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Press Gaggle by Dana Perino 08/31/06 (Topic: Iraq)
— Thursday, August 31, 2006 — Q Dana, I just was wondering if you could address what the President talked about today. He seemed to group together Sunni followers of al Qaeda along with Shiites in Iraq who are involved in the sectarian violence, and these groups are fighting each other. So I'm just wondering if you could elaborate on how he thinks these groups are united in one belief? MS. PERINO: The point of today's speech and the key of today's speech was to show that there is a common thread. You see that the violence that is happening around -- one of the things I mentioned yesterday was that these different groups share an ideology of hatred and use tactics of murder of innocent people, and that there is a common thread that ties all those together. And so the point of the speech today was to take a step back and to look at the global war on terror in a broader context. One of the reasons for doing a series of speeches is because the global war on terror is very complex, there are a lot of different parts to it, and if the President were to try to address all the parts in one speech, most likely he wouldn't accomplish anything because there would be too much to say. And so by breaking it up this way, you can address the different issues over a period of time when America is, rightly, thinking about the global war on terror, and especially today, he focused on the war in Iraq. White House Press Corps | Press Briefing | Dana Perino | News Media | Bush Administration | Iraq | War On Terror
Posted by WhiteHousePressCorps.org @ 11:04 PM  Press Gaggle by Dana Perino 08/30/06 (Topic: Democrats & War On Terror) — Wednesday, August 30, 2006 — Q Does the President think that the Democratic Party understands the stakes, the nature of this war on terror? MS. PERINO: I think the President said it best last Monday when what he said in the press conference was that there -- in any democracy, he expects healthy debate and he expects criticism. It makes the country stronger. He said, and he believes, he does not question the patriotism or the love of the country of any other American. He does believe that there are choices to be made, and it is wholly appropriate for the President to define the decisions that he's making and the choices that are before us and how he chooses to address them, and contrasts that with other ones. Those are not arguments that we shy away from, but in terms of the speeches, that's how he will try to draw those distinctions. White House Press Corps | Press Briefing | Dana Perino | News Media | Bush Administration | Democrats | War On Terror
Posted by WhiteHousePressCorps.org @ 11:01 PM Press Gaggle by Dana Perino 08/29/06 (Topic: Bush debate with Ahmadinejad) — Tuesday, August 29, 2006 — Q Do you have anything on the President of Iran wanting to have a televised debate with Bush? MS. PERINO: On a debate? Well, I talked to your colleagues earlier today and provided them comment. The question was regarding Ahmadinejad wanting to debate the President. And I think that the -- I would refer you back to Secretary Rice and the President, who have both said that Iran knows very well what it needs to do. The P5 plus one partners are talking, and instead of debating the President, it might be interesting to see an opportunity for open debate in Iran, itself, rather than worrying about a debate with the President. White House Press Corps | Press Briefing | Dana Perino | News Media | Bush Administration | Iran | Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Posted by WhiteHousePressCorps.org @ 11:01 PM Press Gaggle by Dana Perino 08/28/06 (Topic: New Orleans Hurricane Katrina Recovery) — Monday, August 28, 2006 — Q Apparently, Dana, there was an interview in which the President suggested it might be a good ten years before New Orleans comes back.* Is that a new time frame that he's thinking about or talking about today? MS. PERINO: I'm not aware of the interview you're referring to and I don't know the specific number, if he would have said that. What he has always said from the beginning, and this has been repeated by state and local officials, is that the devastation from Hurricane Katrina was so great that 365 days later we are not at the finish line. We are starting to see the rebuilding efforts take root. The debris has been largely removed, almost all in Mississippi and gone a long way in Louisiana. The schools are starting to come back. Businesses are starting to come back. The local and state officials have their housing plans now in order. Those have been approved by the federal government, and that money is available for them to draw on. So I think even Ray Nagin yesterday on Meet The Press said it is going to take at least five years in terms of the building cycle. So it is going to be a long road back to rebuilding fully, but I think it's important to remember that the expectations that were set last August and September was that a year from now was not going to be -- you weren't going to be able to see the city completely rebuilt. So it is going to take a long period of time. In terms of like, 10 years, I don't know about exact time frame, but it's