Today in Washington D. C. - April 7, 2008

This week Army General David Petreaus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker return to testify to Congress about military and political progress in Iraq.
On The Senate Floor: The Senate will resume consideration of H.R. 3221, the vehicle for the housing bill. A substitute amendment containing compromise language worked out by Sens. Dodd and Shelby is the basis for debate. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has filed cloture (scheduled for Tuesday) on the Dodd-Shelby substitute amendment and on the underlying bill.

From Senate & News Sources: Sens. Lindsey Graham (R) and Joe Lieberman (D) have a must-read op-ed on Iraq in The Wall Street Journal emphasizing the security improvements and political reconciliation that the surge has fostered.

• On security improvements: “Al Qaeda in Iraq has been swept from its former strongholds in Anbar province and Baghdad. The liberation of these areas was made possible by the surge, which empowered Iraqi Muslims to reject the Islamist extremists who had previously terrorized them into submission. Any time Muslims take up arms against Osama bin Laden, his agents and sympathizers, the world is a safer place.”
• On the political reconciliation: “In recent months, the Iraqi government, encouraged by our Ambassador in Iraq, Ryan Crocker, has passed benchmark legislation on such politically difficult issues as de-Baathification, amnesty, the budget and provincial elections. After boycotting the last round of elections, Sunnis now stand ready to vote by the millions in the provincial elections this autumn.”
• On reflexive opponents of the surge: “Unable to make the case that the surge has failed, antiwar forces have adopted a new set of talking points, emphasizing the ‘costs’ of our involvement in Iraq, hoping to exploit Americans' current economic anxieties. Today's antiwar politicians have effectively turned John F. Kennedy's inaugural address on its head, urging Americans to refuse to pay any price, or bear any burden, to assure the survival of liberty.”

Unfortunately, Democrats seem determined to deny all these achievements. The AP said Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joe Biden (D-DE) “declared last year's troop buildup in Iraq a failure.” However, The Washington Post today quotes Biden admitting, “The biggest mistake we could make is politicizing this, looking at this in terms of political advantage.” CQ Today notes the litany of Democrat criticisms prepared for Gen. Petraeus which range from denying there has been progress at all, to ignoring important benchmarks being met, to moving the goalposts in complaining that laws passed have yet to be implemented.

Meanwhile, the White House is likely this week to submit the Colombia Free Trade Agreement to Congress which begins the countdown clock for consideration and a vote in the House and Senate under fast-track trade negotiating rules. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates have op-eds today explaining the importance of the Colombia agreement from a security, economic, and political perspective. Also, Kenneth Duberstein, former Reagan White House chief of staff, and Thomas McLarty, former Clinton White House chief of staff, have an WSJ op-ed on “the need to restore a bipartisan consensus in favor of free trade” and the Colombia agreement.

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