John Kerry was on Larry King Live tonight. The interview, as I expected ran the gamut of some of today’s news on the Iraq War and of course included the obligatory speculation about the ‘08 presidential race. Kerry was on the money about Iraq and needless to say much of what he has said in the past, including Iraq being a Civil War, is all very prevelant in the news today.

King brought up that Kerry had met with the Iraq Study Group, on Monday and asked Kerry if he had any idea what they would say — the interview was a few short hours before the N.Y. Times broke their story revealing that the Iraq Panel will recommend “pullback of combat troops.” No doubt Kerry had an indication that the Iraq Panel would recommend “a gradual pullback” of the troops, somewhat similar to his proposal months ago, and in the interview he also stressed the need for a real diplomatic summit, “bringing all of the warring parties together, bringing the permanent five of the United Nations together, bringing the Arab League, the neighbors of the region and all coming together at a major conference at which the real stakes with respect to Iraq are put on the table.”

“That kind of diplomacy has been absent here.”

The transcript is as follows:

KING: Good evening.

We begin with the Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, his party’s presidential candidate in 2004.

He joins us from Boston.

We want to get into news right at the top of things.

The president and the prime minister of Iraq were supposed to meet today in Jordan. Senator, they did not. It’s postponed until tomorrow.

What do you make of that? Was that a snub today?

KERRY: Well, it’s hard to interpret. But I think what’s more important is really what happens tomorrow and what happens in the next days.

Obviously, the memorandum that was released today in the “New York Times” is devastating in the candor that it expressed about the lack of confidence in the prime minister. And I think what’s critical is that the president needs to express a change of policy.

I hope the Baker Commission is going to come out with very strong language that expresses the need to begin the process of disengaging from Iraq, of shifting responsibility to the Iraqis and beginning to move on.

We cannot continue the way we are.

KING: What do you make of the Iraqi prime minister?

You met him.

KERRY: I think that all of the politicians in Iraq are using the American presence as an excuse, Larry, not to take on the responsibility they need to, which is why I have said for three years now that this is the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time and particularly within the last year that we need to be clearer about a date by which they will assume the responsibility.

In the absence of a date, they have an excuse to simply continue to dawdle and procrastinate as long as they want. I don’t think one young American soldier ought to be killed because Iraqi politicians are unwilling to compromise in order to assume responsibility for their own country.

KING: Are they dying in vain?

KERRY: No. I think that any soldier — and I said this including during the time of Vietnam — any soldier who makes the choice of serving their country and puts the uniform on and goes for whatever the commander-in-chief asks them to do is a patriot and is serving their country in the highest way possible.

And we honor that sacrifice best by giving those soldiers the kind of policy that is successful.

The current policy is not succeeding. The current policy is needlessly putting many of them, in my judgment, at risk in ways that they don’t have to be and it is helping the Iraqis to avoid the responsibility for their own country.

So what we owe those young men and women who are the most capable volunteer force we’ve ever had in our lifetimes, what we owe them is a policy that, in fact, gets success. And the only way to do that is not through a military solution, it’s through a political solution, which will come through diplomacy.

KING: Colin Powell says that this conflict is a civil war. NBC calls it a civil war. The “New York Times” calls it a civil war.

Do you?

KERRY: Yes. And I have for some time. It is a civil war.

KING: Is it semantics or is that important?

KERRY: It’s important. Yesterday or the day before, I think it was in Latvia or NATO, the president said that it is al Qaeda who is responsible for the violence that’s taking place. That is just not correct. Even — even Prime Minister Maliki said the other day the reason the violence is taking place is because of the politicians. And the politicians are breeding that violence by fighting each other rather than settling their differences.

This is Shia on Sunni, Sunni on Shia. And long ago, Secretary Rumsfeld said we’re not going to leave our troops in the middle of a civil war.

They are in that civil war. And the only way to resolve it is by bringing all of the warring parties together, bringing the permanent five of the United Nations together, bringing the Arab League, the neighbors of the region and all coming together at a major conference at which the real stakes with respect to Iraq are put on the table.

That kind of diplomacy has been absent here.

And let me just also add, Larry, it’s essential that we begin to engage with both Syria and Iran and that we put the Middle East peace process itself factor, back into the discussion. By pushing forward on the Middle East peace process — and we now have a unique new opportunity — we could really change the dynamics of the Middle East.

KING: You met with the Iraq Study Group, I believe, on Monday.

Any inclination as to what they’re going to say?

KERRY: I think it’s important for them to say what they’re going to say and I don’t want to violate that.

But I will tell you point blank, I said to them what I have been saying publicly consistently, which is that the American presence, according to our own generals and to our best experts, is making the situation worse.

Our own intelligence community is telling us that we are adding to terrorists, that we are making terrorism worse. If that’s true, then you have to find the strategy to rapidly reduce that presence and stop that from happening.

You also, if our own generals are telling us, that is, that there’s no military solution, have to ask the question, then what are all the troops doing there? If there’s no military solution, where is the energy and effort being put in to find the political solution and the diplomatic solution?

I’m glad the president is there. I hope tomorrow is the beginning of that significant effort. But it’s going to take a lot more one day and we all need to come together. This is not a Democrat thing. This is not a Republican. This is about our country. It’s about our best interests. It’s about our security. It’s about a global conflict that has to find all of us coming together in a united way to try to resolve it.

KING: Do you see any light at the end of the tunnel?

