NBC's Tim Russert: Bush should aknowledge "WE WERE WRONG about WMDs, about troop levels, about the length of war, about...."

NBC's Tim Russert: President Bush _should_aknowledge_ "WE WERE WRONG about WMDs, about troop levels, about the length of the war, about...."
Russert also played a video clip of Newt Gingrich, Gingrich saying: "THE WAR IS A FAILURE."

NBC's Tim Russert: << Could the president step forward and say, “I acknowledge we were wrong about WMD, we were wrong about troop levels, we were wrong about the length of the war, we were wrong about the cost of the war, we were wrong about the financing of the war, we were wrong about the level of sectarian violence, we were wrong about being greeted as liberators. We made some fundamental misjudgments, and they were wrong, but now we’re all in this together”? Could he do that? >>
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This is perhaps the most credible episode by Tim Russert on Meet The Press we have ever seen, which of course isn't saying much, but in today's show Russert really grills those at the center of America's government policy establishment. For example, Russert grills Dem. Senator Leahy, (paraphrasing) "IF you voted AGAINST the nomination of Bill Gates to CIA in 1991 [because Gates was less than forthcoming about his role in the huge Iran-Contra scandal] WHY ARE YOU APPROVING OF HIM today?"**

Well, the obvious answer to that question is because Democrats want to AVOID BLAME for the trainwreck that is the US war in Iraq, and opposing Bush's pick to replace Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense could and would be painted by the Republicans and media as "OBSTRUCTING" America's options in the quagmire war. Indeed, REPUBLICAN Senator John Warner sounded LESS prepared to voice uncontested approval of Gates' nomination than his Democratic co-guest (Leahy) on the show, Warner PROMISING A THOROUGH INVESTIGATION of Gates.

Russert: << Could the president step forward and say, “I acknowledge WE WERE WRONG about WMD, WE WERE WRONG about troop levels, WE WERE WRONG about the length of the war, WE WERE WRONG about the cost of the war, WE WERE WRONG about the financing of the war, WE WERE WRONG about the level of sectarian violence, WE WERE WRONG about being greeted as liberators. We made some fundamental misjudgments, and they were wrong, but now we’re all in this together?" Could he do that? >>
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15936711/page/2/

Note: The transcript of this one-hour video is well worth reading, all four pages, both for the prerecorded video clips, Russert's analysis, and the guest's comments on America's course at this critical moment at the start of the 110th Congress this January. MSNBC also provides an online video at the Meet the Press site http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10005066/

**Note 2: Leahy, as the future Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, will have enormous influence in the coming Congress. His committee will be able to "bottle up" any Bush judicial nominations without even going through a formal committee vote - the "pocket veto" tactic that Senator Jesse Helms was infamously expert at wielding, Helms once "pocket-vetoed" President Clinton's choice of William Weld to be Ambassador to Mexico.... Weld was then the SITTING, _REPUBLICAN_ Governor of Massachusetts at the time, a politician who met the approval of voters throughout the state of Massachusetts, but not of the demigod dictator of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, Jesse Helms.