PROGRESS….The LA Times reports today that Petraeus and Crocker aren’t actually going to write the Petraeus/Crocker report. They’ll just have “input” into a report written by staffers at the White House:
The senior administration official said the process had created “uncomfortable positions” for the White House because of debates over what constitutes “satisfactory progress.”
During internal White House discussion of a July interim report, some officials urged the administration to claim progress in policy areas such as legislation to divvy up Iraq’s oil revenue, even though no final agreement had been reached. Others argued that such assertions would be disingenuous.
“There were some in the drafting of the report that said, ‘Well, we can claim progress,’” the administration official said. “There were others who said: ‘Wait a second. Sure we can claim progress, but it’s not credible to . . . just neglect the fact that it’s had no effect on the ground.’”
I guess it’s good news to know that there are at least a few people left in the White House willing to point out that claims of progress are a bad idea if there hasn’t, in fact, been any progress. On the other hand, you just know they can’t hold out against Cheney forever.
