House Leadership on Meet the Press

Highlights via email:

Democrats have no plan for success in Iraq, just a plan to eliminate funding for the troops:

"But Steny, Democrats have no plan for success in Iraq . And let's be honest about it, what we're going to do this week is the first step in your effort to cut off funds for troops in harm's way and leave Iraq in chaos..."

"...You and the Speaker, Murtha and others, have said this is just a first step this coming week. We all know what's coming in the next month or so when we have the supplemental spending bill up."

"... If you don't like the President's plan, Steny, what is your plan for success?"

Challenging the Majority Leader to allow debate on a GOP substitute:

Steny, if you are not going to cut off troops -- cut off the funding for the troops in harm's way, then why not allow Republicans to bring a resolution to the floor and let the House vote up or down on the resolution?

On what is at stake:

"I believe that victory in Iraq is the only option. We have had problems in Iraq ; we have had mistakes in Iraq , but Iraq is but a small part in a global war being waged by radical Islamic terrorists. It's all over the world and it's a global movement. The most visible part of it today we see in Iraq and in Afghanistan . And if we don't have victory in Iraq , the consequences of failure are immense: a destabilized Iraq , a safe haven for terrorists, possible access to their oil revenue, a destabilizing of the greater Middle East . What happens to Israel ? And if this isn't bad enough, who doesn't believe that if we withdraw and leave that chaos in the Middle East, that the terrorists won't follow us here to the United States ? Victory, victory is the only option."

On consequences of failure; Lincoln & Roosevelt could have given up, but they didn't:

I got an e-mail several nights ago from a lady named Lisa Bell Clay who used to work for me. And she left when her husband got transferred down to southern Virginia . He was a marine. He was killed in Iraq defending this country. She sent me an e-mail the other night to say, listen, I'm glad somebody is standing up to support our troops and to make sure that there's a long-term strategy for victory here. Now, this is, we're in a very serious fight, and I just finished reading - last fall - Lincoln's Team of Rivals, and look at the number of times that Lincoln could have given up or should have given up. But he had a goal to hold the Union together. And look at the difficulties that Franklin Roosevelt had during World War II. He could have folded his tent and cut a deal, but he had a goal in mind of preserving freedom. And the issue here is not just Iraq. Look at what we do if we leave there in chaos, and what the Iranians do. They are there stirring up the problems to a large extent in Iraq today. Their influence, they want to grow it in the greater Middle East. They are in there with Hezbollah.

Video is available here.