"Shameless"

Shameless is how PJ Crowley of the Center for American Progress described the latest White House gambit regarding the report on the status of the war effort. Many members of Congress deferred to General David Petraeus. It turns out that they actually deferred to George W. Bush. The White House is writing General Petraeus' report for him. So, waiting for what "General Petraeus will say," as many Republicans and too many Democrats were willing to do was a colossal mistake.

There are several lessons from this:

--Don't trust Bush.
--Especially don't trust him with blank checks.
--Don't expect independence of any reports from administration.
--Stop demurring when it comes to asserting the rights of citizens to have an honest picture of what's happening.

It's long past time that Congress assert its rightful oversight. And if Bush continues to thumb its nose at Congress, there are legal remedies. Meanwhile, we can only hope that this failure in "truthiness" has finally taught Congress to not believe a thing uttered by the White House.