A weekly roundup of the buzz from the Sunday talk shows
Monday, May 7, 2007; Page A02
Rep. John A. Boehner (Ohio), the House Republican leader, upped the pressure on President Bush to show clearly that his "surge" strategy in Iraq is working by September, warning that members of the caucus will go looking for an alternative plan if he doesn't.
"We don't even have all of the 30,000 additional troops in Iraq yet. And so we're supporting the president," he said on "Fox News Sunday." "By the time we get to September, October, members are going to want to know how well this is working, and if it isn't, what's Plan B."
At the same time, though, Boehner made it clear that Republicans would fight any Democratic timetable or benchmarks that mandate the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
After President Bush's veto last week of a war spending bill, congressional Democrats and some Republicans had touted alternative legislation that would remove troops or withhold funding if the Iraqi government failed to meet benchmarks. The White House expressed opposition to the alternative, while senior Republicans in both chambers suggested that the benchmark penalties should include only non-military aid. Boehner indicated he may be open to the latter option.
TENET AT LENGTH: Former CIA director George J. Tenet, the author of a new book on the buildup to the Iraq war, had NBC's "Meet the Press" to himself, and he attempted to rebuff criticism that he helped the Bush administration "market" the case that Iraq had biological and chemical weapons.
Tenet argued that, while he made the case that Iraq had such a weapons program, it was unfair to blame him for the Bush administration's erroneous statements before the war.
Tenet acknowledged that he might have made an error in the opening passages of his book, where he recounts meeting Richard Perle on Sept. 12, 2001. While leaving the White House, Perle, a Pentagon adviser, told Tenet that "Iraq has to pay a price for what happened yesterday," according to the book. Perle denies the account, saying that he was out of the country on Sept. 12. "I may have been off on the day, but I'm not off on what he said or what he believed," Tenet maintained.
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