White House to Lobby Lawmakers on Iraq

[Hissyspit]

Source: Associated Press

White House to lobby lawmakers on Iraq
By ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The White House is pushing hard to buy time for its Iraq strategy, offering Congress unusual access to President Bush's top military and diplomatic advisers.

About 200 lawmakers were invited to the Pentagon for a classified question-and-answer session on Thursday with Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador there. The two men were expected to brief lawmakers via satellite from Baghdad.

Bush's new war adviser, Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, also was to be in the room. Later in the day, Crocker was scheduled to testify publicly before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also by video link.

The officials were expected to make the case that some progress has been made in Iraq since Bush ordered the deployment of some 30,000 extra troops earlier this year. The officials also were expected to argue it is too early to tell whether the strategy is working, and that members of Congress should hold off on demanding change until at least September.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070719/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_iraq

[rodeodance]

1. buying time-spending % on the American credit card--up, right up his alley!

[Demit]

2. I love it—our WAR CZAR "also was to be in the room." Says everything, doesn't it?