Condi testifying

[TayTay]

I may have to duck out at some point on this.

Anyone watching? JK is there.

[wisteria]

1. I can't watch, I'm at work, tied to my desk and telephone.

Please let me know what is going on if you can. Is there an audio link somewhere? I could possibly check that out.

[sandnsea]

2. C-Span 3?

I've got Sununnu on talking about the Patriot Act.

[whometense]

4. Through a link on the SFRC website

http://foreign.senate.gov/

http://foreign.senate.gov/hearing.ram

[sandnsea]

5. Okay

I don't think I'll be watching, I've got too many windows open with work, etc. to try to do another one. But thanks!!

[whometense]

3. I'm watching.

She sure didn't give them a lot of time, did she?

No second round??

[TayTay]

6. They went from Hagel to Boxer

Kerry has more seniority than Sen. Boxer. Did he blow this hearing off or is he just late?

NEVERMIND, just got there.

[whometense]

7. Spitting coffee here.

Boxer: That wasn't my question

Condi: Let me answer the question.

Boxer: :grr:

GO BARBARA!!!!! DON'T LET HER FILIBUSTER!!!!!

"That wasn't my question."

"You're not answering my question."

[TayTay]

8. Thank goodness you are there.

I got really busy at work this morning and will have to see this on transcript to figure out what is going on. :cry: If they had had it yesterday, like they were supposed to......

[whometense]

9. Pardon my language,

but I really hate this bitch. I hate the way she says "Senator" in that icy tone when she objects to something someone is saying.

Short recess for business meeting.

Wow. That really was short.

Chafee is being very tough on her. Didn't know he had it in him.

[_dynamicdems]

53. Chafee surprised Condi too. She thought he was a pushover.

So did I.

[whometense]

10. JK's speaking!!

Asking about classified info leak.

Ongoing legal investigation. Not going to comment.

Senator

JK: "Do you support the practice of authorizing individuals to leak classified information to the press?"

Condo: :scared: talking fast saying nothing

[TayTay]

11. Oh nice.

The West has dropped the ball and allowed Hamas to get into office in Palestine.

Scooter Libby said he was told to leak. Did Condi ever leak this stuff.

Any permanent bases in Iraq? Pentagon generals say no. What say you Condi?
Condi says the Genrals speak for the Admin. Hmmmmm, that's news.

The IRaqi Constitution is pretty much set and the Iraqi's have no intention to change it. What are you doing to bridge the Sunnni - Shi'ite divide in the country, cuz that is what will really help against the insurgency? (The ministries have to have Sunnis in there and the Constitution has to change to include religious minorites.)

I would like to see this again, JK was great. I can post a transcript tomorrow.

[whometense]

12. GO, JK!!!

feet to the fire!!!!!!!

hahahaha "I'm just trying to figure out what the long term is, because I don't think the administration has ever said so with authority/"

[karynnj]

16. I love how Kerry ended

He blew her out of the water when she spoke of patience.

Coleman switched to UN - JUST LIKE Tay Tay said. He is such a joke.

[karynnj]

18. Even seeing it - I really want the transcript

he covered so much so well.

What the hell is Coleman speaking about - a "visa/mastercard" like card to cross the border - does he mean something like Easy pass. The problem is if a terrorist steals Coleman's card, he's not Coleman. Even though I dislike him, his time seemed shorter than Kerry's. Kerry's was just so much denser in content. (Also, I think he got extra time by speaking up to the end of it and then Rice went off on her democracy thing - where Kerry really outclassed her.)

[whometense]

19. Kerry definitely went over,

She gave him the chance to - and he took full advantage of the extra time, making her look pretty stupid in the end.

And it's a mercy that Coleman and Allen had little to say.

[ginnyinWI]

25. thanks in advance for that transcript

I got here just a little too late to see JK. And thanks all of you for the play-by-play. Better than nothing I guess. :)

[TayTay]

27. He really was great.

His questioning was pretty much the whole hearing in one sitting.

