Groundhog day

To be fair, it hasn't been a full month since Douglas Lute was approved as "War Czar" but the nation seems to have forgotten him already. The Carpetbagger Report writes today that

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

Bush’s new war adviser, Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, also was to be in the room. He wasn't. He didn't report on anything, give any analysis or projection or do anything one might consider Czarish, unless that includes relaxing in the Summer Palace somewhere.

It's almost as though Bush has had second thoughts and decided to let the matter drop, hoping we'd forget about it, or maybe Lute is being kept in the background in favor of General Petraeus, whom Bush likes to call "David." The Washington Post reported last Sunday that according to the President, "David" is his

"main man" -- a "smart, capable man who gives me his candid advice." And on Thursday, as the president sought to stave off a revolt among congressional Republicans, he said he wanted "to wait to see what David has to say. I trust David Petraeus, his judgment."

Bush, says The Post, has mentioned Petraeus at least 150 times this year in his speeches, interviews and news conferences, and there is speculation that he is being set up to be the fall guy in the Fall, when the Iraqi puppet government reconvenes and reality becomes harder to hide.

Meanwhile I'm having trouble finding anything about the Czar anywhere - anything at all. Could it be that he will re-emerge from his den as the shadow of Petraeus departs, to declare that there will be six more weeks of surge, or perhaps that Springtime for the president is just around the corner?

cross posted at The Reaction