Sizing Up Petraeus, Democrats Defer, Doubt

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The New York Sun

WASHINGTON — Caught between their base demanding retreat and the testimony of one of America’s most respected generals, David Petraeus, Democrats are straddling the fence between deference and disbelief.

The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Tom Lantos, today captured the balancing act in his opening remarks at the House hearing where General Petraeus gave his assessment of the military surge in Iraq that began its operational phase at the end of June. In remarks that began praising the general and Ambassador Ryan Crocker as two of America’s most “capable public servants,” the California Democrat soon changed gears.

“This is not a knock on you, General Petraeus, or on you, Ambassador Crocker. But the fact remains, gentlemen, that the Administration has sent you here today to convince the members of these two Committees and the Congress that victory is at hand,” Mr. Lantos said. “With all due respect to you, I must say … I don’t buy it.”

Neither did one of the biggest donors to the Democratic party, Moveon.org, which took out a full-page ad today in the New York Times calling General Petraeus “General Betray-us.” The ad became one of the major themes of the nearly six-hour hearing that kicked off General Petraeus’s and Mr. Crocker’s visit to Washington from Baghdad. Indeed, before the general presented the meat of his presentation he said that his words were his own and not, as Democrats had said for the last week, the “Bush report.”

“At the outset, I would like to note that this is my testimony. Although I have briefed my assessment and recommendations to my chain of command, I wrote this testimony myself. It has not been cleared by, nor shared with, anyone in the Pentagon, the White House, or Congress,” General Petraeus said.

Nonetheless, the ranking Republicans on both the House Foreign Affairs and House Armed Services Committees at various points urged their Democratic colleagues to distance themselves from the Moveon.org advertisement. The Democratic leaders, Mr. Lantos and Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri, didn’t budge.

Today the party’s nominee in 2004 who withdrew his bid for the nomination in 2008 to devote his time to ending the war in Iraq, Senator Kerry of Massachusetts, said on CNN that he thought the ad was “over the top.”

When asked for a response today, a spokeswoman for Senator Obama, a Democrat of Illinois who is seeking his party’s presidential nomination, Jen Psaki distanced the candidate from the ad. “Senator Obama’s question is not about General Petraeus’s patriotism. It’s about his logic. There’s no evidence that this surge is producing the political progress needed to resolve the civil war in Iraq, or that it will be accomplished through more of the same.”

Senator Clinton, the New York Democrat who is Mr. Obama’s chief rival for the presidential nomination, didn’t speak to the advertisement head on. A spokesman for her campaign, Blake Zeff charged Republicans with using a diversionary tactic when asked today about the Moveon.org ad. “It is unfortunate that Republican presidential candidates are focused on generating a political sideshow instead of discussing the President’s failed war policy,” Mr. Zeff said. “Senator Clinton is going to keep her focus where it should be, on ending the war.”

The executive director of the Moveon.org political action committee, Eli Pariser, said he stood by the advertisement and challenged Republicans to point out its errors. “We stand by our ad,” he said in a statement. “Every major independent study and many major news organizations cast serious doubt on Petraeus’s claims.”


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