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Good synopsis of today's shows from Right-Sided News: The Rightsided Newsletter: Volume IX, NO. 36 Sunday, May 15, 2005 (Political news and analysis for all political junkies, from a libertarian-conservative perspective.) The Sunday Morning Talk Shows The RSN on the web: http://rightsided.tripod.com/ (with columnists and cartoonists!) Political Annotation web log: http://www.rightsided.org/ ** Any comments: reply to this RSN, or write to mark [at] rightsided.org *** KEY: MTP: NBC’s Meet the Press with Tim Russert FNS: FOX’s Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace FTN: CBS’s Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer TW: ABC’s This Week with former Clinton staffer George Stephanopoulos LE: CNN’s Late Edition with Wolfgang Blitzer (John King for Blitzer.) [The review of ABC's TW, more news and analysis, will be on the weblog at rightsided.org, this afternoon.] EGYPTIAN PRIME MINISTER AHMED NAZIF ON MTP. Just the guy from whom we wanted to hear this morning. (He's in DC this week, so I assume Russert figured: "Why not?") Meet the Press host Russert asked if the invasion of Iraq were a good thing? Nazif: "It's hard to tell… it's a wait-and-see situation." As decisive as this sounds, he went on to answer that Saddam's removal from power was good for both Iraq and "for the while region." He spoke of what "we" had to do in Iraq, by which pronoun he was including Egypt, which is a good thing. Egypt, he said, wanted to train people. But "we" had to work on three things: security, the political situation, and the economic situation. Asked about international monitors for Egypt's elections this autumn, Nazaf said: "The emphasis is on free and fair elections." Outside monitors, as the POTUS has stated? It's not that easy, he explained. You see, he said, in Egypt, elections are supervised by judges. Russert pointed out that the judges have already said that the elections would be fraudulent, but Nazif explained that what the judges really meant is that they want more power to supervise the elections. (It sounds almost like Mubarak wants Vlad Putin to assure that the elections are conducted cleanly.) Russert grilled Nazif about Egypt torturing terror suspects, which Nazif assured him did not happen. Everything is for Egypt's peace and security, provoking from Russert: "So one person's peace and security is another person's torture?" Russert, of course, wanted to know how many people the U.S. has sent to Egypt to be tortured. Nazif did not answer. Russert asked him about America's 90% unfavorable rating in Egypt, about Egypt's pop culture being rife with hatred for America and for Israel. We've given them $50-billion -- and Russert stressed the "b" -- so what's the deal? Nazif said that our relations were good. HADLEY ON FNS. National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley was host Christ Wallace's first guest, and Wallace asked him about the People's Republic of China's (PRC) refusal to back sanctions against North Korea, has that harmed the six-party strategy against Pyongyang? Hadley said that all was well, that "we are all sending the same message," and that "there must not be a nuclear North Korea." Hadley said that it was actually the Japanese who had suggested sanctions against the PRC if a test is conducted. On Bolton, Wallace asked him about Voinovich's objection to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's suggestion that she would have to "supervise" Bolton if he were confirmed. Hadley said that any high-ranking ambassador would be supervised by the Secretary of State, since "policy comes from Washington." Haley suggested that both Republicans and Democrats, quickly modified to "some Democrats," will support Bolton's nomination. He might have thrown Democrats in as a reflex, then emphasized as a face-saver, or he might have been suggesting that he has heard that there will be some Democrat support for Bolton. (Ben Nelson?) Wallace grilled him on that airplane, and Laura Bush being whisked to a secure location. Wouldn't the President like to be told of such things? Hadley explained that "this kind of thing happens… in the post 9-11 world," and that the President had not demanded a change in procedure to let him know what's happening before it happens in regards to little airplanes and mandatory evacuations. WHIPS ON FNS. Next on FNS, host Wallace talked to Democrat whip Dick Durbin and, after the resolution of some technical issues, Majority whip Mitch McConnell. Durbin said that he needed "one or two" Republican Senators to switch to opposing the Senate rule modification. He had said that they need six total, so he is tacitly saying that he already has four or five on his side. Durbin said that there were only four judges at issue here, and that the Dems were merely exercising a "check and balance on the power of the President." McConnell came online and said that Republicans would like to go back to the way in which the Senate operated before the filibuster was used on judicial nominees. "If cloture were invoked," he said, "we would be moving back to how things were done in the past." Asked for a vote count, McConell said: "I haven't given up on the possibility that we might have 60 votes, including some Democrats who have been whispering in my ear." Durbin countered that there are "at least four Republicans with" the Dems on the matter of what he called "constitutional values." Wallace asked Durbin about Harry Reid's floor speech in which he said that Judge Henry Saad's FBI file contained some bad stuff. Durbin said: "There have been controversies made of several nominees…" He wouldn't name names. Wallace asked him directly whether Reid had crossed the line with Saad, and Durbin pledged not to "go into it." McConnell said, "Look, we all know that we're not supposed" to mention private files. Asked about Senators Specter, Hagel, and Warner, McConnell affirmed that "we'll have the votes" if they are forced to enact what McConnell called "the Byrd Option." When Byrd was majority leader, McConnell noted, he had several rulings from the chair, which is what this would be. He repeated the term "Byrd Option" liberally. 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. HADLEY ON CNN. National Security Advisor Haley was Wolf Blitzer's first guest on CNN's Late Edition. Blitzer brought up the New York Times assertion that the Sunni's were trying to get into the Iraq solution through the "back door." Hadley said that the Iraqis were trying to encourage participation, but the U.S. is "in conversation" with representatives of the Sunnis, "through our embassy." He spoke of Dr. Rice in Baghdad, and "she is going to continue" reaching out to the Sunnis as a means "to bring an end to this terrorist effort." Hadley said that the level of terrorism has been "pretty consistent," but that the "lethality" has increased. Blitzer suggested that the terrorists were "getting better" at what they did, and Hadley agreed. Blitzer asked if Hadley were worried about Iran's influence over the Shi'a elements of the new Iraqi government. Hadley said that we have asked Iran and Syria to stop supporting the terrorists and allow the political process to go forward. He's confidence that the "Iraqis are not going to turn [their process] over to Iran." Hadley said that he could specify "which element" of the terrorist were being supported by Iran. It's more of a general thing. Blitzer wanted to know if Hadley would order the assassination of Zarqawi if we discover where he is. He suggested that Pak might be allowing us to fly drones over the countryside to assassinate people. Hadley would not discuss the nature of relationships, etc. Blitzer wanted to know if the President had signed a document authorizing assassinations of terrorist leaders. Hadley said that we're fighting a war, so "of course." And that's it for this Sunday's Rightsided Newsletter Be sure to look for the review of ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos on my weblog at Rightsided.org, and catch the entire review at RedState.org. If it's Sunday… Be right when being Right! Cordially, Mark A. Kilmer, editor