In the land of the Bushes, things are so bad, they can’t even successfully launch a trial balloon.

The long anticipated Petraeus report was supposed to provide Congress and the public the definitive assessment of the Iraq war. For months, the president has been dropping Petraeus’s name as if to say, “be patient, whatever your views, and Petraeus will make it all better.”

Just wait for Petraeus, Bush pleaded and an increasingly dubious Congress and public had no choice but to wait for the general’s mid September return from Iraq and his presumably no holds barred report on where we are and where we should go.

But then, a few weeks ago, we learned it wouldn’t exactly be a Petraeus report. Call it the Petraeus-Crocker Report instead because we would also be the grateful recipients of Ambassador Ryan Crocker’s wisdom and he, after all, would be in a better position to assess the political scene than the general so busy with military matters.

That little alteration didn’t cause alarm so the administration figured it could do a bit more fudging. It wouldn’t exactly be a Petraeus-Crocker report either, said the administration but the pair would be contributing to an administration report. And, by the way, they wouldn’t be testifying in public, the secretaries of state and defense would do that as they are better equipped to interpret the thoughts of the general and the ambassador.

That was too much. Congessional leaders of both parties reminded the administration legislation passed by Congress last May and signed by the president requires Petraeus’s presence and the trial balloon emitted one last hiss and went kerplunk.

As House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel noted, the public is long past the time when it was willing to listen to the people who told us “the mission was accomplished and the insurgency was in its last throes.”