Biden, Webb defend Obama

Martin Kady II Sun May 18, 1:10 PM ET

President Bush may be a lame duck with record low approval ratings, but his comments about appeasement continue to reverberate throughout the political community, sparking fierce debate between surrogates for presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama.

Across the airwaves on Sunday talk shows, Democrats continued to rage about Bush's statement that seemed to compare Obama's willingness to meet with leaders of rogue nations, such as Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, with the appeasement policies that allowed Hitler to overrun Europe in 1939.

And Republicans latched on to the rhetoric, saying Obama should not dignify sponsors of terrorism with a presidential-level meeting.

On the domestic political front, Minority Leader John Boehner told ABC News that he's staying put, that the job of GOP campaign chairman Tom Cole (Okla.) is also safe, and that Republicans are focused on rolling out their alternative energy plans.

But foreign policy, for a change, dominated the talk shows.

"It was so outrageous," said Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joe Biden (D-Del.), on ABC's "This Week," discussing Bush's comments to Israel's Knesset. "This is raw, raw politics demeaning to the president of the United States of America."

Biden pointed out that the Bush administration negotiated directly with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, a "known terrorist," as Biden put it.

Yet Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) reiterated the Republican stance by portraying Obama as naïve.

"He has said he would meet personally and without preconditions," Kyl said on "Fox News Sunday." "That's not what former presidents have done. … What would Sen. Obama be talking to Ahmadinejad about? … It shows weak judgment and naiveté."

Yet two Democratic senators, Jim Webb of Virginia and Chris Dodd of Connecticut, pointed out that previous Republican presidents have met with rogue leaders without giving up the option of military force.

"If President Bush were to use the right historical example, he should be looking at China in the 1970s," Webb said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Biden, who made waves this week by telling a Politico reporter that Bush's comments were "bulls--," said the Bush administration has also been negotiating with North Korea's leadership, and suggested that Bush should fire Defense Secretary Robert Gates as well as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice because they have recommended talks with Iran.

Turning from international diplomacy to the internal reverberations of the Republican Party, House Minority Leader Boehner had to assert Sunday that his leadership position is secure and he's not pushing GOP campaign chairman Cole out the door either, despite recent election setbacks.

Speaking on ABC's "This Week," the Ohio congressman admitted that it has been a tough week for Republicans and there had been plenty of grumbling within the Republican conference after the party lost a previously secure House seat in Mississippi.

But Boehner made it clear there will be no leadership changes any time soon, and Republicans will be more focused rolling out their own energy agenda, which includes more alternative energy, conservation, biofuels incentives and more oil exploration ideas.

"I'm staying," Boehner told ABC host George Stephanopoulos. "My job is to help bring our members together."

Boehner said he talked late last week with Cole, whose job security as chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee is now in question after losing a third straight special election.

"Tom and I had a very good meeting on Friday - frank and constructive and positive," Boehner said. "He's staying."

Boehner was also asked about House Republicans' goof-up in adopting the slogan "Change you deserve," which is the trademark of the antidepressant drug Effexor.

"Listen, I could have used an antidepressant last week," Boehner joked.