And it isn't just the POW's

Mark Steyn - Who's to blame for nation's Vietnam wounds? Kerry:

So when John McCain sternly warns the swift boat veterans of ''reopening the wounds of Vietnam,'' it's worth asking: Why is Vietnam a ''wound'' and why won't it heal? The answer: not because it was a military or strategic defeat but because it was a national trauma. And whose fault is that?

Well, you can't pin it all on one person, but, if you had to, Lt. John F. Kerry would stand a better shot at taking the solo trophy than almost anyone. The ''wounds'' McCain complains of aren't from losing Vietnam, but from the manner in which it was lost. Today Sen. Kerry says he's proud of his anti-war activism, but that's not what it was. Every war has pacifists and conscientious objectors and even disenchanted veterans, but there's simply no precedent for what John Kerry did: a man who put his combat credentials to the service of smearing his country's entire armed forces as rapists, decapitators and baby killers. That's the ''wound,'' Sen. McCain. That's why a crummy little war on the other side of the world still festers. ... Because Kerry didn't just call for U.S. withdrawal, he impugned the honor of every man he served with.

In his testimony to Congress in 1971, Kerry asserted a scale of routine war crimes unparalleled in American history -- his ''band of brothers'' (as he now calls them) ''personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads . . . razed villages in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan.'' Almost all these claims were unsupported. Indeed, the only specific example of a U.S. war criminal that Kerry gave was himself. As he said on ''Meet The Press'' in April 1971, ''Yes, I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers have committed in that I took part in shootings in free fire zones. I used 50-caliber machineguns, which we were granted and ordered to use.''

Really? And when was that? On your top-secret Christmas Eve mission in Cambodia? If they'd taken him at his word, when the senator said ''I'm John Kerry reporting for duty,'' the delegates at the Democratic Convention should have dived for cover.

But they didn't. So Kerry is now the first self-confessed war criminal in the history of the Republic to be nominated for president. Normally this would be considered an electoral plus only in the more cynical banana republics. But the Democrats seemed to think they could run an anti-war anti-hero as a war hero and nobody would mind. As we now know, a lot of people -- a lot of veterans -- do mind, very much. They understand that, whether or not he ever mowed down civilians with his 50-caliber machinegun, Kerry is responsible for a lot of wounds closer to home.

Cut to SondraK who posts a comment from a reader:

There is a reason that some of those veterans turned their backs to Kerry and that many others sat with arms folded, refusing even polite applause. A reason that non veterans can, perhaps, know intellectually but not feel in their guts.

Like all veterans of all wars, regardless of branch of service or duty stations, we all lost friends there. Some of those we lost were closer than brothers. Unlike other wars in our history we didn't go over together and come home together, our individual wars ended individually.

Unlike other wars we came home branded by a large segment of our society as war criminals, by another segment as losers. Then, as most of us were already home, one of our own officers branded us all, including the dead that we were just beginning to mourn, as war criminals, murderers and rapists.

We later discovered that many of those that he was quoting as witnesses to our 'crimes' had not spent one day in uniform. Others had never served in Viet Nam. None of them, not a single one, would testify under oath, even if granted immunity. Yet our 'crimes' became part of the common knowlege. Our children were given that testimony as fact in their history classes. We all knew soldiers, sailors,airmen and Marines that had died, leaving children behind, we know that those children were taught those same lies as fact. Who sat with those children as we did with ours, explaining that those were lies told for political gain?

It's bad enough that we couldn't mourn our dead then. Now we see the same man that stood over the open graves of our brothers and pissed on their bodies is back. This time he's dug up those bodies and is standing on them to give himself the stature for high office.

I am no famous war hero, just one of the two and a half million guys who wore Uncle's suit for awhile in a place where the same truck would splash red mud on your trousers and throw a cloud of dust on your face at the same time. My service was entirely undistinguished but I stood shoulder to shoulder with some genuine heros. Those heros came home in shiney aluminum caskets, they cannot speak for themselves. I hope someone more famous and more eloquent will speak for them soon. Until they do I can only say that not only is John Kerry not fit to command the young men and women that inherited the uniforms but he is not fit to speak of my comrades, much less speak for them. I shall say this as long as I have a breath left in my body.

Amen.

But what really gets me is the hubris that lead the sleazebag poseur to think he could get away with it. To think that nobody would care.

Reporting for Duty

It can't be "Wingnut Marching Season" if some of them don't take off their clothes. Apparently dropping trou has some deep significance for the wingnut psyche. Power Line has the details:

A year or two ago, there was a rash (so to speak) of nude anti-war protests. We covered them pretty thoroughly, for obvious reasons. Lately such events seem to have died out. But reader Rick Vatsaas points out that there was a nude Act Up protest in New York on Thursday; the objects of the protest were AIDS and the national debt--am I the only one who finds that an odd combination? Indymedia has photos from the scene, but I can't recommend them on aesthetic grounds.

The Indymedia comments are about what you'd expect, except for this unexpectedly germane quote, which I don't remember from the movie:

"Naked, angry, and stupid is no way to go through life, son."

-Dean Wormer, Animal House

Ah yes, Indymedia, one of the favorite charities of the Tides Foundation, Teresa Kerry's money laundry.

While you're visiting Power Line check out someone else who has already reported for duty - "historian" Douglas Brinkley, although he has been AWOL lately.

It is apparent from the story [in the Washington Post] that Brinkley has become a hack in the service of a candidate of the highest office in the land. The story is largely a wasted opportunity to elicit clarifications of ambiguities and contradicitions.

However, the story is revealing despite itself in ways not fully intended. A few items in the story leap out and shed their own kind of light on recent controversies. Gerhart writes:

The Kerry campaign has refused to release Kerry's personal Vietnam archive, including his journals and letters, saying that the senator is contractually bound to grant Brinkley exclusive access to the material. But Brinkley said this week the papers are the property of the senator and in his full control.

"I don't mind if John Kerry shows anybody anything," he said. "If he wants to let anybody in, that's his business. Go bug John Kerry, and leave me alone." The exclusivity agreement, he said, simply requires "that anybody quoting any of the material needs to cite my book."

Will the Post now follow up and demand a full view of Kerry's military records? Just asking.

Bwahaha! C'mon Lurch, sign the 180 so the little folks can see your records. What do you have to hide?

UPDATE: Tim Graham at The Corner:

The Washington Post's Ann Gerhart takes a very sympathetic look at very sympathetic Kerry biographer Douglas Brinkley today. You know the story's going to be in the tank when Gerhart insists no one "sneered" at his adoring Jimmy Carter biography.

