“Army Reserve Capt. Jon Soltz, 29, and former 101st Airborne Division Sgt. Joe Kramer, 31, say Chief of Staff Mike Ware raised his voice or yelled at them and pointed at them during a scheduled meeting in Craig’s office. The two soldiers and two other Iraq war veterans with the anti-war group VoteVets met with Ware and Craig’s legislative assistant for military affairs. … ‘It’s probably the most unprofessional thing I’ve ever heard from a chief of staff of a U.S. senator,’ Soltz said. ‘I told him it was rather unprofessional to yell at a soldier who fought for our country.’”

The number of oversight hearings on Iraq the 110th Congress has held in its first month.

Ready for her lesbian platoon?

“Progressive bloggers pledged about $800 as of this morning toward the $1,000 that [National Review editor] Jonah Goldberg said — on Feb. 8, 2005 — he’d give the USO if the Iraq War was still going badly in 2007.” Goldberg said yesterday he offered the 2005 wager “in a foolish fit of pique. … When I give to charity…I will do it privately which is at it should be.” Nitpicker has details.

A senior military official commenting on the recent spate of helicopter downings in Iraq: “There is certainly the expectation here that insurgents are trying to inflict some losses as we’re building up forces as a means to try to discourage the Iraqis and us that this is a futile plan.”

UPDATE: NYT reporter Damien Cave says military officials are mum on helicopter attacks. “It’s not clear if it’s a change in tactics or if it’s simply a reinvigorated effort to fire at helicopters. It’s possibly the latter, as opposed to the former, but American investigators are still trying to figure out what exactly is going on and, frankly, they’re keeping this stuff very close to the vest and not really telling us too much about what they think is going on or whether or not they know exactly what might be going on.”

UPDATE II: Tapped has a round-up of coverage.

You know the right wing has gone off the ledge when even Tony Snow can’t stand by their attacks.

During today’s White House press briefing, Snow beat back the false claim that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) wants to misuse government resources. Snow called the conservative attacks a “silly story,” arguing that it is “important for the Speaker to have this kind of protection and travel.”

SNOW: I’ll just repeat our position, which is, as Speaker of the House, she is entitled to military transport, and that the arrangements, the proper arrangements are being made between the Sergeant of Arms office in the House of Representatives and the U.S. Department of Defense. We think it’s appropriate, and so, again, I think this is much ado about not a whole lot. It is important for the Speaker to have this kind of protection and travel. It was certainly appropriate for Speaker Hastert. So we trust that all sides will get this worked out.

Also today, House Sergeant at Arms Bill Livingood released a new statement emphasizing that it was he — not Pelosi — who requested she use an aircraft capable of flying non-stop to her district in California to “ensure communications capabilities and also enhance security.”

In a post 9/11 threat environment, it is reasonable and prudent to provide military aircraft to the Speaker for official travel between Washington and her district. … The fact that Speaker Pelosi lives in California compelled me to request an aircraft that is capable of making non-stop flights for security purposes, unless such an aircraft is unavailable. This will ensure communications capabilities and also enhance security. … I regret that an issue that is exclusively considered and decided in a security context has evolved into a political issue.

UPDATE: Watch Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN) using Snow’s words to squash the plane story on the House floor.

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Read the full Sergeant at Arms statement: Read more