MR. TIM RUSSERT: Our issues this Sunday: Iraq, Iran, immigration, and the 2006 midterm elections. With us: the man who has represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate for 43 years, and the author of his new book, “America: Back on Track,” Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Then, the future of Donald Rumsfeld and the staff shake-up at the White House. Insights and analysis from two journalists, David Broder of The Washington Post and Ron Brownstein of the Los Angeles Times. And two former press secretaries: He was Newt Gingrich’s spokesman, Tony Blankley; she was Bill Clinton’s spokeswoman, Dee Dee Myers.

Then, in our MEET THE PRESS MINUTE, words of advice from another press secretary serving a president with low poll ratings: President Lyndon Johnson’s spokesman George Christian, from 37 years ago.

(Videotape, January 19, 1969):

MR. GEORGE CHRISTIAN (Press Secretary to President Johnson): God save the republic if we ever have a president who isn’t sensitive to criticism.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT: But first, the senior senator from Massachusetts. Democrat Ted Kennedy is back on MEET THE PRESS.

Welcome.

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D-Mass.): Good morning.

MR. RUSSERT: Iraq. We have a new permanent prime minister. It appears the government is coming together. Encouraging news?

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SEN. KENNEDY: It is encouraging, but the bottom line is going to be what is happening out in the communities? What’s happening out in the streets? What’s the level of violence? You know, Tim, as of this week, American forces will have been in Iraq as long as America was in the Korean Peninsula in the Korean War. And at the end of this year, we will have been involved militarily in Iraq as long as we were in World War II. If we haven’t been able to have a military solution with that period of time, then it is time for the Americans—servicemen to be, to be withdrawn from that, that country. I believe that American—continuation of American servicemen is more of a crutch that Iraqi groups are leaning on rather than resolving their own problems, and it’s basically a time for the substantial withdrawal of American troops.

MR. RUSSERT: Do you believe that no matter what the condition of Iraq, by the end of this year all American troops should be out?

SEN. KENNEDY: I believe that the presence of American troops and the numbers that they are—I agree with what General Abizaid has said to the Armed Services Committee over a year ago. General Casey, Mel Laird has written in the Foreign Affairs, that the American presence has helped to inflame the insurgency. I believe that is the current situation. And the only way that the Iraqi elements that are going to form the government are going to know that they are going to have to have their own destiny and are going to have to stand up their own troops is with a substantial withdrawal of American troops. That is the key. That is necessary. That, I believe, is essential this year.

The military has done its job. It’s time for American troops to come on home.

MR. RUSSERT: Substantial. We have 135,000. You’d bring it down to?

SEN. KENNEDY: I, I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t see the total withdrawal. We’re running into months now, six or eight more months to the remainder of the year, but there’s no question we’re going to have to have some presence in that area, strategic presence in that area for any period of time. But what we’re talking about in, in Iraq is to convince the elements in Iraq that are going to be making decisions, that they can no longer lean on the United States Armed Forces as a crutch, that they no more can just depend, that the Iraqis themselves are going to have to stand up for their own national security.

CONTINUED

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