Snow: Bush will let House members argue at will

Snow: Bush will let House members argue at will
'But he's not going to be so easy-going with a nuclear Iran'

His spokesman says President George Bush will allow members of the U.S. House to argue at will, but he's not going to be so easy-going with a nuclear Iran.

Les Kinsolving, WND's correspondent at the White House, asked Bush spokesman Tony Snow whether the president would support Mississippi Congressman Chip Pickering, a Republican.

Pickering was demanding an apology from New York Congressman Charles Rangel, who was discussing federal money allocations among the states, and asked, "who the hell wants to live in Mississippi?"

"The New York Times quotes Congressman Charles Rangel – the potential chairman of House Ways and Means – as saying, 'Mississippi gets more than their fair share back in federal money, but who the hell wants to live in Mississippi?' Question: Does the president of all the United States agree with Mississippi's Republican Congressman Pickering, that Rangel should apologize, or will the president refuse to support Pickering?" Kinsolving asked.

"The president will allow members of the House to conduct their own disagreements," Snow confirmed.

But when asked a question posed by Kinsolving for WND columnist Jerome Corsi whether the president's selection of Robert Gates at the nation's new secretary of defense means he's willing to accept a nuclear Iran, the answer was definite.

"No. absolutely not," Snow said.

On the first issue, Pickering said he hoped Rangel's comments" are not the kind of insults, slander, and defamation that Mississippians will come to expect from the Democratic leadership in Washington, D.C."

Rangel responded to the controversy with a statement that he certainly didn't mean to offend anyone.

On the second issue, Iran President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad has continued to express a determination to develop and build nuclear weapons, even in the face of opposition from the United States, the United Nations and his neighbors.

Israel's newly-appointed Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh recently told the Jerusalem Post that international sanctions against Iran couldn't guarantee it would give up efforts to acquire nuclear capabilities.

That means, he said, Israel must be prepared to prevent a nuclear conflict with Iran "at all costs."

"I am not advocating an Israeli pre-emptive military action against Iran, and I am aware of all of its possible repercussions. I consider it a last resort. But even the last resort is sometimes the only resort," he told the newspaper.