hilarious must read Crossfire transcript 9/4 - Carville v. Adelman

[grasswire]

Mods, please be lenient with the paragraph rule. Because they talk so fast, a lot of paragraphs are just seconds in content. This is just a small portion of the 1/2 hour program.

In the CROSSFIRE: Joe Cirincione of the Carnegie Endowment For International Peace, and U.S. Defense Policy Board member Ken Adelman.

(APPLAUSE)

(CROSSTALK)

CARVILLE: Ken, let me show you what a friend of yours had to say about a friend of yours. Things are not very happy over on your side of the street right now.

But let's go ahead and post this up, what Mr. Kristol had to say: "Rumsfeld lost credibility with the White House because he screwed up the postwar planning. For five months, they let Rumsfeld have his way. And for five months, Rumsfeld said, everything's fine. He wanted to do the postwar with fewer troops than a lot of people advised. And it turned out to be a mistake" -- William Kristol, fellow pax Americana, American might, power, go to war with everybody, unilateralism soul mate of Mr. Adelman.

What's going on over with your buddies over there, man? Pax Americana is having a tough go.

(LAUGHTER)

KEN ADELMAN, DEFENSE POLICY BOARD: I don't think there's any idea of a pax Americana. I think there's an idea of standing for democracy and liberating a country and having the first country in the Middle East besides Israel...

(CROSSTALK)

ADELMAN: The first country in the Arab world that's prosperous, that's freely elected and that's legitimate, the first one ever.

(CROSSTALK)

CARVILLE: What's going on with Mr. Kristol and Mr. Rumsfeld?

(CROSSTALK)

ADELMAN: I think he's just wrong on this. I think...

CARVILLE: Don't you think Mr. Rumsfeld -- I think Mr. -- I think Wolfowitz ought to resign, because he's the biggest idiot to serve in this government in my lifetime. Do you think Mr. Rumsfeld should resign?

(CROSSTALK)

ADELMAN: And I think he's terrific.

No, I think he's wonderful.

(CROSSTALK)

ADELMAN: I worked for Rumsfeld three times in my life.

(CROSSTALK)

(BELL RINGING)

NOVAK: Come on.

ADELMAN: OK.

NOVAK: All right.

ADELMAN: Well, he asked me a question and he didn't give me a chance to answer.

NOVAK: In Iraq, the left-wing, radical, young Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr says, right now, the U.S. troops should get out. With all the criticism of the administration, does he have a good idea?

JOE CIRINCIONE, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE: We can't get out now. That's the whole problem. We're stuck.

This -- I'm sorry -- but this pax Americana, unilateralist crowd have driven us off a cliff. We're now in a foreign policy disaster. And we're trying to figure out how to get out of it. There's only three things you can do. One, Bill Kristol says, bring in more troops. I think that's a big mistake. Two, you could build up an Iraqi militia, arm them with guns, have them take over security. That could turn disastrous. You don't know how long you're going to be able to control them.

And, three, you have to admit that you made a mistake and go to the U.N. for help.

NOVAK: Yes, go to the U.N.

CIRINCIONE: And is what the president is doing. And I applaud him for it. He's doing the right thing. This is a step in the right direction.

NOVAK: How long is it going to be before you're on Mr. Muqtada al-Sadr's side and saying, let's get out, just like you kind of people did in Vietnam?

CIRINCIONE: We're in a mess and we do want to get out of there. And the Joint Chiefs want to get us out of there.

The problem is, we have to figure out a way to get out of there safely, preserve U.S. credibility, and do the right thing by the Iraqi people.

(CROSSTALK)

ADELMAN: I love the three against one right here. I love the fact -- I love the fact that Bob asks Joe, my buddy Joe, a question and gives Joe a chance to answer the question.

(CROSSTALK)

ADELMAN: You yell at me. You say what about this and then say, OK, shut up.

(APPLAUSE)

CIRINCIONE: Just give him a good answer.

(CROSSTALK)

ADELMAN: It's 3-1. And with the quote, it's 4-1.

(CROSSTALK)

CARVILLE: I'll give you a chance. Things are not -- things are pretty unsettled over on your side of the street. We've got Rumsfeld shooting at Kristol and everybody shooting at everybody.

ADELMAN: Rumsfeld is not shooting at Kristol.

CARVILLE: I mean Kristol is shooting at Rumsfeld.

ADELMAN: Right. OK.

CARVILLE: So is it -- are we ever going to get anything together over there?

ADELMAN: Yes. CARVILLE: Take a shot. Tell us how.

ADELMAN: OK.

What we are doing is taking a country that, for 30 years, has been oppressed, has been repressed, has been backwards, has been underfunded, has been just a wreck, OK? And now, 10 minutes after liberation, you're saying, oh, my gosh, it's just too bad that things aren't perfect. Well, it's not going to be Switzerland anytime soon, OK? And it didn't start out as Switzerland. It started out as a disaster. And now at least it's a free disaster, OK?

CARVILLE: Ken, I'm not William Kristol. I'm not William Kristol.

ADELMAN: William Kristol has his own opinion. Big deal. So...

CARVILLE: OK. But he and I happen to have the same opinion on this.