certainly going to take several years. And the President has reaffirmed, and you will hear him again today reaffirm his commitment to the entire region, especially in terms of moving forward on the parallel tracks of schools, jobs and housing. And all three of those things need to be moving forward together at the same time so that they can all complement one another, because you can't bring people back unless you have schools or jobs or homes. ... (footnote from official transcript) * The President never said that it would take 10 years to rebuild. He was talking about how we'll all reflect 10 years from now about Katrina and remember the devastation the storm wrought and how the region was rebuilt to be better and stronger. The President has said repeatedly that it will take several years of perseverance and patience to rebuild. White House Press Corps | Press Briefing | Dana Perino | News Media | Bush Administration | New Orleans | Hurricane Katrina
Posted by WhiteHousePressCorps.org @ 10:12 PM Press Briefing by Dana Perino 08/24/06 (Topic: Democratic Primary Schedule) — Wednesday, August 23, 2006 — Q At the most recent Democratic National Committee's meeting, they voted by voice vote to penalize any presidential candidate who campaigns in any state that refused to follow a prescribed calendar of primaries and caucuses by stripping that candidate of his or her delegates at the Democratic National Convention. MS. PERINO: And your question is? Q My question is: Does this sound at all democratic to the President? Or does he believe it's the latest political totalitarianism of Howard Dean? MS. PERINO: The President doesn't get involved in the Democrats' decisions. The Republican Party has decided to leave those matters to the state and local parties, so we're not going to get involved. White House Press Corps | Press Briefing | Dana Perino | News Media | Bush Administration | Democratic Primaries | DNC
Posted by WhiteHousePressCorps.org @ 10:41 PM Press Briefing with Federal Coordinator for the Office of Gulf Coast Rebuilding Don Powell 08/22/06 — Tuesday, August 22, 2006 — Q Is there something that we could attribute the response in Mississippi vis- -vis the response in Louisiana? Is there some reason why Mississippi might have gotten moving faster, like Haley Barbour is there? MR. POWELL: I will just tell you both of them, Mississippi has received approval of their plan, their administrator is taking action to get it in the hands of the recipients. Louisiana's plan has been approved, and their administrator is in the process of getting it into the hands of recipients. There's going to be a lot of activity in both states in the fall. Q But Chairman, to follow up on that, in other words, it sounds like the money is going from the state of Mississippi to the homeowners, correct? It's already started to flow? CHAIRMAN POWELL: There's been some money dispersal. Q So why hasn't that happened in Louisiana? CHAIRMAN POWELL: I think it will happen in Louisiana within -- I talked to the administrator about 10 days ago. I think there will be some monies flowed to recipients momentarily. I think within the next week. It may be, for all my knowledge, I haven't checked in the last two or three days, that could have already happened. Q But why not yet? CHAIRMAN POWELL: I'm sorry? Q Why not so far? CHAIRMAN POWELL: Why not so far? I think their plan was approved later. They didn't get their plan into HUD until later after Mississippi. Thus, the plan was not approved until later. So it takes a little bit of time. White House Press Corps | Press Briefing | Rob Portman | News Media | Bush Administration | Don Powell | Hurricane Katrina
Posted by WhiteHousePressCorps.org @ 9:59 PM Press Conference by President George W Bush, 08/21/06 (Topic: Iraq & 9/11) — Monday, August 21, 2006 — Q What did Iraq have to do with that? THE PRESIDENT: What did Iraq have to do with what? Q The attack on the World Trade Center? THE PRESIDENT: Nothing, except for it's part of -- and nobody has ever suggested in this administration that Saddam Hussein ordered the attack. Iraq was a -- the lesson of September the 11th is, take threats before they fully materialize, Ken. Nobody has ever suggested that the attacks of September the 11th were ordered by Iraq. I have suggested, however, that resentment and the lack of hope create the breeding grounds for terrorists who are willing to use suiciders to kill to achieve an objective. I have made that case. And one way to defeat that -- defeat resentment is with hope. And the best way to do hope is through a form of government. Now, I said going into Iraq that we've got to take these threats seriously before they fully materialize. I saw a threat. I fully believe it was the right decision to remove Saddam Hussein, and I fully believe the world is better off without him. Now, the question is how do we succeed in Iraq? And you don't succeed by leaving before the mission is complete, like some in this political process are suggesting. White House Press Corps | Press Conference | George W Bush | Iraq | War On Terror
