Posted on 09/08/2004 4:54:14 AM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest
The folks at The Today Show obviously felt they had a pretty good one-two punch with which to bash the Bush campaign today - the 1,000th US military death in Iraq and Dick Cheney's statement yesterday that "if we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we'll get hit again, and we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating."
Even so, an obviously unhappy Katie Couric, the Kerry campaign coming down around her ears, couldn't resist taking a few shots at Kerry campaign advisor Madeleine Albright. And Mint Lady responded with some classic pique, essentially saying that it wasn't fair to analyze too closely . . . what John Kerry has said!
The half-hour started with a Matt Lauer interview of Colin Powell, and Lauer immediately suggested that the Bush administration failed to anticipate the difficulties in Iraq:
"Did you ever think we'd be sitting here with 1,000 dead, 7,000 wounded and no end in sight of the insurgency?"
Powell: "I couldn't have known that but we knew we would lose lives. We mourn the loss of life. These young men and women died in the cause of freedom. But we are seeing progress in Iraq and Afghanistan toward freedom and democracy."
Lauer: "But what of the families saying that two of the main justifications for the war turned up empty? No WMD and no concrete ties between Saddam and Al Qaeda?"
Powell: "We have no doubt Saddam had the intention of developing and using WMD. Everyone had every reason to believe stockpiles were there. President rightly felt it was a real danger that had to be dealt with."
Lauer: "During the early stages, the administration said the capture or killing of Saddam and sons would be aturning point, but there have been more troop deaths since that happened. Did we miscalculate what is behind the insurgency?"
Powell: "I fully expected insurgency would continue by those who were in power under Saddam and don't want to lose their privileges."
Then it was on to a Katie Couric interview of former Clinton Secretary of State Madeleine Powell. *Warning -following paragraph contains unkind observations about Albright's superficial characteristics. Do not read if you are above that kind of petty thing.*
Still there, eh? Well, it seemed that what is left of Maddy's ever-thinning hair had turned yet a lighter shade of bottle-blonde. And it looked as if her eyes had come in for some more 'work' since her last appearance.
By the way, she was apparently located at a Kerry campaign HQ, and a blow-up copy of Kerry's seminal tome, "Our Plan for America" was strategically located over her left shoulder.
Albright began, falsely pious, by claiming that "I would like to believe Sec. Powell, but the facts are not there on the ground."
But then, surprisingly, Katie shot off a series of tough questions.
Katie: "If elected Sen. Kerry has said he would begin troop pullouts within 6 months. Is there a danger of cutting and running, leaving Iraq in shambles?"
Albright: "Kerry has never said we would cut and run. He has always been a critic of the administration's policy."
Katie came back with a zinger: "You say that now, but Kerry did authorize the Presidint to invade Iraq."
In a real side-splitter, Albright responded: "Kerry authorized the President to win 'a great victory at UN.'" [Gosh knows, that's where it's important to win victories in the war against terror.] The problem is that Pres. Bush didn't take the time to really build a coalition."
Katie stuck to her guns: "But Sen. Kerry did authorize the war."
Here is where Maddy really started to lose it: "He has said many times that he wanted to make sure there was resolve, but not in the way it was carried out. IT IS A VERY COMPLEX SITUATION. WE SHOULDN'T PARSE ALL HIS WORDS"!
So there it is, the latest Kerry position. Things are complex. Very complex. So complex, in fact, that you shouldn't go back and look at what I said over the course of the campaign. What I say today is what matters. Until tomorrow.
Katie continued to peck at the open wound: "some people are confused by Kerry's position. He says if he knew then what he knows now he would still have voted to authorize the war."
Maddy was breaking down by now. She babbled something about "It's one thing to authorize, another to disagree with way in which it was being carried out. It's wrong to say he's changed his position, he has not! It just ain't so, Katie."
You know that when Albright loses her high-brow shtick and starts slingin' the "aint's" that she's really feeling the heat.
Perhaps feeling some remorse for the obvious damage she'd done, Katie ended by throwing Albright a super puff ball, asking her to comment on Cheney's statement. Naturally Albright felt that "of his many outrageous statements, it's the most outrageous. Completely irresponsible. Using scare tactics."
Thanks for stopping by Maddy. See you. And don't forget to plump the pillows in the Green Room on your way out.
Lauer then interviewed Tim Russert, and also fed him the Cheney line. When Russert's response wasn't sufficiently harsh for Lauer's liking, Matt decided to editorialize. "But isn't it over the line?"
Hey Matt, I think Mother Jones has an opening for an opinion columnist. Look into it.
Kerry must really be deep in doo doo. Jamie Ruben's been replaced by the big gun herself
Oh no! What a slip! Well, let that be Colin's punishment for not being sufficiently supportive of W!
"You know that when Albright loses her high-brow shtick and starts slingin' the "aint's" that she's really feeling the heat."
Sounds like she was morphing back to cleaning-lady mode.
We found plenty of WMD...in Libya, not Iraq. I've shut up half a dozen libs with that line, followed up with - "Do you think Qaddafi would have given his up any other way?" and reminding them of that call to Italy - "I saw what the Americans did in Iraq, and I was afraid."
I have a real tough time telling Albright from Helen Thomas, so if I offended Albright by saying Helen was the best looking and smartest Liberal woman and I was actually referring to Albright, I am deeply sorry.
LOL. "Yeah, those dirty Republicans are now resorting to 'verbatim' tactics. Outrageous, I tell ya! Over the line!"
BWAHAHAHA!
There is something weird about one media pundit interviewing another media pundit.
Bill Clinton is available for Katie. I'm sure they'd have a great time together.
"Kerry authorized the President to win a great victory at U.N"
Darn, the President must not have understood Kerry's directive!
OK, lets surround the UN building, give our friends 24 hours to clear the area, and then level the ...ah....er....place!
Actually, that is half of the truth. The other half is that they are always on the party line. A combination of party line and an emotion party. That is exactly why you can never get into a conversation that is based on logic with the dems.
What Katie needs is a real man with real guns to change her incorrect thinking.. I'm your huckleberry.
Hillary is available while bill is laid up (no pun intended)
"Who let the dog out? Who? Who? Who?"
"Couric: "Question is, Why Did President Bush Get an Honorable Discharge?"
The Today Show
Posted on 02/16/2004 4:27:10 AM PST by governsleastgovernsbest
"Katie Couric saved the worst for last today. In what was shaping up as a ho-hum discussion of presidential politics with former Clinton Press Secretary Joe Lockhart and conservative commentator Bay Buchanan, in the last minute or so Katie unleashed a sneak attack on W's National Guard service.
Couric reviewed what she described as a muddled state of documentation surrounding W's service. Her ensuing statement, although somewhat ambiguous as to subject and object, seemed to be "the question is . . . why did President Bush receive an honorable discharge?"
Lockhart, having served as press secretary to the country's most famous draft dodger, could not be as aggressive as he might have liked. He "graciously" observed that the country has already considered the question and decided that taking steps to avoid service in Vietnam is not "disqualifying" for the presidency.
However, he continued: "when the issue of Bush's service first arose in the 2000 campaign, people gave him a pass on it. However, this time it's different because . . . " Here, Katie jumped in and "helpfully" finished his sentence for him: "because the country is now at war!"
Katie then aimed a couple barbed questions at Buchanan regarding the President's "credibility problem." Bay turned it around and claimed it was Kerry who had credibility issues."
"Plump the pillows in the green room" hahahahahahaha You are the best!
Hey, it's not fair to go back and parse all my words! ;-)
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