MTP Transcript for Jan. 21, 2007

SEN. KENNEDY: It take—I think it’s—what? A year for that period of time, an orderly, where you’d continue the training and you’d work at the diplomatic. But look, look, look...

MR. RUSSERT: But would you leave any—would you leave any troops behind?

SEN. KENNEDY: Well, it, it, it would depend on the circumstances at the very end. But the principal point is the Amer—we would have a major difference in policy. The administration says, “Look, we’re going in this direction, and we don’t care what the generals say or what the American people say.” That’s what the president says on this part. He ought to come to Congress. He ought to come to Congress. The burden is on him. That—this administration has made mistake after mistake after mistake. Every, every prediction that they have made has been wrong, starting off, number one. Every time they have made, including Mr. Negroponte, he’s been wrong every time, number one. And number two, we are offering at least an alternative policy. They don’t have an alternative policy. The president wants to go ahead with his policy. Come to the American people and go to the Congress and win that kind of support. Go to—and get accountability for this president and the members of the Congress and Senate that want a surge, that policy, and send sons and daughters and soldiers into a civil war. That is what the conflict is. We have an alternative. We have an alternative which will provide some training and provide diplomacy, which has been nonexistent in this.

Finally, I would just say, this administration has taken its eye off completely of the conflict of—in Afghanistan with all the deterioration. That is the home of the Taliban and al-Qaeda, and we see a continued escalation and, and a focus on that. They have made us weaker in terms of our ability to deal with Iran on this. This is a—they—this is a administration that is an enhancement of—or a failure in terms of American security interests throughout the world.

MR. RUSSERT: If we withdrew over the course of a year, and we saw Iran moving into southern Iraq, you saw the Saudis helping their fellow Sunnis in the Baghdad area of the Sunni triangle, you saw the Kurds and the Turks going at it up north, do we sit back and watch?

SEN. KENNEDY: We, we will have to take this and wait and see. Look, I heard this, I believe in that, that riddle of what, what is Iraq. And that is the forces in that region do not want us to win, but they also don’t want us to lose. They don’t want us to lose. Who in that region wants complete chaos? What efforts do we make to try to weave together countries in that area that might be willing to work with the United States, if we were prepared to have a real diplomatic offensive and initiative? That hasn’t been tried. That hasn’t been initiated. All that we do is a continued escalation of the war.

MR. RUSSERT: You were one of the few Democrats who voted against the war in the U.S. Senate. Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator Joe Biden, Senator John Edwards, Senator John Kerry all voted for the war. Should they now, considering running for president of the United States, step forward and say “I made a mistake”?

SEN. KENNEDY: Well, there—some of them have already made that statement and, and comment. I think what is important is that virtually every one of those has an alternative and a virtually unified position and opposition to the continued escalation. I didn’t hear one that favors a continued escalation. I didn’t hear one that you mentioned that favors a surge. The Democrats are united, virtually, with some exceptions, in terms of the surge movement of this administration. And that is...

MR. RUSSERT: But you said—you said it was the most important vote you ever cast...

SEN. KENNEDY: That’s right.

MR. RUSSERT: ...in the—in the United States Senate.

SEN. KENNEDY: Yes. Yes.

MR. RUSSERT: And, in your mind, they were wrong on that vote.

SEN. KENNEDY: Well, that’s, that’s—they, they chose to go a different way.

That’s right.

MR. RUSSERT: But that’s a fundamental misjudgment, in your mind.

SEN. KENNEDY: It’s a decision that they made which I differed with, and I think it was a very, very important judgment on it. I do think that they are so far ahead of where the administration is and where Republicans are, in terms of the future of, of, of Iraq, I don’t have hesitancy in certainly supporting them for the—for the presidency of the United States. We are, I think, with—for the Democrats are uniquely, in a unique position of—have such extraordinary—and and it’s an extraordinary bench, extraordinary talent coming into this presidential election.

MR. RUSSERT: What happens if, in fact, they try the surge, it doesn’t work, and there’s a troop withdrawal and Iraq falls into total chaos and anarchy?

SEN. KENNEDY: Well, we have—you can mention all, “What happens if the—Afghanistan collapses?” I mean, what happens then, in terms of the Iranian—we’re going to have to look at any of these. What we are certain of, at this time, is that the administration believes in the surge. That has been—we’ve tried surge on four different times, and it’s been a failure, that the leading generals, before they were shunned, before they were shut out, before they were set aside, also opposed the surge. So we have tried that policy, we have listened to the generals who rejected that policy. The increasing number of Republicans are rejecting that policy. The American people have fundamentally rejected the policy last fall. And this president wants to go it alone. Effectively he’s saying, “I have made the judgment; it’s my decision.” I don’t know where he gets “It’s my decision, my decision.” I mean, he has to read that Constitution again in terms of the responsibilities that we have. We have a responsibility under the Constitution to do the people’s will, and we will do the people’s will, I think.

MR. RUSSERT: Do you—do you think there’ll be a time when Republican senators will go see President Bush and say, “It’s over.”

SEN. KENNEDY: I think they’ll probably, the politics of it, probably they’ll say it’s going to be a very hard slog in terms of a—in a senatorial and congressional election.

MR. RUSSERT: George Casey is going to return home, nominated by the president to be the chief of the staff of the Army. You heard Senator McCain come out against his nomination. Are you for or against him?

SEN. KENNEDY: I, my, my basic feeling at this time is probably leaning for him. I’m going to attend the hearings; I’ll listen to it. I think I’ve a lot of respect for these, these, these officers. They—they’re not the ones that’ve made the policy, judgment decisions. They’ve been trying to deal with it under tough circumstances. And I’ll, I’ll have a chance to listen to the—Casey when he comes back. But my basic sense is to probably lean towards in, in favor of it, but I’ll be listening.

MR. RUSSERT: Hillary Rodham Clinton announced she is running for president yesterday. Here’s the latest Washington Post poll. We’ll put it on the screen. Amongst Democrats, Hillary Clinton, 41 percent; Barack Obama, senator from Illinois, 17; John Edwards, V.P. candidate in ‘04, 11 percent; Al Gore, the former V.P., 10 percent; John Kerry, your fellow Bay Stater, 8 percent. What does that tell you?

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