Reader Questions for Russert

As is our wont, we asked yesterday for questions you’d like to hear Tim Russert ask Sen. John McCain on tomorrow's Meet the Press. We've gotten great responses, but keep 'em coming.

Here are some of the top questions we've gotten so far:

• Ron Raglin: "Do you support the 122 congressional representatives and half-a-millon citzens who have signed a letter requesting the President to explain his actions in the lead up to the war in Iraq?"

• Ran Talbott: "John Bolton has repeatedly demonstrated, with his intemperate and inaccurate remarks, both in public and in private, that his suitability for service as a diplomat is, at best, "highly questionable". Given the likelihood that a party-line vote would lead to his being confirmed to a position where he may do serious damage to our diplomatic efforts, why are you pressing for that vote?"
  

• Patrick: "During the last presidential campaign, John Kerry was maligned by Republicans for "voting against armor for the troops". The bill he voted against (for the 87 billion extended authorization) passed by a wide margin, and now eighteen months later, the troops still don't all have adequate body or vehicle armor. Why aren't Republicans up in arms and demanding explanations from the president?"
  

• R.M. [Since Russert loves throwing quotes up on the screen, here is a question that includes a good quote for him]:

  "[We] have been led in Mesopotamia into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honour. [We] have been tricked into it by a steady withholding of information. The Baghdad communiqués are belated, insincere, incomplete. Things have been far worse than we have been told, our administration more bloody and inefficient than the public knows... Our unfortunate troops,... under hard conditions of climate and supply, are policing an immense area, paying dearly every day in lives for the willfully wrong policy of the civil administration in Baghdad." - T.E. Lawrence, Sunday Times of London, August 22, 1920

  Given the recent surfacing of the Downing St. memos do you feel that history may be repeating itself?
  

• Ig Thi [Ig Thi has two other interesting questions]: "How does Senator McCain feel about having President Bush announce what our policy is on permanent bases in Iraq. Several people have commented that until he does, and states it repeatedly, the insurgency will not be diffused. Yesterday Larry Diamond author of 'Squandered Victory' made this point on C-Span. Also see Gary Hart's post 'Exit or Empire' on this site, and Jessica Mathews' letter, 'Match Iraq Policy to Reality' in the Sept. 23, 2004 Washingoton Post."