Slime the Messenger

Perino: "We don't discuss such things. What we have said and what we are working towards is a diplomatic solution in Iran. What the President has also said is that as a President, as a Commander-in-Chief -- and any Commander-in-Chief -- would not take any option off the table. But the option that we are pursuing right now is diplomacy."

Henry: "But the article very specifically said that this summer in a video conference -- secure video conference with Ambassador Crocker, the President said that he was thinking about 'hitting Iran' and also --"

Perino: "I'm not going to comment on -- one, I don't know. I wouldn't have been at any -- at that type of a meeting. I don't know. I'm not going to comment on any possible -- any possible scenario that an anonymous source, you know, continues to feed into Sy Hersh. I'm just not going the do it."

Plante: "Why should anybody believe that the President wants diplomatic solutions? He said that before going into Iraq."

Perino: "The President sought a diplomatic solution in Iraq and Saddam Hussein defied the U.N. Security Council 17 times."

Plante: "Some of the history we've learned since suggests otherwise."

Perino: "That the President didn't -- that Saddam Hussein defied 17 U.N. Security Council resolutions?"

Plante: "No, that the President was intent on going to war in Iraq in any case."

CNN's Wolf Blitzer, who had Hersh on his show on Sunday, responded to Perino's attack by inviting Hersh back for another visit yesterday afternoon.

Said Hersh: "Well you know in the beginning when I first began to write those stories, it was la-la land. And now everybody knows this is on the table. This is very serious and you have a lot of people, hardliners like Norman Podhoretz and others saying in print 'We've got to do it. . . . This is an existential threat.' And so I don't think there's any question there's a lot of serious planning going on inside the administration. . . ."

Blitzer: "But have they thought through the consequences of what that could result in?"

Hersh: "You know, I'd like to say yes. My friends on the inside believe that it's a very hard sell to get them to focus on what the bad -- the down side is."