KERRY: Only if we engage in the diplomacy that’s necessary. You know, for — I mean, I think — I think Ambassador Khalilzad and General Casey said last May that the Iraqi government has six months to pull this together. We’re now at that six month mark and they haven’t done it.

So, you can’t keep postponing the next six months confrontation. I believe you have to set a date, whether it’s a year from now or a year-and-a-half, you have to have some clarity about when that transformation is going to take place, because it’s the only way to get their politicians to be serious about resolving the conflict and it’s the only way to get the stakeholders in the region to also be serious, to understand we are not going to be there forever, at least not in the way that we are today.

We obviously have regional interests. None of us have suggested just abandoning it. What we’re doing is trying to find a different path to stability, a different path to success and a different path to fighting the real war on terror, which is in Afghanistan and 65 other countries.

KING: We’ll be right back with Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts.

When we come back, the joke that fell flat and how it might affect the political future of Senator Kerry.

And, as we go to break, a reminder of how some people reacted to it at the time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KERRY: I apologize to no one for my criticism of the president and of his broken policy.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Americans are very forgiving. We should apologize — if Senator Kerry apologizes, I think we could move on.

SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: What Senator Kerry said was inappropriate and I believe we can’t let it divert us from looking at the issues that are at stake.

GEORGE BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The members of the United States military are plenty smart and they are plenty brave and the senator from Massachusetts owes them an apology.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: We’re back with Senator John Kerry.

Senator, Quinnipiac University took a thermometer reading about people rating their feelings about 20 U.S. leaders, a scale of zero to 100. A poll was done two weeks after the November elections. Rudy Giuliani won. Barack Obama was next. And you were last.

How do you react?

KERRY: Oh, I would have voted myself last when it was taken.

Look, you know, I left out a word, one word in a joke that was intended to call the administration and the president to account for not doing their homework.

Obviously, I misspoke. The White House knew I never intended to say anything negative about the troops. You know, I’m a combat veteran. I simply wouldn’t do that.

I know we have the smartest, most capable volunteer army we’ve ever had. I respect them. I love them for what they’re doing and their sacrifices. I just wouldn’t do that. And the administration knew that and they, nevertheless, chose to exploit it. It’s politics. I think it’s time to move on.

What’s really important is, you know, I botched a joke. They botched the war. And we have young men and women today who are at risk because our policy in Iraq is wrong. And that’s what really matters, I think, to the people of our country.

We’ve had an election. We won, incidentally. And I think now we have an opportunity to move the country in a new direction and that’s important.

KING: Did you — let me — I want to show it one more time — and I promise this is the last time — because I have a question directly relating to it.

Let’s see a clip of that moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KERRY: We’re here to talk about education, but I want to say something before that. You know, education — if you make the most of it and you study hard and you do your homework and you make and effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Senator, did you — two things.

Did you realize quickly that it didn’t work?

KERRY: I had a sense that it didn’t, yes. But I didn’t know, you know?

I really was thinking more about the purpose that we were there.

But what’s important, Larry, is, look, I left out one word, the word “us.” They get “us” stuck in Iraq. You know, I’ve had a long career in fighting hard on a lot of issues. And I care enormously about our troops…

KING: Well, you know…

KERRY: You know, I’ve spent years working to help veterans, years working to help our soldiers, years most recently — and I helped make certain that the widows of soldiers aren’t kicked off of our military bases within a matter of months.

I worked hard to be able to get additional pay for mental, you know, additional money for mental health care for soldiers who are coming back who have post-stress syndrome, and yet we have waiting lines.

So I really think there’s something more important to move to. This is getting silly and the country needs to…

KING: I know, but on what…

KERRY: The country needs to think about, you know, a policy that has young men and women at risk on a daily basis that is not working. And my memory of Vietnam and my memory of service is such that I feel a solemn obligation to do everything in my power to make certain that we get this policy right.

That’s what we have to be talking about. I mean here we have the president at a summit that is in crisis. We have a region in which King Abdullah has said you may have three simultaneous civil wars. The last thing the American people need to dwell on is something that took place before the election.

KING: Any comment on Bill Frist’s announcement today, former — the majority — he’s still the majority leader…

KERRY: No, I think everybody — he’s made his…

KING: … that he’s not going to run?

KERRY: He’s made his personal judgment and I think everybody respects that personal judgment.

KING: What about you? Will you run-again?

KERRY: I have said again and again, that decision is down the road. You know what I want to do right now — and I think this is what the American people want us to do — we just had one of the most important elections in recent memory and the American people voted for change, overwhelmingly, principally for a change of our direction in Iraq, but also for a change of direction in the corruption in Washington, a change in direction on dealing with issues like global climate change, health care, jobs that are going overseas.

These are the issues that really matter to the American people. And I don’t think they care that much about who’s thinking of running for this or that right now. I think they want the Congress to get down and do the people’s business. And that’s what I’m going to focus on over the course of these next weeks more than anything else. We have a great opportunity to lift the country and to change Americans’ view of the Congress itself.

I think that’s a huge obligation and we’ve got to get at it.

KING: Will you?

KERRY: Will I what?

KING: Get at it.

KERRY: You bet I’m going to get at it, in the biggest way possible. I’m going to do everything in my power to do that in the next months and you’ll see how.

KING: Thanks, Senator.

Always good seeing you. I hope next time it’s in person.

KERRY: Great to be with you.

Thank you very much.

KING: Thank you.

Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts.

UPDATE: The video is available here.

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