Posted by WhiteHousePressCorps.org @ 11:19 PM Press Briefing on the President's Meeting with Economic Advisors 08/18/06, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, OMB Director Rob Portman — Friday, August 18, 2006 — Q You referenced the CBO report yesterday. One of the findings of that report was that if the President's tax cuts are extended through 2016, the cost of that plus fixing the AMT would be $3.2 trillion. And that would be on top of a deficit that they're projecting out the next 10 years of $1.7 trillion. Does that estimate square with the estimates that the administration makes? And what kind of problem does that present for you in trying to get the President's tax cuts made permanent? SECRETARY PAULSON: As we look at the tax cuts, we see a very positive impact of a strong economy that's growing. And when we look at the deficit, we -- all of us wish it were less, but as we look at it as a percentage of GDP, it's at a very comfortable level as a percentage of GDP. And it's really quite noteworthy that the deficit is where it is today, given the fact that we've had hurricanes, given the fact that we've got the need to finance a war. So our focus was largely on where the real problem lies, and that's with the entitlement and entitlement spending, and what that's going to do to the economy and what it's going to do to the deficit. And that really would be a long-term, structural deficit problem unless we can come up with a fix for it. And we think it's quite possible to come up with a fix that's quite doable; the question is whether we can get the support from Congress to get something done. DIRECTOR PORTMAN: Just briefly on the CBO and OMB numbers, and their differences, we've now had time to analyze the CBO projections. And it's remarkable how similar we are. I take from your question some of the differences in our modeling. One is, of course, we show the tax relief going out; we show it being permanent. That's cooked into our numbers. So anything you see from OMB and the administration does assume that the tax relief from 2001 and 2003 continues. CBO, on the other hand, on the emergency spending, assumes -- as they must under their rules -- that whatever emergency spending we did, say, this year with regard to Katrina would continue out indefinitely, same with the global war on terror and any of the Iraq costs, so the amounts we called emergency spending continues out. But with taking those two differences into account, it is really remarkable how similar we are -- both on our revenue projections and on our outlays -- on our spending projections. In fact, in 2012, as you know, both CBO and OMB show significant reductions in the deficit to the point that it's down to roughly $50 billion each. I will tell you that in terms of the tax question you ask, one interesting thing to look at is the impact of revenue on our economy, and in particular what percentage of revenue we are raising as a part of our economy. Historically, the average is about 18.2 percent. This year, based on CBO's projections and our projections, we will be slightly above that with tax relief in place. And again, going forward as Secretary Paulson has said, the big issue is actually on the spending side. And OMB and CBO, again, have very similar projections there. But in terms of the tax relief, if you were not to continue the tax relief, you do have rising revenue as a percentage of the economy. The 18.2 percent is exceeded, and somewhat substantially, over some of those out years, so it's just something to look at. The numbers are very similar. They tell the same story, and that story is that a growing economy has resulted in increased tax revenues, with some reasonable constraint in spending, that has resulted in better deficit projections, going again to the point that in the next five years we see a trend of a declining deficit, even from the levels today, which are consistent with the historical deficit numbers, in terms of a percentage of GDP. White House Press Corps | Press Briefing | Rob Portman | News Media | Bush Administration | Henry Paulson
Posted by WhiteHousePressCorps.org @ 7:15 PM Press Briefing 08/19/06 (Topic: War On Terror & UK-US relations) — Thursday, August 17, 2006 — MR. SNOW: Jennifer -- Jessica. This is a bad day. Q If that's the only name you call me, I'll be very happy. The U.S.'s closest ally in its Middle-East policy is Britain. The man who's filling in for Tony Blair while he's on vacation, the Deputy Prime Minister there, may have said in a meeting -- used an expletive to describe the President's work on the Middle East road map, and called him a cowboy in a Stetson hat who's not just doing the job. Any reaction to those comments? And also, more broadly, how concerned is the President that in Britain there is plummeting public support for the U.S. position and Blair's alliance with Bush on Mideast policy? MR. SNOW: Well, the President talks regularly with Prime Minister Blair, who is the Prime Minister, so I will restrict my comments to Prime Minister Blair. And Prime Minister Blair understands, just as the President does, wars create anxiety. And he understands that that is an unpopular thing. People don't like to be anxious, they don't like to worry about it. On the other hand, we've just come through a week where the British people were reminded, along with the Americans and Pakistanis, that terrorists are