Having Seized Power
ByWe learned that General Petraeus’ assessment of the situation in Iraq will be written by the White House. Now we learn that the Bush White House doesn’t want the General in front of America:
WaPo: “Senior congressional aides said yesterday that the White House has proposed limiting the much-anticipated appearance on Capitol Hill next month of Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker to a private congressional briefing, suggesting instead that the Bush administration’s progress report on the Iraq war should be delivered to Congress by the secretaries of state and defense.”
To be clear – The White House would rather have Condoleeza Rice and Robert Gates tell Congress about Petraeus’ report, which they wrote, in order to spare General Petraeus any inconsistencies about the lies that the Bush administration wants to tell. An amazing farce, really. Will any of the most trusted names in news explain who’s behind Petraeus’ assessment when he reads the Bush propaganda file out loud next month?
Et tu, Heath Shuler? When can we expect to hear you shout this information from the mountaintop as the latest example of why the administration can’t be trusted to conduct or to end this war? When?
15 Comments
August 16th, 2007 at 10:26 am
According to WaPo it’s even worse than that.
So before the White House version of the report is released, Petraeus & Crocker will have a closed session with Congress. Congress won’t have the report in hand and thus won’t even be able to ask him if he agrees with its statements.
It sounds to me like Petraeus will be back in an undisclosed location by the time we get the happy upbeat assessment foisted upon us by Rice & Gates. Good thing we waited until September.
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August 16th, 2007 at 11:52 am
Not even a photo of the General holding a copy of that day’s WaPo under his chin as proof he’s alive?
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August 16th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
Screwy,
you got so excited that you forgot to finish reading the story:
“they said yesterday that they will not shield the commanding general in Iraq and the senior U.S. diplomat there from public congressional testimony required by the war-funding legislation President Bush signed in May. “The administration plans to follow the requirements of the legislation,” National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said in response to questions yesterday.”
I’d hate to think that you daily kos’ers were only using quotes out of context to villify anyone needlessly. As a matter of fact the article later goes on to say “Petraeus will be AVAILABLE TO TESTIFY TO THE RESPECTIVE COMMITTEES IN CONGRESS BEFORE THE SUBMISSION OF THE REPORT.”
Why didn’t you quote that part of the story?
This is simply government in action. The Armed Forces are part of the Executive Branch. The report is coming from the Executive Branch. What company, organization, school committee, labor union, or any organized structure whatsoever doesn’t get together and proof the report they are officially submitting. This report has many parallels to the State of the Union, it’s the president’s report to give, and he may include who he likes. Congress is lukcy at all they are being included. The report is simply the administration’s official update to Congress; that’s the reason Congress isn’t sitting in on it, the administration is giving them the final edition.
I see no cover ups since Petraues will be AVAILABLE TO TESTIFY BEFORE THE REPORT. The onus is up to the majority party to summon him before the respective committees.
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August 16th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
Screwy,
I’m a little slow today, my apologies. I realize now the contention is you want to question him on the report, so before is the problem.
I really don’t think it’s the end of the world. Everyone pretty much knows what the report is going to say anyhow, and everyone has had time to come up with many, many questions. I think releasing the report after testimony is the advantage the executive branch has, and that’s just a tough political break.
And he will still testify, they’re not shielding him from testimony. It is still an open process.
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August 16th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
They’re not shielding him? The White House is writing the report. The White House wants him to testify, privately, before the report comes out, so he can’t be questioned on it.
Where, Senator No, did you come across your trust in this administration. They’ve been wrong on so much and have lied about so much. They spin every fact into proof the surge is working, and yet you think the process is somehow open?
I really don’t know how you get from here to there.
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August 16th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
That’s what everyone says until it’s too late to stop the atrocities. And then they say, “I didn’t realize how bad it would be.”
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August 16th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
Okay, everyone who contributes to ScruHoo – show of hands! Who reads Daily Kos?
(You can’t see it, but I’m not raising my hand)
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August 16th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
I’m raising my hand. Uptown Ruler won’t be raising his hand.
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August 16th, 2007 at 1:19 pm
Senator No,
You’re speaking of “political advantages” while we’re speaking about the extension of a failed policy through dishonest measures. We’re talking about dead soldiers on the street of Baghdad, and you’re talking about saving the President’s political skin.
Nothing this administration says about Iraq will be true. They’ve claimed progress at every turn. They’ve lied repeatedly in an effort to extend their agenda. Now it’s a “political advantage”?
Tell that to the woman in the video in the next post. I’m sure she’ll be impressed.
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August 16th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
As much as we appreciate the snark (which is what I’m assuming your use of “daily kos’ers” as an invective was attempting to do), we don’t really care for inductive fallacies such as the assumption that because one of our contributors attended Yearly Kos, everyone around here trembles and starts speaking in tongues whenever anyone mentions the name Markos Moulitsas.
You seem like a good egg, Senator. Careful with the blanket generalizations, ‘k?
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August 16th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
I have glanced Daily Kos front page about three times this year. I think I’ve gone there and recommended a post when someone has asked me to. I mean, a zillion people post there, most of them never getting read at all. If you want to have impact on the world, I recommend state and local blogs. (Like this one. Pimp. Pimp. Pimp.)
Although I did LOVE Markos’ wonderful speech that Screwy posted here. He is conducting himself very well on his recent round of talk shows, I would say. He was very patient, redoing a sieg heil for Colbert last night which was pretty nice of him considering the Colbert people screwed up the first time they tricked him into it.
His cooperation kind of reminded me of when Nancy Pelosi so obligingly told us all about her drug use and Wiccan practices last year when people were equating her with Shuler (gee, I wonder how that turned out???)
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August 16th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
You guys act like you think that report wasn’t already written 6 months ago.
It doesn’t matter who delivers it.
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August 16th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
Aye,
The daily kos was a cheap shot across the bow. Screwy, you may be talking about dead soldiers in Baghdad, but everything in that city is politics, and you know it. If the Iraq war was going swimingly well I have no doubt the General would testify after the report.
I still maintain that the report being written in “secret” is not the end of the world. They have an agenda, and they also have to reconcile facts and figures. As embarassing as it is already, imagine if the prez started giving speeches saying xyz, and then Rice started giving speeches declaring ghx. It would be an even larger black eye. Every report ever given by a company has been finalized, and proof read many times over; this is no exception. This is the administration’s report. They’re going to have it look like they want it to look. Plus there will be Congressional members involved, it’s not entirely private. Al Gore was allowed to submit his global warming testimony less than 24 hours before he testified, and the world went on. Congressional testimony is usually required to be submitted 48 hours before. The report is different than testimony. They more than likely will have his testimony before he even lands back in the U.S.
The general is not being shielded. He is available to testify before the committees. If the committees pass on bringinig him before them, then they have erred. I would hope you have enough faith in majority party to ask the right questions when (hopefully not “if”) they have the general sitting in front of them.
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August 16th, 2007 at 7:18 pm
Well, before November 2006, I’d have been mad at you for insinuating that they might not ask the right questions. But now, I have to say I have no faith at all. None of us can count on either party. We have to keep the pressure on all our elected representatives to do right.
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August 17th, 2007 at 2:46 am
Wow, the contention is what here? That a hired/promoted military VOICE is going to tell the truth enough to satisfy a nation longing for Truth? What? None of you lived through Nam? Get over it already. They lie for a living! It is what they do!
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