Leslie Blitzer
yesterday:
THOMAS: Well, I think what this president has done is really strike a match to the tinderbox that we all know is the Middle East. And I think that Nixon's crime, so-called, was the abuse of government power.
In the case, in the case of the president and his cohorts, I think they have really spread war throughout the Middle East. They have really encouraged all of the horror that is going on.
We have killed so many innocent people. I mean...
BLITZER: But you can't forget 9/11. Three thousand people were killed.
THOMAS: But the Iraqis didn't do it. I mean, how can you -- why don't you go bomb some other country? I mean, if you have no reason -- this is -- I don't believe in preemptive war, and it certainly is against international law. It's against the U.N. charter, it's against Geneva, and it's against Nuremberg.
Leslie Blitzer
today:
BLITZER: Here's a very tough statement your old friend Ted Kennedy put out the other day. He said this. Listen to these words. They are very, very strong. "On this third anniversary, it is clearer than ever that Iraq was a war we never should have fought. The administration has been dangerously incompetent, and its Iraq policy is not worthy of the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform."
More than 2,300, as you know, Senator, men and women have died, U.S. troops have died, thousands of others have been injured. Those are very strong words from Kennedy.
DOLE: Well, what he didn't say, that there were over 3,000 killed on 9/11, and maybe Ted, like -- a friend of mine, like most people have forgotten, you know, really why we -- partly why we're there. And another reason we're there is ...
BLITZER: All right. Let me interrupt you, Senator. Let me interrupt you. But everybody now agrees that Saddam Hussein and Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.
DOLE: Yes, but I think -- I'm not sure everybody agrees, but everybody also -- most everybody agrees that having Saddam Hussein gone is a good thing. But, anyway, I can't recall a statement Senator Kennedy has put out this year praising President Bush. I don't think you can find one.
He was very critical during the recent judgeship with Judge Alito. Senator Kennedy is a very hard-working senator from Massachusetts, but he's a strong, liberal Democrat who criticizes the president almost daily. He and Chuck Schumer are tied for first place.
But Blitzer didn't stop there. Nope, he was rather Thomas-esque in his persistence...
BLITZER: As long as you can clarify the one point. Are you suggesting, Senator -- I don't think you are, but I just want our viewers to be clear -- that Saddam Hussein did have something to do with 9/11?
DOLE: Well, I'm not, you know -- I'm a skeptic. I still think when it's all said and done, we're going to find some trace of some weapons that he's either moved or destroyed. And, you know, I may be the only one in the country who believes, that but I really believe there could have been something there.
But the point is, the American people are concerned. There have been a lot of American casualties. Everyone is important, all of us. But I think we have -- you know, we're not going to leave as President Bush indicated.
We were -- we're going to stay probably beyond his presidency. I remember when president Clinton sent troops to Bosnia for one year, there's still some in Bosnia all these years later and it's cost some $40 billion. So you don't want to put a deadline.
BLITZER: But on this 9/11 and Saddam Hussein, I just want to be clear. You don't believe that Saddam Hussein had anything to do with 9/11 as opposed to WMDs?
DOLE: No.
BLITZER: All right. I just want to be clear on that.
Kudos to Blitzer. Keep it up. Wolf could stand to gain more of the Cafferty-Dobbs active participation in reporting & interviewing rather than the passive Morning News mundanity.
Update [2006-3-22 18:59:30 by jorndorff]: You can send 'The Situation Room' feedback here. Let them know you like it when they care about the truth and aren't afraid of asking tough questions.