While discussing Sen. Hillary Clinton's questioning of Gen. David H. Petraeus, Multinational Force-Iraq commanding general, and Ryan Crocker, U.S. ambassador to Iraq, during the April 8 edition of CNN's Situation Room, host Wolf Blitzer asserted that “General Petraeus is a career military officer. Ambassador Crocker is a career diplomat, a foreign service officer. It's not as if they're political appointees by the Bush administration in which they can sort of, you know, roll up their sleeves and really go after them.” In fact, while Crocker is a member of the senior career foreign service and Petraeus is a member of the military, both were nominated for their current positions by President Bush.

Additionally, ambassadors 000-.html">serve in their positions at the pleasure of the president. And, responding to the question, “Is your time up when the next president steps in to position, in the U.S.?” from CNN's Kyra Phillips during an interview aired on the March 19 edition of CNN's Issue #1, Petraeus stated: "[F]olks at this level serve at the pleasure of the -- of the president, of the chain of command above them. And that certainly is -- is true in my case."

From the April 8 edition of CNN's The Situation Room:

CANDY CROWLEY (senior political correspondent): In the short time senators are allotted, Clinton also took exception to the administration's plan to work out that long-term agreement with Iraq about the presence of U.S. troops, without first coming to Congress.

CLINTON [video clip]: Well, Ambassador Crocker, it seems odd, I think, to Americans who are being asked to commit for an indefinite period of time the lives of our young men and women in uniform -- the civilian employees whom you rightly referenced and thanked -- as well as billions of dollars of additional taxpayer dollars, if the Iraqi parliament may have a chance to consider this agreement, that the United States Congress would not.

CROWLEY: So essentially, Wolf, what we're talking about here is pretty much what both [Sen. John] McCain and Clinton have said on the campaign trail, just in sort of lower tones in a Senate forum.

BLITZER: They have to be very careful, because General Petraeus is a career military officer. Ambassador Crocker is a career diplomat, a foreign service officer. It's not as if they're political appointees by the Bush administration, which they can sort of, you know, roll up their sleeves and really go after them. They have to walk a delicate line.

CROWLEY: Absolutely. And what was interesting to me is if you remember the last time he was up on Capitol Hill, she talked about how his testimony would require the willing suspension of belief. You know, she really kind of went after him and undermined -- tried to undermine the credibility of what he was saying. There was none of that this time.