Basically it seemed Friedman and Brooks were talking logically and agreeing on formerly very partisan (republican lies), with the fog lifted, and were really calling out this failed administration and its failed war, with dire warnings about them not facing reality. Brooks said the "Republican elite" in Washington will not allow the president to "destroy their party over this war." They "do not want to face another election ['08] like this last one again." That's an understatement.
Brooks admitted he wasn't "facing reality" a "year or two ago" when he also was "blaming the media" for biased coverage of Iraq - in direct contradiction to the White House defense and first lady's ridiculous interview this week. More...
Friedman said history will judge this administration as a failure for its catastrophic failure to understand the ME and thinking their war "would be easy."
Friedman makes an excellent point when he called out Cheney for saying Rumsfeld (who was fired for this "fiasco") is "the greatest Defense Secretary ever" - then why is the president firing him? Does Cheney think "we all have "stupid" on our foreheads?"
Friedman also makes an important damning point of saying the administration doesn't understand that, in contrast to Washington where people "lie on the record and tell the truth off the record," in the Middle East, "politicians lie off the record in private and tell the truth in public" -- suggesting the administration is naive for believing Maliki and other ME leaders are telling them the truth behind the scenes.
It seems that the opposition to the Iraq war is clarifying on the main damning elements -- and more importantly -- is forming a bipartisan convergence not only in the media and public, but in the "republican elite". [Gingrich was equally damning in his comments, though still obnoxious and megalomaniacal as ever.]
Democratic hearings will only add fuel to the fire consuming this lying desperate administration. And the republicans are right - they're facing another electoral slaughter in '08.
**TRANSCRIPT LINK** Entire 12/17/06 Meet the Press You can also watch the entire show on msnbc's website.
[Thank you to all who've stopped in. I am deeply humbled by the quality of conversation below.]