Condi: We are on top of things and have everything in hand. We have made mistakes, but we are now correcting them.
JK: Ahm, I don't see the evidence of that and I think things are deteriorating.
Condi: Well, elections and democracy and stuff is, ah, 'hard work.'
JK: Try harder, work harder, cuz you folks are screwing up left and right.

I loved Kerry's line about IRaq being in a 'silent civil war' already. Boy, was he ever 'on' today and right on the mark. There wasn't a wasted moment. (Which is good because Condi rarely travels up there.)

[ginnyinWI]

28. Dodd just arrived

I just found out something interesting about him. His dad was a lawyer at the Nuremburg Trials! I saw it on American Experience a few weeks ago--and he was interviewed about what he remembered of his dad and the trials.

[jenndar]

35. Wow! That's so interesting!

What episode of AE was it? I'll have to look out of it in case they ever re-air it.

[ginnyinWI]

36. It was all about the Nuremburg trials

It was on, like, two or three weeks ago. Yeah when I saw him on-screen I was really surprised. "Hey, I know that guy--that's Senator Dodd!"

[karynnj]

13. He was great on Israel/Hamas

That we (and Europe) didn't sufficiently support Abbas and that Israel and Abbas didn't want the election when we had it.

Great on the permanent bases.

He's really getting her flustered.

The interplay is fascinating - he is so calm and cool and sounds so rational - that her anger is apparent, and it's worse when she attempts to lecture him.

Wow!!! He really got her - Her patronizing comment that you can't have a democracy without an election first was countered beautifully with the US and having a revolution as the example! I guess if you live in Boston you see that all the time.

[whometense]

15. I agree -

was just thinking the same thing. I think she's really scared of him.

That line was fantastic - that deep, quiet, "They have been patient."

And now Coleman sounds like the blithering idiot he is. What a shift after JK.

And THANK YOU - Patronizing. I hate that schoolmarm patronizing tone - I can only imagine how he reacts to it (internally) when he hears it. Externally, he just gets quieter and more authoritative.

[karynnj]

20. I think his ability to control his tone is an enormous skill

He even sounded respectful when he said something like, "In all due respect, Madame Secretary (then explained we had democracy after a revolution.)". Internally, the fact that they are making all the wrong decisions is likely what bothers him. He likely sees her patronizing tone as defensiveness and he likely knows he is a threat to her and he wants to be.

[ProSense]

22. That's so Kerry. Her new name should be

Cantbelieveher Lies

[wisteria]

46. I like that! n/t

[_dynamicdems]

38. JK reminds me of the Vice Principle in High School when

he questions someone; you know, the VP in charge of discipline...the guy who's office you get called to when you've done something very, very bad. JK has that same look and tone. He's nice, patient and very courteous but you know you're in deep do-do just the same.

[TayTay]

43. I just wouldn't want to near him in a criminal trial

He used to be in the DA's office of the county I live in. (Yeesh, just plead already. He was very good and thorough and has that kind of mind anyway. i would have just pled to the charges. LOL!)

[_dynamicdems]

44. I'd rather like being cross-examined by him, actually. : D N/T

[ProSense]

14. Thanks for the these posts. n/t

[whometense]

17. As soon as JK stopped talking

all the air went out of the room. And Condo got her breath back under control. It's clear to me that JK is the only one in the room she's scared of. When Chafee got tough with her she got angry.

Coleman it such a worthless jerk. I so hope Franken takes him out.

[TayTay]

21. Thanks!

I had to step out just before JK finished.

He really was a great prosecutor. No wonder he never lost a case.

I missed Coleman and Allen. (Cuz sometimes Gawd loves me LOL!)

Thanks for the updates everyone!

[karynnj]

23. You can see why he never lost a case

Combine this questioning with a spell binding summary statement (like parts of his Alito cloture speech) and he is utterly exceptional.

[ProSense]

50. Statements like these

really get me excited. I would love to see this.

[_dynamicdems]

54. Maybe she's got a thing for him. Could it be?

Kerry, not Coleman.

[TayTay]

55. Okay, that's theoretically possible.

But extremely yucky to think about. (Ewh, Condi needs to get out and find her own Senator. She can't have mine. And that's just wrong on so many levels. And very, very yucky.)

