Do You Trust These People, Sen. Wyden?

It was just over three weeks ago that I asked Sen. Ron Wyden if he trusted the administration and he replied that he believed in the “Trust but Verify” philosophy Ronald Reagan cadged from the Russians (doveryai no proveryai).

That was the day before news started coming out that the Petraeus report was going to be waterboarded by the White House to gasp out the approved story on “progress” in Iraq. Wyden pinned a lot of his hopes on the Petraeus report during his discussion at his Town Hall on Iraq in Portland, saying that he thought it might influence Republican lawmakers (I don’t know whether he thought the Democrats in Congress who support the Iraq war would be affected).

So now comes the word from Rassmussen that only 39% of American voters believe that the report will honestly and accurately reflect Petraeus’s true assessment of the situation in Iraq. Nearly as many (35%) say that it won’t. 26% aren’t sure.

I’ll be interested in seeing how long the senator waits and what methodology he uses to verify his trust in the general’s report.