Matthews To Snow: I Fear Bush Will ‘Bomb The Hell Out Of’ Iran In ‘Extra-Constitutional War’

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/01/11/snow-matthews-iran/

Matthews To Snow: I Fear Bush Will ‘Bomb The Hell Out Of’ Iran In ‘Extra-Constitutional War’

Tonight on MSNBC, Chris Matthews aggressively questioned White House Press Secretary Tony Snow about whether President Bush’s rhetoric last night was a “precursor for a rationale for an attack” on Iran.


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SNOW: Ok, but, let me just do a couple of things here. I think you understand and most Americans understand Iran is the foremost financier of global terror. It’s a problem. But you don’t deal with everything militarily, as you know. The United States exhausted all diplomatic options before going into Iraq, and I think what you’re doing if you’re trying to go down the road of speculation that is just way ahead of events. Right now, we’re working on making Iraq a success. One other thing about Iran, Chris. The Iranian public, most which of is young, is very pro-American. We got a lot of people —

MATTHEWS: Boy, do I agree with you on that. Completely agree with you. My concern is we’re gonna see a ginning up situation whereby we fall in hot pursuit any effort by the Iranians to interfere with Iraq. We take a couple shots at them, they react, then we bomb the hell out of them and hit their nuclear installations without any without any action by Congress. That’s the scenario I fear, an extra-constitutional war is what I’m worried about.

SNOW: Well, you have been watching too many old movies —

MATTHEWS: No, I’ve been watching the war in Iraq, is what I’ve been watching. As long as you say to me before we leave tonight that the president has to get approval from Congress before making war on Iran.

SNOW: Let me put it this way. The president understands you got to have public support for whatever you do. The reason we are talking to the American public about the high takes in Iraq and why it is absolutely vital to succeed is you’ve got to have public support, and the president certainly, whenever he’s taken major actions, he has gone before Congress.