petraeus will betray us

from raw story: In their opening statements Monday, the top Republicans on the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees turned their sights toward a liberal group's advertisement in the New York Times today.

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), vying for the party's presidential nomination, said he was "aggravated" by the full-page ad purchased by MoveOn.org, which asks whether Petraeus will "Betray Us" in his testimony Monday.

MoveOn cites reports by The Associated Press, The New York Times, and The Washington Post that indicate the administration's measures of progress are inaccurate and incomplete.

"Most importantly, General Petraeus will not admit what everyone knows: Iraq is mired in an unwinnable religious civil war," MoveOn's ad said .

Hunter accused Democrats of spending the last week "prepping the battlefield" by questioning Petraeus's credibility, and he called it an "outrage" that there were suggestions the general couldn't be trusted.

"He's going to give us the one thing we ask, and that's a candid independent assessment," Hunter said.

Hunter's Republican colleague, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), called the ad "outrageous and deplorable," and she accused MoveOn of coordinating with Democratic lawmakers to undercut the testimony.

Top Democratic Senator Joseph Biden said on NBC that he did not agree with the sentiments of the advertisement, but also disagreed with Petraeus's expected conclusion that the current troop surge in Iraq was working and should be extended, according to Agence France Presse.

"I really respect him, and I think he's dead, flat wrong," Biden said of Petraeus on NBC television.

"The truth of the matter is that ... this administration's policy and the surge are a failure."

update: protesters shout 'war criminal' at petraeus