David Gergen

But, in numerous examples in the past, the people from the White House have voluntarily gone up and testified under oath to the Congress.

I have to believe that, in fact, this is the opening bid from the White House, and they're still open to compromise.

And it's a deeper mess tonight than it was only 24 hours ago.

But there is this issue that the president and his White House team have long wanted to protect their own people from having to go up to the Hill and testify.

And why don't -- you know, rule No. 1 of damage control, is when you're inside, get to the bottom of it.

Yes. Yes. It's -- well, we do that all the time.

It's a precedent-setting issue.

I think it's pretty clear now he's leaving.

Well, it raises the question of is this incompetence? Or is it just an intent to lie and deceive? And either way, it's a bad charge, Anderson.

When John Sununu came out against him, that was really bad news for the attorney general.

I do think there is an arrogance of power that has been part of their undoing.

The president can now have a good-cop/bad-cop routine with the Maliki government.

There's such a thing now as Washington time, the political timetables in Washington, and Baghdad time.

General Petraeus is on a different time scale. He probably does need more time.

It's unlikely that they can actually get a bill passed, -- Anderson. Even if they get it passed, the president is going to veto it. And they don't have the override votes.

But I will tell you something. I think they are -- in a very odd way, despite all their disarray -- and that sort of goes with being Democrats, I suppose -- they're actually giving a gift to the president.

It's unlikely they will get through it. But, for the first time, there may be a window.

I think that the Democrats, the growling that they're doing against the war, does -- it puts pressure on the White House.

I think that John Edwards essentially held people's coats and let them fight it out, and he does emerge unscathed and -- and a little bit ahead.

But, when you go after a fly with a sledgehammer, you can get the fly, but you often cause a lot of ruckus.

the alliance, you know, it would be cracking. And -- and his closest friend, his -- his strongest ally throughout this war would be moving in a different direction.

That's obviously a big, big development, a big story, both militarily and -- and politically.

It's weird and botched.

It added to the sense that we were headed toward a confrontation and people were looking for ways to spark this.

There are ominous signs that we're stepping up the pressure and that they're stepping up the pressure simultaneously.