April Showers Bring... Rosy Reports?

While we've all been fixated on the country's economic woes, including the 80,000 jobs we shed last month, some may have forgotten that there's still a war going on in Iraq. We're due for a reminder in the new future, as a report on conditions in that country has already been released to some key lawmakers in advance of General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker appearing to testify before Congress. Though you and I don't get to see the early version, some in Congress are already proclaiming that it's putting a bit too much of a shine on the Mess-O-Potamia.

Senior Democratic senators challenged a new intelligence report's assessment of President Bush's "surge" strategy Friday, saying the troop increase in Iraq has failed to achieve its strategic goals.

"In my judgment, it's too rosy, but there are parts of it that are not so rosy, and both pieces need to be declassified," Sen. Carl Levin said, pointing in particular to the portion of the report describing Iraq's political progress.

Levin chairs the Armed Services Committee, one of the panels Crocker and Petraeus will testify before next week.

I suppose the politicization of this next round of evaluations from both sides was inevitable. That doesn't make it any more pleasant, though. The war will be a political football as long as it goes on, but nothing much is going to change in terms of strategy until next January. As such, we may as well let the testimony play out and make up our minds for ourselves.