Fox News Sunday featured interviews with two senators who should be considered strong contenders for the vice presidential nomination (if not this cycle, then certainly the next). Democrat Jim Webb was interviewed by Chris Wallace first, and he spoke of the need to involve the nations surrounding Iraq in the peace process. “The elephant in the bedroom is dealing with Iran and Syria. . . . you’re not going to do this by simply sending more troops in again and again. . . . I think there are reasons for them to come to the table. . . . I’m not saying we should go to them on their knees, or that we should be giving up on certain conditions, but it is in their interest.” Even as he spoke of the need to draw Iran into talks, however, he admitted that Iranian agents were doing their damnedest to kill Americans fighting in Iraq, noting “Iran’s definitely, from everything I can see, playing in some way inside Iraq, and tactically, as a former marine, in the places where Iran is definitely playing, they should be dealt with.”
Lindsey Graham took the exact opposite tack, speaking of the need for a surge of troops to make the situation suitable for a political solution. “17,500 more troops in Baghdad, married up with the new Iraqi strategy of going into any neighborhood we need to go into, to hold territory that was previously cleared will work to allow reconciliation. . . . The biggest threat to this infant democracy, which is eight months old, is out-of-control militia groups. We’re finally going to where these militias live and hide. And we’re making progress.” He also condemned the cynical political maneuverings of the Democratic senate, saying of the nonbinding resolutions being put forth “If the Democrats really believe this war is lost, and this is just another Vietnam in another form, cut off funding. . . . We have to deal with sectarian violence in Baghdad; we’re either going to have to deal with it now, or deal with it later.” He also hoped people would put their long term political ambitions to the side, stating, “this is not about the next election, this is about the decades to come.”
The roundtable made some interesting points. Bill Kristol remarked on “the rapidity of the Democrats’ march, or panicked flight to the left on the war in this last month has really been extraordinary.” Juan Williams noted that this was not so much a jaunt to the left as a legitimate reflection of the current mood of the populace: “57 percent of all Americans . . . want troops withdrawn. . . . What people are saying is that we have to look for options.” Brit Hume pointed out Joe Biden’s fatal flaw (“he is garrulous, talkative. He has tried over the years and with some success I think it’s fair to say, to discipline his mouth. But it’s a challenge for him”), while Mara Liasson said she doesn’t “think it measurably affected Biden’s chances, which were next to zero.”
This Week featured an interview with Senator John McCain, who reminded the public that we have gotten ourselves involved with sectarian violence in the past, and tried to drive home just how dire the consequences of failure are: “We went into Bosnia and stopped sectarian violence; we went into Kosovo and stopped sectarian violence. . . . I also believe the consequences of failure are such that you will see a level of violence that far exceeds anything we’ve seen. You’ll see a bloodletting in Baghdad that makes Srebrenica look like a Sunday school picnic, and I believe that we may have to come back at some time or another because the Iranians will be involved, the Sunnis will be involved, Turkey, if the Kurds try and become independent, will be involved.” He wrapped up his segment by giving his Super Bowl prediction: Colts over Bears.
Chuck Hagel was also a featured guest, and he relayed his thoughts about his own Senate resolution regarding Iraq to George Stephanopoulos: “What this resolution is about is, first, disagreeing with the president’s position on increasing our military involvement in Iraq. . . . second, in the resolution, options, ideas, some taken from the Baker Hamilton report: getting American troops out of the middle of a sectarian, intra-sectarian civil war in the cities; moving them out to the borders, providing territorial integrity protection, doing the things that we should do, we can do, but we cannot continue to feed our troops into the middle of a civil war.”
The roundtable featured David Brooks, Donna Brazille, and (as always) George Will. Brooks mirrored a point that McCain had made earlier in the show, when he said that Democrats are “not dealing with the reality of Iraq; they’re dealing with the reality of Iowa. . . . They’ve been accusing the president of ignoring the intelligence for three years, with some justice. Now they’re ignoring the intelligence. It may be true that we have to get out, but you gotta make an argument about what’s gonna happen. What the genocide will look like, what the civil war would look like.” Brazille predicted that Biden would recover from his Obama-related gaffe earlier in the week: “I think Joe Biden will be able to recover . . . Joe Biden is a very sincere, very able politician.” Will seems uncertain about Obama’s all-style, no-substance campaign thus far: “I do not think you can get from here to New Hampshire, let alone from here to election day, by saying people ought to be nice to each other, and can’t we all just get along.”
Meet the Press kicked off its meet the candidates series with an hour long interview with John Edwards. The entire appearance can be summarized thusly: He supported the war before he didn’t support it, he would pull out 40,000 to 50,000 troops immediately, and he favors raising taxes to pay for a universal health care plan. One can imagine the Democratic primary ads already: “John Edwards: He’s a flip flopping, tax raising, ambulance chasing lawyer–and a multi-millionaire.”
As if the Super Bowl needed any more promotion, Face the Nation spent its entire half hour with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, former quarterback Dan Marino, and CBS sports announcers Jim Nantz and Phil Simms. I’m not even going to dignify this blatant bit of synergizing with a summary.
Sonny Bunch is assistant editor at THE WEEKLY STANDARD.
