Reid Blasts White House Over Petraeus Testimony

[babylonsister]

http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/aug/16/reid_blasts_white_house_over_petraeus_testimony

Reid Blasts White House Over Petraeus Testimony
By Greg Sargent | bio

Harry Reid opens fire on the White House in a new statement, faulting the administration over the report in the Washington Post today saying that the White House is proposing that General Petraeus' September testimony on Iraq be conducted in a private briefing:

"The White House's effort to prevent General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker from testifying openly and candidly before Congress about the situation in Iraq is unacceptable. Not only does it contradict the law President Bush himself signed in May, but it appears to be yet another politically driven attempt to avoid giving Congress and the American people an honest and open assessment of a war we can all see is headed in the wrong direction.

"From the very beginning of this war, the Bush Administration has refused to level with the American people about its flawed policy. It has instead done everything in its power to escape accountability and mislead us about the reality on the ground. The result: an open-ended civil war that has taken nearly 4,000 American soldiers' lives and an Iraqi government that refuses to take responsibility for its own country.

"If the President is going to continue to ask American soldiers to fight in this civil war, ask taxpayers to spend $10 billion each month to fund this war and ask the American people for patience as he conducts this war, then those closest to the situation on the ground must give Congress and the American people a frank and honest account of this war free of White House political spin."

Look, the White House's game plan here seems obvious. The idea seems to be to control the actual "Petraeus report" by, well, writing it, while simultaneously trying to prevent Petraeus' testimony under Congressional questioning from being public, because it's unpredictable and can't be controlled.

Relatedly, is it just me, or have Dem Congressional leaders been less vocal than you'd expect, given that there's an intense public opinion war going on right now in advance of Petraeus' reevaluation of the war? The White House and its allies certainly haven't been quiet about it, aggressively arguing in every conceivable forum that the surge is starting to succeed and that "even war critics" agree with this. One hopes that this Reid effort signals an aggressive Dem effort going forward to link the administration's lack of credibility on Iraq to current White House efforts to control the message we'll be hearing in September -- and hence, to cast doubt on the September report itself.

[napi21]

1. I'm glad Harry spoke up. I question IF things are even going better

in Bagdad, but they sure aren't going well everywhere! The Iraq gov't goes on a month long vacation, hundreds are killed in the northern part of Iraq where VERYsaid all was GREAT, all the opposition to Maliki has either quit or are boycotting, and we are back to playing whack a mole!

I don't have a lot of faith in Petreus, but Shrub was the one who promised everyone would hear from the Gen. on 9/15. This behind closed doors is total BS!

[spanone]

2. KICK