Tuesday news bits

• Rendell "vows" Willow Grove base will stay active.

  Rendell pointed to Fort Indiantown Gap, once a U.S. Army base that was converted to a National Guard base when the state took over in the late 1990s. Rendell said the federal government still provides most of the funding.

  The feds will likely remove their planes (see more discussion of that issue in the Daily News article here), but there may be some from another state unit that could be used there. I suspect that there's still election good will to be milked from the discussion...
  
  
• Santorum's claim that he had raised questions about the Iraq war (see story here) have apparently now been substantiated. I don't know whether "concerns about tactics and decisions" meets Casey's standard of "asking the tough questions," but at least his staff has proven their mettle.

  "And in my opinion, it was not the right call, but you know what? That's not my decision," Santorum said in the Sept. 21 news conference. At another point, he told reporters that too much "Monday morning quarterbacking" of military commanders would not help the war effort.

  My, that *is* fearless!