great bill being introduced by Sens. Kerry and Dorgan today, on bringing accountability back to the federal contracting process and specifically regarding Iraq-related contracts. I hope the video of the press conference will be posted here!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x216696
Thanks, mbk, but credit for that line should go to Chuck Todd. I just watch and type.
And I echo Marjorie’s appreciation of Tay’s comments. I think the Senator is a doing a good job of showing how we can support the troops as troops, and not as a kind of Freedom Commodity.