------------------------------------------------------ The Hardball Briefing On MSNBC ------------------------------------------------------
Hardball airs on MSNBC at 7p, 11p & 4a ET & 4p, 8p & 1a PT Find MSNBC on your TV http://www.msnbc.com/CableOperator.asp MSNBC also is on your XM satellite radio on channel 130 If it's Friday night it must be the Hardball War Council: Downing, Meigs and Allard...Rummy made an unexpected visit to Iraq today and checked out some of the indigenous troop training and witnessed some live action exercises...He vowed "once they have that confidence, that capacity and capability, our forces, coalition forces, will be able to go home," Rumsfeld told U.S. troops in Mosul in northern Iraq. "And go home with the honor you will have earned." Chris will question them extensively on the capacity of U.S. forces to train and equip Iraqi forces so the U.S. can get out of dodge...We'll also get into the vexing question of Iran and North Korea.. David Gregory sat down with President Bush's new favorite foreign policy expert, Natan Sharanksy, a former Refusenik and current member of the Israeli cabinet...He's got a new book called "The Case for Democracy" which Bush is raving about...We'll take a peek at the interview and get David's sense of the man's philosophy and views... Btw, Sharansky will debate Pat Buchanan on this Sunday's "Meet The Press"...I'm definitely gonna brew up some coffee in bed and check that out! Truly "must see" TV.. In the back, or "fun" half of show as Chris called it earlier today, we talk to MSNBC's newest member of the family Tucker Carlson http://nbcumv.com/msnbc/release_detail.nbc/msnbc-20050202000000-tuckercarlsontojo.html who'll give us his take on President Bush, Dean as party chairman and the general state of political affairs in Washington... In the E/F block of the show (or last quarter hour) we talk to Trippi, Fund and Hilary Rosen...Trippi is out at the DNC meeting which is about to elect Howard Dean as their new chairman...My orders to Trippi as he was leaving the building was to "sniff around the meeting, come back and tell us what it smells like." We'll get his report tonight which I'm sure Fund will want to rain all over...There's also a new AP-IPSOS poll which has some troubling numbers for POTUS which we'll kick around... Have a great weekend...Dominic Bellone wrote, compiled and edited The Hardball Briefing from Washington, DC Katrina's link I missed yesterday http://www.thenation.com/edcut/index.mhtml?bid=7&pid=2182 A newly released memo warned the White House at the start of the Bush administration that al Qaeda represented a threat throughout the Islamic world, a warning that critics said went unheeded by President Bush until the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. (Reuters) http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7600332 Rumsfeld makes surprise visit to Iraq...Defense secretary says Iraqi forces are improving (Reuters) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6949859/ Car bomb outside Iraqi Shiite mosque kills 13...11 slain in Baghdad bakery attack; al-Sistani aide survives shooting (AP) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6913272/ North Korea demanded bilateral talks with the United States over its nuclear weapons program but Washington quickly rejected the idea on Friday and insisted Pyongyang return to six-party negotiations. (Reuters) http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=OHJTSFJJJ2R0MCRBAEOCFFA?type=topNews&storyID=7606052 "The job of party chair is different from party nominee. The party chair needs to be an ardent partisan. You can't send a vegetarian to do a red-meat job."...Ailing Democrats put faith in Dr. Dean...Some fear choice will add to red-state blues http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6949382/ The public's confidence in President Bush's job performance and the nation's direction has slipped in the opening weeks of his second term, particularly among people 50 and older, according to an Associated Press poll. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6952383/ Americans are feeling a bit more optimistic about the future of Iraq, a bright spot for the administration in an Associated Press poll that indicates many are souring on President Bush's job performance. (AP) http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050211/D886GKO01.html Senate Democrats demanded Thursday that President Bush order a halt to personal attacks on the party's leader, Sen. Harry Reid, and expressed regret that they had failed to mount a stronger defense for his defeated predecessor. (AP) http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050211/D886BPC80.html Former President Bill Clinton encouraged Democrats on Thursday to rally around the party's leaders and said doomsayers who predict the party's demise needed to "get a life and look at history." (Reuters) http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyID=2005-02-11T040057Z_01_N10492034_RTRIDST_0_POLITICS-POLITICS-DEMOCRATS-DC.XML President Bush on Friday threatened to veto any changes Congress tries to make to Medicare's new prescription drug benefit, which takes effect in January 2006. (AP) http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050211/D886FSA00.html In style and substance, Democrats are mounting a much more aggressive and unified opposition to President Bush than they did following his election in 2000. (LA Times) http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2026&ncid=703&e=5&u=/latimests/20050211/ts_latimes/democratsarentgivingbushabreakthisterm Germany dismisses war-crimes case against Rumsfeld...A German prosecutor yesterday dismissed a war-crimes complaint brought by a leftist legal group, paving the way for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to attend a NATO conference this weekend in Munich. (The Washington Times) http://washingtontimes.com/national/20050210-114750-1470r.htm Former President Jimmy Carter, who predicted that elections in Iraq would fail and in the past year described the Bush administration's policy there as a quagmire, this week ended 10 days of silence to declare the historic Iraqi vote "a very successful effort." (The Washington Times) http://washingtontimes.com/national/20050211-123325-7245r.htm Editorial/Opinion Craig Crawford's 1600: A Chilling Effect http://www.cq.com/corp/show.do?page=crawford/crawford_current Chapman: After the Iraq election, self-congratulation abounds http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0502100111feb10,1,2297098.column?coll=chi-news-col&ctrack=3&cset=true Doonesbury http://www.ucomics.com/doonesbury/ ========================================= This email is never sent unsolicited. You have received The Hardball Briefing Newsletter because you subscribed to it or, someone forwarded it to you. To remove yourself from the list (or to add yourself to the list if this message was forwarded to you) simply go to http://www.msnbc.com/tools/newstools/e/emailextra.asp?nfeature=19 Microsoft Corporation - One Microsoft Way - Redmond, WA 98052 MSN PRIVACY STATEMENT http://privacy.msn.com