Bush Tries to Make Case for Regime Change in Iraq
ANNOUNCER: From Washington,</s>THE CAPITAL GANG. MARK SHIELDS, HOST: Welcome to CAPITAL GANG. I'm Mark Shields with Al Hunt, Robert Novak and Margaret Carlson. Our guest is Republican Congressman Roy Blunt of Missouri, the chief deputy majority whip. Thanks for coming in, Roy.</s>REP. ROY BLUNT (R-MO), CHIEF DEPUTY MAJORITY WHIP: Great to be here.</s>SHIELDS: Thank you. More influential Republicans told President Bush he must make a case for military action in Iraq.</s>REP. HENRY HYDE (R), ILLINOIS: Do we want to know how close Saddam Hussein is to developing a nuclear bomb and the means to deliver it?</s>SHIELDS: The president sent Congress a message promising to seek its support, and he invited members to the White House.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: One of the things I made very clear to the members here is that doing nothing about that serious threat is not an option for the United States. I also made it very clear that we look forward to a open dialogue with Congress and the American people about the threat.</s>SHIELDS: Later, Vice President Cheney briefed congressional leaders.</s>SEN. TOM DASCHLE (D-SD), MAJORITY LEADER: It wasn't conclusive, but it was helpful. The president needs to make his case not only to us but to the American people and to the international community, and that effort has now begun.</s>SHIELDS: President Bush also telephoned non-supportive French, Russian, and Chinese leaders and met today with his most important ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Al Hunt, is the president actually seeking advice? Or is he simply promoting military action?</s>AL HUNT, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": Mark, I think the president has clearly decided on military action in Iraq. The question is, how do you get there? And let's be frank, there is -- there is politics involved in this. "The New York Times" had a big story today about the president</s>SHIELDS: Yanked the piece that was supposed to be in Sunday?</s>HUNT: Yes.</s>SHIELDS: Roy Blunt, your own take.</s>BLUNT: Well, I think, you know, we -- what we heard in the country when we were home in August was that they want a little more information here. My view was that really only the president has -- is in a situation to put everything together. He knew whether action was imminent or not, whether it need to be happen</s>SHIELDS: But Roy, Roy put his finger on something important here, Bob Novak, and that is that over August, the support for the president and the support for military action really grew, grew very soft in the country, and nervousness grew. And just two weeks ago, the president and, and Don Rumsfeld and Ari Fleischer were saying, what's this frenzy about Iraq? Now we've got a full-court press on Iraq.</s>ROBERT NOVAK, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES: It's because the -- suddenly they realized, I think the administration has handled this very badly, Roy. I think they thought they were going to go to war, bomb the hell out of these people, with no international support, without convincing the American people. Now they know they have to do that. But they -- but it -- they haven't done it, they haven't done it well. The, the prop -- the, the performance by Senator, by Secretary Rumsfeld, who's an old friend of mine, was just horrible at the, at, at the, at the Senate. I've talked to several of the Republican senators. They were appalled. He treated them like reporters. He was, he was dismissive of them. On the other hand, the very select briefing by Dick Cheney and George Tenet to the four big leaders went off very well. I don't think that Tom Daschle was convinced, but he, you know, he -- he was -- he was impressed by some of the things he heard, which he did not -- he did not release. I think they could, they could say a lot more than they could to a big group. But the idea of a preemptive strike is unprecedented in American history. I don't, and a -- it -- in -- a lot of Americans have, have pause about it.</s>SHIELDS: Margaret Carlson.</s>SHIELDS: Well, let me just, let me ask a question here, because I frankly don't know the answer. I think you can make a lot stronger case that, that Saddam Hussein has been building weapons of mass destruction than you can tie him to September 11.</s>NOVAK: Well, I think, I think...</s>CARLSON: ... he's given up on that.</s>HUNT: ... if you could tie him to September 11, according to the congressional resolution that you all passed last September, you could bomb him tomorrow.</s>SHIELDS: ... there's no evidence.</s>CARLSON: ... they've given up on that, they can't do it.</s>HUNT: But you can't</s>NOVAK: Margaret's right, they've given up on that. I think the idea of regime change, we don't like that regime, there's a lot of bad regimes in the world, that is the -- I think now the whole thing gets down to weapons of mass destruction. Do they have them? And then what do you say was OK with sending, sending the inspectors, and then the line from the Pentagon, from the civilians at the Pentagon is, the inspectors don't do any good.</s>BLUNT: Well, I think it's clear they have weapons of mass destruction. Now, whether they're nuclear capability or not, I don't know, but I don't think...</s>NOVAK: It's dubious.</s>BLUNT: ... there's no...</s>NOVAK: I mean, they don't have nuclear weapons now.</s>BLUNT: There's really no, no doubt that they have biological and chemical weapons, or that Saddam Hussein would use them. He's used them before, he'd use them again. Clearly we are their enemy. At the same time, I'm not sure that the president won't be able to make that tie to terrorism. I think -- I don't want to presuppose -- I don't know anything, I'm not suggesting I know that he can. But he's going to make a speech this week to the United Nations...</s>BLUNT: ... he's going to make a, he's going to make a...</s>HUNT: ... the president's speech is very important, but I think this is a time that cries out for really good congressional hearings on both sides. And I think certain questions ought to be answered by people in the administration. How imminent is the threat? Roy, I agree, there's a threat. How -- why is it different than six months ago when we said we had him in a box? Secondly, what are the ramifications that Bob raised of going it alone? I mean, could that destabilize Jordan and Pakistan? And thirdly, what's post-Saddam Iraq going to look like? Are we going, as Dick Cheney said, in to build a cradle of democracy? And how long will we stay...</s>BLUNT: ... going it alone is actually not as big a challenge for us as staying alone.</s>SHIELDS: Staying alone?</s>BLUNT: And that's why I think we need to be sure...</s>BLUNT: ... that at least the Congress is supportive and hopefully our allies are. Tony Blair's visit, his comments the last week, are a big move...</s>NOVAK: Let me just add...</s>BLUNT: ... and I think they'll be followed...</s>NOVAK: Let me just add...</s>BLUNT: ... they'll be followed by the...</s>NOVAK: Let me just add, Mark, I've been dealing with reporting at the Pentagon, and the uniformed military with their 10 divisions think they are really stretched...</s>NOVAK: ... they are really overcommitted.</s>SHIELDS: The point that Jim Webb, former Navy secretary, made this week. The other interesting thing is that George Tenet only testifies when he's with a policy maker. They won't let George Tenet go up alone. I don't understand that. Margaret, what's the final word?</s>CARLSON: The fourth point I was going to make was that in 1991, when the United States was in Saddam Hussein's backyard, some of these very same people decided to pull away when he had the same weapons that you say he has now, the chemical and biological.</s>SHIELDS: Last word, Margaret Carlson. Roy Blunt and THE GANG will be back with another Bush judge turned down.