Man, the political news today is weird.

• On the Tenet-warned-Rice story from Woodward’s book, Tenet is now denying that Rice brushed him off, but it has by now become very well established that (a) Tenet did indeed strongly warn Rice about an al Qaeda attack in the meeting, and (b) the 9/11 commission covered it up, apparently agreeing to withhold damning evidence against Bush until after he was out of office. Not only did the story about Tenet’s briefing add to the list of reasons why Rice should have been able to stop 9/11 had she tried even a little, it also calls into question what else the 9/11 commission knew and covered up.
• Mark Foley, apparently having had limited success blaming his sexual-predator actions on alcohol, is now adding homosexuality and the claim that a Roman Catholic priest abused him as a child. Oh, sorry–he actually announced that he had no excuse for his conduct and was not blaming it on these new revelations–he just happened to want to mention that he was gay and that a priest molested him, just to keep you informed. You know, FYI.
• In the meantime, more revelations make it clearer that Foley’s tastes in young pages was well-known among the pages themselves.
• The same people at CBS who refused to let Bill Maher give his view on religion, allowed a speaker to blame school shootings on abortion and separation of church and state.
• Hastert refuses to resign as calls for his resignation increase; he goes on Rush Limbaugh’s show and accuses the Democrats and/or the pages of timing all this to hurt him.
• Turns out that the Bushies lied when they blamed the Navy for the “Mission Accomplished” sign. Not only was it their idea, but Rumsfeld now claims that it was even in the speech, but he was able to get that part out, at least.
• And perhaps the most bizarre: in a Saddam-Hussein-like moment, Rep. Tom Reynolds, implicated in the Foley scandal, surrounded himself with kids to shield himself against questions about the scandal, refusing to let the kids leave so reporters could ask questions the kids shouldn’t hear.