Jack Reed recently visited Iraq and spoke to Petraeus among others. Remember Reed is an old West Pointer himself and served in the military. So he has an affinity with Petraeus in that regard. He is what Reed had to say upon his return.

Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) said his impression from a conversation with General David Petraeus was that the leader of U.S. troops in Iraq "seemed very eager to come forward as quickly as possible with a new direction and policy."

Reed, the co-sponsor of legislation that would require President Bush to withdraw combat troops from Iraq by April of next year, recently made his tenth trip to Iraq and spoke with Petraeus, who is slated to report to Congress in September on the progress of the war.

The senator said, in an interview with C-SPAN's "Newsmakers" show that is expected to air Sunday, that he was surprised that Petraeus went out of his way to say that he might have something to say in August and not wait until September.

Also last week on the Charlie Rose Show Reed gave the reasons Petraeus may report early:

• Petraeus may have assembled enough information and enough analysis before the 9-15 reporting deadline

• Petraeus understands that come next April it will become very difficult to maintain the current force structure in Iraq

• Petraeus is also considering the need for troops worldwide which is being hampered by Iraq

• Petraeus realizes the political pressure from the American public

From listening to Reed on the Charlie Rose Show he felt pretty certain the report would come early although he did not know if it would come two weeks early or a month early. He said it was up to Petraeus when he has all the info he needed - but ASAP in any case.

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Of note on the Levin Reed vote is that ALL the Dems voted in unison which is a good sign. We also got more Repub votes that any previous bills yielded.

So last night I took a quick look at the numbers after the Senate vote of 52-47. 52 leaves us (well those of us who are working toward September) 8 to go for 60 which would force a Bush veto. 15 to go for a VPM.

Well if you add Reid's 'no' vote and Johnson's did not vote we would be at 54-46 with only 6 to go for 60.

Now if we could come up with a bipartisan bill and pull in for starters Voinovich, Warner, Lugar, and Coleman (who has voted with us before) then we are at 58 with only two to go.

Now the remaining Repubs who have broken with Bush back the ISG bill. They are:

• Sen Domenici
  
• Sen Alexander, Lamar
  
• Sen Bennett, Robert F.
  
• Sen Gregg, Judd
  
• Sen Sununu, John

Now once we are at 60 lets say we could get all 5 of the ISG guys above. That would put us at 63 with only 4 to go for 67.

There are certainly more than 4 more who are going to break with Bush. If we can get all of the above to vote on a bipartisan bill the the additional 4+ will come along for the ride and we will be at 67+.

So I have my list of who I am calling/faxing today and all through August.

The numbers are there in the people who have already broke with Bush. It's just a matter of pulling them more to our side as I have been saying here and at dkos. Once we have then the other 4+ will be there.

As for the House - Lamar Alexander mentioned on Face The Nation that there are 50 moderates evenly split that are now supporting the ISG. So that is 25 Repubs. We need 59. If we can get the 25 to come our way in, again, a bipartisan bill then another 34 out of a remaining universe if 176 Repubs is not hard to imagine happening especially with 25 of their own signing on and the Senate being at 67 already.

I have said all along that this is a process of slow steady work and along with ever growing public distaste for Iraq it will all work in our favor. Here we are in July, not September, and there is already light at the end of the tunnel.

Now given that Petraeus  may report early and that he is very aware of:

• that come next April it will become very difficult to maintain the current force structure in Iraq
  
• the need for troops worldwide which is being hampered by Iraq
  
• the political pressure from the American public

I and others are very hopeful that things will go well on the VPM front. And we have been working to make calls and donate money for targeted ads that have been and will be aired throughout the rest of the summer. We want this to work. We believe it can work. And there are early signs it is working.