MTP Transcript for Jan. 21, 2007

SEN. McCAIN: I don’t—I don’t know how it—how it helps me politically.

MR. RUSSERT: Incurring favor with conservative groups that were very much opposed to your original legislation.

SEN. McCAIN: There are as—there are as many liberal groups who were opposed to the legislation as well, as I—as I understand it. Some of these grassroots organizations are very legitimate organizations. As we found out during the Abramoff investigations, some are not. We should be able to find out and discriminate between the two.

MR. RUSSERT: Here’s the latest poll from Newsweek magazine out this morning. Hillary Clinton, Democratic candidate, 48; John McCain, Republican candidate 47. Hillary Clinton in the race. How would you assess her as a candidate for president?

SEN. McCAIN: I think she would be a very formidable candidate.

MR. RUSSERT: And—and someone who could actually win.

SEN. McCAIN: Well, I think to underestimate anyone who is the nominee of the party—I think one of the mistakes we made in 1992 was underestimating her husband’s potential.

MR. RUSSERT: Back in February of ‘05, you told me that she would make a good president, even though you would never vote for her, she would make a good president. You stand by those words?

SEN. McCAIN: I’m convinced that she would be a very serious president, that we would have strong philosophical differences, as is well known, but certainly I respect her views. And I think that her—but would I—would I pursue the policies and initiate initiatives that she would? Certainly not, because I’m a conservative Republican.

MR. RUSSERT: Senator John McCain, as always, we thank you for joining us and sharing your views.

SEN. McCAIN: Thank you for having me.

MR. RUSSERT: Coming next, a very different view from the leading opponent to more troops in Iraq. Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts is here on MEET THE PRESS, next.

(Announcements)

MR. RUSSERT: Senator Ted Kennedy, the war in Iraq, the 2008 presidential race, the entrance of Hillary Clinton and more after this station break.

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MR. RUSSERT: And we are back.

Senator Ted Kennedy, welcome back to MEET THE PRESS.

SEN. KENNEDY: Good morning.

MR. RUSSERT: You just heard John McCain say that a Senate resolution against President Bush increasing troops in Iraq, or your legislation to cap the number of troops in Iraq, is, in effect, a vote of no confidence in the American troops.

SEN. KENNEDY: Well, of course, first of all, I have enormous respect for John McCain. I serve with him on the Armed Services Committee. I’ve worked with him on immigration and on health care. And he’s a great American hero, great American patriot. He’s given more to this country than anyone could’ve asked. And I always take his views seriously, certainly on issues of national security. But on this issue, I differ with him.

The question that you just asked is, are we really being more loyal to our troops putting them in the midst of a civil war? That’s effectively what’s happening. That’s what we see day after day. That is what our generals understand. Colin Powell has described it that way, General Nash. So many of the generals that have been over there describe that that way. The American people never voted to authorize to send American troops in the midst of a civil war. They authorized it to look after weapons of mass destruction that weren’t there, to look after the issues of the association, the operational association between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. They looked at the violations of the UN resolution, but not a civil war. Today we have a civil war.

And the issue that is before the Senate of the United States, the issue that is before the American people is the issue of whether we are going to have another surge. We’ve had four surges in Iraq, none of them have been successful. And I, I suggest that the president has the responsibility to demonstrate and prove to the American people that the surge will work. This is because the surges in the past—when we were in Najaf—Najib in 2004, were not successful. In Fallujah, they weren’t successful. In Baghdad this last year, they haven’t been successful, 2005 not successful.

The burden is on the president to prove to the American people that it will work, because this is an administration that has had failure after failure after failure after failure. And generally, in baseball, when you have three strikes, then you’re out. What is that in regards to this policy? We, we ought to require that the president of the United States come to the Congress and convince the Congress and the American people that the surge is the right way to go. And we ought to—that’s what our legislation does. It says if the president should come to the Congress and be able to demonstrate to the Congress that we need the increased troops, the increased resources with a new authorization. And if—otherwise we have a cap in the number of troops that are there, and we don’t have the resources to send additional troops there.

MR. RUSSERT: But the president has already begun to send troops to Iraq. Nancy Pelosi, the new speaker, said, quote, “The president knows that because the troops are in harm’s way that we won’t cut off the resources. That’s why he’s moving so quickly to put them in harm’s way.” You agree with her?

SEN. KENNEDY: Well, first of all, Nancy Pelosi’s had an extraordinary week. She has just been a spectacular speaker with all of the actions that have been taken with the increase in minimum wage and stem cell research and...

MR. RUSSERT: But is she right about the president?

SEN. KENNEDY: She, she is right about the president, the fact that the president has taken two months, two months to make his judgment and decision, hasn’t he? He has taken from the time of the election till just a week ago to make the judgment decision about, about the surge. It does seem that the Congress ought to be able to have two weeks to make a judgment on this.

Now, the facts remain that the—these troops are going to be phased in over a period of time. If we’re able to take action before the end of this month, there is no issue which is more important to the American people than the issue of war and peace, the issue of Iraq. We ought to have that on the agenda in the House of Representatives, on the Senate. We ought to debate these issues. And I think we will see, at the end of that time, that the—that there, there is going to be opposition to the surge, that that opposition was initially reflected, as you pointed out earlier in the program, by the generals themselves. There’s increasing opposition by the Republicans. And I must say, if we have a president that is going to effectively defy the American people, going to defy the generals, defy the majority of the Congress of the United States in Republicans and Democrats, then we, I think, have a responsibility to, to end the funding for that—for the war.

MR. RUSSERT: Cut off the funding?

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