Petraeus And The Republican Caucus

PETRAEUS AND THE REPUBLICAN CAUCUS....Yesterday I received an email from Col. Steven Boylan, the Public Affairs Officer for Gen. David Petraeus, highlighting some disagreements with my Saturday post titled "General Petraeus's PR Blitzkrieg." His full email is below the fold, and for the most part it's a straightforward defense of the way Petraeus has handled briefings with the press and analysts. However, Boylan also pointed out a significant error: I quoted Andrea Mitchell saying that Petraeus had met privately with the Republican caucus in March and had promised progress by August. In fact, Mitchell partially retracted her report a few days later:

MITCHELL: He's been telling senators — he had, in fact, a closed-circuit briefing for the senators, Democrats as well as Republicans, and he is telling them that he will report some progress, that he hopes to be able to report some progress by August....But in his closed briefing — they went over to the Pentagon and had that briefing, Democrats as well as Republican senators, and he made it clear to them that he thinks he can report some progress.