[_dynamicdems]

56. She'd also take Obama from the way she nearly batted her lashes

(does she have lashes?) when he questioned her. Not a chance there either. Not with a ten foot pole, Condi.

[karynnj]

24. What "political event" happened Monday that led to

the cancelation yesterday? Cheney shooting his friend? Why would Condi be impacted by that.

[TayTay]

26. No, it was dopey Frist Senate maneuvering

There was a bill on the floor of the Senate. The Dems had proposed a lot of changes to it that were very political in nature. The Repubs parried with a whole lot of amendments that were very political. Frist opted to schedule the 16 votes for Tuesday morning, thus paralyzing the Senate and the committees. (Votes come first.) Then, everyone cooled off, the 16 Amendments (and possible votes) got whittled down to 3 and were disposed of before the caucus lunches.

Sigh, Frist is incompetent. See this article for a more complete explanation of what happened.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/15/politics/15senate.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1140021815-fAn1Z0DgnuuJ1KrwyuyAoQ

[karynnj]

30. Thanks - I wondered how if all these votes seemed to

come up unsexpectedly.

[TayTay]

29. Oooh, go Chris Dodd

Kerry asked her about the Plame leaking and if she ever authorized something like it.

Dodd just asked her about NSA and to justify it from her point of view.

Oh gross. Condi is such a Bush suck-up. She repeats the idiotic line that they should have had the ability to ignore the Constitution and then 9/11 might not have happened.

Dodd going over the Libby - Plame thing. Good.

[whometense]

31. I missed Dodd -

sounds like he did great. Can we count on you for a transcript tomorrow????

[TayTay]

32. Yes.

Wow! That was one of JK's best ever. Very succinct, very probing and very, very good. I agree with the comments in here that Condi was knocked off her game. It's amazing what confronting real grown-ups will do to some people.

[whometense]

33. Once again,

I think we see the value of giving him limited time. :evilgrin:

It focuses him spectacularly well - he didn't want to waste a second.

[ProSense]

34. Wow! Thanks Tay.

Definitely must have the text. Sounds like a model for what hearings should be.

[karynnj]

37. Would you believe the NYT article mentions Hagel, Biden, and Boxer

BUT NOT Kerry.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/15/politics/15cnd-rice.html?hp&ex=1140066000&en=371353db702a1646&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[wisteria]

39. MSN has a kerry question, but it is a weak one and the who article

suggests that the Repubs were really tough on her and oh, so were some Dem's. I am disappointed in the question attributed to Kerry.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., challenged Rice over whether she was involved in leaking classified information. “I have always acted lawfully,” Rice said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11365518/

[ProSense]

51. They do this a lot:

paraphrase Kerry and include a simplistic point to round out the thought. This statement contributes nothing.

[karynnj]

40. Did Condi deny that she authorized leaks?

Thinking back on the questions, Kerry asked several times if she had - but she said she wouldn't comment on a court case. I think Kerry then generalized the question, to be not what did she do, but does she approve of giving some one a go ahead to leak information.

The early refusals to answer in retrospect seem strange. Does anyone else remember if she did deny it?

[TayTay]

41. Too bad on the press coverage

His questions were very pointed and intense. But the press is the press and you can't make them pay attention to what was and what was not good in a hearing.

[whometense]

42. Not that I heard.

My impression of those questions was the same as yours. She really tensed up when he started on that line of inquiry. She must absolutely hate hearing his name called. I sure would, if I were the sleazy liar she i.

[wisteria]

45. See my post #39 for a media quote on her answer. n/t

[TayTay]

47. I hate the media

As usual, they missed the good stuff. Sigh!

[karynnj]

48. Thanks - that's a pretty vague denial to a very specific question.

I agree with your comment that they ignored all the sharper Kerry comments. The Israel/Hamas questions were devasting - we ignored the "best" Palestinian leader we've had in decades and Israel to insist on elections when they didn't want them - now we have Hamas. I hope Bush is proud of himself.

[wisteria]

49. Agree entirely! n/t

[ProSense]

52. Great comments!

:yourock: