Morning Show Wrap, by ABC News Political Unit

ByABC News
September 20, 2004, 8:32 AM

N E W Y O R K, September 17, 2004 &#151;<br> -- A product of Noted Now and The Note

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BIDEN REVISITS PRO-IRAQ WAR VOTE:

Asked by Don Imus if he would still vote to authorize the use of force against Iraq knowing everything he knows today, Sen. Joe Biden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said:

"If I had known how incompetent they would be," Biden said, "I would never have given this man the authority, I would never have given this man the authority."

Biden, who has informally advised Sen. John Kerry on foreign policy and who has been mentioned as a possible Secretary of State in a potential Kerry administration, was then asked by Imus: Why won't Kerry come out and say that?

Biden did not directly answer Imus' question about why Kerry won't revisit his pro-war vote, saying simply: "The problem here is this is so much damn bigger than Kerry and so much bigger than Bush."

Just as he did on Wednesday following his interview with Kerry, Imus said Kerry's comments on his show about Iraq didn't "make any sense" and that they left him "beating my head." Imus was referring to Kerry criticizing Bush for going to war under the circumstances that existed while standing by his pro-war vote even knowing what he knows now about the lack of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Later in the interview, Biden told Imus: "I'm not disagreeing with you, Don," when Imus said that if Kerry has a plan for Iraq, it isn't getting through.

Biden said, however, that he thought Kerry would win because "events are in the saddle." Biden also said he would be "dumbfounded" if Kerry, once elected, didn't pursue policies in Iraq similar to his own.

TIM RUSSERT ON NBC:

NBC's Tim Russert told Katie Couric that two weeks ago, the Kerry campaign had "no interest and no plans to bring up Iraq" but now "events are such" that the Kerry campaign is "vesting much of its future on the outcome of the war in Iraq.

Russert said today's release of a report that will conclude Iraq lacked weapons of mass destruction is "just going to reinforce what we have known –