Sept. 26 Democratic debate transcript

Russert: But you pledge -- excuse me.  Excuse me.  You'll pledge to have all troops out by January of 2013.

Kucinich: By April of 2007.  And you can mark that on your calendars, if you want to take a new direction...

Russert: Well, it's September of '07 now.  So we're going to have a problem.

(Laughter)

Kucinich: Make that 2009.  I'm ready to be president today.

(Laughter)

(Applause)

Russert: All right.

I want to give Senator Gravel a chance.

Russert: Senator Gravel, I've listened to you very carefully in this campaign.  You were in the Senate.

Mike Gravel: You're one of the few that have.

(Laughter)

Russert: You were in the Senate, and you take credit for stopping the draft.

If you were a senator right now, what advice would you give your colleagues still in Congress about how they can stop the war, even though they don't have enough votes to stop a debate or to override a veto?  What should they do?

Gravel: Well, the first thing, you stop the debate by voting every single day on cloture.  Every day.  Twenty days, and you'll overcome cloture.

The president vetoes the law.  It comes back to the Congress. And in the House at noon every single day you vote to override the president's veto.  And in 40 days, the American people will have weighed in, put the pressure on those.

You tell me that the votes aren't there -- you go get them by the scruff of the neck, that's what you do.  You make them vote.

Russert: Senator, are you suggesting that these candidates suspend their campaigns, go back to Washington, and for 40 consecutive days vote on the war?

Gravel: If it stops the killing, my God, yes, do it.

And, Tim, you're really missing something.  This is fantasy land. We are talking about ending the war.  My God, we're just starting a war right today.  There was a vote in the Senate today.  Joe Lieberman, who authored the Iraq resolution, has offered another resolution and it is essentially a fig leaf to let George Bush go to war with Iran.

I want to congratulate Biden for voting against it, Dodd for voting against it.

And I am ashamed of you, Hillary, for voting for it.  You're not going to get another shot at this because what happens if this war ensues, we invade, and they're looking for an excuse to do it.  And Obama was not even there to vote.

Russert: Senator Clinton, I want to give you a chance to respond.

(Laughter)

Clinton: I don't know where to start.

Russert: Please take 30 seconds.

(Laughter)

Clinton: Yes.  Let me respond.

My understanding of the Revolutionary Guard in Iran is that it is promoting terrorism.  It is manufacturing weapons that are used against our troops in Iraq.  It is certainly the main agent of support for Hezbollah, Hamas and others.

And in what we voted for today, we will have an opportunity to designate it as a terrorist organization which gives us the options to be able to impose sanctions on the primary leaders to try to begin to put some teeth into all this talk about dealing with Iran.

We wouldn't be where we are today if the Bush administration hadn't outsourced our diplomacy with respect to Iran and ignored Iran and called it part of the axis of evil.  Now we've got to make up for lost time and lost ground...

Russert: I just want to pick up on Senator Gravel's point.

Senator Dodd, is it practical for you as a senator and others who now serve in Congress to go back to Washington and for 40 consecutive days try to cut off the funding for the war...

Dodd: Well, I...

Russert: ... suspend your campaigns if necessary and bring the issue  -- crystallize it in a way that the American people will understand exactly what's going on?

Dodd: Well, I think we're going to have that opportunity over and over again in the coming days.  There's going to be a request, I think, for something in the neighborhood of $200 billion that the administration is going to seek to continue to prosecute the war.  So we'll have our chances to do it.

I think it's a little unrealistic to assume every single day you do that, Mike.  But certainly you can do this when the opportunity arises.

And that, Tim, is the point was trying to make to you a moment ago, here.

We need to be take -- understanding what powers exist in the institution of the Congress, those of us who serve there, and use that opportunity to do what the Constitution has given us, and that is to stop the funding.  That's what we need to be doing.

Now, look, I realize you may not get 60 votes or even 51 votes for this.  But I think clarity and leadership are called for at this hour, here.  If you're going top seek the presidency of the United States and you're in a position, today, to do something about this, then, in my view, it's an opportunity to stand up and lead on this issue to bring this war, which is doing great damage to our country, to a halt.

Dodd: It's hurting our nation terribly, and it needs to be brought to a halt.  And the power of the purse allows you to do that.

Russert: We have so much to cover.  I want to talk about Iran, and this is...

Biden: Tim, can I...

Russert: We have...

Biden: What we voted on was not partition.  I don't want anybody thinking it was partition.  And it's the only time we got 26 Republicans to reject the president's policies.

Kucinich: You're splitting...

Russert: All right, fine.

Kucinich: ... Iraq up.

Russert: Fine.  Fine.

Kucinich: That's what it does.

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