Here is the claim on Kerry's web site -
"Then, yesterday, when asked about conditions in Iraq, Secretary Rumsfeld told Congress, and I quote: “Let’s pretend, hypothetically, that you get to election time in January and let’s pretend that it’s roughly like it is, or a little worse, which it could be, because you’ve got to expect it to continue….So be it, nothing is perfect in life.” If there was any doubt that the leaders of the Bush Administration are living in a fantasy world of spin, I think Secretary Rumsfeld put that doubt to rest."
My question is - where is this transcript which Kerry says Rumsfeld "told Congress" and made this alleged statement ?
If Rumsfeld TOLD CONGRESS this, there must be a record.
Thanks...
I heard Kerry give this speech today. Howlin came up with the exact Rumsfeld quote but I don't think she had a link.
Let me find it and ping her...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1225835/posts?page=70#70
Rumsfeld:
"Let's say you tried to have an election and you could have it in three-quarters or four-fifths of the country. But in some places you couldn't because the violence was too great," Rumsfeld said, hours after the leaders of the United States and Iraq met in Washington.
"Well, so be it. Nothing's perfect in life, so you have an election that's not quite perfect. Is it better than not having an election? You bet," he said. (Full story)
In other words, Kerry left out context completely.
I have not read or seen the entire Rumsfeld comments, just what I found for you, but it appears Kerry was loose with his "quoting". But the importance is context.
Allawi had just given his speech to Congress where he said the media was presenting an imbalanced and incorrect view of conditions in Iraq. The left has raised the concern that elections won't take place in January (I'll digress for a moment to say the same crew was saying the transition wouldn't take place by last June 30, either). Allawi said yesterday that the fact is that 15 out of 18 provinces are ready to have elections TODAY and it is 3 provinces where the problems--and he and President Bush do see them as the problems they are, not dismiss them as the left mischaracterizes--are that aren't.
So Rumsfeld, it appears, was saying that even if January arrives and those 3 provinces aren't ready to proceed with elections, the rest of the country will be voting, hence the imperfect scenario he referred to and the fact that he was saying this was a hypothetical, not fatalistically saying the problems in those areas would never be taken care of. Because he knows they will!
It was a lie; I posted the CNN link above.