From Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace:
—On the Senate and the Surge—
BRIT HUME: And so you see this combination of voting for a resolution to disapprove it and then whooping through unanimously the person who helped draft it [Petraeus] and whose theory about the war is the one being put into effect. It’s obviously a contradiction.
JUAN WILLIAMS: [T]his is a political calculation, Brit. I don’t argue with that. It’s a political calculation on the part of Democrats to say we want to be very clear with the American people, we’re supporting the troops. But at the same time, they’re opposed to this policy, and that’s what they’re saying.
HUME: But they’re also . . . supporting the general whose idea this is . . . It is common practice for senators to block nominees. It happens all the time. And it happens for the pettiest of reasons sometimes.
WILLIAMS: They can’t stop the surge, Brit. General Petraeus is going there and going to conduct this, and our young people are going to be on the line no matter what.
—On the Surge—
BILL KRISTOL: The threat of the surge is working. One of the most bloodthirsty leaders of one of the Shia sectarian militias seems to have fled to Iran because he is worried. And people will say oh, well, he’ll come right back in. Well, fine. Let him try to come back in two or three years from now when the whole situation on the ground is different, when we’ve been able to tamp down the violence enough that the government’s been able to get a hold, et cetera. So I’ve noticed the critics of the surge are already sort of saying well, OK, maybe it will work in the short term, but not in the long term. Two months ago they were denying that anything could help even in the short term.
—On the Libby Trial—
KRISTOL: [T]he fact is many people talked about Joe Wilson and about Mrs. Wilson to the press. One was indicted, Scooter Libby. Why? I think because he was a strong advocate for the war and was the closest aide to Vice President Cheney. Ari Fleischer is the president’s personal press secretary. He’s at the same level in the White House as Scooter Libby. . . . Ari Fleischer shows up, says gee, I think I might have inadvertently said something. He’s given immunity right away. Fitzgerald said I just gave it to him right away, didn’t even know what he was going to testify to. Ari Fleischer gets immunity and Scooter Libby gets prosecuted?