Talk of Sen. Larry Craig's (R-ID)'s resignation led the Sunday shows this weekend:
Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), on Craig's resignation: "That's one of the things I'm proudest about our leadership is the swift action, not only calling for an immediate Senate investigation, ethics investigation, removing him from his committees, but also sending the signal to him that it was probably best that he resign. It was best for himself, best for his family, and best for the institution of the Senate."
On the difference between Craig and Vitter: "What David Vitter was before he got into the United States Senate. ... The Senate Ethics Committee would have no jurisdiction over him. But secondly, you remember, Barney Frank, in the House of Representatives, admitted to soliciting sex with a male prostitute, and he was not removed from the House of Representatives. ... Larry Craig admitted guilt. That is a big difference between being accused of something and actually admitting guilt to actually committing a crime. David Vitter never did that. Larry Craig did" ("This Week," ABC, 9/2).
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), asked if there is a double standard when it comes to Craig and Vitter: "Well, I'm not sure. I mean, it is true that the facts are different in that Larry Craig did plead guilty to a crime. ... There was no ethics reform in the Congress when the Republicans controlled it. We got into office, and we've passed major ethics reforms to deal with earmarks, to deal with campaign finance reform and bundling, and to deal with the lobbying. And so I think what the American people are looking for is not a blame game -- 'Is this party worse than the other?' -- but rather, who is trying to clean it up. And I think the record is clear. We're the ones trying to clean it up" ("This Week," ABC, 9/2).
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), asked about Craig's resignation: "What is interesting and I think is going to cause some fallout, and maybe there's more to come -- we have another senator who apparently used telephones in the Republican cloak room to call the so-called Washington madam, set up illegal activity with call girls, and nobody seems to be upset with that. Frankly, I would think that that, as compared to a sting operation in a men's room in Minnesota, would be as serious. I mean, that's a question that the Republican Party will have to answer."
Asked if he's saying Vitter should resign: "I say there's a double standard. Secondly, I don't think they'll ask him to resign because, of course, he'd be replaced by a Democrat. It's easier to ask Larry Craig to resign because he'd be replaced by a Republican" ("Fox News Sunday," 9/2).
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA): "I don't think either of them should have been asked to resign. I'd still like to see Senator Craig fight this case. He left himself some daylight ... when he said that he intends to resign in 30 days. I'd like to see Larry Craig go back to court, seek to withdraw his guilty plea and fight the case. I've had some experience in these kinds of matters since my days as Philadelphia district attorney, and on the evidence, Senator Craig wouldn't be convicted of anything. And he's got his life on the line and 27 years in the House and Senate, and I'd like to see him fight the case, because I think he could be vindicated" ("Fox News Sunday," 9/2).
WH Counselor Ed Gillespie, on the difference between Craig and Vitter: Craig "was convicted of a crime, and that is different. Senator Vitter has not been charged with a crime or let alone convicted of one. So there's a pretty big distinction here" ("Fox News Sunday," 9/2).
MAKING WAVES
Joe Biden was on "Face the Nation" this weekend:
On Iraq: "The purpose of this surge was to give breathing room to acquire some political reconciliation. There is no political reconciliation. And the total number of Iraqi civilian deaths are up around Iraq, not down. The number of people fleeing their homes has gone from 50,000 a month to 100,000 a month since the surge. It is true things are better where our military is physically sitting. But it's like putting your fist in the water. ... The minute you take the fist out of the water, you can't even tell it was ever there. That's why there's a need for a political settlement. It doesn't matter how many troops we put there. Unless you have a political settlement, when we leave we're going to leave chaos behind. And you'll find you have a regional war."
On who the next AG should be: "I know what the next attorney general should be. He should be able to tell the truth. He should be somebody who knows the difference between torture and what's not torture. He should be able to advise the president on the Constitution and not continue to tell him he could eavesdrop on Americans in violation of the Constitution. He should be somebody who is wise enough to tell the president, close down Guantanamo Bay. It's a violation of everything we stand for. I think you need somebody in the mold of Levi. Remember Attorney General Levi, when we had a similar crisis back 25 years ago? I don't know whether they can find such a person. But it's more important that the person understand the Constitution and have the guts to tell the president what the truth is."
Asked about DHS Sec. Michael Chertoff as AG: "I would oppose him."
Asked if he's spoken to the WH about the next AG: "I have been asked. And I've given a profile, not an individual. ... It's not for me to tell the president who he should pick. But I do think some of the names I've heard floated would not fit the bill of telling the president what he is engaged in, in the wiretappings engagement is unconstitutional, tell him the truth about we should abide by our international treaties, et cetera. So I think it's more what the position on these big issues is of the person being nominated, as opposed to whether or not the president likes him" (CBS, 9/2).
NO FOOT IN MOUTH HERE
Mike Huckabee was on "This Week":
On Thompson: "I think that's one of the reasons that maybe he's delayed. He's looked at the fact that if he's looking for a consistent conservative, that would be Mike Huckabee. I've been a governor ten and a half years and governed conservatively, but also governed with results. And what people in this country are looking for is not just a conservative or even a liberal. What they're looking for is someone who's effective, who can get the job done."
More: "I'd rather run on my record than I had on his record. My record is somebody who hasn't had a Washington zip code. I've not been a Washington lobbyist. I've not been a United States senator. But I have been a governor. I have actually run a government. And I think that's the kind of experience that in the long term is going to make the most difference when people are deciding who do they want as president making decisions, and whose background really comes from right out of the earth in which most people have to live and work."
