Sunday Snapshot

Sec/State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Sec. Robert Gates made the Sunday show rounds to talk foreign affairs but found in an almost election year, it's WH politics that take center stage as both got asked about Barack Obama's comments on Pakistan:

Rice: "Of course, we are going to go after targets and after extremists, but so are the Pakistanis, because they have a lot at risk, too."

CBS' Schieffer: "But let me just go back here. You would not leave it to Pakistan to take care of this?"

Rice: "I think that we and Pakistan have a very strong interest together in capturing or killing high-value targets. Let me remind again. Pakistan itself is at risk from extremists. Musharraf himself is at risk from extremists. That gives us a joint interest in making sure that high-value targets are captured or killed" ("Face the Nation," CBS, 8/5).

Asked why Pres. Bush called Musharraf after Obama's comments, Rice: "What Senator Obama said, Senator Obama said. What the president said to President Musharraf is that we have to work harder, obviously, to deal with these al Qaeda terrorists, some of whom, yes, are active in the northwest frontier areas of Pakistan. But let's be very clear. If anyone thinks that the Pakistani government, which is under constant threat from al Qaeda -- Musharraf himself, who has been targeted for assassination by al Qaeda -- would not want to do everything possible to get high-value targets, I think you have to think again."

Asked again: "The president talks with President Musharraf fairly frequently. And I can tell you that the president isn't going to go around disavowing comments that are made during an election campaign. It's not the president's responsibility to do that. What the president is going to do with President Musharraf is to continue to affirm our partnership. He's going to continue to affirm our support for active Pakistani activities in this region" ("Fox News Sunday," 8/5).

Gates was on "Late Edition" and was asked indirectly about Obama's comments.

CNN's Blitzer: "What about Pakistan and this notion that if you, the Bush administration, the U.S. government, had actionable intelligence to go in to Pakistan and capture or kill Osama bin Laden or his No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, you would do that?"

Gates: "I think that our relationship with the Pakistanis is such that we would share that information with Musharraf, and he would be delighted to work with us in making that kind of an operation work" (CNN, 8/5).

And on "Meet the Press," Gates was asked about the letter Eric Edelman sent to Hillary Clinton:

Gates: "I've been at this business a little over 40 years, and I think Eric Edelman is one of the most professional people I've ever worked with and one of the most talented. I've come to rely on him heavily. Senator Clinton reacted to his letter. I looked at it carefully and believed in some ways it could have been a little clearer. ... I certainly agree with the vice president that we are not going to share contingency planning with the Congress. We never have. Truth of the matter is we don't share contingency planning even in the executive branch, because the plans change all the time and not to mention leak if they were to be shared widely. And also I believe the, the vice president and I are on exactly the same page in terms of the appropriateness of the role of, of the Congress in terms of oversight of the defense department. So I think there's really no daylight there."

NBC's Russert: "Before you go, if we had actionable intelligence about Osama bin Laden or high level targets in Pakistan, and President Musharraf did not act, would we act unilaterally?"

Gates: "Musharraf has been a very strong ally. The fact of the matter is, if we had actionable intelligence that Osama was in Pakistan, my view is that President Musharraf would work with us to make sure that we could go after him."

Russert: "But if he didn't, would we act unilaterally?"

Gates: "I think we would not act without telling Musharraf what we were planning to do" (NBC, 8/5).

ROUNDTABLE ROUNDUP

The "Fox News Sunday" panel discussed the situation in Iraq and the collapsed bridge in MN.

The "Late Edition" round table discussed WH '08.

The "Meet the Press" roundtable discussed WH '08.