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Skriven 2007-07-06 23:30:40 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0707062) for Fri, 2007 Jul 6
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Press Gaggle by Tony Fratto
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For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary July 6, 2007

Press Gaggle by Tony Fratto Room 450 Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office
Building

˙˙Press Briefings

˙˙˙˙˙ In Focus: Economy

9:46 A.M. EDT

MR. FRATTO: Good morning White House Press Corps, and happy Friday to you.
Actually, it's one of these funny things that I tend to gaggle on days when
we have great jobs reports. As you know, it makes me happy. Today, there
are -- we know that there are 132,000 more Americans who are happy about
that, too. So that net increase in jobs, more than 2 million new jobs
added, that's 46 consecutive months -- you know how we like to count these
things -- 46 consecutive months of strong job growth. We're also seeing
strong wage growth.

One of the great things about seeing this continued strength in the job
market is that it's great for the American families to have someone in
their household out gainfully employed and wages increasing. It's also
great for federal coffers. We see that result in increased tax receipts. As
we talk about a great deal, this commitment to increase job growth and
reducing the federal deficit is an important goal of ours. And we want to
see this continue.

The way we look at it, it's not a secret as to why we are in this position
of sustained strength in job growth, and what we think will continue to
translate into economic growth. It's a recipe of lower taxes, keeping
spending in check, and keeping our economy open. I'm not sure from what
we're seeing from the U.S. Congress right now whether they share these
goals. And in fact we have some suspicion that -- and enough evidence, I
think, to show that what we're seeing is looking for opportunities for
increasing taxes, looking for opportunities to increase spending, and maybe
avoiding one of the key jobs of Congress, which is to get their work done
on time.

We know that -- we saw this with immigration, and we're seeing it with some
other issues, where Congress is having an inability to take on major
challenges. But what we hope that they can do is to get their basic fiscal
work on time, done, and that's to move these appropriations bills.

The President recorded his radio address this morning, and he will address
this subject in the radio address, and point to our concern and our urging
for Congress to get their work on time and get the appropriations bills to
his desk. So that's what the President did at 7:00 a.m. this morning.

At 8:00 a.m., he had his normal briefings, and then off to Camp David for
the weekend. And at the end of the gaggle, I'll give you the week ahead.

Questions.

Q Did Senator Domenici inform the White House that he was going to break
with the President on Iraq, and what was the President's reaction to
Senator Domenici?

MR. FRATTO: I didn't talk to the President directly about it, so I don't
know his personal reaction. I'm not sure whether

we got a heads-up on that or not. It's something that I'm looking into.

But I think in terms of our general reaction, Senator Domenici is someone
we have an enormous amount of respect for. He's a thoughtful senator and
has been for the better part of the last four decades. So he is someone we
listen to.

I think there's been a bit too much, maybe, made of what some people
perceive as differences in terms of what our -- what our strategy is in
Iraq. I think if you go back to the President's January 10th speech and the
new way forward that he laid out in Iraq, what we have always talked about
-- and the President has come to this many times since then, and most
recently on July 4th in Martinsburg, and his speech last week -- is how can
we put Iraq into -- in a place where the environment will allow the Iraqi
government to make the progress they need and where we can continue to turn
over more authority for the security of the country to Iraqi forces.

Q But that's precisely his complaint, Tony, that that isn't happening.

MR. FRATTO: Well, I think it actually is happening. We see this in a number
of provinces in Iraq, and maybe Senator Domenici can -- will have an
opportunity to put a finer point on what he meant. But clearly we are
seeing an increase in trained Iraqi troops. We're seeing progress in
Baghdad and surrounding areas. We're seeing the offensive forces of the
surge taking the fight to al Qaeda and cooperation from locals in these
areas who are helping us achieve the goals that we've laid out.

Now, people have talked about this as an open-ended commitment. There is no
open-ended commitment here. We've been -- we've been very clear of what the
ultimate goal here is, and that's for -- that's to turn over greater
authority to the Iraqis so that they can take this responsibility on
themselves.

