TALK SHOW ROUNDUP
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McCain: Afghan Call Can't Wait
Troops decision dominates, but everybody backs away from 'dithering' Cheney
By Polly Davis Doig
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Posted Oct 25, 09 11:56 AM CDT
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(Newser)
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The pace of President Obama's decision on troop levels in Afghanistan again dominated the Sunday dial. John McCain told Face the Nation that Obama should move regardless of the Nov. 7 runoff's outcome: "Every day we delay will be a delay in this strategy succeeding.” Orrin Hatch went so far as to speculate Obama was waiting until after hotly contested gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia. Dem Russ Feingold, however, signaled he was ready to oppose more troops: “There will be resistance to this if necessary."
- Democrats again slapped at Dick Cheney's assertion that President Obama was "dithering," as Republicans distanced themselves. "I wouldn't use that language," McCain said, while Carl Levin told Fox News Sunday that the former veep had no "credibility' and his comments were "out of bounds." Ohio's Sherrod Brown, meanwhile, dismissed Cheney on CNN as "the mastermind of the most failed decade of foreign policy in this country."
- Chuck Schumer told Meet the Press that Democrats were close to 60 votes on health care, and that Harry Reid was "leaning toward" letting states opt out of the public option. Claire McCaskill, meanwhile, worried that Dems would lose Olympia Snowe over including a public option.
- Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on This Week called Virginia's hard-fought gubernatorial election, in which Republican Bob McConnell has a solid lead, a referendum on the Democratic majority in Congress.