Dems Already Dismissing Petreaus Report

By Rick Moran

As a political party, the Democrats sure make lousy psychics.

You may recall Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's famous utterance that the surge was a "failure" even before half the additional troops earmarked for Iraq had arrived. Now the Democrats have turned their powers of prognositication on the report to be delivered by General Petraus next week before Congress and are already dismissing it as unreliable despite the fact they haven't heard or seen it:

Congressional Democrats are trying to undermine U.S. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus' credibility before he delivers a report on the Iraq war next week, saying the general is a mouthpiece for President Bush and his findings can't be trusted.

"The Bush report?" Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin said when asked about the upcoming report from Gen. Petraeus, U.S. commander in Iraq. "We know what is going to be in it. It's clear. I think the president's trip over to Iraq makes it very obvious," the Illinois Democrat said. "I expect the Bush report to say, 'The surge is working. Let's have more of the same.' "

To accuse General Petreaus of lacking in credibility is unbelievable considering that the Iraq commander was confirmed by the Senate unanimously. Are Senate Democrats now saying that Petreaus is untrustworthy to hold the command they so recently bestowed upon him? It would seem so.

Beyond that, one needs to ask the Democrats why is they are already downplaying the significance of the report. Is it because it will now be harder to surrender to the terrorists and slink out of Iraq due to some encouraging results from operations connected with the surge?

Evidently, yes:

With a mixed picture emerging about progress in Iraq, Senate Democratic leaders are showing a new openness to compromise as they try to attract Republican support for forcing at least modest troop withdrawals in the coming months.

After short-circuiting consideration of votes on some bipartisan proposals on Iraq before the August break, senior Democrats now say they are willing to rethink their push to establish a withdrawal deadline of next spring if doing so will attract the 60 Senate votes needed to prevail.

Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, said, “If we have to make the spring part a goal, rather than something that is binding, and if that is able to produce some additional votes to get us over the filibuster, my own inclination would be to consider that.”

Shameless political prostitution! They were the ones who demanded Petreaus appear before them and update them on progress or lack thereof in Iraq. Now, not only are they dismissing the report that they asked for before they see it, they are planning on ignoring it anyway and going ahead with their plans for a bug out.

At the very least, Petreaus and the American military have done well enough to earn more time to affect the changes that are necessary in order for Iraqis to reconcile. For the Democrats to deny them that opportunity shows they are more interested in pinning a defeat on the President and Republicans than they are in the long term stability of Iraq.

I'll say it again: Shameless!