Kerry mention on the McLaughlin Group

[whometense]

Eleanor Clift was the lone liberal on tonight, and she mentioned Kerry's new Iraq plan. She said it was "24 months too late," but she also said "It's where everyone is going to be."

Really not too bad, esp. seeing as she's not a big Kerry booster.

The general talking head consensus from tonight seems to be that it's impossible for Bush to break the law by leaking because he's the god of declassification. Exception: he couldn't leak the identity of a CIA agent. The spinning that was going on was ferocious, and assessments of how damaging the latest revelations will be varied from a shrug ("eh, just a blip") to thermonuclear.

Who knows???? It seems to me that if this had happened at a different point in time it might have just passed off the screen, but coming right now it serves to reinforce the growing realization of who Bush really is, and what his priorities really are. People are not willing to give him a pass anymore, unless they're full of koolaid.

[karynnj]

1. That in fact may be the nicest thing she has said about him in years.

Somehow she misses the point that 2 years ago, Kerry was ahead of Bush in saying they needed to get a government in place and there was no civil war. He also would have lost by a landslide - she sounds like a number of people on DU. (At that point, the percent of people saying leave in the next few months was lower than 25%, I think. )

[wisteria]

2. Your correct on Cliff.

I just love these people who come out now and say Kerry should of said this or that back then. Things were going on under the surface without any mention in the media two years ago because the media wasn't doing their job. The mood of the county was somewhere between believing Bush and not exactly sure. People held out hope that Bush could pull off Iraq. I know I did. I had my doubts and I knew Bush forced us into war,but I wished the best for Iraq and its people- I still do, but I think many of us have come to realize it is time to leave now. It is up to them to decide there future. Senator Kerry's opinions have been evolving and changing since the beginning and to have expected him to have denounce the war and call out Bush in 2004 is just very unrealistic. He doesn't have a crystal ball to see into the future. Many people wanted to remain positive about the war and some still do.
Rosie O'Donnell (sp) was on Hardball tonight, and she was asked about the next Presidential election. She said the next candidate should be very outspoken and not take the middle road. She mentioned Kerry's comments when he thought the mike was off referring to this administration being crooked, she said he came out a couple days later and said he pedaled towards the middle when he should have just said he was correct. It is this type of second guessing that gets me mad.

[ProSense]

3. True. I hope that when

impeachment rolls around, the pundits will admit it's long past due.

[karynnj]

5. In O'Donnell's case, she is also wrong

Kerry never repudiated his comment.

Cliff should know better - slightly more than half the country still thought the war was something we should have done. But far more than half thought we had to stay to fix the country - because it included many who were against the war to begin with. This stance would have resulted in McGovern type numbers.

Cliff is also hypocritical in that she seems to be backing Clinton. So, in her (il)logic, Kerry should have advocated "Out now" in 2004, but it's ok if Clinton doesn't back it now in the midst of civil war.

[sandnsea]

4. He warned about this day 2 years ago

Which is why he said we had to change course. I don't know how people who are supposed to be so smart are in actuality so dumb.

[ginnyinWI]

6. legal or not misses the point

It's the political damage that matters here. Now we see an administration that is not only incompetent (Iraq, Katrina, Miers, Social Security reform), weak on national security (Dubai ports and "where's Osama?"), now we see one that is dishonest.

Why the public didn't see it when the Downing St. memos came out, I don't know. Then we had more memos and still nothing. I guess it's because now the media has him on tape saying that leaking was bad and he'd fire anyone who did it--and now it looks like he did it. It's the visuals they needed maybe.

And yeah the country is ripe for believing it--his time has come, and we'll shortly see that he's been as good at wrecking the GOP as he's been at wrecking Iraq.

[ProSense]

7. Great points. n/t