"We ought to let elections be elections, and then, once the elections are past, there ought to be a time where we try and find common cause."
Rove on Bolton
Rove also made some news. Until now, White House officials have been noncommittal about whether or not Bush will give John R. Bolton a recess appointment if he's not confirmed by the Senate. Rove made it pretty clear.
"ROVE: John Bolton is going to be the United States ambassador to the United Nations. We will get either an up-or-down vote or he will be the ambassador one way. . . .
"SCARBOROUGH: A recess -- possible recess appointment?
"ROVE: Well, I'm not going to -- we have got plenty of options. . . . "
Cheney on Iraq
Paul Richter writes in the Los Angeles Times: "Vice President Dick Cheney defended his controversial comment that the Iraqi insurgency is in its 'last throes,' saying Thursday that the recent spike in violence is a final convulsion before the opposition forces collapse.
"In a CNN interview, Cheney compared the recent fighting in Iraq to the Battle of the Bulge and combat on Okinawa in World War II, climactic confrontations that preceded the surrender of Germany and Japan."
Here's the video .
CNN posted a partial transcript. But the White House took the unusual step of releasing the full transcript of an "exclusive" interview. (It's all part of the PR blitz.) Blitzer started things off by asking: "Let's talk about some controversial comments you recently made suggesting the insurgents in Iraq were in, your words, in their 'last throes.' Do you want to revise or amend those comments?"
"CHENEY: No, but I'd be happy to explain what I meant by that. . . . I think the months immediately ahead will be difficult months. I think there will be a lot of violence, a lot of bloodshed, because I think the terrorists will do everything they can to try to disrupt that process and that flow that's well underway.
"But I think it is well under way. I think it is going to be accomplished, [and] that we will, in fact, succeed at getting a democracy established in Iraq. And I think, when we do, that will be the end of the insurgency."
Blitzer pointed out that Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, commander of U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf, had just testified on Capitol Hill that that the insurgency appears undiminished.
