President Bush will be making the second of his Iraq War sales pep talks to the Council of Foreign Relations later this morning. I don’t know if there are plans to televise it, but if it’s on I’ll monitor, at least, and post if he says anything interesting or surprising.

Dan Froomkin writes that the pathetic weenie President demanded that the group allow him to speak but not take questions, which is a big departure for them.

President Bush will deliver the second in a series of four speeches on his Iraq strategy tomorrow in Washington to several hundred members of the Council on Foreign Relations — an august group of scholars, policymakers and journalists whose Web site is an Internet hotspot for intellectual foment about foreign policy in general and Iraq in particular.

But rather than probe the group’s expertise or even respond to its concerns, Bush is just using it as a backdrop.

People were starting to talk about Bush’s “thing” for young guys in uniforms.

Bush is not likely to see the same sort of wide-eyed enthusiasm from this audience that he is used to seeing from hand-picked supporters, on-duty military audiences or intimidated employees.

But he’s not likely to encounter any undiplomatic behavior from this dignified crowd, either. And their inevitable standing ovations, out of respect for the office, will play well on television.

And if he doesn’t get a standing ovation, you can bet that he’ll deliver the next speech at one of our nation’s fine military academies.