Q On the evaluation in the report it says the following — the co-chairs say the following: “‘Stay the course’ is no longer viable. The current approach is not working. The situation is grave and deteriorating.” Chairman Hamilton says he is not sure whether the situation can be turned around. Can this report be seen as anything other than a rejection of this President’s handling of the war?
MR. SNOW: Absolutely. And I think you need to read the report —
Q I have.
MR. SNOW: You’ve read the whole report?
Q No, I’ve gone through a lot of the recommendations.
MR. SNOW: Okay, well, I read the whole report, and I will tell you, also based on the conversations —
Q But this is from the Chairman.
MR. SNOW: Well, if you listen to the Chairman you will have noted that he’s not trying to —
Q They were all quotes, Tony.
MR. SNOW: David, please. You get mad —
Q — report, I’m just saying those were all quotes.
MR. SNOW: I know. I know they’re all quotes. I’m now going to try to proceed to try to place them in context. Number one, they are not trying to score partisan points or to look back. The one thing this is, is they’re not doing look-back. The second thing is that they understand the difficulties. They have adopted the goals that the administration has laid out.
[snip]
Q It’s kind of a totality question, though. How you can hear these things and not conclude that it’s rejection of the President’s policy?
MR. SNOW: Well, number one, “stay the course” is not the policy. And you know the President has been saying that for months.
[snip]
But you need to understand that trying to frame it in a partisan way is actually at odds with what the Group, itself, says it wanted to do. And so you may try to do whatever you want in terms of rejection, that’s not the way they view it.
Q I just want to be clear. Are you suggesting that I’m trying to frame this in a partisan way?
MR. SNOW: Yes.
Q You are? Based on the fact that —
MR. SNOW: Because —
Q Wait a Holden, wait a second. Based on quoting the report and the Chairman, and I’m asking you a straight question, which you’re not answering straight, you’re actually —
MR. SNOW: No, I am —
Q — you’re trying to answer it by —
MR. SNOW: No, here’s the —
Q — nitpicking it.
MR. SNOW: No.
Q You’re suggesting that by quoting the report, I’m trying to make a partisan argument?
MR. SNOW: Let me put it this way. Where in the report — what you have said is, can you read this as anything other than a repudiation of policy. And the answer is, I can. And what I was trying to do was to explain to you, for instance, when you suggested that “stay the course” was a repudiation of policy — not true. It’s not administration policy. When you talk about the fact that there’s a deteriorating situation, is that a repudiation of policy. No, it’s something that we have acknowledged.
