Hotline After Dark: What You Missed Last Night
HOTLINE AFTER DARK
If you're not into "My Name Is Earl," there's always the man named Kerry:
Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) was on "Hardball" and the "Situation Room":
On reports Pres. Bush declasssifed info: "If it's true, it proves that the buck doesn't stop anywhere in this administration. It also proves that the president has a funny sense of having an investigation, when he says we're going to get to the bottom of it and I'll fire the person who authorized it, if he indeed authorized it" (MSNBC, 4/6).
Asked if he supports the censure resolution: "I am inclined to believe it, and I think the hearings are appropriate, and I would be prepared to vote for it, if there shows the appropriate linkage of what they've done to the requirements of the law."
Asked if he's running in '08: "I honestly don't know yet" (CNN, 4/6). [EMILY GOODIN]
LEAK NEWS TRICKLES DOWN CABLE TV
The news that Bush declassified info was a topic of much discussion last night although reporters were careful to point out that Bush did not specificially authorize the outing of Valerie Plame:
CNN's Malveaux: "What this story reveals is that the president does not face a legal problem, but potentially a political one" ("Lou Dobbs Tonight," 4/6).
NBC's Gregory: "White House officials making the point today that nowhere in this filing does it indicate that the president or the vice president were in any way behind leaking Valerie Plame's name. And it also makes the point, White House officials do, that when we talk about leaking classified information, it may sound like parsing information to a lot of people but the reality is once the president makes a decision to authorize the release of information, it's no longer classified, it's instantly declassified" ("Hardball," MSNBC, 4/6).
New York Sun's Gernstein: "The president isn't accused of releasing the most sensitive information here, which arguably is Ms. Plame's identity. But he does apparently -- or did apparently authorize the release of some classified
information" ("Scarborough Country," MSNBC, 4/6).
FNC's Cameron: "The White House reiterated its refusal to comment on this ongoing investigation, even as some Democrats on Capitol Hill blasted the president as the quote 'leaker in chief.' That's a perhaps more political than legal charge since even the prosecutor doesn't question the president's authority and power to declassify information and make its disclosure legal" ("Special Report," 4/6).
NO COMPROMISING ON TV
The Senate compromises on immigration, and then goes on TV to talk about it:
Sen. George Allen (R-VA): "It does reward illegal behavior, which is unfortunate. What we do need to do, and there is a consensus, that we need to secure our borders" ("Hannity & Colmes," FNC, 4/6).
Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ): "I've always had reservations about making illegal immigrants citizens. It's not necessary, though I would not preclude them from applying to become citizens just like anyone else does in their own country. And unfortunately, the compromise ... is very little different" ("O'Reilly Factor," FNC, 4/6).
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC): "This compromise gives people an incentive to come out of the shadow, raise their hands, get registered" ("O'Reilly Factor," FNC, 4/6).
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX): "I have worried about from the beginning is that this was served up as a fait accompli, and we were told to swallow it, but unable to pass amendments which we thought would actually improve it" ("NewsHour," PBS, 4/6).
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL): "I am going to support it. ... I think it has preserved the integrity of the bipartisan bill which passed the Senate Judiciary Committee, after days of consideration and a number of amendments offered by colleagues on both sides of the aisle" ("NewsHour," PBS, 4/6).
Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ): "This bill is amnesty wrapped in bureaucracy, surrounded by fraud" ("Situation," MSNBC, 4/6).
