That headline, “CBS Admits to Editing McCain’s Iraq Answers” in the print edition of the Washington Post sure caught my eye this morning. Pretty interesting admission, so I figured I’d post it. But, that’s not the online title. As you can see, in “The Trail,” that piece has as much more innocuous title, “McCain’s Interview on CBS.” Yes, it’s McCain’s interview on CBS, but it’s a whole lot more than that:

In response to critics, led by MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann, CBS News Senior Vice President Paul Friedman noted the full transcript and video were available online. He added in a statement: “The report was edited under extreme time constraints and one piece of tape was put in the wrong order. Fortunately, this did not in any way distort what Senator McCain was saying.”

Democrats quickly seized on McCain’s statement in the interview, saying that it contained a remarkable gaffe for a politician who’s supposed to be an expert on the Iraqi conflict.

As Democrats eagerly pointed out, the awakening started months before the surge in troops was announced in January of 2007. Troops did not actually get deployed until March of 2007, long after the awakening began.