I wonder if ole Doug gets a volume discount on kneepads? He's got to wear 'em out pretty fast.

Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge. Say no more.

Peter Parisi:

"Just shut up, gays, women, environmentalists. You'll get everything you want after the election. But just for the meantime, shut up so that we can win." — Rep. Peter H. Kostmayer, Pennsylvania Democrat, at the 1988 Democratic National Convention.

"I call it the Stepford convention. Everybody is going by the script because they are so afraid that Bush will get in. But behind the scenes, it's like don't worry, wink, wink; we'll take care of you." — Robin Tyler of DontAmend.com, quoted in the July 30 Detroit Free Press.

Call it deja vu all over again, but just as in 1988 when Mr. Kostmayer committed jaw-dropping political candor, the Democratic Party is again seeking desperately to muzzle its dominant extreme left wing, at least through Nov. 2.

Democrats are again attempting to pull one over on the electorate, this time by persuading voters that Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry is a centrist, his 19 years of Senate roll-call votes to the contrary notwithstanding.

Ooops, some of the "centrism" splashed out of the bowl! Kerry Mideast Advisor Promises Arabs "Dramatic Change". More like "Kerry Advisor Promises Arafish to Roll Over." Charles observes:

Unfortunately, we have to rely on unguarded statements like these from Kerry’s advisors to get a glimpse of his foreign policy views—because Kerry himself has been unremittingly, deliberately vague about these vital issues.

Hey, he thought no one would read it because it was in the Lebanon Star.

Yeah, that could be a problem

Today's Best of the Web:

Viet Commies Still Cite Kerry Testimony
One of the chief complaints of the Vietnam veterans who are opposing John Kerry is that he slandered them as war criminals in his famous 1971 Senate testimony. Kerry's supporters try to portray his claims then as a youthful indiscretion. Yet Kerry has never renounced them, and they still turn up in Vietnamese communist propaganda. In an article for the English-language Viet Nam News dated June 11, 2004, one Diem Quynh cites Kerry to bolster his argument that the communists treated American prisoners of war well:

Candidate in this year's American presidential elections, John Kerry, who fought in the war, went further in his criticism. In a statement to the US' Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in 1971, he said the war crimes committed by US soldiers in Southeast Asia "were not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command."

But despite these abuses, the Vietnamese did not reciprocate in kind; instead, they treated captured US troops humanely.

John McCain might disagree. So might Jim Warner, a former POW who tells the conservative weekly Human Events that he "first learned about Lt. John Kerry in a North Vietnamese prison camp":

When his captors brought him out of solitary confinement in the infamous Skid Row punishment camp for an interrogation, they made him read the typewritten transcript of a statement by Kerry, speaking in the United States. His interrogator kept pointing at Kerry's words, saying, 'See? This officer from your Navy says you deserve to be punished.' "

"All I could think of was that this must be a really contemptible human being," said Warner, although We can't expect the rest of the country to share our disgust at Kerry for turning on us. A lot of people are too young to remember that." . . .

Tom Collins, another Vietnam POW whose plane was shot down in 1965, was made to listen to Kerry's testimony on tape during his captivity. He explained that the North Vietnamese were constantly trying to elicit confessions of war crimes from Americans, promising them better treatment.

"He knew he was putting us at risk," Warner says of Kerry. "And he was demanding unilateral withdrawal, which means our value as bargaining chips would be gone. And what do you think would have happened to us then?"

And the amazing thing is that Lurch thought he could run on his dubious record as a "war hero" and just pretend that the rest of it didn't happen. What planet does he live on? Mudville Gazette indicates that it isn't even in this galaxy with this beauty from Empress Teresa:

Breaking her silence on criticism of John Kerry's war record by the group Swiftboat Veterans for Truth, Teresa Heinz Kerry said this week that such attacks are undermining the morale of troops currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I believe that discussions or attacks on [my husband's] service undermine the peace of mind not only of Vietnam veterans but of those now fighting for their country," she told the Dayton Daily News.

She believes wrong. Look, lady, veterans attacking your husband is just another form of service to their country, okay? Protecting the Republic is in their blood.

But thanks for expressing your concern for the national defense.

And don't let the garage door hit your wide load on your way back to the mansion.

I guess his Ivy League education was good for something!

John Kerry apparently learned that he who writes the minutes, wins the meeting. Or, in this case, wins the "firefight" and the medal despite what actually went on.

But it's not all to the good. His creative writing skills keep leading him to further "embellishments," which while they might have gotten him an "A" in English class at Yale, keep embarassing the unfortunate poseur. Yesterday, the Swift Boat Vets torpedoed the sinking wreck of his "searing" Cambodia excursion, but my favorite is the heartwarming tale of his combat pooch, VC, who, according to Lurch, was launched by an exploding mine to the deck of another Swift Boat. Hugh Hewitt has a laugh about it with Kerry crewman Steve Gardner and notes:

HH: "In the time that you were on the swift boats --totally-- did any of the swift boats have a dog?"

SG: "Never saw one, ever."

HH: "Would it have been a good idea to have a dog on the swift boats?"

SG: "Not likely."

HH: "Why not?"

SG: "Because there was just too much action going on. We had hot brass rolling around there any time we were in a firefight. He would have got beat up."

Yikes, don't tell PETA!

Look. It is possible that Kerry had a dog named VC after Gardner left Kerry's command. And it is possible that VC the combat dog got blown off the boat when the boat hit a mine --even though there's no reference to the mine that would fit the occasion.

Maybe Lurch got the dog confused with his pal, Rassman?

And just because many of my listeners have e-mailed me to note that there was a dog on Martin Sheen's boat in Apocalypse Now doesn't mean that Kerry "borrowed" the dog from the movie.

Plagiarism is against the Honor Code!

But that so many people have concluded just that does underscore John Kerry's massive credibility problem --a problem that grows larger and larger every day he doesn't meet the press. Jon Stewart asked him last night if he'd ever been in Cambodia. Kerry lamely played it for a laugh by not answering --by not saying anything at all. Who is advising him?

My guess is that Lurch speaks only to Teresa and Teresa speaks only to God.