ADELMAN: OK, well, you're both wrong. So what do I care about that, you know?

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

NOVAK: Mr. Cirincione...

ADELMAN: The fact is -- the fact is that, when you look at the development of Iraq, it is going to take a long time. No one ever promised that, at 10 minutes after liberation, it was going to be Switzerland.

(CROSSTALK)

NOVAK: I'd like you to explain to me what your friends the Germans and the French are doing in the United Nations. We go in there. We ask for help. And they say they don't like the American- appointed council. Who is going to appoint the council? Are you going to have a grassroots -- are you going to have Mr. Gallup come in there and do a poll of the Iraqis, who is going to sit on the council? Aren't the Germans and the French just being obnoxious?

CIRINCIONE: No.

They've been conned before and they're being very careful this time. They want to make sure they know what they're getting into here. They were sold a bill of goods last time by this president.

(CROSSTALK)

NOVAK: You don't think they just -- they're just dogs in the manger? You don't believe that, huh?

CIRINCIONE: Look, we all have a stake in making sure Iraq turns out right. This is a catastrophe. And it is not getting better. It's getting worse. And there's a real danger the whole thing could fall apart.

(CROSSTALK)

NOVAK: You think Iraq would be better if Saddam Hussein were still in control?

CIRINCIONE: There were ways to get Saddam out of control that didn't...

NOVAK: That's a question. That's a question. Do you think it would be better than we are now if Saddam Hussein were still in control?

CIRINCIONE: It would be better if Saddam was in and we had a determined and united effort to get him out. He'd be in a box, just like we have...

ADELMAN: Joe, you're just talking nonsense. Come on.

(APPLAUSE)

CIRINCIONE: No, I'm not talking nonsense.

ADELMAN: You really are talking nonsense.

CIRINCIONE: I...

ADELMAN: It's airy-fairy.

The French were never going to go along with us, Joe.

CIRINCIONE: That's not true.

ADELMAN: The Germans were never going to go along with us. They had a stake in Saddam Hussein staying in power. That's why they're not going to help any time soon.

(CROSSTALK)

ADELMAN: They -- if it was up to them, Saddam Hussein would still be there. And those mass graves that you see would be filled up with bodies now, instead of being unveiled.

(CROSSTALK)

CARVILLE: You know what happened is, we wouldn't have lost all our credibility telling people they had nuclear bombs that they never had and we wouldn't be spending no $70 billion.

(APPLAUSE)


More at link http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0309/04/cf.00.html

[grasswire]

1. another snip

CARVILLE: I want to ask you a serious question. There's a story in this morning's "Washington Post" that shows -- that has Colin Powell walking into the Oval Office and telling Bush, you need to change the policy and him not asking questions and just sort of mindlessly going along with it.

The story also makes the secretary of defense looks like an eunuch that has no power. Now, why would the State Department leak a story making its own president look like a goat and its own secretary of defense looking like an eunuch? What's going on in our government?

ADELMAN: Were you born yesterday?

CARVILLE: No. Well, tell me. Tell America.

ADELMAN: OK.

The State Department has those kind of stories. I worked for Don Rumsfeld three times in my life.

CARVILLE: OK.

ADELMAN: That's the first time I've ever said -- I've heard anybody say that he looked weak and like a eunuch.

(CROSSTALK)

CARVILLE: I didn't say he was. I said the story made him look

(CROSSTALK)

ADELMAN: The fact is that Bush wanted to go to the U.N. to call the bluff of these countries who have said, if only we have a U.N. mandate, we'll contribute. And that's fine.

(CROSSTALK)

CIRINCIONE: Look, Donald Rumsfeld is in Baghdad today because we are in trouble. Things are not going right. This isn't the happy, wonderful, "Wizard of Oz" land that he's...

ADELMAN: No one ever said that, Joe.

CIRINCIONE: You said it. You said they would welcome us as liberators. You said we would find weapons of mass destruction within five days of going in there. Nothing is going right.

(CROSSTALK)

NOVAK: I've got bad news for you. Time is up.

[grasswire]

2. airy-fairy?

What is that? What is the origin of that phrase?

[Impeach Whistle Ass]

4. It sounds homophobic

Makes sense a neo-con would use it.

[oasis]

3. Adelman was the jerk who said Iraq would be a cakewalk.

[xchrom]

5. i got his ''airy-fairy''

and where is osama, and saddam?
how come the shi'ite population wants us out now? why don't they feel safer with us there?
oh yeah, i forgot, this is adelman's idea of a cakewalk.
pnac = disaster. just wait til the real bill$ start to roll in.

[KharmaTrain]

6. They Still Don't Get It

Adelman is as arrogant and ignorant as ever! Now these bastidges are trying to revise their own revisionist history.

Now we haven't heard the "Saddam" word from anyone in this regime in quite a while...kinda like Osama. Wasn't that what this whole war on terror was all about? Whatever happened to "cut off the head and kill it"...oops, that's the State Department, another zoo.

Honestly I want these goons to keep pounding their chests long into 2004...to be the poster children to America as to why their sons and daughters are sweltering thousands of miles in a stinkin' desert or coming home in body bags.

[grasswire]

7. kick for Saturday