I just thought I'd finish out the work week by asking how quickly you think Democrats will fold like no-talent gamblers after next week's report on Iraq. A war begun on lies, run rough-shod over a compliant Congress whose weak opposition party had contradictory evidence withheld from it before a crucial vote authorizing the use of force against Iraq. A war continued for years, beyond the fulfillment of the original authorization, on more lies and excuses. A war continued even after Democrats were handed control of the Legislature by an American public grown sick and tired of being lied to, manipulated and bled.

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WASHINGTON—Even before Gen. David Petraeus began his account of the “substantial” progress brought about by the troop increase in Iraq, congressional critics of President Bush’s policy had come to the depressing conclusion that the “surge” has done what the administration needed it to do.

It has not won the war. It has not achieved reconciliation at the national level in Iraq. But it has bought more political time in Washington, bringing Bush closer than ever to reaching one of his main objectives: keeping large numbers of troops in Iraq beyond Election Day 2008.

Yet if the testimony of Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker was the central act at Monday’s House hearing, Rep. Ike Skelton, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, signaled within minutes of opening the session the one hope that critics of the war have to force a change in course.

Their goal, Skelton made clear, was to move away from a narrow argument over whether the surge has succeeded or failed—the subject on which Petraeus, in a clear and steady voice, offered a small mountain of statistics—to a broader debate about “the overall security of this nation.”