Obviously this so-called GAO report commissioned by congressional democrats was designed to stem the rise in expectations about General Patreaus’s report. The fact that it was leaked tells the story of it’s intent.

“Iraq has failed to meet all but three of 18 congressionally mandated benchmarks for political and military progress, according to a draft of a Government Accountability Office report. The document questions whether some aspects of a more positive assessment by the White House last month adequately reflected the range of views the GAO found within the administration.

The strikingly negative GAO draft, which will be delivered to Congress in final form on Tuesday, comes as the White House prepares to deliver its own new benchmark report in the second week of September, along with congressional testimony from Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker. They are expected to describe significant security improvements and offer at least some promise for political reconciliation in Iraq.”

We expected this. The “standard” for benchmarks the GAO used were set by congressional democrats, which to them anything short of building Disney Land in Baghdad would be considered failure. Now you know that they must be scared about what General Patraeus and Amb. Crocker - who are actually on the ground and not sitting in Washington pushing pencils and making powerpoints - are going to report. The whole intent of this report is to again, like they’ve been doing since April, to discredit the Patraeus/Crocker report. There was no reason to waste taxpayer dollars on this mudpuddle of a report unless they in fact are simply not going to believe the General and call him outright - a liar. Which is exactly what they are doing by running all this interference. So much for supporting the troops, eh?

Nevertheless, get ready next week to have the usual suspects running to the microphones screaming “Retreat!, Retreat!”.