"Meet The Press on January 4th had David Gregory interrogating Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on the Gaza conflict - where he supports Israel and the situation with Governor Blagojevich's Senate appointment of Roland Burris and Reid's previous assertions that the surge was essentially a failure in Iraq.
"Reid pushes back on Blago call" from Politico
Gregory confronted Reid on his alleged blackballing of African-American candidates he deemed unelectable:
MR. GREGORY: All right, but let, let's talk about those conversations you had with Governor Blagojevich. Apparently you made it clear that three men were not acceptable to you: Jesse Jackson Jr., Danny Davis, Emil Jones. And yet you just said Jesse Jackson would be fine. Is that what you said, that these men would not be acceptable?
SEN. REID: This is part of Blagojevich's cloud. He's making all this up. I had a conversation with him. I don't remember what was in the conversation, other than the generalities that I just talked about. I didn't tell him who not to appoint. He's making all this up to divert attention...
MR. GREGORY: Don't you think these conversations are on tape?
SEN. REID: Of course.
MR. GREGORY: For the U.S. attorney's investigation?
SEN. REID: I'm, I'm sure they are. But--that's right. And that's why what he's saying, he's making it up.
MR. GREGORY: So he's wrong, Jesse Jackson Jr. was always acceptable to you?
SEN. REID: Jesse Jackson Jr. is somebody that I think would be a good senator. And for Blagojevich to start throwing out these names of people who I wanted and didn't want...
MR. GREGORY: Mm-hmm.
SEN. REID: ...he's making it up.
MR. GREGORY: People close to Roland Burris are raising another suggestion, and this is how Politico reports it this morning: "Top advisers to [Burris] are suggesting that Reid doesn't want an African-American to succeed Obama. `It's interesting that all those who are viable are white women and the ones who are unacceptable are black men,' Prince Riley, a senior consultant to Burris, told Politico." Your response?
SEN. REID: I have no idea who Prince Riley is. But I do know that I've served in the United States Senate with two outstanding senators, Carol Moseley Braun and Barack Obama, both African-Americans from the state of Illinois. I worked harder than anyone in this country for Ron Kirk running for senator, senator for the state of Texas. As a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, we spent more money in the state of Tennessee than any state in the country trying to get Harold Ford elected. I have--anyone that suggests there's any racial bias in this instance doesn't realize I went to the Clark County district attorney's office to find a--people thought was a nobody to become a federal judge, Johnnie Rawlinson. She was a great judge. She's now on the Ninth Circuit. I did that myself. So anyone to suggest anything racial is part of the Blagojevich spin to take away from the corruption that's involved his office in Illinois.
Reid also tried to backpedal on his assertion that the surge was a failure - by stating that what he and General Petraeus said about the surge was essentially the same - a stretch by any measure.
Meanwhile the panel after a report from Israel by Richard Engel, the panel consisting of The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg, BBC World News America's Katty Kay, Al-Arabiya's Hisham Melhem, NBC's Andrea Mitchell and The New York Times' David Sanger. While the Senators appearing on the Sunday shows essentially back up President Bush's position, this panel was mostly in the tank for the terrorist group Hamas.
"Meet The Press" January 4th telecast:
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