While the Iraq War has been playing Second Fiddle to the economy in recent months in the Congress, that will change this week as Iraq War Commander General David Petraeus goes before lawmakers for hearings.

Petraeus last showed up right after Labor Day at a time when some people thought the GOP resolve on Iraq was about to dissolve.  Instead, Petraeus cooly faced down war dissenters, as Republican lawmakers got a collective spine and closed ranks to back the US military surge in Iraq.

Fast forward to now and there is little reason for Republicans to do anything but take a few small potshots at the Iraqi government for not making enough progress, but mainly accuse Democrats of being a bunch of left-wing-bedwetting-anti-war-fancy-pants-liberals.

Let me restate my theory on Iraq as an issue in 2008:  It will be a major issue with voters only if there is a big upswing in violence which means a big increase in the deaths of Americans.

Democratic leaders in the Congress made clear last week that they aren't going to stand for a Petraeus performance that might - in the words of Speaker Nancy Pelosi - "put a shine" on events in Iraq.

So, expect Democrats to lambaste the Iraqi Government, heavily criticize the White House for bad post-war planning and then hunker down while Republicans accuse them of ignoring positive developments in Iraq.

No matter where you stand on the war, this much is true:  Petraeus laid out the plan for the Military Surge in Iraq and it had a positive effect.

Like I said when the Surge was offered, if it meant fewer U.S. GI's coming home in caskets, then it would be a success for the Commander-in-Chief.

Why such a simple thing?  Because when fewer Americans are dying, the news media finds other things to cover.

When we had the flare up of violence last week in Basra, I felt like the media was sort of slow in jumping on the story, simply because things had been going better for months.

When things are going better, you are slower to note there are troubles.

When things are going bad, you tend not to see the slight gains.

That's not an indictment of my fellow reporters, that's just the truth.

One thing to watch this week is what angle Democrats opposed to the war try to take with the General.

Last September, they didn't ruffle Petraeus at all and he came off the winner, while the Democrats seemed to get huffy and the Code Pink anti-war protestors were one quart of oil short.

Perception is very important right now.  And the perception is that Democrats don't like how things have evolved in Iraq.  Listen carefully to how they question the General and how he responds.

I don't expect any flubs from him, but you never know.