Go Sit In The Corner, Tim Russert

[wellst0nev0ter]

Some very funny, and telling, stuff at Billmon:

Meet the Whore, June 22, 2003

Tim Russert: How many troops would you have in Iraq?

Howard Dean: More than we have now. My understanding is we have in the neighborhood of 135,000 troops ... For me to have to know right now ... how many troops are actively on duty in the United States military when that is actually a number that’s composed both of people on duty today and people who are National Guard people who are on duty today, it’s silly. That’s like asking me who the ambassador to Rwanda is.

Russert: Oh, no, no, no. Not at all. Not if you want to be commander in chief.

Dean: So your perception—your position is that I need to know exactly how many people are on duty today in the active military forces...

Russert: Well, have a sense...

Dean: ...six months away from the first primary?

Russert: If somebody wants to be president of the United States, have a sense of the military.


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Meet the Whore, June 8, 2003

Russert: If someone said to you, "Dr. Rice, we have 200,000 troops in Iraq. We haven't found the weapons of mass destruction. Saddam Hussein cannot be located. Chaos reigns. The radical Shiites are refusing to cooperate with the U.S. representative on the ground" -- was this a pyrrhic victory?



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. . .There now are some 145,000 Americans and 12,000 coalition forces including British, Poles and others in Iraq.
Washington Post, July 8, 2003

[HFishbine]

1. But

Russsert isn't running for president.

It was a minor stumble for Dean (one that didn't hurt him much as evidenced by the huge inlfux of funds the following week), but it is a lesson learned. This is how the democrats are going to be dealt with. They need to be prepared.

[wellst0nev0ter]

2. No, He's Just Vetting For Those He Wants To Be President

What he said.

[Art_from_Ark]

3. Sad, isn't it?

If you're a Democratic candidate and you don't know the precise number of troops in Iraq (and who, actually, is really privy to those figures?) then you get the second degree treatment, but if you don't even know the name of the prime minister of Canada (which is, of course, common knowledge), then you get a pass-- if you're a repub.

Liberal media, my :dem:

[Best_man23]

4. If they start a liberal TV news network

I hope they have a show that exposes and debunks hacks like Russert.

[GregW]

5. Separated at birth?

[MUAD_DIB]

6. Wasn't * (I feel like caling him shithead today)...

wasn't shithead ignorant (he he he) of who were certain heads of state that he was going to be meeting once he first was selected to office?

Why doesn't Timmy bring * on to Meet the Whore and grill him on what a president needs to know.


Russert: So Mr. Shithead can you tell me and the American people where the faulty intel came from regarding the Iraqi WMD claim, when you knew the intel was faulty and why you invaded a sovereign country based on faulty information.


*Shithead: Well, I know in my mind's mind that that that the WMD's were there, and even if the intel was faulty ....and you know...this was a guy who gassed his own peo...and my predecessor was aware of ...in a '98 report that Saddam was a bad man ...so even if the intel was as the LibRul media peports as "faulty" I still think that Saddam's not there any more and the world is a better ...peaceful place than it had been a few months ago. The bad guy is gone. Does that answer you question Timmy-boy?


Russert: Oh, no, no, no. Not at all. Not if you want to remain commander in chief.