I can tell it’s going to be one of those days where a lot of stuff is hitting the newswires. There’s a strange vibe in the air. Since early this morning, we find the following headlines:

• Hillary Clinton was told to cram a request to the Pentagon where the sun don’t shine…
• Comedic Sub-genius Ray Ordierno is punting the “surge” evaluation football downfield another couple of months…
• Pedophile enabler Denny Hastert (R-Il) is reportedly not going to run for another term (and may actually resign early)

Clinton

She made a request to the Pentagon back in May that they brief her on the logistics planning that’s taking place for the eventual U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. An Undersecretary of Defense wrote her back, essentially saying, “Why are you appeasing the terrorists, you communist traitor?” As Joe Gandelman says at Moderate Voice:

Question: Since when in American history have Senators and Congressmen been told that their job descriptions don’t allow and require the most vigorous kind of questioning — the kind of questioning and testing that often results in either better policies or better explanations from government officials to justify their policies?

A sitting U.S. Senator has asked an eminently reasonable question (and it doesn’t matter whether the U.S. Senator has an R or D after his/her name), and received a totally specious reply in response. One must ask: would Sens. Brownback or Hagel have received the same response to the question? I think everyone pretty much knows the answer to that question. Or, could it be that the Pentagon depends on the GOP Senators not to even bother to ask the questions?

Last time I checked, the U.S. congress controls the purse strings of the Pentagon, and constitutionally provides oversight of the military wing of the U.S. government. But then, I supposed this could have been written out of the constitution by a presidential signing statement, or something.

Gawd, I can’t wait until these people are held to account. Oh - silly me - neither the Dems nor GOP will hold this rouge regime accountable…

Ordierno

Continuing his shilling for the Bush regime, Comedic Sub-genius (and U.S. Army General) Ray Ordierno has punted the football downfield another 2 months. According to funnyman Ray:

Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the No. 2 commander in Iraq, told Pentagon reporters that while he would provide the mid-September assessment of the new military strategy that Congress has required, it would take “at least until November” to judge with confidence whether the strategy was working…

The only thing that surprises me about this is that the General didn’t ask for spring, as I predicted earlier. In any case, congressional reps from both parties weren’t laughing. Well, maybe they were, but at least not publicly.

Hastert

Is Coach Denny hanging up the cleats? It would appear so. According to Think Progress (and Bob Novak, so take that for what it’s worth):

Former House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert has indicated to a close former aide that it is likely he will not run for a 12th term from his northern Illinois district and may even resign from Congress before his present term concludes.

Speculation is running rampant (and it would be blogospherically irresponsible not to speculate) that perhaps Hastert’s phone number appears on Debra Palfrey’s phone records, and that Denny has received a call from Larry Flynt. Who knows? Perhaps it’s related to his enabling of an internet predator. Regardless, we’ll let the rumor mill chew on this one over the weekend.

So, there’s a quick wrap-up of the early morning headlines. Have another interesting one to add? That’s what the comments are for.