simply not going to stand down because there's anxiety. As a matter of fact, they seem to take some encouragement for plummeting popularity, thinking that maybe the United States and the Brits and others are going to let down their guard. Prime Minister Blair has made it clear: he is going to remain a firm ally to the United States in the war on terror. And both the Prime Minister and the President have taken some hits in the polls, but again, they still see their primary obligation as protecting national security. So the President has been called a lot worse, and I suspect will be. And there will be piquant names sort of hurled his way from time to time, but that's part of the burden of leadership. White House Press Corps | Press Briefing | Tony Snow | News Media | Bush Administration | Iraq
Posted by WhiteHousePressCorps.org @ 10:46 PM Press Briefing 08/16/06 (Topics: Iraq & Karl Rove) — Wednesday, August 16, 2006 — Q If the President is not frustrated by the situation in Iraq, what is he? MR. SNOW: Determined. Q Is he -- does he feel like the Maliki government is doing an effective job? MR. SNOW: He feels like the Maliki government -- look, you've got a government that is brand new. As I told you, today you had the Prime Minister going outside the Green Zone, addressing forces, Iraqi forces in Baghdad neighborhoods. This is a guy who has a series of challenges before him with his government, and the President is impressed not only by his determination to get the job done, but the fact is that he is working aggressively to do these things. We don't expect him to be an overnight success in dealing with all these problems; nobody can be. But the President certainly supports Prime Minister Maliki. And the frustration angle is just one that just doesn't -- when you're facing a situation, you don't sit around and get frustrated. You figure out how to get the job done. And I've said it many times, and I'll say it because it's true: The President is somebody who's intensely practical about these things, and not somebody who sits around and goes, "Nnnnyoo!" -- I can't wait to see you how you transcribe that. (Laughter.) Q Do that again. Q Who is one of those people? Q Rove. Rove does that. Q Yes, he does do that. (Laughter.) White House Press Corps | Press Briefing | Tony Snow | News Media | Bush Administration | Karl Rove | Iraq
Posted by WhiteHousePressCorps.org @ 10:23 PM Press Briefing 08/15/06 (Topic Joe Lieberman CT Senate Race) Q The President had avoided being involved in the Connecticut primary prior to voters going to the polls. You've avoided taking any position -- MR. SNOW: You noticed? Q -- and the Vice President today said that "The Dean Democrats have defeated Joe Lieberman. Their choice instead is a candidate whose explicit goal is to give up the fight against the terrorists in Iraq." Why is the Vice President making such comments? And does he support Senator Lieberman's independence? MR. SNOW: No. Number one, we are not making any endorsement in Connecticut. The Republican Party of Connecticut has suggested that we not make an endorsement in that race, and so we're not. We are certainly not going to be endorsing between Joe Lieberman and Ned Lamont because both of them are going to caucus as Democrats if they're elected to the United States Senate. But as we were talking about last week, Ned Lamont ran on a campaign of getting out of Iraq, period; getting out. You have to ask yourself at a time of choosing what this does in the war on terror, what the consequences of that are going to be. Does this help the people of Iraq or does it create a power vacuum? Does it, in fact, support Osama bin Laden's comments -- and I want to thank one of your colleagues for setting me right on this; it was after Mogadishu, when we left Mogadishu -- that the Americans, you stay at them long enough, they're going to lose their will, they're going to walk away -- and he used that as inspiration to persuade people to conduct the September 11th attacks. So it is important to understand what the consequences of an idea are. And I think the Vice President was well within his rights, and I think correct, in making that analysis and assessment. But in terms of the race, the Connecticut Republican Party has asked us to stand down on it, so we will. Q You don't find that a little odd? MR. SNOW: Nope. White House Press Corps | Press Briefing | Tony Snow | News Media | Bush Administration | Joe Lieberman | CT Senate Race
Posted by WhiteHousePressCorps.org @ 12:13 AM Press Briefing 08/14/06 (Topic: Fidel Castro & Photoshop) — Tuesday, August 15, 2006 — Q Cuba, the statement over the weekend, the photographic evidence that Fidel Castro is alive, if not totally well -- but he told his people, be prepared for adverse news. Would adverse news for Cuba be good news for the White House? MR. SNOW: We'll have to find out. I mean, heaven knows. At least they came up -- first you had the cheesy photo shop picture; at least the second one was a little better. White House Press Corps | Press Briefing | Tony Snow | News Media | Bush Administration | Fidel Castro | Photoshop | Cuba
