Another way to know you're in trouble

Your friends start edging away from you.

Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., who is weighing a run for president in 2008, has said "he agrees with Democrats who are pressing the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee to move forward with an investigation into whether the administration manipulated intelligence.

"I was probably the main driver on the Republican side because I thought we needed the answers to whether intelligence was misused, intentionally or unintentionally," Hagel told the Omaha World-Herald in a story published Friday.

Even Rick Santorum, anticipating a tough re-election campaign next year, is trying to put some daylight between himself and the White House.

Santorum said the war has been "less than optimal" and "maybe some blame could be laid" at the White House. "Certainly, mistakes were made," Santorum said.

"Less than optimal?" Still, when a pig flies and all that.