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by Mike Allen, Jim Vandehei and John Harris
The Politico
WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --
West Wing
10:35 A.M. EST
Q It's an interesting time, so we really are eager to talk to you about especially a lot of the stuff that's happening on Capitol Hill right now. But I'd love -- I mean, I'd love your overall assessment from -- of what's been happening on the Hill, like Pelosi's leadership and how Democrats have sort of handled their end of negotiating with you guys, whether it's Iraq, the economy, spending -- dealing with that right now. What is your assessment of how the Democratic Congress is handling --
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, I don't think they're doing all that well. That probably wouldn't surprise anybody. I just think -- I think if you look at the track record on what they've been able to move, on important items that are sort of basic need-to-do-every-year kinds of things, like the appropriations process, I think the record is pretty dismal. We've got one appropriations bill so far that we've got signed; we've still got 11 pending. And here we are at the end of the calendar year, well into the new fiscal year, and I think -- I look at that and see that as an indication in terms of their capacity to function as not a good indicator.
I think the refusal to move the war supplemental to support the troops until after the first of the year is a mistake. I say that in part as a former Secretary of Defense. It's a terrible way to run a railroad -- talk about Defense has got some money they can move around and so forth -- just because it's big doesn't mean that's a smart way to operate. It's not. And I'm, frankly, surprised at why, after all of the efforts they've made to try to hook up various provisions on Iraq to the spending bill, they've been unsuccessful.
In the final analysis, the troops shouldn't suffer for tha
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