The policy is failing; we're in a grave situation; it could very easily descend into catastrophe.

I think it is a repudiation.

I think it's important to note that the president himself, in the last couple of days, while he has been in your neighborhood out there in eastern Europe, and in the Jordan area, has been saying he's not -- he does not intend to enter into…

I think this is just a very bad place. Somebody -- some adult supervision is needed here to put a stop to this hemorrhaging, and see if you can't bring this together, and try to find a way out that does not -- is not a catastrophe.

I think it's going to be received by a lot of people as too middle of the road, not a clear way out on the military side.

It was a huge embarrassment.

It seems to me almost impossible now for the president to come out of a meeting with Mr. Maliki in the next few hours and say with a straight face, we're now planning to do these three things to help this government, when the government…

Of course we believe in withdrawal. There's no timetable here. And we'll do it when the mission is completed.

They could not put a timetable in because they knew the president had already declared publicly and repeatedly that he would not accept a timetable.

There's not much you can do. ... the second terms are always worse than first terms. And boy, is George W. Bush proving that one.

Where he does retain power is not as a domestic president, but as an international commander in chief.