And as the lies about this incident spread, there still hasn't been a clear, compelling story offered to to the press about the Pentagon's double-dealing and partisan sabogating by GOP-appointed flacks.

Pentagon officials, especially a GOP flack named Bryan Whitman, are behind the ongoing anti-Obama spin that his campaign declined the visit because he couldn't bring his campaign staff or reporters with him.

Here's how he works, as noted by Americablog. Last February, Whitman sought to discredit Barack Obama's true story about an American captain who told him about his under-manned platoon in Afghanistan that didn't have enough ammunition or Humvees -- and ended up relying on weapons they captured from the Taliban.

Fast forward to July of 2008: Which Pentagon political hack is right smack in the middle of the latest manufactured controversy about Obama's visit to the troops in Germany -- a political controversy being pushed by "The Pentagon"? That's right. Bryan Whitman. Yes, apparently when the press talks about "The Pentagon" they mean Bryan Whitman -- and Whitman was quite happy to stir the pot on this one:

The Pentagon said on Friday that it did not prevent an Obama visit.

"Nobody denied Senator Obama the opportunity to visit our wounded being cared for at Landstuhl. Obviously, as a sitting senator, he has an interest in that and can certainly visit in an official capacity," said Bryan Whitman, a spokesman for the Pentagon, who added that there are "restrictions on what you can do as a candidate for political office, that stems from trying to maintain political neutrality and not have the military involved in politics."

"The senator's staff was informed of the limits on what the military can do with respect to a political campaign and how we could support a senator's visit to Landstuhl and, quite frankly, I expected them to have the visit," Whitman said.

Quite frankly, no one should believe anything Bryan Whitman says on behalf of "The Pentagon." He's a GOP political operative who has done a lot of Bush, Cheney and Rummy's dirty work from his press perch at the Pentagon for years. The guy has no compunction about engaging in politics. And, he's the one pushing this latest fake controversy. In February, Obama was right. Whitman was wrong. Same now.

The issue was muddied further while the Obama campaign waited at least a day to clarify that the scheduled visit was blocked by the Pentagon, and was still offering as late as Saturday a weak response that the candidate had, as Obama said, "a concern that maybe our visit was going to be perceived as political," and, initially, that it would be "inappropriate" to spend campaign funds to make that hospital visit.

Such responses are politically lame and tin-eared. The immediate response should have been a tough-minded assertion that they were blocked by the Pentagon, seemingly for partisan political reasons. The Obama camp, after making clear that Obama wanted to visit , should have forcefully said the Senator's planned meeting with wounded troops was blocked because of a last-minute invoking of rules by the Pentagon designed to thwart his visit, apparently for political reasons.