The key, I think, and an important distinction to think about is, is how is
what Senator Domenici and Senator Lugar and some others are saying
different from where Democrats are talking about, which is, in fact, a
precipitous withdrawal. And we think that's absolutely the wrong way to go.
It would be dangerous. We want to get us to a place after the surge where
we can think about how we can draw down troops going forward. The key is to
do it in a way that doesn't lead to a collapse of security in Iraq; in a
way that doesn't lead to the horrific calamity that would result from a
precipitous withdrawal; in a way that gives the Iraqis time to keep
security in the region.

Q Has the White House asked members not to say anything until the September
report?

MR. FRATTO: We do want senators and House members to be patient enough to
look forward to the reporting from General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker.
I think it's really important to understand -- like I said, people go back
to January 10th, which seems like a long time ago when we announced the new
way forward. It was only until two or three weeks ago that we actually had
the surge forces in place.

It is certainly way too early to give any kind of definitive grade on how
the surge is doing. We see hopeful signs of progress. We see hopeful signs
of success. We're certainly not in a place to say that the surge has been a
success. And we think no one is in a place to say that the surge is not a
success either.

So we want to look forward to the months ahead. We know a report from
Petraeus and Crocker will be coming soon, some time over the next week or
so, that is a status report, a benchmark report. And then we have a report
in September. And that will inform our thinking.

I think it shouldn't come as any surprise that we here in the
administration, and in our conversations with Congress, and in our
conversations with generals on the ground and policymakers in Iraq, are
thinking about what happens after a surge; what happens after this surge. A
surge, by definition, is temporary in nature. You don't surge on a
permanent basis. So the question is, will the surge be successful, and can
we take that success and move on to the next stage.

So if people are talking about new strategies, we hope that they're
thinking a time frame of what happens after we can gauge the success of the
surge.

Q Tony, in months back, when September seemed distant, the White House
seemed quite comfortable with putting a lot on September and saying that
that would be an appropriate time to gauge progress. And it seems that
you're saying that you won't be in a position to do that, and it would only
inform thinking.

MR. FRATTO: I think that's exactly what I said. September is an appropriate
time to gauge progress. I don't know that it's a time to say definitively
success or failure, but it is an appropriate time to gauge progress. By
that time, we will have had the surge troops in place for about three
months. It's probably a decent interval of time to get a sense of what
Ambassador Crocker and General Petraeus think about things -- how far
they've come since they got on the ground there; and also to take a -- we
hope that people take a broader view of what is going on in Iraq.

There's been so much focus on military -- on the military effort and the
troops. We also hope that Ambassador Crocker will actually be able to add
substance to this discussion, in terms of what's going on in the diplomatic
front and on the economic front, and the work of the PRTs. And also on the
-- we'll be interested in the political -- what political accomplishments
the Iraqi government -- I know that there's a sense of frustration out
there from senators and from others. I hope you're not surprised that there
isn't -- that we share some of this frustration, too that there isn't
faster progress; talk about the two different speeds of the clocks, the
Washington clock and the Baghdad clock.

Everyone -- this is something we all agree on -- everyone wants to see
faster progress on political reconciliation and passing laws in Iraq; it's
something that the President raised with Prime Minister Maliki in the SVTS
earlier this week. We're in broad agreement on what the goals are here. We
want to think about what's the best way to do it and what's the best way
that puts Iraq in a position where it can protect its people, it can
deliver basic services to its citizens, and it can be a functioning
democracy. It's not going to be an environment where there is a hundred
percent absence of car bombings or suicide bombings. That's an unrealistic
expectation.

But we do want to take the fight to the people who are carrying out those
car bombings, and that's what our guys are doing right now in the field.
That's what they're -- when they're going, fighting block by block as we
speak in places like Baqubah today -- that's what they're doing, and we
think they are showing some success.

Matt.

Q Tony, in the meantime, what is the President going to do to stop the
hemorrhaging of support from his own -- his fellow Republicans before the
progress report even comes forth?

MR. FRATTO: I don't buy that characterization of what we're hearing from
these leaders in Congress. I think what we are hearing is some thoughtful
discussion of how we go forward. And what we're going to do, and what the
President is going to do is going to continue to talk to them and continue
to work together on ways forward as we work through this.

So I don't buy that characterization of it.

Sheryl. I'm sorry, Matt, go ahead.

Q Is there no concern that these leading, influential Republicans --
Domenici, Voinovich, Lugar -- are basically parting with the President on
many aspects of his policy -- and I think that's undeniable. They're
calling for timetables; the President doesn't want that. They're calling
for withdrawal plans; the President doesn't want to provide that.

