Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid once urged Defense Secretary Robert Gates to spend taxpayer money on researching irritable bowel syndrome.

Gates revealed the strange request in his new memoir, “Duty,” writing that Reid made the plea while the military was fully engaged in two ongoing wars.

“With all the major issues we had to deal with, my personal contacts with Senate Majority Leader Reid were often in response to his calls about Air Force objections to construction of a windmill farm in Nevada because of the impact on their radars,” Gates wrote.

“He also once contacted me to urge that Defense invest in research on irritable bowel syndrome,” Gates continued.

“With two ongoing wars and all our budget and other issues, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.”

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