Senator McConnell Says Benchmarks Are Good and Says Democratic Lead Congress Has Low Ratings Because Nothing Is Getting Passed

   CNN's " Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer "  had Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell on the program today and he was asked about a comment that Senator Harry Reid had made about President Bush on Friday. First, here is Sen. Reid's comment:

CNN Transcript

    SEN. HARRY REID, D-NEV.: The president is in a bubble. He is isolated. Every day the ranks of dissatisfied Republicans grow. But I wish that my Republican colleagues, who now agree that President Bush's open-ended commitment has failed, would put some teeth behind their views.

BLITZER: All right, do you want to respond to those strong words from Harry Reid?
MCCONNELL: Well, let me tell you what I think Republicans believe overwhelmingly, is that the decision to get on offense in the war on terror after 9/11 in Afghanistan and Iraq has protected us fully here at home. That part has been an enormous success.
What we are all discovering, however, it's very difficult to set up a functioning government in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. It's gone better in Afghanistan than in Iraq. It's very, very difficult to do that, very challenging.
What we have to ask ourselves is, if we give up prematurely, we go home, declare it over, will they be back here on the -- in our own country? And I think the chances of that are overwhelmingly likely.

   As is usual, the Republican Senator had his usual GOP facts in hand. I guess that he hasn't read the reports which say that the terrorist following our troops back to the United States are next to zero. I have parts of the report somewhere here at this blog in a different post.

   On the Republicans coming around to a funding bill with some benchmarks in it, McConnell said:

MCCONNELL: Absolutely. The president himself mentioned benchmarks back in January. We had a proposal that ended up not being voted on by Senator McCain and Senator Lieberman and Senator Lindsey Graham, who you're going to have on later in the program, related to benchmarks for the Iraqi government earlier this year. I think benchmarks will be a part of the final package that we get to the president for signature on the troop funding bill.
BLITZER: The question is, how binding will those benchmarks be? Will they be goals that they have to meet, and if they don't, nothing's going to happen? Or will there be specific steps taken if they don't take these de-Baathification, oil sharing, disbanding the militias, if they don't take the steps that the U.S. would clearly like them to take?                                                                                   MCCONNELL: Well, you know, the House Democrats have gone from micromanaging the war to now trying to microfund the war. Splitting up the funding. The good news is that there's a bipartisan majority in opposition to that in the Senate, including the majority leader of the Senate and the chairman, the Democratic chairman of the Armed Service Committee, Senator Levin, both of whom think that splitting up the funding is a bad idea.

     My question on this part of the interview is, why didn't Blitzer pursue McConnell to get a straight answer to the question instead of letting McConnell change the subject. not that the answer would have mattered to much because we all know that any benchmarks which Bush agrees to will have not bite in them, just more promises to be broken.

MCCONNELL: Well, the president knows what's going on. He's heard it before. And he knows what's happening in Iraq. He's not in a bubble, he's not isolated. What he's trying to do is succeed. And we have to continue to ask ourselves, if we go in a different direction, what is it? What is the option? Do we want to allow Iraq to be a failed state? Do we want to embolden al Qaeda and really almost invite them to come back here again?  ( My Emphasis )
BLITZER: But the U.S. can't want all those things more than the Iraqis themselves.
MCCONNELL: That is a very good point.
BLITZER: And if they're not going to do what they need to do, what happens then?
MCCONNELL: Well, the Iraqi government is a huge disappointment. Republicans overwhelmingly feel disappointed about the Iraqi government. I read just this week that a significant number of the Iraqi parliament want to vote to ask us to leave.
I want to assure you, Wolf, if they vote to ask us to leave, we'll be glad to comply with their request.
BLITZER: And if they want to take two months vacation this summer, while American troops are dying, what's going to be your reaction to that?
MCCONNELL: That's completely and totally unacceptable.

BLITZER: Let's talk a little bit about the GOP in revolt, as some Republicans are worried. In our latest CNN Opinion Research Corporation poll, we asked the American people, "do you favor or oppose the war?" Sixty-five percent now say they oppose the war; 34 percent favor. And on the issue of a timeline for withdrawal, 57 percent say they favor such a timeline; 41 percent oppose.
How worried are you, as the top Republican in the Senate, that you are going to lose not only Republican support for what the president's stance is, but next year in the elections, that your minority status would be widened in the U.S. Senate? There are a lot of vulnerable Republicans up for reelection next year.
MCCONNELL: There's another interesting poll out this week that has a rating of the Congress down as low as the president. People are beginning to figure out that the new Democratic majority has not been able to pass anything. Not a single one of their "Six in '06" agenda items has made it to the president's desk.
The American people are beginning to figure out that the Democrats are so preoccupied with this one issue that they are not accomplishing anything else.
And so, I want to assure you, Wolf, that the election next year will not just be about Iraq, it will also be about the new Congress. What did they do? Did they produce anything for the American people?
The day I was elected Republican leader, I said divided government sometimes presents a great opportunity do important things. And I mentioned immigration. Maybe we'll get there. And Social Security is two extremely important things that we ought to accomplish for the American people.
So far, the new majority hasn't gotten anything done.

  And last but not least, McConnell was pointed out to the fact that 65% of Americans oppose the war and that 57% favor a withdrawal timeline from Iraq.   McConnell's response?

MCCONNELL: There's another interesting poll out this week that has a rating of the Congress down as low as the president. People are beginning to figure out that the new Democratic majority has not been able to pass anything. Not a single one of their "Six in '06" agenda items has made it to the president's desk.
The American people are beginning to figure out that the Democrats are so preoccupied with this one issue that they are not accomplishing anything else.
And so, I want to assure you, Wolf, that the election next year will not just be about Iraq, it will also be about the new Congress. What did they do? Did they produce anything for the American people?
The day I was elected Republican leader, I said divided government sometimes presents a great opportunity do important things. And I mentioned immigration. Maybe we'll get there. And Social Security is two extremely important things that we ought to accomplish for the American people.
So far, the new majority hasn't gotten anything done.

   He conveniently forgot to mention the fact that almost every time a bill makes it out of the House and to the Senate, the Republicans try to attach something to it that they know the Democrats will not agree to or they either block the bill. The minimum wage bill would be one good example.

Tags: Mitch McConnell Iraq Bush benchmarks Harry Reid Democrats Congress Senate