>> whado you think a trecan be? can it be stronger than steel? can the trey by a degradable plastic? c it be fuel for ourars? or clothing? medine that fights cancer? with our tree cell technology, we thinkit can. weyeaeuser, growing ideas >> this week on "inside washington," the bombshell leak

a genera's blunt assessment of top.s. options in afghanistan. >> theime has com up for the worlto move in eight new direction. president obama goeso the un geral assembly. >> i am not deling, i am maki an extremely important point. >> it is a very importantoint, but yoare also delaying. and massachusetts gov. deval patrick fillsed kennedy's senate seat. >> i a pleased to announce paul kirk is the inter united ates senator from massachusetts. captioned by the national captioning initute --www.icap.org-- >> welco to "inside washington." im mark shlds, sittin in for gordon peteon, who will be

back next week. "the wasngton post" scorea scoop of the weekith bob woodwar's stor that general stanley mccystal thinks the u.s. needs more trps in afghantan to keep the mission from failing. >> ife don'tome to a decision, the president doesot come to a decision soon, what will happen is we will ss the window of gettingore troops into the theater as the spring tw occurs when additional troops are goingo be necessar >> the ak of the report was seen as a respoe tohe prident's perceived reluctce to commit additional troops to afanistan will this pressure the president to sendmore unit statesroops to afghanistan, chars krauthamme >> i think it probab will. i think the reason itot leak is the report w delivered to the secretary of defense and th presidenton august 30, an the military is exemely upset cause it was an urgent request and it has been sitting

around for most a month with only a single meeting at the white house over it, and they want an answer, yesro, all in a out? >> nina tenberg, your own sense? will the president bow to this? >> i tnk it couldave the oppote effect. there is no doubt why this was leaked -- it was pressure him. the sense one gets liening to him ese days is that he is having secondhoughts abo this poly and he is not going to be rushed into it. he will not make aommitment like iraq if he thinks ere are al doubts. the report, after all, can be read more than one w. >> cby king, this was the good war, the applause le during the campaign 2008. iraq was a disaster, a mistake, but afghanistan was the goo war. what has happened? >> i think it is like a proect of hanging, it tends to

concenate the mind nderfully. the prospectf putting re troopsnto afghanistan means more u.s. casualties unavoidae. more u.s. casualties,ore u.s. treasurybeing spent. obama will really have to confront that this is s war. it became his owhen he committed 70,0 more troop shortly afr taking office. -- committed 17,0 more troops shortly after ting office. saiit was a war of necessity. he laid down the gauntl on th and now he faces the coequence of a great deal o loss. even if you succeed i the ssion, it will cost a great deal in lives and treasury, and i'm not sure he is willing to take that step. >> jeanne cummings, it is complicated by t fact that we have a stolen electn -- at least a very suled and staid

lection, allegedly reelecting karzai, and corruption issue wife in the system. does this make it tougher fo the presiden >> it does make a lot tougher for the president. mcchrystal's position inot the only position in the adminiration, and congress is certainly beming more coerned about afghanistanand the taindlection added more to their skepticism, and they are worried about u.s. involvent over ere. the prident has a lot of opinions to weigh. the vice president is a skeptical voice on whether re trips are necessaryin terms of the timing of the tros, the size of it, wheth the 17,000 ready added over their nee more time to see if they can act change before we send mor in. it is a veryomplex debate. mccystal this week came out after the repo was leaked d he tried t make point thahe was giving hisosition, bluny, clearly but it was a pure military positi. the president has a lot of other

things to consider. >> the other thi about this reportis when i said you could read it two ways, he ss in the report that militarily, if you d not put significant number of more troops in, you will fail. t he does t say that if yo do, we will been win. no feignower has ever succeeded in th pre i am not saying we cannot, but it is very dicey, very costly, a we may havelready missed the wdow three four years ago. th president has to fire out whether is is worth wagering a good al of h presidency on deposi. >> he has also got to consider the position he put himse in. mcchrystal is his person out there. he repced the command, most lily on the recommendation of this occurred a defense,ut he replaced the commander o there.

