Has it not been discouraging this week? In one corner we have Gen. David Petraeus, about ready to assume command in Afghanistan and telling a Senate committee how very useful he found President Obama's plan to end the war in Iraq starting in July 2011. Is there anyone who believes that plan will actually work? Petraeus says he does. I can remember Colin Powell telling the United Nations that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. I don't believe he believed that either, but Petraeus and Powell got where they are by being extremely adept politicians.

First rule of politics: Go along with your boss.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the man Petraeus is replacing, somehow forgot there was a Rolling Stone reporter in the room. Later there was talk of ground rules, and various Pentagon chums among the media talked about having a "working understanding" with their military overlords, which is essentially trading access for integrity.

(I don't mean to suggest that details of planned operations or anything else that might bring our troops into harm's way is OK to write about, but that's not what this is. This is about an intemperate and publicity-hungry general going one step too far to get big headlines and a "60 Minutes" profile. Mission accomplished.)

In any event, there appears to be no substantial difference between McChrystal carrying out Obama's orders and Petraeus doing the same thing. This brouhaha is all about a lack of diplomacy. It would be so nice if someone other than a left-wing (or come to think of it, right-wing) nutjob said, "This can't work, it's never worked, July 2011 is going to look a lot like July 2010, and then what? A new plan? Oh joy!"

But still, Petraeus' lack of candor was in general welcomed by the senators, Democrats and Republicans alike, because they have midterm elections coming up and all of them want to say, "Oh yeah, everything under control now, let's bash BP some more and hurl catchphrases at each other." And soldiers continue to die. That's the only real thing that will happen in Afghanistan - soldiers will continue to die.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Meanwhile, in another part of the Senate, Elena Kagan was presenting a smooth facade of boundless good cheer, sort of like the expert climbing wall at Ironworks in Berkeley. Not a handhold to be found anywhere for the conservatives - the barrier of geniality was everywhere deployed. Sen. Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III pronounced himself "troubled" by various of Kagan's answers, but it was hard to intuit which of those answers were troubling to him or, indeed, to anyone.

In other words, sadly, Kagan has learned what McChrystal still has not learned - how to duck, weave, temporize and dodge whatever questions come before her. It's too bad, of course, that candor is not valued in modern Washington, but with spinmeisters and talking-point mavens lurking in corridors everywhere, it is certainly best to recite conventional wisdom at every moment. When she gets to the court, she can go back to being a human being.

McChrystal now apparently has a job at Fox News, so he can say what he wants too, unless it breaks from the official line. Part II: Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. The nice thing about Kagan's position is that her only boss is the Constitution and case law proceeding from the Constitution. The Constitution rarely gets huffy, and it can outwait you every time.

It would be nice to know what our Supreme Court nominees really thought, but that seems unlikely to happen anytime in this young century. The process was set up so that the elected representatives of the people could ask the questions the people wanted asked. Now the questions that everybody really wants asked are, uh, "likely to come before the court," so it would be "inappropriate for me to speak about them." Oh, please. We pay your salaries; more than just an annual "thank you" would be appreciated. In fact, even an annual "thank you" would help.

In the meantime, David Petraeus, who is apparently a very smart cookie, is acting like a dumb petit four before his Senate committee. I'm sure he knows that the president knows that his announced strategy is a sort of sop to get him through the midterms, as indeed is the appointment of Petraeus. Petraeus is providing political cover, and I expect he expects to be rewarded soon enough.

Meanwhile, we the people have no the frack idea what's going on. Ah well, in six years there'll be a whole lot of memoirs. And probably, still a war in Afghanistan and Chief Justice Roberts still on the bench. Plus ca change ...

No one on Earth could feel like this, I'm thrown and overblown with bliss; there must be an angel playin' with my heart, yeah. I walk into an empty room and suddenly my heart goes boom, it's an orchestra of angels and they're playin' with jcarroll@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page F - 8 of the San Francisco Chronicle