MR. FRATTO: If a withdrawal plan is tied to -- is tied to a specific date,
I think that's not a wise way to go and that's not something that we would
support and that's a conversation that we would have with them. We think
that is -- that's fraught with danger. But that's part of the conversation
that we would have with them.

But I hope they do recognize -- and I think they do -- that we do want to
get to the same place, and we share that goal. So that is a huge amount of
common ground that we share, and again, distinctly different from where
Democrat leaders are talking about -- where they are talking about pulling
out troops in 120 days, which isn't even really possible, forgetting that
it's not advisable. So what we're going to continue to do is work with them
on where we go in a post-surge environment.

Sheryl.

Q Tony, Senators Lamar Alexander and Ken Salazar have a bipartisan bill
that would, in effect, put the Iraq Study Group's recommendations into law.
If that bill passes -- and it could pass, it seems, with some Republican
support like that of Senator Domenici's -- would the President sign it into
law?

MR. FRATTO: I'm not going to talk about, sort of, hypothetical --

Q What's his position on this bill? Does he support it?

MR. FRATTO: What we support, and I think we've talked about this before,
is, we support a lot of the broad goals of the Iraq Study Group. It's been
common shorthand in town, and I see it in a lot of the writing whenever
there is reference to the Iraq Study Group, that the administration
dismissed it out of hand, which, I think, is an inaccurate description of
how we received the Iraq Study Group recommendations.

I think what the President said at that time was that there was a lot of
wisdom and a lot of -- and he appreciated a lot of the work that went into
the Iraq Study Group. We do -- we have some concerns about certain elements
of it. But in its broad strokes of putting Iraq in a place where we can
eventually draw down U.S. troops and train Iraqi troops and make the
political and economic reforms needed so that Iraq could have more control
over its own country, we certainly agree with that.

Q But in a specific stroke, this bill would shift the mission away from
combat operations. And that is what lawmakers, including a number in your
own party, want. Is the President prepared to support that?

MR. FRATTO: I think we're prepared to support at an appropriate time, when
the conditions on the ground merit it, a different force structure in Iraq.
But it will be dictated by the conditions on the ground.

Ken.

Q Tony, what's the definition of success of the surge? And what's the next
stage if the surge is not successful?

MR. FRATTO: The definition of success of the surge is that there is a
sufficient amount of breathing space. And by that, we mean basic security
and basic delivery of services in Iraq; that the political leadership can
make the reforms that they need to make in order to move Iraq to a more
functioning society.

And so that means that for -- to give them the opportunity to make the
political reforms that they need to make. A lot of the benchmarks that we
talk about passing -- passing the oil law, de-Baathification, and training
Iraqi forces to do more work on the ground -- now, we're seeing an
incredible amount of progress on training up Iraqi troops. And what we're
hearing from our generals on the ground is that some places there are mixed
results from that, but in more places than we have seen in the past, we're
seeing Iraqi troops who are willing to fight and die for this government.

Now that's a pretty important factor in this equation. If Iraqi troops are
signing up to join Iraqi defense forces, they're getting trained and
they're willing to fight and die and work to hold the areas that we're
clearing, those are important factors and we want to see that continue. And
that's a measure of progress.

So there won't be one crowning event that says, okay, now we are finally
successful in Iraq. I think it's going to be a little bit more of an
evolutionary process. But you know, you'll know it when you see it. And I
think you'll know it when your colleagues, who are out there on the ground
reporting out of Iraq, are able to go down the street and do walking tours
of a neighborhood and talk to residents in some degree of safety, and talk
to Iraqi officials outside of the Green Zone. And it will be those kinds of
things. So I think we'll know it, but we're not going to know it on one
specific day. That's not going to work --

Q What's the next stage if it doesn't succeed?

MR. FRATTO: What's the next stage of --

Q If it does not succeed?

MR. FRATTO: We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. But we're going to
operate on the presumption that our -- that our military forces on the
ground and the work we're doing on the economic and diplomatic and
political fronts will be successful.

Mark.

Q If the statements by Domenici, Voinovich, and Lugar are not a
hemorrhaging of support, what is it?

