It's not just that the White House will write the "Petraeus report," it would like to make sure Petraeus and Crocker don't talk about it in public, according to the Washington Post. State and Defense will deliver the report. Any discussions with General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker will take place in a "private Congressional briefing" if the administration once again gets its way.
So far the administration is denying that it will take a hard line, but the effort to keep Petraeus under wraps is seen as "an indication of the rising anxiety on all sides in the remaining few weeks before the presentation of what is widely considered a make-or-break assessment of Bush's war strategy, and one that will come amid rising calls for a drawdown of U.S. forces from Iraq."
White House officials suggested to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee last week that Petraeus and Crocker would brief lawmakers in a closed session before the release of the report, congressional aides said. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates would provide the only public testimony.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) told the White House that Bush's presentation plan was unacceptable. An aide to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) said that "we are in talks with the administration and . . . Senator Levin wants an open hearing" with Petraeus.
Republican John Warner, for one, seems to find the White House's proposal to coopt and deliver the report unacceptable. He has taken off -- with Senator Levin -- to Iraq. They want to see for themselves what's going on. Looks as though they're flying right into a very violent, irreconcilable situation in Iraq only to return home to another confrontation with a stubborn, desperate Bush administration.
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