Posted by WhiteHousePressCorps.org @ 1:10 AM Press Gaggle 08/11/06 (Topic: Politics of Anti-Terrorism) — Friday, August 11, 2006 — Q Tony, you were saying that Harry Reid was politicizing these arrests and Democrats are saying that the White House, President Bush is politicizing this. There's a bunch of issues coming up in Congress pretty soon. Is there a way to have this debate without it getting overwhelmed by politics? MR. SNOW: Well, it strikes me -- by the way, I said, it sounds like Senator Reid, I believe, is politicizing, because, look, it seems to me that the name-calling doesn't get us anywhere, does it? It's getting kind of boring. And I think what you want to do here is answer the simple question: How do we make America safe, strong and secure? What is the best way to do that? I think one of the things that came to the fore was that surveillance activity played a very important role in revealing what was going on in Great Britain. It is important to figure out how to do surveillance properly, how to be able to get information out of people who are threatening to do us harm, and it is important to use every asset at our disposal to fight the war on terror effectively. I don't know, in today's congressional climate whether we can do this. I hope we can, because there have been times where Democrats and Republicans have worked together very constructively to get things done that are going to make it possible for law enforcement and other officials to be able to track down bad guys and to respond to them in a way that saves American lives, and also to discourage terror. That is the ultimate goal, and that's what the President has been pushing all along, and that's certainly something that we hope is going to continue to be the case. Again, it's a political year, so I expect people to make statements. But I hope -- the most important statement people can make is to work together in harmony to demonstrate to the American people that all hands are on deck when it comes to fighting and winning the war on terror. White House Press Corps | Press Briefing | Tony Snow | News Media | Bush Administration | Harry Reid | Anti-terrorism
Posted by WhiteHousePressCorps.org @ 10:03 PM Press Gaggle 08/10/06 (Topic: Airport Security) — Thursday, August 10, 2006 — Q You said there is going to be some inconvenience to travelers. There were some complaints this morning that all liquids and gels might be going a little overboard on this. Do you guys have any comment on that? MR. SNOW: You can't go overboard when you're trying to protect lives. White House Press Corps | Press Briefing | Tony Snow | News Media | Bush Administration | Terrorism | Airport Security
Posted by WhiteHousePressCorps.org @ 10:55 PM Press Briefing 08/09/06 (Topic: Presidential Diplomacy) — Wednesday, August 09, 2006 — Q Tony, President Chirac interrupted his vacation to go meet with some of his cabinet members, and Tony Blair delayed his to make some phone calls. Has the President given any consideration to doing something like that, and get more involved to move this along? MR. SNOW: The President is involved. As I said, he's been talking actively with Secretary Rice and also National Security Advisor Hadley. I know that they've been in close contact today with Israeli, Lebanese, French, U.N. and other officials. So I daresay the President is very actively engaged in this. He may go for a bike ride in the morning, but he's spending a lot of time -- morning, noon and night -- working these issues. Q But the President is not calling any foreign leaders or anything -- MR. SNOW: No foreign leader calls so far today. White House Press Corps | Press Briefing | Tony Snow | News Media | Bush Administration | Middle East | Chirac
Posted by WhiteHousePressCorps.org @ 11:55 PM Press Gaggle 08/08/06 (Topic: Foreign Oil Supply) — Tuesday, August 08, 2006 — Q Could you just be a little bit more specific about what it is that Saudi Arabia and Mexico have agreed to do? I just want to make sure we have -- MR. SNOW: I've told you everything I know. The best thing to do is to -- I'd direct you to the Department of Energy, which has had these conversations. Again, there has been an offer of assistance if we have some shortages, petroleum shortages, that they apparently have offered to help But I don't want to get ahead of myself. I'd recommend calling DOE. Q So you don't know the specifics of whether there's a trigger, in terms of the number of lost barrels or whatever? MR. SNOW: I know nothing beyond what I've told you. Q Does that indicate that they're not really, then, supplying stuff at capacity? I mean, we were under the impression everybody was pretty much tapped out, that's why oil prices were so high to begin with. MR. SNOW: No, oil prices were high for a couple of reasons. Obviously, there is vigorous global competition, and also there are jitters about what's going on in the Middle East, Wendell. But, in terms of the vagaries of how much excess capacity, again, talk to the experts, not the White House Press Secretary. Q Demand is not the reason? MR. SNOW: No, demand is a serious reason, I just said that. There is not only demand here, but demand around the globe. I just am not competent to give you an assessment of what sort of swing capacity may still be available with the Saudis, the Mexicans or others. White House Press Corps | Press Briefing | Tony Snow | News Media | Bush Administration | Foreign Oil Supply | Alaskan Pipeline
