Petraeus and Crocker's assessments must be pretty bad,

Yesterday the White House let slip that it will be writing the September reports on Iraq, not trusting Petraeus and Crocker.

Today, we find out that they're trying to limit the accompanying testimony, replacing them with Sec Def Gates and Condi Rice.

Senior congressional aides said yesterday that the White House has proposed limiting the much-anticipated appearance on Capitol Hill next month of Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker to a private congressional briefing, suggesting instead that the Bush administration's progress report on the Iraq war should be delivered to Congress by the secretaries of state and defense.....

White House officials suggested to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee last week that Petraeus and Crocker would brief lawmakers in a closed session before the release of the report, congressional aides said. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates would provide the only public testimony.....

U.S. military and diplomatic officials in Baghdad appeared puzzled yesterday when told that the White House had indicated that the two may not be appearing in public.

The logical conclusion is that the early assessments trickling back to Washington do not meet their political needs (which says alot.)