It's a bad day to be wearing the blue suit when Robert Novak takes aim at you. Novak's column today blasts former Secretary of the Air Force James Roche for violating DoD ethics standards, and details the extent to which my main man Senator John McCain has run into roadblocks while digging into the Boeing fiasco:

... the Pentagon still resists McCain's quest for information. In a Jan. 27 letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, McCain protested that ''the Department's production of documents has been riddled by disruption, obfuscation and delay'' ....

(an email message) on July 24, 2002, to Roche from now-retired Maj. Gen. LeRoy Barnidge, admits outright that the Air Force was stalling McCain's efforts to get to the bottom of the case. Barnidge contended McCain aide Chris Paul ''has been playing a pretty heavy game with us,'' and the general revealed ''I have been stalling'' Paul's requests.

Boeing's survivors sound penitent, but the Air Force is still covering up. Roche left his office unrepentant and continues to be excused and celebrated at the highest levels of the Pentagon.

{hangs head, sighs, shuffles off looking depressed}  ¶ 9:32 PM