Mark Steyn has a typically hilarious summary. Here are a few snippets:

I have no views on whether one or more of John Kerry’s bemedalled wounds from the Mekong Delta 35 years ago were self-inflicted — though the Kerry campaign, in its second big concession to his chastisers, now says his first Purple Heart-earning wound might have been ‘unintentionally self-inflicted’. But there’s no doubt every wound from the last 35 days is self-inflicted, beginning with the candidate’s disastrous decision at the Democratic Convention to play up Vietnam and play down Iraq, 9/11 and anything else that happened in the last 30 years. Since then Kerry’s shot himself in the foot so many times he ought to put in for a good dozen more Purple Hearts.
...
The Kerry campaign’s bumbling ineptness this last month is a bit of a stunner to those of us who followed Bill Clinton for eight years. The Democrats may not know how to run a school district or a highway department, but they’re supposed to be able to run scandals.

Consider, by way of comparison, James E. McGreevey, Democratic Governor of New Jersey. A couple of weeks ago, Governor McGreevey turned up for a 4 p.m. press conference with his wife loyally standing by his side and declared, ‘My truth is that I am a gay American.’
...
I thought McGreevey’s moment-of-truth press conference performance was completely revolting, even before it emerged that ‘I am a gay American’ was a phrase ‘developed’ by the Governor in consultation with a gay rights group that tested it in focus groups.

At one level, this is utterly contemptible. But at another it’s magnificently professional. The New Jersey Dems have arranged things to deny the people an early chance to vote on McGreevey’s replacement and, by the time they do get their say, the hack machine pol who’ll be taking over from him will be running as an established incumbent.

Dealt an unpromising hand, Garden State Democrats nevertheless defined the scandal on their terms. That’s how I figured Kerry would handle the Swift vets problem. He’d be shameless but effective. He’d have focus-grouped some weaselly form of words that would put him beyond reach, and the whole business would have dribbled away. But instead, cosseted away with Teresa, he’s apparently been running the fightback himself, disastrously.

Bwahaha! Visions of Kerry in the bunker with Teresa. One last thought from Steyn:

But the party that likes to sneer that Bush never had a plan to deal with Iraq’s inevitable insurgents doesn’t seem to mind that Kerry never had a plan to deal with the Swiftees’ equally inevitable insurgents. A guy awash in gazillions from Barbra Streisand and co. who can’t see off a couple of hundred middle-aged ‘liars’ and their minimal ad-buy? Is that really the fellow you want to put up against al-Qa’eda, the ayatollahs and Kim Jong-Il?

Don't worry, he'll write an after action report that blames someone else.

Today's Hoot!

Ryne McLaren:

Much was made of John Kerry's decision to appear on John Stewart's The Daily Show, mostly because many utilized bizarre, alternate universe logic ("Kerry picked him over all those other news shows!") rather than rational thought ("Kerry picked Stewart because he has a long history of carrying Democrat jocks!").

Maybe Lurch will leave the daughters at home and take Stewart on his next shopping trip!

And the party has just started

(Via Mudville Gazette) Stolen Honor. The site isn't fully operational yet, but I don't think these guys are going to be too impressed by Max Cleland and the rest of the Kerry Flying Monkeys Corps.

Lurch's Band of Brothers

From Jessica's Well:

From Mark Steyn:

"The story now is not John Kerry's weird secret-agent fantasies but the media's willingness to act as elite guardians of them. They're his real "band of brothers," happy to fish him out of their water, even if their credibility sinks in the process."

UPDATE: Favorite comment on this so far was on a BBS somewhere I can't relocate now:

"CNN took the picture."

And while we're on the subject, check out Belmont's Club The Man Who Went to Sea about a Time magazine "article" on Najaf:

I had started to parse the account in terms of the five journalistic "W"s before I realized I was looking at a pure specimen of the kind of writing that was once popular in the 1920s and 30s. Something that might have been written by Lincoln Steffens or Mao Tse Tung when he penned "In Memory of Norman Bethune". Philip Robertson's account in Time Magazine may or may not tell the truth, but it is a perfect example of the yawning gap that has opened up between sections of the Mainstream Media and its Internet critics. Although sports and city news seem as much as before, the coverage of the war on terrorism and the Presidential election has become, as much as the space between forces in Najaf, an informational no-man's-land. The conflict has become so polarizing that people are reverting to type, even archetype, so that Lincoln Steffens rides again. The accounts of the siege of the Imam Ali shrine begin to read like a play within a play and the coverage a story in itself. However things turn out, the relationship between the media and its readers will never return to its former nature.

Hey, not to worry! Most of 'em just aren't "allowed" to wear American flag pins. Not that they would.

Max Cleland, Lurch's Poster Boy

It's really great the way Kerry always trots out Max Cleland when he needs a veteran that actually bled in the service to do his dirty work. Hey, why not? As far as the Democrats and the media are concerned, the guy's a saint. Cue Reuters on 7/29:

Former Senator Max Cleland of Georgia, a frequent companion of John Kerry on the campaign trail and a fellow Vietnam War veteran who lost three limbs in combat, arrives on stage to speak and introduce Kerry at the Democratic National Convention in Boston,

and Reuters today:

Kerry is sending to Crawford former Sen. Max Cleland of Georgia, a frequent companion of Kerry's on the campaign trail and a fellow Vietnam War veteran who lost three limbs during the war.

Cleland lost his 2002 re-election bid after a bitter campaign in which Republicans questioned his patriotism. Bush did not intervene then, and Kerry spokesman Phil Singer said what happened to Cleland in 2002 is similar to "what is going on today" against Kerry.

Hey, how about Lurch himself?

John Kerry of Massachusetts took the same line on ABC's "This Week": "What they did to Max Cleland, you know, a veteran, a guy who lost three limbs in Vietnam, left them on the battlefield, and they challenge his patriotism--that sickens everybody in our country."

And Teresa to CBS:

She only recently started using Kerry's last name and was prompted more by anger than ambition to change her party affiliation.

"I was very upset at the way the party dealt with Max Cleland of Georgia," she says.

Cleland is the Democratic senator who lost re-election in a bitter campaign when Republicans attacked his patriotism. In 1968, Cleland lost his right arm and both legs in Vietnam.

The only problem is that the hagiography of St. Max has some gaping holes. Concerning losing his limbs on the battlefield, Cleland had a grenade accident while jumping out of a helicopter on the way to a beer party:

Democrats tout the Silver and Bronze Stars won by both Kerry and Cleland in Vietnam. But they prefer not to mention that, despite losing two legs and an arm to a hand grenade, Cleland was never awarded even one Purple Heart. The reason, as columnists Ann Coulter and Mark Steyn were widely attacked for pointing out, is that Cleland's horrible injuries did not happen in combat, as Kerry tries to suggest with his deceitfully-crafted phrase about Cleland leaving his limbs "on the battlefield."

