The books are cooked, and Petraeus is going to be looking bad once this week is through. He’ll attempt to babble through his inquisitor’s time in the next two days, but it will only get tougher tomorrow. I watched a good chunk of the hearing today, and what stood out more than anything, was the Republican members either using their time to talk about how Islamofascism is the enemy in Iraq, how MoveOn.org clowned on their Petraeus love-fest (considered below the belt, and of course, their first concern is the reputation of the general…with that in mind, has anyone ever heard of a selfish Republican?), and/or their finest memory of when they met the general in Iraq, what they ate that day, how many neat-o military things they saw, the number of t-shirts they brought back with them, etc. Rep. Lantos steals the show in my opinion, if you only watch one clip, make sure it’s this first one!
Chairman Tom Lantos of the Foreign Affairs Committee gives opening remarks:
John Rove:When did it become patrioticly incorrect to speak the truth?
General Petraeus is a lying sack of excrement; Moveon.org has the facts here, http://pol.moveon.org/petraeus.html. Right wing pundits don’t even seem to care that he is lying but they seem to spend a lot of time whining that someone had to nerve to question their latest hero. In a time of war, especially when that war is going badly, the truth should be more important than the image of a general who is obviously not getting the job done.
Petraeus Stands By Disputed 2004 Op-Ed (I remember reading this, and in hindsight, it was a crock of shit and he knows it. Just like his stats and most of what else he has to say about the fact that he’s a whore for a draft-dodging rich kid whose used up people like him since the day he took office.)
Reps. Jan Schakowsky and Lloyd Doggett discussed the White House’s reporting this morning on the House floor:
Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) didn’t have much success in getting Gen. Petraeus to go into more detail about how he’s derived his statistics for civilian casualties and sectarian attacks.