TEDDY KENNEDY ON FTN. A trim Teddy Kennedy was host Bob Schieffer's guest on CBS's Face the Nation, with Newsweek's Eleanor Clift along to ask questions, and Schieffer asked him if he still wanted to withdraw U.S. troops from an Iraq "which has been nothing but trouble" (Schieffer's expression). Kennedy muttered about how there can be no military solution; the solution must be political, the Iraqis have to do it, etc. Schieffer asked him again if he still wanted to pull out the troops, and Kennedy said: "I believe that we have become the occupiers, not the liberators." What we must do, Kennedy averred, is to convince the Iraqis to defend themselves. So Kennedy has backed off from his earlier push to bring the troops home without a resolution; no, he did not explicitly admit his error.
Schieffer then explained how the filibuster fight was more than "inside baseball." About how the same techniques would apply for a "liberal Democrat" President like Ted Kennedy or Hillary Rodham Clinton. About how the courts could "overturn Roe v. Wade" and take away fundamental rights.
Does Frist have the votes to "overturn the filibuster rule"? (He's buying into the line that the GOP wants to stop all filibusters.) Kennedy hopes that "responsible Republicans" will vote with the Dems. He complained of a "right wing power grab," Halliburton, privatization of Social Security, etc. Both Clift and Schieffer tried to interrupt him for questions, but Kennedy continued talking about confirming 96% of the President's judicial nominees, etc.
Schieffer asked again if Bill Frist had the votes. Kennedy said that "it's till very much up in the air." He called in the "most important judgment in the Senate" since he began serving in the last century, since, he said, it cut to the core of what the Founding Fathers empowered the Senate to do. He accused Frist of "changing the rules because [he is] running for President."
There were more attempts by Schieffer and Clift to get a word in edgewise.
"The Senate is basically about comity," Kennedy maintained, "about coming to a schedule."
Asked about John Bolton, Kennedy said: "We need a diplomat, not a bully…. We need more Voinoviches on the floor of the Senate." He would not answer a question about a filibuster, when Schieffer was at last able to cause the Senator to pause long enough for it to be asked, but he noted that Bolton is the "architect" of "the failure of this administration on North Korea."
It was good to see the Senator residing in a more reasonable weight class.