Letter from JK re Iran - appearances on TV later today?

[Luftmensch067]

Probably a lot of you have gotten this email to the mailing list:

Hello Luftmensch,

With the protests on the streets in Iran and a lot of hot rhetoric here at home, I wanted to send a message about how careful we need to be in the messages we're sending back around the world - so I penned this OpEd for this morning's New York Times - especially to flag the dangers of some of what we're hearing from the neocons who dug us a very deep hole in the first place in American foreign policy - later today I'll be on Hardball with Chris Matthews and the Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer to talk about this some more if you'd like to tune in. JK


LINK: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/18/opinion/18kerry.html

This is followed by the text of the op-ed, already posted in another thread.

If anyone has any more info on timing of appearances, let us know!

[fedupinBushcountry]

1. I know that Hardball

is on at 5 and 7 p.m. eastern time. Not sure about the Situation room have not watched CNN in ages.

[Luftmensch067]

2. Thanks! n/t

[Luftmensch067]

3. Looks like Wolf Blitzer is on from about 4-7 EST?

I don't think it's repeated...is it?

Also, looks like maybe there's a final repeat of Hardball at midnight EST.

[beachmom]

4. On Hardball now!!

Oh, crap, over now.

Repeat at 7 PM.

Double arghh!! Saxby Chambliss on now disagreeing with Kerry. What an idiot!!!

Paraphrase of Saxby: We need to be more like the French and the Canadians!!

[fedupinBushcountry]

5. It was good

now Chambliss and pushing the Republican rhetoric. They just don't know when to stop playing politics, they could care less about the Iranians, IMO.

[beachmom]

6. The Iranian opposition do NOT want America to do what the GOP advocates:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-06-17/iranians-to-obama-hush/?cid=hp:blogunit1

But in conversations with friends and relatives in Tehran this week, I've heard the opposite of what I had expected: a resounding belief that this time the United States should keep out. One of my cousins, a woman in her mid-30s who has been attending the daily protests along with the rest of her family, viewed the situation pragmatically. “The U.S. shouldn't interfere, because a loud condemnation isn't going to affect Iranian domestic politics one way or the other. If the supreme leader decides to crackdown on the protests and Ahmadinejad stays in power, then negotiations with the United States might improve our lives.”

[wisteria]

13. I think ti would have negative consequences if we got involved in this. I think this is what they

current government wants. Then we become the reason for the unrest and the excuse to continue denouncing us.

[Democrafty]

12. Ugh.

Apparently, being mute = mutation. What?

JK did a great job, though.

[karynnj]

7. I missed it - but it seems the Republicans are desperate

if they chose Chambliss - who has no foreign policy credentials against John Kerry.

I thought the Republican line was French is bad.

[Luftmensch067]

8. The Republican Line is...

...being out of power is bad!

[karynnj]

9. Yep

I also suspect that the usual suspects, McCain and Graham are not eager to appear with Kerry - because they are smart enough to know that he can beat them badly.

(As my husband joked after reading teh NYT op-ed - Kerry didn't call McCain my friend this time. )

[Luftmensch067]

10. Ooh, he's right -- no "my friend!"

:-)

[wisteria]

14. LOL, yes, I noticed that! n/t

[JI7]

17. also those who aren't nuts like Lugar pretty much agree with Obama's actions

[karynnj]

11. The Iran piece is on now on Hardball

Oddly, Pat Buchanan agrees with Obama - as does Joan Walsh. She said the Republican acting like total opportunists. Matthews said there is a part of the neo con ideas are right - people want democracy.

[karynnj]

15. Video is up on MSNBC

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/31433050#31433050

Kerry is great - At points he even manages to calm Mathews, who seems like he needs something to calm him down.

Chambliss is a complete fool. Someone needs to tell him that mute and mutation simply have 3 letters in common!

Mathews' question on us having a dialogue with Mousavi - even if it becomes clear that he is out of power is ridiculous.

[karynnj]

16. Here's the CNN Wolf Blitzer one

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/06/18/kerry-on-iran-dont-make-this-about-america/

(coverage but apparently no video )

[beachmom]

18. Post up from the BG blog Political Intelligence:

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2009/06/kerry_backs_oba.html

As opponents on the right -- and, reportedly, some members of his own administration -- pressure President Obama to speak out more forcefully in support of Iranians protesting last weekend's questionable elections, Senator John Kerry told CNN that Obama should not change his measured tone.

"I believe and I think many people believe would be an enormous mistake," said Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. If the president openly supports which gave incumbent Iranian President Mahmoud Amadinejad a decisive win, Kerry said, it gives Iran's ruling clerics an opening to crack down on demonstrators, and "more of an excuse to make America the target and America the excuse for their actions."

...

Though Kerry, a strong supporter of Obama during last year's Democratic primaries, agrees that there are "serious questions" swirling around the election, critics like Arizona Senator John McCain -- Obama's Republican opponent in the 2008 presidential election -- should have no doubt about where the president's sympathies lie.

"I don't know where he was when the president went to Cairo" and spoke out about the need for democracy throughout the region, Kerry said. "I think the president has been more than powerfully heard across the world in support of these kinds of movements. I think he's been as clear as anybody can be."

More at the link.

[karynnj]

19. Imagine what the Supreme Leader would have been able to use had there been a President McCain

Even with the discipline shown by the entire Obama administration in not making the comments the neo-cons would like, he still argued that the protesters were being used by enemies - but there were no Obama statements that he could use.

The speech is interesting as he felt the need to claim that the 85% vote was proof it was fair - which doesn't follow and shows a need to defend what ordinarily is taken for granted. He also made a point of saying that ALL the candidates were "within the system". Here, it sounds like he is defending not the election, but the establishment. (ie this is not a rebellion against the Islamic Republic, instead it is between 2 factions both within the system.) If that were true, would there even have been a need to say that?

Think back to 2000 where it certainly was the case that Bush and Gore were both leaders of parties within our form of government. There were plenty of claims - on both sides - that the other was stealing the election. There was absolutely no one in authority - on either side - who felt the need to argue that one side wanted to change our form of government.

Other than that, from the account I read, this is a scary speech. I can't believe the courage of the people who are protesting. It suggests that life may have become intolerable to many under the President. These people know the huge risks involved in protesting.