MR. FRATTO: I think they're voicing where they -- where they are on this
very important issue. Look, this is -- this is a war, and you're going to
have -- anyone who is thoughtful and wants to see us succeed and see that
our forces succeed is going to take a look at this with a sober eye and
make choices of conscience. And it's going to happen on both sides of the
aisle.

What we hope and what we counsel with the people we talk to is to let it --
let your decisions be guided by the facts and by what we're seeing on the
ground. And so we're going to have these conversations. We're going to make
sure that they have as much information as they need. But to use that kind
of characterization of it I think does a disservice to where -- from where
people like Senator Domenici and Senator Lugar are coming from. I think
it's important to remember they're not talking about a precipitous
withdrawal. They are not talking about defunding the troops. Those are
hugely important distinctions. And those -- again, these are thoughtful
people that we can work with.

Q To what extent will the President allow himself to be influenced by
Domenici, Lugar and Voinovich?

MR. FRATTO: An appropriate -- he'll let himself be influenced by an
appropriate amount. The President, as I think you know, listens to a lot of
voices. He hasn't been shy about inviting members of Congress from both
sides of the aisle in and both sides of the ideological spectrum. He talks
to commanders in the field on a regular basis. He talks to his military
leaders here in Washington on a regular basis. He's getting all the
information he needs to make the best decision possible. Steve Hadley,
National Security Advisor, spent a lot of time on the Hill talking to
members. So we're interested in their thoughts and views, and we want to
work with them on policy going forward.

Sheryl.

Q A lot of lawmakers are looking to this July 15th report. Can you talk
about the importance of the July 15th report? And are you concerned that
July 15th is about to become the new September?

MR. FRATTO: It shouldn't be. I think it will provide a good benchmark or
snapshot of where things are now that the surge assets are fully in place.

Again, you're talking about taking a picture of where things stand in Iraq,
maybe a month after the full complement of military resources --

Q Are you encouraging lawmakers, Republicans especially, not to make
judgments based on this July 15th report?

MR. FRATTO: I mean, look, it should inform their judgments. It will be
information, and it will be information from the two senior-most officials
on the ground. So it should inform their judgments, but it shouldn't lead
to any final conclusions, because I think it's just too early for that.

John.

Q Are you talking more to members in the last few weeks since you've seen
this sort of uptick in concerns being expressed by Republicans?

MR. FRATTO: I don't -- I couldn't quantify whether it's more or less. I
think any time the President is here in Washington and at the White House,
he is inviting members in for regular conversations. Some of them you know
about -- they show up on the schedule, and you'll see them and members will
come out and talk; some of them are in the residence and they're smaller
groups. He talks to some on the phone.

So the conversations are -- I could tell you, for as long as I've been here
at the White House, it seems to me that it's been a pretty steady
conversation with members.

Mike.

Q Tony, does Domenici sting a little more, though? I mean, he's, in effect,
a neighbor to the President, a New Mexican to a Texan. I mean, does it
bother him a little bit more to hear it from Domenici than it does maybe
these Midwest guys?

MR. FRATTO: No, I mean, I don't -- (laughter.) And I don't take any
particular offense that it's an Italian American who's doing it either.
(Laughter.)

Q You're a big man.

MR. FRATTO: Exactly.

Q Is there any view from the White House that reelection is influencing the
public comments these Republicans are making?

MR. FRATTO: I think you would -- you could direct those questions to the
members themselves. They can expound on that. I'm not going to try to get
into their motivations. I do think that most of the members who have raised
this with the President, either in public or in private, think their
motivations are noble. And so I'm not going to try to characterize it
beyond that.

Olivier.

Q Tony, you talk about breathing space for issues of political
reconciliation. Why do you think it's a question of breathing space and not
just a lack of interest in carrying out oil --

MR. FRATTO: Because I think this is a --

Q We've seen problems of corruption, we've seen problems of sort of
creeping warlordism. Why is it breathing space?

MR. FRATTO: Let's be very clear, let's be very clear. We have countries
that have much longer histories dealing with democracy than Iraq does
today, and they have all of those same problems. Trying to find your
political footing in a government that's barely a year and a half old is
very difficult, and we see the same challenges in countries that have been
at this for 20, 40, 60 years.