he is giving a strategthey said the needed, counterinsurncy strategy, and mcchrystal as tellg him the trh. it is ing to cost. now obama s got to face the challenge of meeting t cost and i am not sure heas it in him to do it. >> colb's right. the war is being run by obama' on general could on th27th of march obama made a speech, anked byhe secretaries of defen and ste, where he began by sayg, "today i announced a comprehensive ne strategy on afghanistan." it is s strategy. for the last six mohs it has be his strategy. and yet he goes all six o the networks says, " don't have a strate. until we have a sategy, i am t going to commit our tros." he told us six mons ago"my newtrategy," which was athe conclusion of for review.

it is his stregy d h policy and his general, and at is wh he is stuck. his aides are worried that he will come the lbj, a domestic for former that will become los in the swamps of counterinsurgency. it is not about the discovery corrupti in afgnistan. thats like discovering gambng in rick'safe in the films. he knows that its corrupt. the electio complicates it. but its anld story, not a new ct. >> but you would be aool to simp refuse to change your strategy once u get ur genera in tir who tells you it would cost more than y perhaps thought, ce youave an election that everybody thought might be all right,k, and i's not ok. >> but not when y have declared it is aar of necessity and your geral says i have a strate that i think

will and canucceed. >> bwoodward's story about general mccystal raised an interesting politicapoint beyondafghanistan -- this has been an incredibly disciplined administration, anthis the firsmajor leak or somethi got out onthe fnt page of the papers that they did not wanto read what does that mean for the town and the obama administration? >> in preous adminirations, particully republican administrations, ty went ballistic and launched investigations and got out the lley crafton times pre do not kn if they're having an internal investigation. if they are, they are being required abo it. i am surrahm emanuel went right through the roof. and the presidt's -- you know the expressione gets when is not plee? i am sure that is what he doing. but this ppens. it just happens. sometimes, whil the

administrati needs it, is better in e long run. >> yonvestigate if it is a low level leak, sebody at the bottom of thpoll trying to influence policy. this clear -- i don't he insi information, but its import is so great that you have to imagine at the generals themselves or tir top aides were concerned abt the inacon on this recommention and ke sure it got out. i cannot imagine that this was unknown to anody the high command. in sense, it not so much a leak, it is a cllenge by the miliry again the civilian commander, who, onically, as we said, appointed the commander and you did eablish this strategy declaring it war of this -- and who did establish a strategy dlaring it a war necessity t military is sang if that true, what areou going toecide? >> i view it a little bit differently than that. i think that clearl, the

pentagoand the people within wanted to focu the mds of the white house. i do not know ithey are necearily in opposition to o another. but mcchrtal said is you ge me the orders and i will follo them out, but i will te you bluntly what i think, and hdid in that memo. somebody wanteto send a wake- up call and get this conversation moving in a more urgent mter, and this is a prty spectular way to get that point across. >> and it worked. if that is the objectiveit worked. >> in another iarnation, when i was in the gernment, i instigated leaks, and you'll be surpris to bu surprise to th leaker can be sometimes. the person acting in horror a the wholthing can be the person who allowed it t get t. it serves eir interests to have this discussed. let us be a little reluctanto say --

>> i don't believe in the three- cushion shot. >> the two-cushion shot is a distinct possibity. let me think somebody else -- pinkeromebody else -- it did take healthcare rit off the front pa. that is ere the administratio wants to conntrate all its energy rightow. >> but if you a looking for a ay out of this, and you are going to back off, what better way of doing it thano p this ut there as chaenge, to start this disssion in this debate the way it is going right w over whether we shou do it or not? i'm just not se i'm ready to conclude -- >> i am not sure its bad to takeelped off the front page. its messy, is sausage ming up tre. don' forget tha all thepolls showhe american people deeply vering. thiss not something where republicans ca make hay.

