The Situation Room-Transcript

The Situation Room-Transcript

BLITZER: One of those there, the House Majority Leader, Democrat representative Steny Hoyer of Maryland. He was there. He saw the president at the White House.

Congressman Hoyer is joining us no from Capitol Hill.

Congressman, thanks very much for coming in.

So you're going to pass a non-binding sense of the House resolution. Is that what you want to do?

REP. STENY HOYER (D-MD), MAJORITY LEADER: I think we will, at some point in time, in the near future, pass a resolution asking members whether they support or oppose the president's escalation. We think that's the first step that ought to be taken.

As you know, Wolf and Paula, we have many hearings scheduled this month, and asking Secretary Gates and others to come up and say, what is this new policy? Frankly, today at the White House, I didn't hear a new policy. I heard more of the same.

And I told the president, as did others, that we are very, very skeptical that more of the same, which hasn't worked to date, is going to work somehow in the future.

BLITZER: When do you think you'll want to introduce that resolution and get it passed?

HOYER: Well, I think that resolution will be done this month.

ZAHN: And you have heard the administration and many Republicans saying that all the Democrats seem to be effective at doing right now is hammering anything that has to do with the president's plan. Do the Democrats have a plan that you could offer that would win this war?

HOYER: Well, we have offered -- the leadership has sent a letter to the president today reiterating much of what the commission said, the task force said, the Baker-Hamilton task force.

We think that there needs to be a shifting of the responsibility. The president says tonight he's doing that. It remains to be seen, because that has been stated as a policy of the administration over the last two years, to shift responsibility.

We have also suggested that additional diplomatic efforts be taken, as did the Hamilton-Baker Commission, and we've suggested redeployment. We're not going to hear anything about redeployment at this point in time, getting our people out of harm's way.

I made it clear to the president that while I had supported the policy in the past, I was not supportive of this build-up. General Casey, General Abizaid and others who have been on the ground, been engaged, don't believe this build-up, this escalation is going to make a difference and we're going to put more of our people in harm's way.

ZAHN: All right, but Representative Hoyer, even if all those things you said that the Democrats are pushing for and striving were attainable, would you be willing to say tonight that victory is still a possibility?

HOYER: Very doubtful. Victory -- it depends on how you define victory, Paula. Dick Durbin brought that up today. How do you define victory? After all, our objective was, initially, to remove Saddam Hussein who was, we thought, harboring weapons of mass destruction. We removed Saddam Hussein. We defeated his army. And then the mission greatly expanded to nation building, something which the president had been very critical of in the 2000 election.

So it's difficult to know exactly what the president is saying victory will be. If victory is going to be a stable, successful Iraq at some time in the future, then we have no end in sight given the sectarian violence, given the political lack of will that we have seen, given the failure to adopt a constitution which will protect the rights of minorities in that country.

We're going to see continuing civil war, so that we're not very optimistic that the president's objectives are either well stated or attainable.

BLITZER: You heard yesterday Senator Kennedy, on the Senate side, suggest that the Congress should start using the power of the purse and not authorize, appropriate additional funds for this expanded U.S. military involvement in Iraq. Are you at the same place where Senator Kennedy is right now?

HOYER: No, Wolf, I'm not at this point in time. I think, as Speaker Pelosi has said and others have said and I've repeatedly said, we're not going to defund the troops at this point in time. We want to make sure the troops are safe. They're in harm's way, and we're not going to do anything to undermine them at this point in time.

But that does not mean that we're going to seek vigorously a change in policy, nor does it mean that at some time in the relatively near future, we will not take greater action beyond simply a resolution, as you point out, which states opposition or support, depending upon how one votes for the president's policy.

BLITZER: So you would still want U.S. troops to start withdrawing within the next four to six months, combat forces?

HOYER: We think that unless that happens the Iraqis are never going to come to grips with taking responsibility for their own security, their own defense, are never going to move forward on reconciliation, on recognizing the rights of the various different factions including the Kurds, the Sunnis, as well as the Shias, the sharing of oil revenues. We don't think that's going to happen unless they see the U.S. disengage.

BLITZER: Steny Hoyer is the majority leader in the House of Representatives. Mr. Leader, thanks very much for coming in.

HOYER: Thank you very much, Wolf.

BLITZER: Thank you.

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