Sunday, September 16, 2007

On MTP, John Kerry averred that General Petraeus had said that he called Iraq the “central front in the war on terror” only because he had heard it from two other guys. John McCain argued that if we pull out of Iraq, Maliki will adjust to survive, aligning himself with al Qaeda.

On FNS, Secretary of Defense Bob Gates argued that we can best take on the Iranian threat not by invading, but by dealing with them from within the border or Iraq. Taking nothing off the table, he argued that Iran is best dealt with now using “diplomatic, economic means.”

On FNS, Joe Biden continued to push Leslie Gelb’s partitioning plan for Iraq, although this time with a twist: he insisted that it was not a partitioning scheme.

On TW, SecDef Bob Gates mentioned that even though there was nothing in code, the Iraqis were achieving oil revenue sharing, de-Ba’athification reform, and provincial empowerment. He said that we should eventually be able to draw down to an enduring presence in Iraq. Jack Reed came on next and said that he wanted to withdraw to that point now, without concern for the “vagaries” of what is happening on the ground in Iraq. He added that “MoveOn.com,” in their NYT-published ad, reflected the attitudes of the American people.

On FTN, Carl Levin said the Democrat’s goal was 60 votes to break a filibuster on their “change in strategy,” not the 67 to override a Presidential veto. Jon Kyl came on next, saying that our military mission should be determined by our military, by General Petraeus, not by some Senators searching for 60 votes.

On LE, Evan Bayh said that MoveOn.org erred by questioning General Petraeus’s integrity rather than his judgment. He criticized another morning show for spending 5 minutes on Iraq and 15 on Hillary. Wolf went to a commercial and came back discuss Al Greenspan’s book, which evidently says that the Iraq War was about oil. Cornyn didn’t believe that the Senators would have voted for the war if it were about oil, and Bayh agreed. It was about oil, he argued, only to Dick Cheney.

Cornyn expressed no confidence in Prime Minister Maliki.

(The complete show-by-show review is at RedState.com.)