On the Craig scandal: "Senator Craig resigned yesterday, and I think that probably is going to put an end to that. If he had stayed, I think it would have been a very, very challenging environment. You might say we would be waiting until the other shoe dropped, which would not be a good situation for the Senate, for Senator Craig or anybody else for that matter. And I think Senator Craig did us all a big favor by leaving the stage and taking this issue away from further discussion" (ABC, 9/2).
ALL AG TALK
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), on who the next AG should be: "I'd like to see the president be a uniter and not a divider in his choice. He's only got a little over a year left in his term. We have a Department of Justice that's in shambles. The morale is the lowest I've ever seen it under either Republican or Democratic administrations. We have some superb people there that we'd like to keep. Put somebody in who demonstrates we're not doing this from a political or ideological -- we just want the best man or woman who can run the place, restore the sense of commitment and restore the sense of integrity to the Department of Justice. I think if he were to do that, you would hear a huge sigh of relief from both Republicans and Democrats in the Senate, and such a person would have the kind of support that was not there for Mr. Gonzales because he had angered so many Republicans and Democrats."
On what he wants from the admin: "They operated under a legal document apparently approved by the attorney general that has allowed everything from signing statements to torture to warrantless wiretapping of Americans. We have to know what was in there so we can ask the next person what's going on. I'll know when we have enough information to ask the valid questions on both sides, and then we'll go forward with a confirmation hearing" ("Fox News Sunday," 9/2).
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), on who the next AG should be: "I think he ought to select a real professional, somebody who understands the difference between being the president's lawyer and being the chief law enforcement officer of the United States who has a duty to the American people in addition to being a cabinet officer. I think he ought to select somebody who would give him some candid, frank, forceful advice on what's constitutional. I think the president and the administration would be well served by having somebody as attorney general who occasionally would tell the president some things he doesn't like to hear."
More Specter: "I do not think there ought to be any conditions placed on the president in the exercise of his Article II constitutional powers. Congress has plenty of authority to exercise our oversight responsibilities, and Senator Leahy and I have run some very piercing, intensive, appropriate investigations. What I'd like to do is I'd like to come to terms with the president on the questioning of the White House officials and some other items. And I renew my request that the president sit down with the chairman of the House Committee, with Senator Leahy and myself, and let us work this out. Let us not get embroiled in two years of litigation on what executive privilege means until this administration is gone. There are some important questions to be answered, and Congressional oversight can do it without putting a lot of preconditions and tying up the confirmation of a new attorney general" ("Fox News Sunday," 9/2).
WH Counselor Ed Gillespie, on the next AG: "He's going to put forward a nominee who is qualified in terms of experience and intellect and who shares his views when it comes to the policies that help keep us safer as a nation in the war on terror" ("Fox News Sunday," 9/2).
ROUNDTABLE ROUNDUP
The "Late Edition" roundtable discussed Craig's resignation and Gonzales' resignation:
CNN's Henry: "I find it interesting to tie this to Karl Rove, not directly but indirectly. You know, Friday was Karl Rove's last day at the White House. And in recent months, Karl Rove has been telling me and any other reporter that they would listen that the reason why the Republicans lost in 2006 was not Iraq, but it was Republican scandals. ... I think Karl Rove maybe was overplaying scandal and underplaying Iraq as a factor in the last election, but the reason why there is so much pressure, Karl Rove is right, scandal played such a role for Republicans, and they have to clean up their act going into '08. Otherwise, it's going to be more trouble."
The "Fox News Sunday" roundtable discussed Craig's resignation and WH '08:
Fortune's Easton, on Thompson not participating in the 9/4 NH debate: "If he gets on stage and starts engaging these guys right now, right out of the box, it's risky for him, and this is a much less risky move for him to buy advertising."
The "This Week" roundtable discussed Craig's resignation and WH '08:
George Will, on the differences between Craig and Vitter: "There are triple and quadruple standards at work here. I mean, he was arrested for lewd behavior that consisting of signaling an interest in sex. That goes on in 10,000 bars every Saturday night in our country. Obviously, this is about homosexuality, and the country coming to grips with this, and particularly the Republican Party, which has done so well electorally in recent elections by being against gay rights."
The "Meet the Press" roundtable discussed Craig's resignation, WH '08, and Iraq:
GOP strategist Mary Matalin: "If you're a liberal and you cheat on your wife, it's a private affair. If you're a conservative and you cheat on your wife, you're a hypocrite."
GOP strategist Mike Murphy: "I think Craig is an unsympathetic figure. But there has been this case of bloggers on the far left trying to expose closeted politicians if they don't fall completely into lockstep with a certain liberal gay agenda. And I think that's unfair. It's a form of McCarthyism, really."
Dem strategist James Carville: "One of the reasons that Democrats have been reluctant to put this out front because we are smart enough to know that our party also consists of human beings. And, you know, when you have human beings, you're going to have this kind of behavior, be they Republican or Democrat. But what the Republicans do is they go and pontificate and all this great Americanism and how people need to lead their life and everything, and I think the American public would just love if they would shut up about that and lead the life themselves."
Matalin, on Thompson: "The main superior rationale is he'll be better in the general election. He's better than any of these guys against Hillary. He's not afraid of Hillary. He's a better politician than her, and he'll get more blue states."
Carville, on Thompson: "I've never seen a guy have so much pressure on him starting a campaign as Fred Thompson's going to have. ... The amount of attention that he's going to get over the next three or four weeks is going to be enormous, the expectations. If he does as well as everybody else, that's not going to be good enough. ... I mean, as a result of his waiting, there's a ton of pent-up demand and interest in this guy, and people are really going to be watching him."
