PELOSI ON MEET THE PRESS

This morning on Meet The Press House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi defended her remarks on Bush's incompetence, saying they were made "for the troops" about an "absolutely unacceptable situation." Shorter version:

RUSSERT: What message does this send to the troops, that their Commander In Chief has "no judgment, no experience, no leadership"?

PELOSI: I have a responsibility to the troops. We salute our troops, they are precious, we owe them, we owe them a fair fight. Things are so unclear. In fact, the Department of Defense has commissioned a report to determine "Who is the adversary?" And the Commander In Chief is responsible.

RUSSERT: What do the resistance, Al Qaeda think when they hear your remarks?

PELOSI: That we are making an assessment of what we have put our troops into. Need change of leadership. Owe our troops more than a lack of preparation, lack of equipment, lack of knowledge. Look at Chalabi! Was it good judgment to have him on our payroll? Republicans should rethink their leadership.

RUSSERT: Are you suggesting Repubs should ask the president to resign?

PELOSI: There has to be some change in personnel. If the president doesn't want to make those changes, we';ll have to have a new president.

RUSSERT: (reads remarks by Tom DeLay saying she should apologize and that she's putting our troops in jeopardy)

PELOSI: I disagree. I made that statement with great courage because I'm worried about our troops on the ground in Iraq.

RUSSERT: Do you think Bush does anything well?

PELOSI: Of course. This isn't about personalities, it's about policy.

RUSSERT: Where does he show judgment, experience, etc.?

PELOSI: He's a nice person, true to his religious convictions. We have to get away from personalities. I like Bush. I gave him a year before speaking out.

RUSSERT: What would you do in Iraq today, right now?

PELOSI: Take an assessment of where we are, level with the American people and Congress as to what is actually happening. Hard to say what you would do. We need more troops, it would be better if they were not American. Have to go back to international community. Can't take no for an answer. Have to fully use diplomacy. Have to know what's happening to decide. What is going on? Chalabi a favorite one day, one day not. Brahimi the man one day, the next day not.

RUSSERT played tape of the part of Gore's speech when he called for resignations of Rumsfeld et al. Do you believe Rumsfeld and Rice should resign?

PELOSI: I called for the resignation of Rummy weeks ago. Rice/Bush ouster will wait on election. We can't wait seven months to get rid of Rumsfeld.

RUSSERT: What did you think of Gore's speech?

PELOSI: We all have our own style. I share his frustration. It's all about the POTUS. When I read in the Washington Times what Bush said about Iraq, "We'll have freedom in Iraq if we don't cut and run like we did in 1991," I knew he was dissing his father. Some nerve.

RUSSERT: Tim reads NYT article (Nagourney) stating that the candidates' Iraq policies are similar. Response?

PELOSI: That's because Bush is moving closer to Kerry's position.

RUSSERT: So what's your complaint?

PELOSI: It's a year too late. Plus Iraq was a war of choice, a distraction from the War on Terra. We have to recommit our country to a rebirth of community.

RUSSERT: Win Without War called for a certain date for the withdrawal of our troops. Do you agree with that?

PELOSI: No I don't, because of the mess we've made in Iraq. We have to secure the country, we broke it we own it, it is now (wasn't before the war) a hotbed for terrorism. So we cannot leave at this time. "Stay the course" -- that's not a plan, that'a motto.

RUSSERT: Is a democratic Iraq possible?

PELOSI: Not sure, we have to leave a secure Iraq, then we'll see. If a secure Iraq chooses an Islamic theocracy, that's their business. We should have thought about this before.

PELOSI: We're going to be so proud of a Kerry presidency. It'll restore our national reputation and grow our economy at home and create jobs. One guarantee per show, and this is it: John Kerry will be president.

UPDATE: Josh Marshall expands on the topic:

It has now become close to a commonplace that John Kerry's policies differ little from President Bush's. Where is the difference, we hear, since both candidates are for an openness to greater troop deployment, a fuller role for the United Nations and the country's traditional allies, and dropping support for the exilic hucksters who helped scam the country in the first place.

This is a weak argument on several grounds. But the most glaring is that what we see now isn't the president's policy. It's the president's triage -- his team's ad hoc reaction to the collapse of his policy, the rapid, near-total, but still incomplete and uncoordinated abandonment of his policy.