This terrible accident happened not on a battlefield but on a helicopter pad 15 miles away from combat. Cleland stepped out of a helicopter to go have a beer with buddies, saw a hand grenade on the ground, assumed that he had dropped it and picked the explosive device up. It had been dropped by another, inexperienced soldier who had left the weapon on a hair trigger setting.

As far as "questioning his patriotism" goes:

While Georgia's voters were shifting from being conservative Democrats to conservative Republicans, Senator Cleland chose to be a leftwing Democrat on many issues. By 1999, the left-wing Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) rated his voting record as 100 percent on the left side of legislation.
...
In the 2000 election, George W. Bush won Georgia by a landslide 55-43 margin over Democrat Al Gore. It was evident that Senator Cleland, who had taken the dinosaur path to extinction by voting far to the left of his fellow Georgians, had almost zero chance of being re-elected in 2002.
...
Unable to justify his votes or get voter support for his positions, Cleland also blamed a Saxby Chambliss TV spot that he claimed impugned his patriotism for his defeat. The Democratic chorus endlessly repleated this claim citing the ad as an example of Republican's low campaign tactics. The infamous ad opened with brief images of the War on Terror, including a photo of Osama bin Laden. A voiceover intoned: "[Cleland] says he supports President Bush [in the war on terror] at every opportunity, but that's not the truth." The ad noted that Senator Cleland had voted 11 times to put the selfish interests of organized labor above the safety of all Americans - a reference to the Democrats' attempt to unionize airport security workers.

Cleland responded to the ad by claiming that his honor as a wounded war veteran had been impugned by a vile Republican smear that linked him to the terrorist mastermind of 9/11. "This 'how-dare-you-attack-my-patriotism' ploy, replete with feigned outrage," wrote Jim Wooten in the liberal Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "is a device to put Cleland's voting records off-limits."

Cleland's evasive claim, widely echoed by Democrats, is absurd. The ad never morphed bin Laden's face into Cleland's nor accused him of serving al-Qaeda. The ad merely connected this terrorist's image (in the same brief frame with the face of Saddam Hussein and two images of American soldiers) to the terrorist horror of 9/11 to remind voters that more than union privilege and power was at stake. To see and hear a RealPlayer version of Saxby Chambliss' ad for yourself - instead of relying on Democrat propaganda about it - click the active hyperlink in the story "The Myth of Max Cleland" you can reach by clicking here.

I guess every time you notice a Democrat is an idiot, you're questioning his patriotism.

Anyhow, since losing his Senate seat, ole St. Max seems to have become crazed in his desire for revenge despite a cushy job at the Export-Import Bank to which he has nominated by President Bush. While I suppose that could be understandable, I'm a curious about why he agreed to be the poster boy for a guy that accused American soldiers of being war criminals. Were you a war criminal, Max, or were your friends at the beer party? And why are you trying to silence veterans that don't think bogus accusations of war crimes are worthwhile credentials for a presidential candidate? As the letter to John Kerry you refused to accept from the veterans today in Crawford puts it:

"You can't have it both ways," said the letter, signed by Patterson and six other veterans including two Medal of Honor recipients and a former North Vietnamese prisoner of war. "You can't build your convention and much of your campaign around your service in Vietnam, and then try to say that only those veterans who agree with you have a right to speak up. There is no double standard for our right to free speech. We all earned it."

How much lower can you go, Max? Just wondering.

Makes you wonder what planet they come from

Power Line alerts us to yet another rocket scientist in the press, this time at the Mineapolis "Red" Star Tribune:

Free Republic has posted a thread off of the email exchange between the gent we know as the cowardly lion of Portland Avenue and editorial cartoonist Linda Eddy: "Minneapolis Star Tribune censors IPW cartoonist."

The email exchange is deeply revealing of Boydot's skills as a reader. Here's Boydot's take on John Kerry's notorious 1971 testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: "His whole testimony was an appeal on behalf of veterans." Good work, Jim!

Sounds like ole Jim has been quaffing quite a few pitchers of Kool-Aid. Anyhow, here's the cartoon in question. It says it all. Click to supersize.

Today's Hoot!

I guess the kids weren't wild about Lurch's appearance on The Daily Show. Over at Slate, Dana Stevens provides If He Only Had a Heart: John Kerry tanks on The Daily Show:

When my boyfriend and I heard that John Kerry was slated to be the guest on last night's Daily Show, we all but raced to the TiVo to set it on record. (Not that we ever miss The Daily Show anyway, but this would be one worth keeping.) What a "get" for Jon Stewart, the court jester of the 2004 election! And finally Kerry would have the chance to step down from the campaign stump and show people who are desperate for a reason to vote for him what he's really made of: his passion, his conviction, his much-vaunted (at least by his wife) sense of humor. Except, as Jon Stewart has been known to say: Eh, not so much.

From the moment the senator appeared and sat down on the gray sofa where, just last week, Bill Clinton basked in the audience's applause like a cat lapping up cream, Kerry's charisma was less than zero: It was negative. He was a charm vacuum, forced to actually borrow mojo from audience members. He was a dessicated husk, a tin man who really didn't have a heart. His lack of vibrancy, his utter dearth of sex appeal made Al Gore look like Charo. (I've always found Al Gore sort of hot, actually, like a stuffy high school principal just begging to be broken down. But I have some issues with authority.) [ed. - sheesh!]

Watching Kerry strike out was especially heartbreaking given that Stewart was pitching not just softballs but marshmallows. Puffy interview marshmallows with rainbow sprinkles on them, and Kerry was letting them sail by as if he planned to get to first base on a walk.

I saw a comment the other day that Stewart was "probably getting his tongue polished." Ouch.

More by following the link and the Instapundit has a roundup:

'WERE YOU OR WERE YOU NOT IN CAMBODIA?" John Kerry didn't answer.

UPDATE: Yeah, this is damning for Kerry -- but it's also damning for the professional press corps that the first time he got asked the question to his face was on The Daily Show. Part of that, of course, is because Kerry has been avoiding the press since the issue came up...

More by following that link too.

They're here!

Remember the Brown Books?

You knew it was coming, didn't you?

The Democrat National Committee has prepared a full-scale assault against the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth to draw their character and veracity into question, according to one anonymous source inside the DNC. The campaign of character assassination is scheduled to coincide with the release of the book Unfit for Command which reveals inconvenient facts for the Kerry campaign.

