Lieberman Leads Defense of McCain’s ‘Not Too Important’ Remark

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) took the lead in defending John McCain from attacks by Democrats over the Republican presidential candidate’s remarks this morning about Iraq.

McCain, when asked on NBC if he had an estimate for when U.S. troops come home, said: “No, but that’s not too important. What’s important is the casualties in Iraq. Americans are in South Korea. Americans are in Japan. American troops are in Germany. That’s all fine. American casualties and the ability to withdraw.”

Lieberman, headlining a McCain campaign conference call, railed against Democratic attacks on McCain, saying that they’re distortions.

“I view the attacks on Sen. McCain this morning as another partisan attempt to distort John McCain’s words, to distract the American people from the fact that John McCain has been both courageous and right about the surge in Iraq, and Barack Obama has, unfortunately, been consistently wrong,” Lieberman said.

Lieberman went on for several more minutes. Read the transcript of his remarks after the jump.

And I think this is exactly the kind of partisan, political game that the American people are sick and tired of. It’s, again, obvious, if you read this short paragraph, that Senator McCain is saying what — answering a question about what his estimate is based on the success of the surge about which he has supported, as I will get to a minute, about when American forces are coming home.

And he says he doesn’t have the estimate because he’s expecting it from General Petraeus sometime in July, but the most important thing to him is that, because of the success of the surge, American casualties are down. We have the ability to withdraw. He says clearly we will be able to withdraw and, of course, most important that our troops will come home with honor, which is what they want.

I must say that, of the various parts of this attack on John this morning for these comments, the part that I find really most outrageous is the suggestion that he’s out of touch with the needs of our troops and insensitive to their families.

I mean, the obvious fact is that, more than most any American, Senator McCain knows the sacrifices that our men and women in uniform make and the burden that their families bear. And it really is wrong to suggest otherwise.

And, obviously, he knows that from his own — well, from his father’s service and the impact it had on his family, from his own service and incarceration, from his eight visits to Iraq, in which I’ve been with him on a lot of them, and interacting with our troops there, and, of course, from the fact that his son was deployed to Iraq.

I mean, the fact is that John McCain has always been clear that he wants our troops to succeed in their mission and to come home safely as quickly as possible.

He’s also been clear that the troop withdrawals have got to be based on conditions on the ground and the recommendations of our military commanders in Iraq, rather than on the basis of some artificial timeline invented by politicians here in Washington, because there’s too much at stake for our country in Iraq to have it be decided politically.

And I think the record shows very clearly that, when it comes to Iraq, John McCain has consistently put the national interest before his political self-interest. And, you know, I know people talk about change of the status quo, but the fact is that the status quo in Iraq of American foreign policy, American policy in the war, going back to 2003, was not working.

And McCain had the courage to stand up both to President Bush and Secretary Rumsfeld and tell the truth, that the policy was a failure. And he had the courage to call for the surge, even when it was politically unpopular, because he knew it was the right thing to do.

And the fact is that, once the surge was implemented, it has worked. Security has gone up tremendously in Iraq. Political reconciliation and the strength of the Iraqi political leaders have gone up, and that’s why Matt Lauer could even ask the question in the first place.

So I regret the comments made today, and I hope we can get back to the facts.

Thank you.