[Shaun @ Tru6]

Some copy and paste fun:

MR. RUSSERT: Senator Graham, what's going to happen Thursday?

SEN. GRAHAM: Well, I hope we have a larger turnout. We're about to democratically elect a parliament. We haven't done that yet. These are people who actually are running for office that will write laws for the Iraqi people. It will be a chance for the Iraqi people to chart their own destiny. That is a huge sea change in the Mideast. I hope it goes well. Speeches by the president have been helpful. They've been long overdue. Senator Lieberman believes there's been a change in the policy for the good. I do, too.

But here's the problem. When you tell people it costs $50 billion is all it's going to cost to rebuild Iraq, as Mr. Wolfowitz did, when you tell people that the insurgency is 1/10th of 1 percent and it still goes on after four years, there's a price to pay for underestimating how hard this is, and I think that's been the president's problem. He has made some policy statements in speeches recognizing problems. And as Senator Lieberman has found, we are doing better. We're cleaning, we're holding and we're building cities that have been reoccupied by the terrorists. And I don't think we're going to have any major troop withdrawals any time soon if we're really serious about protecting this infant democracy.

MR. RUSSERT: You don't think any significant troop withdrawals in 2006?

SEN. GRAHAM: Well, I hope it's not politically motivated. I hope it's based on what's going on on the ground. The Saddam Hussein trial is the best evidence yet of where we're at in Iraq. You've got a dictator standing trial for the crimes against his people. That's a wonderful thing. But the trial is being conducted in an atmosphere that you can't run a country. You can't have the defense attorneys assassinated, the judges attacked, the courtroom shelled. So that shows two things, that we're doing better, the dictator is now facing his crimes, but the security environment in Iraq is so tenuous that there's no way, in my opinion, we can leave any time soon. How can you have a legal system where people in the legal system are getting killed?

MR. RUSSERT: Has the Saddam trial been a negative for the U.S.?

SEN. GRAHAM: I think it's been a very positive experience for the people in Iraq because they can see the benefit of what happened with our involvement. They're getting to chart their own destiny by voting Thursday. And they're getting to bring a guy to trial who's oppressed the people and killed their family members. That's a good thing. But for us to deny the fact that we're a long way from a secure Iraq needs to stop. How can you have a secure Iraq when the defense attorneys and the judges are being killed?