“We have prepared what we call ‘Brown Books’ that contain damaging military records, personal credit histories, medical histories, psychiatric histories, divorce records, you name it,” our source told us. "We've got the goods on the Veterans who oppose Kerry."

Hmmm, sounds like all the stuff that Lurch won't release about himself.

Well the brown books have arrived. Here's Rush & Molloy, the gossip columists for the NY Daily News:

A Swift (& deadly) response
...
A group of Democratic loyalists is compiling incriminating dossiers on the members of the veteran group - and they sent us a preview of what might be in store for Swift Boat activist James Zumwalt, son of illustrious Adm. Elmo Zumwalt - and it isn't pretty.
...
Zumwalt stepped into the line of fire when he testified with the controversial Swift vets at the National Press Club in Washington last May.

That'll teach those pesky veterans not to mouth off about their betters!

"Sauce for the Gander"

Did you see the mainstream media furor about an outside lawyer advising the Bush-Cheney campaign who was also retained by the Swift Vets? My thought was there's a lawyer with a burgeoning practice, but Kerry spokesdroid Chad Clanton had his panties tightly knotted:

"It's another piece of the mounting evidence of the ties between the Bush campaign and this group," Kerry campaign spokesman Chad Clanton said of Ginsberg's admission.

and the flying monkeys in the mainstream media were chattering loudly and really upset.

Anyhow, NZ Bear does a little digging (you know, that icky stuff reporters used to do) and provides Sauce for the Gander: Sharing Lawyers With 527's. Follow the link for all the details, but basically he held off on publishing a story over the weekend about one Mr. Ned Reiff who is Deputy General Counsel for the Demorcratic National Committee as well as working for our little pals, MoveOn.org.

The reason I held off on publishing this information originally was that after consulting with some of the legal luminaries of the blogosphere, I did not get a clear answer as to whether Mr. Reiff's dual role was truly a conflict from an ethical, legal, or campaign-finance perspective (the consensus was that it didn't seem to be a conflict). And it honestly seems understandable to me that a lawyer might provide legal services to many groups without crossing the "coordination" line which 527's must honor.

But if Mr. Ginsberg is going to be criticized by Kerry's campaign for his dual role, it is only fair to ask the same questions about Mr. Reiff.

At this point, the Kerry campaign's belief that they can hold their opponents to one set of standards while blissfully ignoring the fact that their own partisans trample upon those same standards has passed being stupid, and is now becoming downright insulting. Did they really think that nobody would bother to check if the Democrats were similarly sharing lawyers with 527's?

That kind of carelessness might have cut it a few years ago, when somnolent Big Media hacks were satisfied to define reporting as getting quotes from both party's spokesmen. But times have changed, friends: there isn't just one new sheriff in town, there's thousands of us. We will fact-check your ass, and we will do it thoroughly and properly, with links and primary sources that let our readers decide where the truth lies. So straighten up and fly right, because we are watching --- and we do this crap for fun.

Yes, indeedy.

And what do you know, but the latest AP reports have this buried paragraph:

Joe Sandler, a lawyer for the DNC and MoveOn.org, a group running anti-Bush ads, said there is nothing wrong with serving in both roles at once. Attorneys are ethically bound to maintain attorney-client confidentiality, and could lose their law licenses if they violate that, he said.

Joe, why don't you hop on over to Chad Clanton's office and point out the clue phone to him? Even the Evil Empire nearly gets it:

The campaign of Senator John Kerry shares a lawyer, Robert Bauer, with America Coming Together, a liberal group that is organizing a huge multimillion-dollar get-out-the-vote drive that is far more ambitious than the Swift boat group's activities. Mr. Ginsberg said his role was no different from Mr. Bauer's.

Mr. Bush's campaign aides have repeatedly said they have no connection to the group, almost all of whose challenges to Mr. Kerry and his war record have been contradicted by official war records and even some of its members' own past statements.

More like almost all the challenges have been upheld by official war records and the candidate's past statements, not to mention the fact that Lurch provided "entertainment" to the POW's at the Hanoi Hilton. But more on that later.

"I don't fall down! The SOB knocked me over!"

You have to feel bad for poor Lurch. He's surrounded by the worst sort of incompetents that are always messing up his smooth moves. From tomorrow's WaPo - Comments on Iraq War In Error, Says Kerry Aide:

A top national security adviser to John F. Kerry said yesterday that he made a mistake when he said the Democratic nominee probably would have launched a military invasion to oust Saddam Hussein if he had been president during the past four years.

On Aug. 7, Jamie Rubin told The Washington Post that "in all probability" a Kerry administration would have waged war against Iraq by now if the Massachusetts Democrat were president.

The Bush campaign, eager to portray Kerry as holding the same position as the president after the failure to find weapons of mass destruction, seized on Rubin's comments as evidence that the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates share similar views on the war, in retrospect. On NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman said the two candidates agreed about "sending our troops to war."
...
Some Kerry advisers said Rubin's comments played right into Bush's hands and wanted the record set straight before it exploded into a bigger political issue. Rubin, a State Department official in the Clinton administration who often travels with the candidate, agreed, aides said.

Actually, the comments were more likely seized on in high good humor as yet more evidence of Lurch's nuance-induced confusion, sure to be flip-flopped. And they were.

OK, I'll bite. What is the Lurchster's real position?

In an interview yesterday, Rubin said it is unknowable whether Kerry would have waged the war. "Bush went to war the wrong way," Rubin said. "What we don't know is what would have happened if a president had gone about it the right way."

Glad he cleared that up! And in only 17 days!

Today's Hoot!

Kerry Team Lines Up Witnesses to Senate Career:

The Kerry campaign ratcheted up its defense of the Democrat's Senate record today, producing several U.S. Senators to attest to John Forbes Kerry's presence during actual senate sessions.
...
"I distinctly remember seeing John Kerry in the senate chambers on Christmas eve," said the unnamed senator. "That picture of him working through the Christmas break is seared....seared in my memory. He gave no thought to himself. His devotion was to the common people whom he served with valor."

It's ScrappleFace, of course.

Was Lurch actually in the Senate? I thought he was in Vietnam right up to the convention!

Thuggery High and Low

There's not much I would put past Terry "Global Crossing" McAuliffe, the only person I know who got rich in a career as a political fundraiser and is now head of the Democrat National Committee. So, I was sure relieved to see McAuliffe: Democrats not aiding protesters:

Democratic Party chief Terry McAuliffe says his party doesn't need to help the thousands of protesters who will descend on New York in anticipation of next week's Republican National Convention.
...
"We can't control thousands of people who want to protest the Bush administration," McAuliffe told reporters Monday during a conference call.
...
He denied claims by GOP counterpart Ed Gillespie of a "blurry" line between Democrats and the protesters.
...
"We have nothing to do with the demonstrators. Republicans know that," McAuliffe said. "If they can link us to a bunch of lawbreakers, they think people will not pay attention to the promises they've broken."

