Who Is Strumpette?

"Administration officials said Mr. Bush made the decision because he believed there were other avenues of oversight, including investigations by the inspectors general of the Justice Department and the National Security Agency as well as the Intelligence Committees of both houses."

Hmm . . . What other Justice probes has Bush personally blocked?

Meanwhile, he's about to unleash his first veto:

"Despite President Bush's promised veto, supporters of stem cell research yesterday cheered a Senate vote in which 63 senators, including 19 Republicans, voted to expand research into embryonic stem cells, saying the overwhelming vote demonstrates momentum that will eventually lead to all-important federal support," says the Boston Globe .

"The Senate vote puts both houses of Congress in support of reversing the limitations on embryonic stem cell research Bush put in place five years ago. Still, the vote fell four short of the two- thirds' majority necessary to override Bush's first veto, which could be used as soon as today."

In political news, Cynthia McKinney survived another controversy -- but faces a runoff -- while Ralph Reed couldn't survive being tied to scandal.

Have the neocons gone underground? Arianna Huffington wants them front and center:

"In his terrific post on the hornets' nest we've kicked open in the Middle East, Gary Hart makes the point that as the fighting spreads, we have seen precious little of 'the nation's wisemen, those neoconservative idealists who saw the great American empire imposing democracy on the Middle East at the point of a bayonet.'

"And, indeed, in the wall-to-wall coverage of the latest Middle East carnage -- and the analysis of said carnage -- the neocon architects who brought us the invasion of Iraq and the promise that it would bring democracy and stability to the region have been notably absent from the discussion.

"Where have you gone Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Doug Feith, et al? A nation turns it anxious eyes to you.

"In the run up to Shock and Awe, these guys were all over the place, singing from the same song book, letting us know that the fall of Saddam would bring good things throughout the Middle East. With their every pronouncement, you could hear the sound of Arab dominoes falling. . . .

"The cable and Sunday shows -- where so much prewar misinformation was disseminated -- need to haul in the war triumphalists and ask them to account for the gulf between their rosy predictions and the bloody reality."