waveringn that and on heal care. n health care, the numbe are tight. a slight plurality again, but really quite tht. both othe policies are rely inluble and the president s to decide. >> we have sought in word and deed a new era of engagement with the world, and now is the time for all of us to te our share of responsibility for global rponse to global challenges. >> t president says it is a new day,ut he spent his me in new york taing about old problems -- imate change, nuclear proliferationpeace in the ddle east. this was his first speech to the generalssembly is getting tracon on his international to-do list, colby king? >> obama swed distance in substance and tone from his

predecesso and that ishe new day we're talking about. he was well-received, unlikthe way prident bush was received. thataid, he is still deali with governments, andhe governmentare taking the same positions. personality cannot change the united nations rhetoric cannot change the united nations. the united natio represents governments, n individuals. there obama will run into the same problems that his predecessor encountered whent comes to tngs like thmiddle east or dealing with clite change. >> i think thereere a coue of things going on. there was the public theater, with everybody from obama to ahmadinejad, who spoke a halfnd the chamber, to gaddafi -- god kns what he wasoing -- but behind the sceneshere was a fa amount gog on. it is not cle whether we really didet a conceion from the russians that they would help on sctions if necesry,

but it is the first indicaon that we might he actually gotten that. >>rogress, jeanne cummings? >> i think it is just the beginning. we are only starting out, we don't know how obamas relatiship with the rest of the wld leade will evolve. certaiy they were not pitching at his head, which they used to dowith bush, so that is the change. but when y look at the specificse was trying to push, the might have been little t of progress on thnon- prolifation. i thin that maybe it was helped by the aouncement that iran has sretly had another plant in the works that does t appear to vebeen for energy purposes. th may helpit more than anything that happened at the u.n. but you look at t middle east, no real attraction tre. those guys cannot eveagree on an agenda f a meetg. if you lk at climate change, he is not getting mh traction in the u.s. ngress, much les

on the world stage. obama has a long way to go before we see whether he can really make progress on the international priorities. in fairness, he did get trtion in the u.s. house, the u.s. senate -- >> the clima change culprbill >> it will surise you, bui ound hisppearance at the unit nations embarssing. apart from the repetition of the apologies for the wickeess of americi a until his ascendancy d redemption of the country was the naivete of the speech toe said that no nation can domate another, no group of natis ought to be above another,s if he did not sit on t security council. bu when he did sit on the security council, he presided over it, and tre was a resolution out the abolition

of nuclear weapons. the president of franc, d after, and i tranate roughly d i exaggerate -- what the hell are we doing here? we'renot living in an alternat ality, we are living in reality. it was not a wor abo north korea there could a this announment about the abolition of nuclear weapons is nonsense. -- all these pronocements abouthe abolition of nuclear weapons is nonsense. there was more reasmin my model u.n. at my high school then i heard from oma's spee at that general assembl >> people are sll talking about charles' model u.nhigh school. charles wn he was courti anybody said, "i pn to domina you." >> colby king, d you agree wh charles' assessment? >> surprisingly, i do't agree

withharles on this. the president made a very importt point to say to e gathering, look,your days of saying is this a u.s. proem, those days are over. is a mutual problem, mutual challenges we have, and you hav responsibities also to ep up and not just wait for the united states to take the lead. it was a very important change, not just a little nnce, and was t apologetic. >> i also tnk that -- the obama administrati wants to ret the way the u.s. intacts wh the wld, and that has to start somewhere, and iit started with that resolution, that is by. but we have had evious resolutis and speeches and statements thatave poied fingers north koreand in and they did not get as anywhere either, so tough talk has been tried for a long time anthis is an atmpt at a different approach. >> it is more tal just soft talk. >> what do you want, middle talk?

>> the u.n. is a fiction and a farce and the idea that ama is going to reem it and develop a new relationship a make it a force in the world is itself farcical. that is what made so embarraing, the way he took it seriouy, and the way he to these tynts who applauded him seriously. >> the epitaph is get the u.s out of the u. and the un out of the u.s., and it is a hellf a bumper scker. >> i want to do my job, and our job is to sit here a do it as long as it takes. >> theffect of this amendmen will be this -- after we have compted action on t bill re, we have to wait another two to three wes before we can vote on it. >> senator max baucus and democrats in the fance commite defeated an amendment that would have added literally weeks to the time needed to vote that bill ou of committee. the debate on thaand then took

more than two hours. the are more than five amements waiting to be possibly debad. what is going to take to get a health care biloutf thi committee,eanne cummings? >> stop feedi them, lked the doors, make tmwork the weekend, make them stay until midnight. >> and take away the tv cameras. >> if keeps workingthem untilate into the night, republicans will figure they have made their point and they maytart dropping some of those amendments. as it is right now, they do have seris areas they have to continue to debate. and even those rlly important points of contention ll take them into next week. f max baucus can st keep their feeto the fire, he could ybe get this thing out sooner than it mig if inth then might have been. >> colby, senarockefeller ansenator schumer say there is going to be a public option.

