I hear that the

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I hear that the internal Pentagon investigation into Tom White’s alleged lobbying of Congress against Don Rumsfeld’s decision to kill the Crusader artillery system has been completed. And Tom White dodged the bullet. They fingered some lower levels guy instead. So Rumsfeld apparently lets White stay on.

The one person who ends up looking a bit off base here is Torie Clarke, who may have gotten out a little ahead of her brief on this one. She told the Times that “without prejudging [the Army’s inquiry] “if people try to blame some midlevel staffers, it would be inappropriate and wrong.”

“What the hell is she saying?” a Pentagon source told TPM today. “She’s saying I don’t want to prejudge the report but regardless of what it says you’re not going to get away with blaming mid-level people. Well, you know today Rumsfeld said based on Tom White’s assurance it looks like midlevel people did it. So we think that Torie Clarke is a loose canon, no pun intended.”

On an unrelated note, could Led Zeppelin IV be any more of a kick-$&% album? Yes, yes, yes, I picked up my copy when I was like nineteen but I hadn’t listened to it in a while. Metal-infused blues before it got lame? And precious, folky guitar ballads before they got too precious and folky? God, it rocks.

Maybe I’ve been working on this Iraq article for too long.

Okay, back to insider Washington punditry.

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