Posted by WhiteHousePressCorps.org @ 11:17 PM Press Briefing by National Security Advisor Steve Hadley 08/07/06 (Topic: Iran) Q But what changes that now? I mean, Iran has been dealing with sanctions and isolation since -- MR. HADLEY: No, they haven't. On the contrary. Iran is very much integrated into the international community. We have had sanctions on Iran, but the international community has not, the Europeans have not. It's interesting, Iran is a different case than North Korea, which has already isolated itself. Iran has not. Iran has commercial relations, it has diplomatic relations, it sees itself as a regional power and a global power. And the question is whether it wants to go in a situation where the international community basically turns its back on Iran. That would be a situation we've never had before. And, indeed, one of the things that has been, I believe, this President's achievement has been if you look at where we were with the Europeans in the 1990s about our views on Iran, it was not a shared conception. The Europeans, the Russians did not view Iran as a threat, let alone the strategic threat that it has become. And one of the things this President has done is get to the point where we have now the whole international community saying Iran is making a strategic challenge to us all by its support for terror, by its supporting Hezbollah, for the kinds of things we see in Lebanon, by the way it treats its own people, by its pursuit of nuclear weapons. Think about how difficult this crisis would be now if Iran had a nuclear weapon. And what we're heartened by is the international community is beginning to understand what is at stake in the broader context of this current struggle. That's why the G8 report and statement was so important. That's why it's been interesting that Russia has gone from supporting Iran's nuclear program to, in recent years, cooperating with the rest of us in trying to rein that program in. So there has been a sea change, and Iran needs to take that into account. It is really confronting the international community. And the international community is wakening to the challenge. White House Press Corps | Press Briefing | Steve Hadley | News Media | Bush Administration | Iran | Middle East
Posted by WhiteHousePressCorps.org @ 12:09 AM Press Gaggle 08/04/06 (Topic: Cindy Sheehan) — Friday, August 04, 2006 — Q Cindy Sheehan is coming back to Crawford on Sunday. She says she's going to recreate her march of August 6, 2005, to the Bush ranch, and try to present the President with a plan for peace in Iraq. Last summer he sent some advisors, I believe, to meet with her. What are the plans for either meeting or not meeting with Ms. Sheehan? MR. SNOW: So far there are no plans at all, but I would advise her to bring water, Gatorade, or both. Q Are you going to send anybody out to see her, any surrogates? MR. SNOW: You know what, honestly, when you're talking about the kind of issues we've been talking about, Cindy Sheehan just has not risen to the level of staff meetings at this point. White House Press Corps | Press Briefing | Tony Snow | News Media | Bush Administration | Cindy Sheehan
Posted by WhiteHousePressCorps.org @ 11:40 PM Press Briefing 08/01/06 (Topic: Middle East & Condi Rice) — Wednesday, August 02, 2006 — Q Senator Chuck Hagel yesterday said that the President should appoint a statesman of global stature, experience and ability to serve as his personal envoy to the region, who would report directly to the President. What is the President's reaction to that? It seems to implicate that perhaps he doesn't have very much confidence in Secretary Rice. MR. SNOW: The President does. (Laughter.) Mike. Q Are you concerned that a senior Republican senator does not have confidence in Secretary Rice? MR. SNOW: We understand the political process. The President right now -- I'm not going to get into characterizing it, but the President has full confidence. And it would be interesting to ask Senator Hagel what he -- because he was not specific about it. You didn't give me a specific characterization. You're trying to draw a conclusion from his comments. I'm not sure he's ready to draw that conclusion, but if he is, okay. Q He gave a few names, however. He gave -- MR. SNOW: Well, no, I appreciate that. But, again, Secretary Rice is -- let me make a point, because it's worth making the point that, again, the United States has achieved significant diplomatic -- has had significant diplomatic achievements on the North Korean front, on the Iranian front, and soon with the Middle East. That is a demonstration of effective diplomacy, in difficult times, when people would sometimes rather just kick the can down the road. We've been addressing it and we've gotten allies to go along -- and in some cases allies who, in the past, have not spoken out on these issues. That, to me, is exactly the definition of effective diplomacy, and that's one of the reasons why the President has so much confidence. White House Press Corps | Press Briefing | Tony Snow | News Media | Bush Administration | Middle East | Condi Rice
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