that has to be a point contention. >> they are going toddress it, prably on friday, spent some time on it, and they should. they should put all the issues on the table. i think somethi important is taking place now. we have been cticizing them because nobody talks out the tails, nobody costs -- nobody know about the costs of these measures. now they are dealing witthe nty-gritty of our ur pre- debatewith few exptions, likeenator grassley, i find it pretty much informed discussion. its lo, torturous, but think there is sstance there. i find the senators are reasonably well inform. >> look, i would agree. inderstand why obama and the democrats have a political necessity fo speed. you want to get it donbefore a poible setback in the nember elections, you want to get it done this year, while the

president is sll strong. but this is a trilln-dollar proposal, 1/6 of our economy, the most radal reform of our social system, probablyn 20 or 30 years, at least as large as medicare. and the idea that it ought to be done in aay or week or two or ree is nonsense. almt all of these discussions in committee are serious, substantive,hey are about numbers. one of theseumbers are still unknown. cbo has not scored that. in the absce of that, how can you pass a bill? >> first all, you are not passin it, you e getting it out of committee, and there i anoer bill. theyappen at this for mons and monthsnd it is about time --ait -- got to the end ofhe road i thisommittee and got sothing to the floor. it is not goi to be what passes in e last analys no matter what,nd i have got news for you -- it's something passes, it will not be d the da either.

it will change, becausthere will be mistakes. but to act li this is more monethan we spent on iraq -- is bill would not beore money an we spend every year on iraq. >> some of the senators e just getting their first cracat this bill could only six of them have been workinweeks and onths on this. now u have people lik rockefeller getting an opportunityo offer his own amendments, and at is happening on the other sid too. it is part of thprocess. >> but it is ue that this has been a debate that iseen on for 10 years. this is not a debate that started last week. >> this is somethi we have been over before >> but the detls and regulaons in theform of this are all new and real and counting numbers. >> that is why want you to pay attention. ted kennedy'senate seat does not stay vacant long. >> this appointment is

profod honor, and i cept it sincyou humility did -- i accept it with siere humility. that is paul kirk, poted to represent massausetts in thsenate untilanuary when ere will be a special alexian. the pcess w not exactly pretty. >> but at least we've seen e governme do it pretty well prepared -- see a governor dit pretty wel if you looat the other appointments, thegovernor of nework kilhimself in the procs, the governor of delaware has been criticize for appointi a placeholder for e vice president's son, and of course there is illinois, and in alask you had sarah palin overlooked to fi the spot, and lookhere she came back. least this governor did it right. it is a popular selection, he is a place holder, it is short te so thathe voters can express themselves in prty quick orde finally we he a process that seemed to work.

>> the messiness you were referring -- to s the referrg flip-flop in the law. >> the fact that it alwed a democratic governor toappoint, prohibited aepublican. ihink that instead ofhanging the law every few years, what the mets twosets -- at the massachusetts legislature ded to his sple, that when that seat becomes open, the kendy family will choose its successor, and that ite will be simple direct and clean, as it w in this tim >> that would please th voters of massachetts by and large. absolutely. >> it would make it veryimple, but jeann is right, compared to what 've seen elsewhere this year, so what? it is politi? that is at politics is. it happened pretty efficiely. >> i am surpred looking at it from a distance. i remember the inial reaction

from the demrats was lewarm to cool, and of course the republicans we grousing about it because they don't matter in is equation. but the democratsid not really seem to be warm to thi idea, and the fact that weoved to where we are from boower says sothing about the political reality of massausetts. >>i wonder if we have a law that can whstand a democratic or republican vernor. even if it is a republican goverr, there can be an appointment for tee months but then there would be the lection, a if the democrats think they can wint, they can win it three months later. >> as a native of massachuses, but it is a democratic vernor, it is the poin upon, and wn it is republican, it is a special election. tune in nexteekor "inside washington." >> f a transcript of this broadcast, log on to insidewashingt.tv.