Go here now.

Now that General Petraeus is nominated to oversee the entire Middle East and Central Asia, there are questions that he must address in his confirmation hearing which he refused to answer in his prior hearing. As the head of CentCom for the Middle East and Central Asia, General Petraeus will leave his mark on U.S. foreign policy and military readiness for generations to come and in one of the most hostile areas in the world.

Michael Hayden, the Director of the CIA, is on the record as saying that the Afghanistan/Pakistan border region is "a clear and present danger" to the West and specifically to the United States. Director Hayden went on to say that if the U.S. is going to suffer another terrorist attack on American soil, it will almost certainly originate in this area. That said, I have a few questions for General Petraeus.

Another one bites the dust. Liz:

GOP sources confirm that Rep. Tom Reynolds, a Western NY Congressman since 1999 and ex-NRCC chairman, will announce around noon tomorrow in Buffalo that he will not seek re-election this fall. Reynolds spokesman LD Platt did not return an e-mail seeking comment. [...]

But the recent NRCC fraud scandal - some of which took place on his watch - has made his re-election effort that much more difficult in an already tough year (increasingly Democratic state, presidential election etc).

That makes things a lot easier for this guy:

The question now becomes whether Jack Davis, the guy who ran for the seat last time - and couldn't defeat Reynolds despite the latter's role in the Foley scandal - will now run as a Democrat in a primary against Jon Powers, or as a republican against likely contender George Maziarz.

Another bit of irony: if Reynolds is retiring over the NRCC scandal, it will prove once and for all that while you can get away with molesting underage boys in the GOP, you had better not lose their money, or you're toast.

On the web: Jon Powers for Congress

There's a primary brewing the 26th Congressional District that Democrats should avoid.

The contenders are Jon Powers, an Iraq War veteran and teacher, and Jack Davis, a local businessman who ran for this seat in 2006, narrowly losing to republican incumbent Tom Reynolds. Some background on the race is sketched out by Robert Harding of The Albany Project, here.

The reason this primary should be avoided is this: it would take away resources better used elsewhere, would damage the Democratic brand, and might result in an outcome, a Davis victory, that would likely lead to defeat in November.

Why, over the fold.

Upstate New York breeds two things in profusion: awful republican Congressmen and outstanding Democratic challengers. You know about Eric Massa; now meet Jon Powers.

Via Ben, here's a biographical video well worth taking a look at.

Per Albany Project, Jon raised $117,000 in the last quarter, a good showing on its own merits and certainly for a challenger running against an entrenched incumbent, in his case, Tom Reynolds. You may remember the latter as an enabler of Mark Foley, who came within a few points of losing in November 2006.