Minor Vs Major Issues of the Week
Reported by Eleanor - July 10, 2004 -
On Weekend Live w/Tony Snow (July 10, 1:08 p.m.), Snow threatened to cut off Susan Estrich's mike when she switched from "the story of the week," the democratic fund raiser in NY to the Senate Intelligence report.
Susan said that nothing would come of the event in NY, but lots would come of the intelligence report saying that "1,000 people died in vain in Iraq." Snow berated Estrich as she continued talking, saying that she was off the subject, and her mike would be cut. When Snow asked her to justify that remark, she quoted Jay Rockefeller as saying that the Senate would not have authorized the war if they had correct information. Susan reiterated that the Radio City Music Hall fundraiser was a "trifling," and that she's saying that the war was a mistake. That's what she wanted to talk about.
After the republican countered with an admission that it was clearly an intelligence failure, not just US but every intelligence on the planet, Estrich, who is now allowed to talk, said, "You asked me about a silly fundraiser in NY as the issue of the week. Phony intelligence was the issue of the week." Snow then asked, "Do we need to turn down the tension?" Estrich, bristling, responded, "The democrats are as upset as I am. Big issues get turned into attacks on us." The last word went to the republican side with: the democrats are celebrating a movie (Fahrenheit 9/11). It's a little disingenuous to say that republicans focus on minor events.
Comment: This exchange would have stopped with the fund raiser in NY as the issue of the week if Susan had not been "rude."
