From ABC News’ interview with Cheney:
Jonathan Karl: And I wanted to ask you. You probably heard John McCain again come out and say that your friend Donald Rumsfeld is perhaps the worst secretary of defense ever. What do you make of that?
Cheney:I just fundamentally disagree with John. John said some nasty things about me the other day, and then next time he saw me, ran over to me and apologized. Maybe he’ll apologize to Rumsfeld.
Karl: So what’s your take on where Secretary Rumsfeld fits in?
Cheney: I think Don’s a great secretary [sic]. I know a little bit about the job. I’ve watched what he’s done over there for six years. I think he did a superb job in terms of managing the Pentagon under extraordinarily difficult circumstances. He and John McCain had a number of dust-ups over policy, didn’t have anything to do with Iraq — other issues that were involved. John’s entitled to his opinion. I just think he’s wrong.
Karl: And I know we’re just about out of time, but I wanted to clarify, Sen. McCain had said that the problem with President Bush is he listened to you too much. So this is what he was apologizing to you for?
Cheney: Yes, yes.
Karl: What did he say?
Cheney: Well, he came up to me on the floor a couple of days later, the next time I was on the floor of the Senate, said he’d been quoted out of context, and then basically offered an apology, which I was happy to accept.
The gloves are off: Hillary campaign blasts Obama and demands he cut loose fundraiser David Geffen over his anti-Clinton comments in today’s Times.
Update: Obama blasts back.
The GOP discovers due process?
Paul Kiel flagged this briefly yesterday. But it’s just too rich for me to pass up.
You know that this guy Alishtari — who gave more than $15,000 to GOP congressional committees — was indicted in federal court in New York on Friday for allegedly attempting to send over $150,000 to Pakistan to be used to fund terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.
Now, the NRCC finally had to give some response yesterday. But it turns out that they’re not going to assume there’s a problem with Mr. Alishtari until this alleged terror financier has had his day in court. “We need to be careful,” said the statement, “not to rush to judgment as the judicial process moves forward.”
If only those guys down in Guantanamo Bay knew about this little known perk of ponying up cash to the GOP.
Votevets.org and Gen. Clark have started a new site, StopIranWar.com.
Dem Rep. Carol Shea-Porter slams young pro-surge GOP state chair: If you’re so pro-escalation, why don’t you enlist?
Contest? Who is Dick Cheney’s secret friend.
Here’s a squib from Vice President Cheney’s ABC interview that hasn’t gotten a lot of attention so far …
I talked to a friend just the other day, a guy who knows the region very well, has spent a lot of years in that part of the world who had driven from Baghdad down to Basra in seven hours, found the situation dramatically improved compared to where it was a year or so ago, sort of validated the British view that they have made progress in southern Iraq, and that they can therefore afford to reduce their force posture.
Chalabi? Perle? Michael Rubin?
Who do you think it is?
TPM Reader RS on Cheney …
Josh, one of the arguments made by Cheney in the interview (and others such as John Howard) is that the British withdrawal is good news because it reflects improvement in the situation in the South. Well, if this is the case, then why aren’t the British troops being moved to where they are needed instead of being withdrawn? Why is nobody asking this question?
Another US helicopter (a black hawk) down in Iraq. This time, thankfully, no casualties. It’s listed as a ‘hard landing’. But seems likely that it was due to enemy fire or RPGs.