Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Imus: "There are so many other things that are on peoples minds, although Iraq though--When they do these polls as you know, it polls number one, and it probably should, but..."

Senator Joseph Lieberman (D) Connecticut: "It's an important issue. Obviously what I’ve done on Iraq is not for political gain. I may not be a genius on politics, but I'm smarter than that. But I've done it because I thought it was right for the country, and now I always say the point is, okay we're here, what happened before is in an interesting question. I've been quoting a great line from Churchill, when he came in as Prime Minister during the second World War, his party members wanted to investigate in Parliament, what--in the House of Commons what Chamberlain and Baldwin had done before. And then he said, "If we spend too much of the present investigating the past we will lose the future." And the question now in Iraq is what are we going to do?

Five years ago, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman was one of President Bush's arch political rivals. Now many in his party complain that he sounds more like Bush's running mate.

The Connecticut Democrat's strong public defense of Bush's handling of the Iraq war has provided the White House with an invaluable rejoinder to intensifying criticism from other Democrats. In public statements and a newspaper column, Lieberman has argued that Bush has a strategy for victory in Iraq, has dismissed calls for the president to set a timetable for troop withdrawal, and has warned that it would be a "colossal mistake" for the Democratic leadership to "lose its will" at this critical point in the war.

The Iraq war has become the "cause célèbre" for Islamic militants, breeding resentment in Muslim nations and cultivating supporters worldwide, according to portions of a secret intelligence study the Bush administration released Tuesday.

The administration report also says that the militant Islamic movement is "spreading and adapting" to counterterrorism efforts and militants are "increasing both in number and geographic dispersion."

If this trend continues, the report warns, "threats to U.S. interests at home and abroad will become more diverse, leading to increasing attacks worldwide."