There's an odd thing though. The protest organizers have been posting the names and addresses of Republican convention delegates on the web:

Our objectives are to:
* Supply anti-RNC groups with data on the delegates to use in whatever way they see fit.
* Supply a body of information that can be easily added to.
* Encourage the republishing and redistribution of this data.
* Facilitate making local connections. Many of these delegates are involved in politics and business on a town or county level.

Because

"The earth is not dying, it is being killed. And those that are killing it have names and addresses."

There is a threat of physical violence that is implicit in this, and anyone on these lists should take a moment to review their own security situation

Indeed.

And the lists keep showing up at various Indymedia outlets which are one of the beneficiaries of the Tides Foundation, Teresa Kerry's favorite charity money laundering outfit. UPDATE: And see this beauty at LGF.

But look who keeps demanding that the Republicans publish the names and addresses of the delegates - McAuliffe Calls on Republicans to Release Their Delegate Lists. This is just one of a series of press releases with various outlandish "guesses" about who might be on the list. Frankly, I have zero interest in the names and addresses of delegates to the Democrat convention. I wonder why ole Terry is so hot after the Republican list?

I'm sure it's all just a big coincidence. But we'll get to revisit it after the thugs start rioting in New York.

And if the grotty marching wingnuts are too weary-making, you can always observe the behavior of the more genteel leftoids. Kind of sounds like Bainbridge Island doesn't it?

More fun with Lurch!

Mark Steyn - Kerry: strange, stuck-up... and stupid:

I said a couple of weeks back that John Kerry was too strange to be President, and a week or two earlier that he was too stuck-up to be President. Since I'm on an alliterative roll, let me add that he's too stupid to be President. What sort of idiot would make the centrepiece of his presidential campaign four months of proud service in a war he's best known for opposing?
...
How cocooned from reality do you have to be to think you can transform one of the most divisive periods in American history – in which you were largely responsible for much of the divisiveness – into a sappy, happy-clappy, soft-focus patriotic blur without anybody objecting? Most Vietnam veterans of my acquaintance loathe John Kerry, and, if he wasn't aware of that, he's too out of it to be President.

That can happen to rich guys, particularly touchy, thin-skinned rich guys who prefer to surround themselves with yes-men. Kerry was apparently infuriated by the cool reception he got from a veterans' audience last week. But why would he expect anything different?

And even if he'd never slimed his comrades, there's something ridiculous about a fellow with four months in Vietnam running as Ike, the Duke of Wellington and Alexander the Great rolled into one.
...
If Vietnam vets loathe him, World War Two vets seem to think he's a buffoon. Short of reversing over the last 128-year-old Spanish-American War veteran in the retirement home parking lot, it's hard to see how Kerry could more comprehensively diminish his military support.
...
If this campaign were any more inept, Michael Moore would be making a documentary claiming Kerry's a Republican plant secretly controlled by Karl Rove and the House of Saud.

As usual with Steyn, there's much more by following the link including a takeown of the odious Pat Oliphant.

Maybe because he's a joke?

Seriously: Kerry on Comedy Central:

When John Kerry decided it was time to do his first national TV interview since the Swift boaters for Bush launched their attack on the senator's Vietnam War record, he did not choose CBS's "60 Minutes," ABC's "Nightline" or "NBC Nightly News."

Kerry picked Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," where he will appear tonight in an extended interview.

No word on whether he'll be wearing his "magic hat."

Hey, hey, it's Hollyweird! (I'm George Soros and I brought you this message.)

In today's WaPo, Howard Kurtz has the scoop on the George Soros sponsored MoveON celebrity wankfest which is being kicked off with a gala premiere tonight in his article, MoveOn, Mobilizing The A-List Against W:

Hip-hop impresario Benny Boom, who has directed videos for P. Diddy, Lil' Kim and LL Cool J, didn't need to have his arm twisted to join an anti-Bush advertising campaign.

"I felt like Bush stole the last election and the whole country kind of got robbed and bamboozled, and I wanted to make sure I did my part besides voting," he says. When he was approached by the liberal MoveOn PAC, "I was like, yo, I want to do an ad myself."
...
What is striking about the spots is that they contain no mention of the Democratic presidential nominee.

"I'm more passionate about being opposed to Bush," says Boom. "George Bush is probably the first real gangsta we have had in office. John Kerry needs to be a little bit more of a gangsta himself."

Apparently neither logic nor brains is Benny's strong suit. Also, someone please explain to Kurtz that they can't mention Kerry's name because they are supposed to be "unconnected." (Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge. Say no more.)

Besides the rocket scientist, all the usual Hollyweird pantloads lent their "talents" to the commericials, but it's the usual MoveOn con:

There may be less to the ad hype than meets the eye, however. While the 12 spots will be made available online, says Pariser, only one or two may hit the airwaves, depending on how focus groups react in the 18 most tightly contested states and how much money MoveOn members contribute toward the campaign.

For a group that's rolling in the unregulated dough, they always seem to want more, presumably to reinforce their star status in the leftoid constellation.

Anyhow, the really engaging part is that they are going to trot out their ole pal, Howard Dean, at tonight's gala. Maybe he'll perform "The Scream" for old time's sake!

More of Lurch's crack team

(Via Ed Driscoll) You Decide 2004, cont.:

Democratic strategist Mary Anne Marsh, speaking moments ago on “Hannity and Colmes”: “George Bush betrayed his country by sending us to war on false pretenses, and George Bush betrayed his country by not fighting in Vietnam.”

Yes. You read that right. “George Bush betrayed his country by not fighting in Vietnam.”

"George Bush betrayed his country by not fighting in Vietnam."

Given an opportunity to correct this rather incredible statement, Ms. Marsh declined, arguing that she had nothing to apologize for—that it was a fact that George Bush betrayed his country by not fighting in Vietnam.

Can you say meltdown, kids? I knew you could!

Today's Hoot

But as usual, the laugh's on us. Via Viking Pundit:

From Mackubin Thomas Owens in National Review on "John Kerry's Two Vietnams"

As a correspondent pointed out to me in an e-mail, each episode of the HBO series Band of Brothers, begins with a voiceover in which the narrator says of the World War II soldiers portrayed in the program: "I was not a hero, but I was surrounded by heroes." In contrast, what John Kerry is saying in essence about his "band of brothers" is that "in Vietnam, I was a hero, but I was surrounded by war criminals."

