Meehan crashes news conference on Humvee funding

HUNTER: . . .we put in $240 million in a supplemental budget, which was line item, to pay for up armored Humvees. My colleague voted against the supplemental appropriation. My colleague voted against such supplemental appropriation so we in Congress bear some of the fault for not moving quickly enough to get this armor between our troops and those explosions in the road. You don't get those things for free. The answer is we have to do a lot more, I think we're going to have to go to bigger systems than Humvees. My recommendation is to use 5 and 7-ton trucks and Stryker vehicles on these heavy convoy operations instead of using what we have now, which is a Jeep.

SCHAKOWSKY: Well, you know, the $87 billion -- one of the reasons that I voted no is that I thought we can't trust this administration to spend this money well without a plan in Iraq.

A fact he articulates at length and which you deny because you are so afraid that it might be heard by the public and impact the elections; troops be damned.

Deny, my ass. I've been telling you for months the M1114 was not the lifesaver you thought it was.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, with U.S. troops, Wolf, dying in Iraq in deadly roadside attacks, the Pentagon is spending $400 million to race new, improved, so-called up-armored humvees to the battlefield in Iraq. But today, CNN obtained a memo from a four-star general who says those improved humvees are not getting the job done.

General Larry Ellis, who is the commanding general of the U.S. Army forces command, writes in the memo -- "Commanders in the field are reporting to me that the up-armored humvee is not providing the solution the Army hoped to achieve." General Ellis says that the Army should shift more funds into buying Stryker, the Army's newest armored vehicle. He says it's imperative the Army accelerate the production of Stryker vehicles to support the current operations. He would like to see those vehicles doubled in production.

Critics say that even with the better armor, the humvee's shoulder-level doors make it too easy to lob a grenade inside. Its four rubber tires burn too readily, and at two tons, it's light enough to be overturned by a mob. Some critics also say the Army is overlooking a cheaper, even faster solution, using some Vietnam era M- 113 Gavin armored cars that the Army has thousands of in stock.

In his memo, General Ellis pleads for quick action, lamenting that even though the nation is at war, some in the Army are still in a peace time posture. He writes: "If our actions impede our ability to train, equip or organize our soldiers for combat, then we failed the soldier and our nation."

Now, Wolf, no vehicle offers 100 percent protection, but it goes without saying, the more armor the better chance you have for survival -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Jamie, any reaction that you're getting from the manufacturer of the humvee?

MCINTYRE: Well, nobody here is alleging that this is a defective product. It's clearly the case that the up-armored humvee offers more protection. The question is really the threat that the U.S. faces and whether they just need something that's bigger and better.

BLITZER: Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon, disturbing information. Thanks, Jamie, very much.

What a mess Clinton and his coherts left..

Meehan is only in the interest of making a national name for himself. Searching for his legacy as it were.

I think he is more sinister than that.