“There’s a difference between being an intelligence asset and somebody who cooperates,” said Rogers, a former FBI agent. “‘Asset is an overstatement … He is a public official who cooperates … He cooperates when he’s talked to — that’s different than an asset.”

Thanks to The American Prospect’s Adam Serwer for pointing me to Jeff’s piece.

Today, The Washington Post reports that the Obama administration decided against halting the program, and members of Michigan’s congressional delegation — where many of the cars being purchased are made — are pushing the administration to to pump more money into the program.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement that the administration is “evaluating all options” to keep the program funded.

“We are working tonight to assess the situation facing what is obviously an incredibly popular program,” the statement said. “Auto dealers and consumers should have confidence that all valid CARS transactions that have taken place to-date will be honored.”

Lawmakers from Michigan held a conference call Thursday night to discuss the matter and were scheduled to have another joint call at 9 a.m. Friday. They were preparing to speak with Obama administration officials about obtaining more funding, staffers said, and were committed to finding a way to extend the program.

“We’re going to try to figure out what’s a realistic amount of money and get it into the program,” said Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.).

Given the popularity of the program, in retrospect, maybe Congress could have gotten away with requiring consumers to purchase cars that meet somewhat higher fuel-efficiency standards to qualify for the vouchers.

“The real rumor yesterday is whether our forces were reading Miranda rights to detainees and the answer to that is no,” Petraeus said today.

The Weekly Standard piece, published on the magazine’s Website yesterday, claimed that “the Obama Justice Department has quietly ordered FBI agents to read Miranda rights to high value detainees captured and held at U.S. detention facilities in Afghanistan, according a senior Republican on the House Intelligence Committee.”

The Republican in question was Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan, who told the Standard:

The administration has decided to change the focus to law enforcement. Here’s the problem. You have foreign fighters who are targeting US troops today – foreign fighters who go to another country to kill Americans. We capture them…and they’re reading them their rights – Mirandizing these foreign fighters.

Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) then jumped into the fray:

When they mirandize a suspect, the first thing they do is warn them that they have the ‘right to remain silent.’ It would seem the last thing we want is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed or any other al-Qaeda terrorist to remain silent. Our focus should be on preventing the next attack, not giving radical jihadists a new tactic to resist interrogation–lawyering up.

I’m not sure where Rogers and co. got their information, but it seems safe to assume that Petraeus would be in the know here, and his denial is unambiguous.