Except for those who basked in the aura of JFK II.

While you are there - check out Let's get reeeeeaaaady to flip-flop! It seems that redeploying troops from Europe and Korea is pretty popular.

Yikes! "Non connected" 527 fun with Empress Teresa too!

Via Blogs for Bush:

Check out John Kerry's own blog for the latest in links to this tangled web they weaved in their effort to deceive:

(click to supersize)

The East Bay for Kerry/MoveOn House party on December 7th combined the forces of two grass-roots organizations based in San Francisco East Bay Area. We had 200 guests eating, drinking, and watching the MoveOn Documentary “Uncovered” featuring Joseph Wilson and Rand Beers from the Kerry campaign.

When Teresa Heinz-Kerry arrived, she handed me a pin that read in the center: “Asses of Evil” with “Bush”, “Cheney”, “Rumsfeld” and “Ashcroft” surrounding it.

[John Kerry] also spoke about the recent Bush Thanksgiving visit to our military in Iraq, carrying a platter laden down with a fake turkey, smiling for a photo op.

Sometimes it's hard to figure out which one is more odious, the Empress or the gigolo.

Number 1 is happy!

See the previous post for the leading minions. Maybe Wes and Joan are in the running for Number 2?

I didn't know you could keep a horse in Berkeley!

Look what showed up in the Entertainment News on Yahoo!:

Wes Boyd and Joan Blades, co-founders of MoveOn, are seen outside their Berkeley, Calif., home on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2004. The Internet political group on Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2004, premieres 10 new anti-Bush ads created by award-winning directors and starring popular Hollywood actors. An independent group formed in 1998 and not connected directly to Democratic candidate John Kerry, MoveOn has promised an unconventional approach to the election.

Nothing to see here, just MoveOn!

More fun "not connected" 527 news at Truth Laid Bear, American Thinker, and an updated Connections chart.

But here's the best 527 fun - Dole Defends Swiftees in Call From Kerry:

"John Kerry called me this morning, which surprised me," Dole told radio host Sean Hannity.

"He said he was very disappointed, we'd been friends. I said John, we're still friends, but [the Swiftvets] have First Amendment rights, just as your people have First Amendment rights.

Dole told Kerry, "I'm not trying to stir anything up, but I don't believe every one of these people who have talked about what happened are Republican liars.

"And very frankly, Bush is my guy, and I'm tired of people on your side calling him everything from a coward to a traitor to everything - a deserter."

Dole said he urged Kerry, "Why don't you call George Bush today and say, 'Mr. President, let's stop all this stuff about the National Guard and Vietnam - and let's talk about the issues."

Dole said Kerry responded, "I haven't spent one dime attacking President Bush."

But the Republican war hero shot back, "You don't have to. You've got all the so-called mainstream media, plus you've got MoveOn.org and all these other groups that have spent millions and millions of dollars trying to tarnish Bush's image."

"Don't tell me you don't know what some of these people are doing," he told Kerry.

The emphasis added is mine.

Back to Cambodia, Part 25

(Click to supersize, Hat tip: FlashBunny.org)

Yesterday, Tad Devine, Senior Adviser, Kerry-Edwards '04 appeared on Meet the Press:

MR. RUSSERT: He didn't take office until January '69. Does Senator Kerry stand by that statement that on Christmas Eve of '68 he was physically in Cambodia?

MR. DEVINE: Right. Well, his memory, Tim, is being there, around there. And I'll tell you what happened on December 25th...

MR. RUSSERT: No--being there or around there?

MR. DEVINE: No, being right at the Cambodian border, over the Cambodian border. That's what he remembers. That's his clear memory. Now, Tim...

Can't they even get this story straight?

Meanwhile on Bizarro World

Hamptons Diary:

HUNDREDS of well- heeled guests found themselves traipsing through mud to get to John Kerry's $1,000-a-head fund-raiser at the home of venture capitalist Alan Patricof Saturday night, after the event was turned into a political Woodstock by bucketing rain.

No to worry, I'm sure Alan is already having a new lawn flown in.

Former model Christie Brinkley was overheard joking that the mud was a result of Republican campaign tactics.

She may only be an airhead model, but she is smarter than Janet Jackson's boob.

Meanwhile, first to collar the delayed presidential hopeful when he finally showed up was hip-hop mogul turned politico Russell Simmons, who pulled Kerry aside for a stern tete-à-tete on how better to relate to the voters.

Bwahaha! No, I'm not making this up!

Outside, Jimmy Buffett performed for the waiting crowd, which was awash in tequila.

But the buzz was almost amid [killed? - ed.] by Teresa Heinz Kerry's long-winded introduction, which finally ended soon after one heckler told her to sit down.

Drunken rowdies at a $1,000 a head fund raiser? Back off everyone, meltdown in progress!

Later, the Kerrys headed to the East Hampton home of "Sex and the City" creator Darren Star, who co-hosted a $25,000-per-person dinner with furniture designer Mitchell Gold. It was attended by 250 guests including Sen. Chuck Schumer, actor Peter Boyle, Infinity Radio chief John Sykes and marketing exec Robert Zimmerman.

Kerry thanked Star, telling the crowd that in this economy, "Sex and the City's" fictional character of Carrie Bradshaw wouldn't even be able to afford a $15 pair of shoes.

Which I'm sure brought a tear to the eye of every one of these swells.

The NY Times also covered the festivities and although they left out the good parts, there were still some gems:

At a tent party for 800 guests (minimum entry fee: $1,000) at the home of the venture capitalist Alan Patricof, women lost their high heels to the mud while a trumpet player resembling Ernest Borgnine led the band in "When You're Smiling." Dozens of people with dirty feet left early.

"I had $200 designer shoes that stayed in the car," said Grace Williams, a New Jersey resident who spent the weekend in Montauk. "I'm not ruining them."

Smart move "in this economy," Grace!

After the festivities, Mr. Kerry and his entourage drove to Gabreski Airport in Westhampton for the flight to Boston. One East End farmer, anticipating Mr. Kerry's route, propped a sign on an old pickup truck bidding farewell. It read, "Kerry Go Home."

Those pesky little people! They're everywhere!

