Transcript for March 26

MS. ELISABETH BUMILLER: He’s trying to thread the needle and walk a very fine line between both of these groups. I mean, he’s a, you know, governor—he a former governor of a border state so he—this is very close to his political experience. Emotionally he is—he gives—in the early days of this debate in 2004 he was giving very emotional speeches about America, the land of immigrants, and he was proposing this, this very, what many Republicans said was a very generous guest-worker program. He has pulled back a lot now under, under onslaught from, from conservatives, and now he’s emphasizing the border security part of his plan. He’s trying to do both. There’s a lot—as we know, there’s a lot of different proposals on the Hill right now; we’ll see some of them next week. The White House is hanging back, waiting to see what, what comes out of the, out of the smoke, and then will, will weigh in.

MR. RUSSERT: Charlie Cook, it appears that the American people have very firm views about immigration, and that the president and other politicians are going to try to nuance the issue. Is that possible?

MR. CHARLIE COOK: Well it’s a funny issue. If you ask people what’s the most important problem facing the country, it’s a small single-digit issue. But then once you raise it, boy, emotions run high and it’s hard to split the baby. And, and I can see where the president’s trying to go the, “Let’s build, build a wall or build a barrier, stop illegal immigration, but for the people we have we’ve got to mainstream them and keep this work force going, because that’s important for agribusiness and business.”

MR. RUSSERT: Is that politically acceptable to conservatives?

MR. COOK: It’s not acceptable to anybody, but it’s the only way, I think—I mean, they’re going to have to figure out a way to split the baby. Because one way or the other is, is, is just not going to work.

MR. RUSSERT: John:

MR. JOHN HARWOOD: Well, let’s don’t forget, Tim, Democrats are also split on this issue. A lot of African-Americans are not very sympathetic with the cause of the guest-worker program. The White House, one of the ways Elisabeth mentioned, trying to thread the needle, one of the things they’re looking at is trying to push the final resolution of this till after the mid-term elections. That also could happen on some budget issues as well as a way of trying to make some sort of common cause between moderate Democrats and moderate Republicans.

MR. RUSSERT: You know, in 2000, “Florida, Florida, Florida”; 2004, “Ohio, Ohio, Ohio.” You look at 2008, that Electoral College map, and you look at states like New Mexico and Arizona and Colorado, some real potential swing states, and this issue could be very decisive as we play it through.

MR. HARWOOD: Well, let’s don’t forget one other thing, Tim. This was raised in the Virginia governor’s race last year by the Republican candidate who went after some of these job centers that attract illegal immigrants. Didn’t work for him. So sometimes the emotion of the issue doesn’t always prevail.

MR. RUSSERT: Let me turn to Iraq. A big discussion in our country about Iraq, the way the issue is being covered by the media. Vice President Cheney last Sunday made these comments: “There’s a constant sort of perception, if you will, that’s created because what’s newsworthy is the car bomb in Baghdad. It’s not all the work that went on that day in 15 other provinces in terms of making progress towards rebuilding Iraq.”

Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld weighed in: “The terrorists seem to recognize that they are losing in Iraq. I believe that history will show that to be the case. Fortunately, history is not made up of daily headlines, blogs on Web sites or the latest sensational attack.”

And then this Wednesday, President Bush went to a town meeting in West Virginia of his supporters, and here’s one of the questions that was asked:

(Videotape, March 22, 2006):

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: And I ask you this from the bottom of my heart, for a solution to this, because it seems that our major media networks don’t want to portray the good. They just want to focus...

PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH: OK, hold on a second.

WOMAN: They just want to focus on another car bomb, or they just want to focus on some more bloodshed.

(End of videotape)

MR. RUSSERT: Does that issue work, that it’s the mainstream media that’s distorting the good news that’s coming out of Iraq?

MR. COOK: I think it helps with the Republican base, but I don’t think it helps with swing voters at all. First of all, it’s the nature of news. I mean on the evening news at night, a car that isn’t in Iraq isn’t in the news—the house that doesn’t burn, a building that doesn’t burn, a killing that doesn’t take place. News is when—is the aberration, is the change from normalcy.

Secondly, this--80 journalists so far have been killed over there. I mean it, it’s, it’s, I mean, getting out there and looking around, wandering around Iraq, looking for good news? Sounds to me like a good way to get killed.

And then the third thing is, I don’t know if they really want to try to sell this, because people don’t think that, that, that everything’s fine. I mean, I think this is just an extenuation of holding up the banner that says “Mission accomplished.” I mean, people don’t think it’s well, they can see that it’s not going well. And what happens in 15 provinces doesn’t matter. What—if they think that this thing is just really going to hell in a hand basket, it’s kind of—I mean that’s what, you know, that’s that.

MR. RUSSERT: David Broder?

MR. BRODER: The ombudsman at The Post, Deborah Howell, has a very thoughtful analysis of this whole question in the paper today, which I would refer people to. I think the answer is that when there is this level of violence and turmoil in a country, that has to be the heart of the story that the press is, is telling. The other parts of it do get told, but they do not dominate the news and they can’t dominate the news given the realities of that country.

MR. HARWOOD: Nor should they dominate the news. It’s a very weak argument. When, when you have, as Charlie said, journalists over there who cannot move around the country to report because they know that, that they’re in danger of being killed at any moment, that tells you about the state of security in the country. It’s not good.

MR. RUSSERT: The White House?

MS. BUMILLER: The other thing that’s interesting, what you didn’t show was the president’s response to her. I was there that day, and he was very, very careful not to jump on her bandwagon. In fact—I mean, obviously, he didn’t have to, she did it for him. But the point is he said, “Look, wait a minute. You know, I understand your frustration, but we have a free press in this country, we can’t tell them what to do.” He pulled back somewhat from her comment.

And I think you’re right, Charlie, that they aren’t—they know they can’t sell this, and when they’ve tried in the past, it has backfired on them.

MR. RUSSERT: But the president also said don’t be afraid to go to blogs and find out some more information.

MS. BUMILLER: Yes. I mean, I mean, I’m, I’m—these are gradations here, I mean, in White House response.

MR. RUSSERT: But is the White House convinced that in order to secure the base of the Republican Party for the president, it doesn’t hurt to go after the media a little bit?

MS. BUMILLER: Not—of course not. They do it all the time. And, and they complain all the time about, about, about what we do. But, but I, I have noticed this past week Scott McClellan saying, the White House press secretary, you know, “We’re not blaming the media for the war in Iraq.” He said that a couple times this week, and so, so it, it’s—they’re—again, they’re being a little more careful here than usual.

MR. HARWOOD: And did you really fall asleep in that press pool, or was that a cheap shot by the president?

MS. BUMILLER: It was completely inaccurate. I won’t say I haven’t nodded off in previous speeches, but not that one.

MR. RUSSERT: There is a difference between, difference between meditation and sleep, you see.

David Broder, let me turn to the, the rebellion that I sense with some House members, particularly in the Republican Party when you go talk to them privately. You captured it in your column this way: “The conflict [over Dubai Ports World] brought to the surface deep-seated resentments from the Capitol end of Pennsylvania Avenue toward the people around the president - and, surprisingly, toward Bush himself. The harmony that had prevailed during most of Bush’s tenure - the deference that a Republican-controlled Congress has generally shown to his wishes - disappeared. Even the normal circumspection with which congressional Republicans treat the White House withered in the unexpected heat of this dispute.” And then this: Congressman “Tom Davis of Virginia, a committee chairman, told The Post, ‘This is probably the worst administration ever in getting Congress’s opinion on anything.’” Ouch!

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