Press Briefing by Tony Snow

Business Wire, June 26, 2007

WASHINGTON -- White House Conference Center Briefing Room

12:40 P.M. EDT

MR. SNOW: Hello. How may I help you? (Laughter.)

Q Good morning. How are you doing?

MR. SNOW: Good afternoon. I'm feeling well, thank you.

Q Did the President watch the vote?

MR. SNOW: I don't know if he watched the vote, but I daresay most of us did. So we are happy that the motion to proceed has passed. Now we get into the business of debating the amendments and we're looking forward to passage in the Senate. We know that there's a long and -- a long debate ahead when it comes to comprehensive immigration reform. We hope the House of Representatives will take it up. Anybody who has improvements, we're certainly interested in those, but we are certainly pleased with the early vote on the motion to proceed.

Q Tony, you said you weren't surprised by the substance of Senator Lugar's comments on the Senate floor last night. Were you surprised by the timing at all, that he chose last night to do it?

MR. SNOW: I'd ask him. We certainly were not aware that there -- we were not made directly aware that there would be a statement at that time. But again, it's consistent with things he said.

Q I'm thinking, from what I heard in the gaggle and from the shrug right now that you don't find this very significant.

MR. SNOW: Look, Dick Lugar is a serious guy, so obviously you take it seriously. But on the other hand, again, he voted against the original -- he voted against the surge. He's somebody who has had reservations. We take seriously his point of view because he is a serious guy. On the other hand, we also take seriously the efforts and the advice that the President has gotten from his commanders on the ground, and also the continuing cooperation not only with the commanders on the ground, but also Ambassador Crocker and working with our colleagues in the Iraqi government.

Q But most Republicans have said they're willing to wait until September -- and obviously you need political support to continue with this -- a lot of Republicans have said they'll wait until September -- when you've got Dick Lugar last night saying, "The United States has violated some basic national security precepts during our military engagement in Iraq. We have overestimated what the military can achieve."

MR. SNOW: Well, again, obviously we disagree with him on that. On the other hand, we also agree with him when he was taking some of the critics to task for some of the things that they've said. Here is -- "it is a complex situation of war" -- duh. On the other hand, we also know that there are going to be reports to Congress in the middle of July and the middle of September about how this is going --

Q But are you worried this is yet another voice and the trickle will eventually burst the dam?

MR. SNOW: No. But again, this is Dick Lugar repeating a position. I think if you take a look at what his own people have said, they said it's consistent with what he said in the past.

Q But, Tony, doesn't it move the debate back to now instead of waiting until September by Senator Lugar coming out right now? Doesn't it focus on this in a way that you don't want people to focus on?

MR. SNOW: No, what we've been trying to do is to be straight with everybody about the difficulties of proceeding, and trying to make sure that people are getting information in a timely fashion about what's going on. Again, we have just completed getting the forces on the ground. Some of them are still getting integrated into units. They're working with their Iraqi counterparts. And you know the points that we've been making in recent days, Martha, but this is not a time for snap judgment, but on the other hand, we do expect that people are going to be asking tough questions about militarily, how is it going; what's going on on the civil side; what's going on in terms of the political situation in Iraq; how are the Iraqis doing.

We believe that democracy can, must, and will succeed in Iraq. We know that the Iraqi people are the ones who are going to have to shoulder

the heaviest burden on that. And it is the purpose of American policy to build capability at all levels so that the Iraqis can do so.

Q The President had another VTC with Maliki yesterday, right -- it seems more and more frequent; the administration is putting pressure on the Iraqi government. But can you tell us, any signs that they are making progress in any way?

MR. SNOW: Again, I will let the Iraqi government -- what you're going to ask me to do is to tell what the Iraqis have said what's going on. We do know that they are obviously working toward oil law and distribution laws, and they've also talked about de-Baathification, but it's a parliamentary process and they'll have to make whatever --

Q That doesn't sound like any progress, Tony.

MR. SNOW: It may not, but on the other hand, it could. What I'm telling you is call over there and ask them to give you the characterization.

Q But, Tony, the United States is involved in this war; we have over 150,000 troops on the ground, and it's dependent on the Iraqi government how this goes. Why can't you give us an indication of how you think it's going at this point?