And in more ways than one.

After their Hill testimony Gen. Petraeus and Amb. Crocker will head a couple blocks over to Fox News where they'll give an exclusive one hour sit-down to Brit Hume.

We knew this was an essentially political song and dance. So that's beyond confirmation. What this does tell us however is that the White House, Petraeus and Crocker aren't even interested in keeping up the pretense that this isn't what's going on.

It's a political roll-out, orchestrated by Ed Gillespie out of the White House, with facts so feeble that can't withstand scrutiny tougher than Fox News.

Petraeus has licensed himself out to the right-wing noise machine.

By all accounts he's one of the most knowledgeable people on counter-insurgency in the US military. But he's reduced himself to being no more than another White House press operative, with all that entails for his credibility.