STAGECRAFT, NOT STATECRAFT

Charlie Gibson on ABC News tonight (video link):

And one note: We've learned that General Petraeus has arrived in Washington tonight to prepare for his high-stakes appearance before Congress this week.

So, er, if he can afford to spend a week away from Iraq, and if it was so damn important for Bush and Robert Gates to "look [the] commander in the eye," why couldn't the general have flown to Washington a couple of days earlier so eye contact could be made there, before Bush went to Australia?

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A week to prepare for this dog-and-pony show? Oh, yeah, I'm sure this is going to be a simple, direct recitation of the facts as Petraeus understands them. Um, that was sarcasm.

I keep hearing that this is going to be the start of a debate on the war. It isn't -- it's going to be the end.

Even if the Democrats had the courage to mount more than a weak, ineffectual challenge to Petraeus's recitation of the administration's talking points, the administration surely wants to shape Petraeus's dog-and-pony show in such a way that no one will dare to utter a critical word about him afterward.

I just don't know what we'll get. Will it be ... a wife who leaves the room in tears after some tough questioning? A bit of self-righteous whingeing about persecution? Perhaps some arrogant, contemptuous condescension to civilians? Or maybe just some melodramatic lies provided by Dick Cheney's office?

My guess is something new -- but whatever it is, it will be intended to stir emotion and preclude rational thought. And it'll probably work (it'll definitely work on Congress, alas).

(Cross-posted at Too Sense.)