So you will not see an absence of corruption. Let's get rid of that myth.
You're not going to see an absence of corruption down to zero in Iraq.
You're not going to see an absence of acrimony between parties that are
just now trying to find how they work together to chart a way forward for
their country.

We hope that we see sufficient cooperation that they can get some of the
major things done that they need to do that will allow them to go on, on
their own way, under their own authority, and without the necessary blanket
of 159,000 American troops.

Q Invoking other countries who have been at this for 40 or 50 years, it
sounds to me like you are taking security and the breathing space out of
that equation, and you are talking about political will of a different
kind. And that's what I'm getting at. Why do you think it's a car bombing
issue? Why don't you think that it's Maliki just isn't interested at this
point? He's happy to carry out his own policies with the presence of U.S.
support. Why is it a car bombing issue? Why isn't it just he doesn't want
to do this?

MR. FRATTO: Well, two things I would say that help us understand that
better is that --

Q Or the Sunnis, I should say, not just Maliki, but why are --

MR. FRATTO: Right, and the Kurds. Look, we spend a lot of time talking to
them, and so we take our own judgment as to -- our own judgment as to what
their political capabilities are. We think that they do have the interest
and the incentive to make progress. So that's certainly one factor in it.

The other is, is that if the alternative is to turn on our heels and walk
out of Iraq and just sort of be wishful thinkers as to what will happen
next, isn't a route that we think is -- we think going that route is more
dangerous than not.

So -- and I still have yet -- I remember, we've talked about this before --
I have yet to see any credible analysis from anyone who's been to Iraq and
has -- whether a military strategist or a political strategist and looking
at Iraq -- as to what would happen in the case of a precipitous withdrawal
of coalition forces in Iraq. The unanimous conclusion, as far as I can see,
is that it would lead to chaos. And that analysis comes from supporters of
the administration policy as much as it does from critics of the
administration policy.

So the best -- so the best bet is to work with this leadership and help
them accomplish what we think they need to do and what we think they
believe they need to do to be successful.

Roger.

Q Tony, the July 15 report, that's by Petraeus, as well, isn't it?

MR. FRATTO: Petraeus and Crocker, yes.

Q Okay, fine. But it's just an interim thing, essentially; right?

MR. FRATTO: Yes. Like I said, we're at a point where the surge can be only
measured in weeks; I don't think I could characterize it any other way.

Terry.

Q Thank you.

Q Week ahead?

MR. FRATTO: Oh, I'm sorry. How could we forget the week ahead, Terry?
You've been at this longer than I have.

Q For God's sake. (Laughter.)

Q I'm sorry.

MR. FRATTO: Nothing else this weekend. On Monday, July 9th, the President
participates in a conversation on the Americas. This is at 10:25 a.m. at
the Hyatt Regency Crystal City. This event marks the opening of the White
House Conference on the Americas, which will bring together voluntary
organizations, non-governmental organizations, the private sector and
foundations to discuss and highlight the vast array of societal
interactions between the United States and its neighbors to better the
lives of the region's citizens. And you might remember, those of you who
were on the Latin America trip, that that was something that was discussed
at that time. And if you want more information, I'm told that Tom Shannon
will be doing a briefing on this over at the State Department.

Tuesday, July 10th, the President will travel to Cleveland, Ohio, for
several stops; he'll make remarks. And we'll provide you more information
on that as we have them.

Q Topics?

MR. FRATTO: We'll provide more information when we have it.

Q Yes, there will be topics. (Laughter.)

MR. FRATTO: There will be topics.

Wednesday, July 11th, the President and Mrs. Bush participate in a
ribbon-cutting ceremony for the James S. Brady Briefing Room, press
briefing room; expanded pool coverage, and others will be in the room. And
as of this time, no public events scheduled for Thursday, July 12th or
Friday, July 13th.

One scheduling update. On Sunday, July 15th, the President will host a
White House tee ball game in honor of Jackie Robinson's 60th anniversary of
joining Major League Baseball. The game will host teams from the Inner-City
Little League of Brooklyn -- Brooklyn, New York, and the Wrigley Little
League of Los Angeles, California, the two home cities of Robinson's team,
the Dodgers. This will be the 17th tee ball game at the White House and it
will bring together some of Jackie Robinson's original teammates and other
notable baseball icons.

Thank you.

END 10:16 A.M. EDT

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