"Must be something going on in Washington today."
That's what one of the TSA screeners said to me as I walked through the metal detector at LaGuardia Airport.
"Brian Williams just came through," the screener continued. Sure enough, there he was in the back of the packed plane to Washington, D.C.
I'm now at the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington waiting for a press conference. Details of the Iraq Study Group's report have been leaking for the past week, and now the main points are well known.
I'm scheduled to interview James Baker and Lee Hamilton, the study group's co-chairs, in a couple hours. All of us who are interviewing them will gather and wait together, and then one-by-one go in to talk to them.
Tonight, I'll also be discussing the report with Barack Obama, Kay Bailey Hutchison and others.
Critics are already saying the ISG report is essentially proposing the status quo approach in Iraq -- there is no timetable for troop withdrawal; everything depends on the situation on the ground. Every year, the Bush Administration has talked about drawing down the number of troops, and every year, the facts on the ground have made that impossible in their assessment.
The question, of course, is: How much of a say could a group like the ISG really have at this point about what happens in Iraq? Are events so beyond our control, moving so fast, that whatever recommendations this panel could come up with would be beside the point?
Finally, what do you think of the ISG's recommendations?