Senator Harkin spanked, sent to room

Dems deny Harkin pulled from stump:

Kerry's campaign in Wisconsin had been publicizing a ''Tour of Honor'' featuring Harkin and former Sen. Max Cleland. The Iowa senator was to speak in Eau Claire Thursday but withdrew for ''logistical reasons,'' said Lesley Sillaman of Kerry's Wisconsin campaign.

She denied that Harkin was ''pulled from the lineup.''

The rest of the article suggests it was because of the "uncivil tone" ole Tom took towards Vice President Dick Cheney. Yeah, I'm sure this had nothing to do with it.

Nothing to see here, MoveOn (er, move along)

A Special Relationship:

On Friday, Kerry campaign spokesman Debra Deshong was telling any reporter who would listen that there was a big difference between the negative advertisements being run by George Soros-funded MoveOn.org and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth: "MoveOn.org is an independent organization that existed well before the Kerry campaign," she said, whereas the veterans group "is not an independent group."

No word on whether she also had a bridge in NYC to sell.

In fact, according to a Kerry campaign volunteer, staff members and volunteers of the Kerry campaign in New York, Washington, and Los Angeles have been in almost constant contact with MoveOn.org staffers, including advanced viewing and reviews of MoveOn.org television commercials, online ads, and web content. As well, MoveOn.org staffers provided the Kerry campaign with opposition research within the past two months, as well as advance looks at speeches made by MoveOn.org speakers, including former Vice President Al Gore.

"We're always running into those guys," says a Kerry campaign volunteer in Washington, about MoveOn.org staffers. "We socialize with them, we see them at meetings, we can't avoid it. And of course we talk about the campaign. In some cities, we get our volunteers from MoveOn. No one has ever raised an issue about it."

In some cases, it isn't just volunteers that the Kerry campaign is getting from MoveOn.org. They are hiring them too. In April, the Kerry campaign hired MoveOn's special projects and research director Jack Exley [aka Zack - ed.] to oversee Kerry's campaign's website. At the time, the Kerry campaign made a point of saying that Exley was joining the campaign with not a single scrap of paper or computer disk from his time with MoveOn.

But Exley didn't need to bring much. According to another Kerry adviser, there were already so many back-channel relationships between the two organizations, Exley's presence to foster more was unnecessary. "As soon as it was clear Kerry had the nomination, we began coordinating. It's all done through the DNC and the AFL-CIO, which is financing many of the other groups out there running anti-Republican advertising. We will sit on conference calls, but we won't take part. We just take notes, then confer with our folks inside the DNC. That's the way it's done."

And George Soros provides the lubrication.

I wonder how they'll like this down at our local Legion Hall?

You might ask at your local VFW and American Legion post too.

(Hat tip to an FR poster for the "Kerry Edwards" panel.)

It's a vast conspiracy fer sure!

And speaking of whining, the primo Donk talking point about the Swift Vet ads is that it's a vast Republican conspiracy because some veteran knew someone who was a Republican. I'm shocked, I tell ya! Of course, if you want to look at real coordination between a political party and a "uncoordinated" "527" group, hop on over to the Democrat National Committee's Braying Ass web site for More than 300,000 Americans Sign Petition to Protect America's Courts:

The DNC is also conducting a major petition drive in partnership with MoveOn.org. More than 310,000 Americans have signed the petition to protect our courts - with more than 172,000 of those signatures coming in the past 36 hours.

Charming snaps at Americans stand with the Senate Democrats:

DNC Chief Operating Officer Josh Wachs (left),
Senator Leahy, and Zack Exley from Moveon.org
pose with the more than 310,000 signatures.

That Zack sure cleans up real nice! Maybe he was also interviewing for the job with the Kerry campaign that he subsequently got.

A hat tip to an FR poster for the above example. Over at Blogs for Bush, Kevin Patrick has another example. I guess the DNC webmasters will be working long hours to put some stuff down the memory hole.

Kevin also helps the NY Times out with the graphic that we just know they'll be running soon:

(Click the pic to supersize)

All ashore who are going ashore

While most of the press are still following orders from Kerry HQ, some are getting off the ship. Here's Time's Joe Klein - Kerry in a Straitjacket: George W. Bush is throwing curve balls and Kerry keeps swinging

John Kerry suffered a small embarrassment last week that illuminated a big problem in his campaign. The embarrassment involved the not exactly riveting issue of troop redeployments. George W. Bush announced last Monday in a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) that he wanted to bring around 70,000 troops home from Germany and North Korea over the next 10 years. In principle, that is not very controversial. The military and foreign policy priesthoods have favored that sort of restructuring since the end of the cold war. And yet, when Kerry spoke to the VFW two days later, he attacked Bush's position, using an argument with some merit but of microscopic import in the midst of a presidential campaign: he said it was a "hasty" and "political" plan and certainly not a good negotiating tactic to withdraw troops from Korea while we are trying to get the North Koreans to drop their nuclear program.

But oops. Some two weeks earlier, in an interview with George Stephanopoulos, Kerry had taken a different position: "I think we can significantly change the deployment of troops, not just [in Iraq] but ... in the Korean peninsula, perhaps, in Europe, perhaps." As you might imagine, the Bush campaign quickly pointed out the inconsistency.

The stumble raises two basic questions about Kerry's campaign. First, is he a latter-day Ron Burgundy—the idiot 1970s anchorman of Will Ferrell's recent film who would read anything that appeared on his TelePrompTer? Did Kerry not remember what he had said to Stephanopoulos? No, it was, apparently, yet another Kerry nanonuance: he is in favor of redeployments, just not now. The second question is far more dire: Why is Kerry wasting breath on such periphera? Why isn't he hammering Bush on his conduct of the Iraq war and the larger war against Islamist radicalism, which is the most important issue in this election?

"Nanonuance" - I like that. Of course, "whining" might be a better description ("whingeing" for those across the pond).

As for the big question, Lurch has got a real problem. The "thought leaders" of the Democrat party would prefer to surrender, while the little people don't care for the idea that it is somehow their fault that crazed wingnuts want to drop planes on them. So to make everyone feel good about his abilities to do something and not having to explain what that something is, Lurch decided to make a big deal of his 4 months in Vietnam. Smooth move, Ex-Lax.

If you would rather skip lefty angst, don't follow the link; but there are some gems:

Kerry's obvious frustration with his self-imposed straitjacket not only leads him into lame forays like the troop-deployment gaffe but also to some tortured circumlocutions about the war. Most spectacular was spokesman James Rubin's recent statement that a President Kerry "in all probability" would have gone to war against Saddam Hussein by now. Oh really?

Paging Ralph Nader!