That hot potato is sure improving!

Yes, indeedy, things looking better all the time over in Iraq. The GAO (that's Government Accountability Office, a group whose services are greatly needed, and who has taken to leaking its reports early to avoid censorship) reports dismal progress on any benchmarks for the Iraqi government and our troops there. Meanwhile, the folks whose feet are on the ground refuse to take responsibility for the Administration's choices going forward, offering a range of (widely differing) opinions from military leaders, rather than trying to agree on a set of recommendations.

White said it suggests that the military commanders want to be able to distance themselves from Iraq strategy by making it clear that whatever course is followed is the president's decision, not what commanders agreed on.

Yeowch! The Bushies are already scrambling to get the grading scale adjusted so that they can tout their incremental progress toward a handful of the goals, somehow missing the point that all of these benchmarks were to be met by September . . .