Lurch's Hissy Fit

Our favorite gigolo seems to be freaking out! When the Swift Boat Vets first appeared, the Kerry strategy was to have his lawyers threaten any station that played the ad, while his big media pals ignored it except for the occasional fly swat by them and George Soros' sock puppets. Then he went to the VFW convention on Wednesday:

Sen. John Kerry is said by several advance staffers to have been visibly upset at the reception he received at the VFW convention on Wednesday in Cincinnati. "He was upset after the speech, visibly upset when he was out of public view," says a Kerry adviser, confirming the story.

Kerry was greeted by polite applause in the large auditorium, with many VFW members sitting with their arms crossed and not applauding at all. A few VFW members stood in the rear of the room with their backs turned to the dais.

Kerry appeared thrown by the reception, giving a flat, sometimes-meandering speech that was intended to be a strong rebuttal of President Bush's announced troop pullback in Europe and Korea.

Two things apparently changed Kerry's aggressive stance. First, before going onstage, Kerry was informed that NATO officials in Brussels had essentially backed the Bush proposal as being sound and in line with NATO's own troop deployment plans. Second, according to an advance staffer, the candidate had been told that he would be received at the very least warmly, based on feedback the campaign had received from VFW officials.

"He's not used to not getting a warm reception," says the advance staffer. "He can handle the Bush hooligans we get, but when he's told he'll be greeted well, he expects that to be the case."

(More here and here.) Watch out everyone! Lurch is in a tizzy! And he must be living in a really serious delusionary state. He expected to be warmly received by a real veterans' group? Hey John, it wasn't Jane Fonda and the VVAW.

Anyhow, Lurch was apparently fulminating all the way back to his wife's Boston mansion and decided that night to unleash the flying monkeys:

Kerry reversed course Wednesday night after arriving in Boston from a campaign trip to Cincinnati. As his motorcade pulled up to his Beacon Hill townhouse, he asked senior adviser David Morehouse, communications direction Stephanie Cutter and press secretary David Wade to come inside.

With campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill on the phone, Kerry told his aides, "I think it's time to go at this."

That must be how Boston Brahmins say, "Fly, my pretties!" The early birds at the WaPo got their hit in on Thursday and all the other big media weighed in on Friday. I'm sure it was just a coincidence they all jumped on it at the same time, aren't you? Meanwhile the campaign (and their pals at George Soros' front groups) are trying to ban the book, Unfit for Command, and whining to the FEC about the television ads. Yeah, that'll make it go away!

Anyhow, Imperial Stormtrooper Adam Nagourney has a gag-inducing piece today describing the Empire's point of view - Kerry Might Pay Price for Failing to Strike Back Quickly. There's no consideration of the idea that just maybe Lurch has some explaining to do. It's all about how he should have called out the flying monkeys earlier. Best line:

In fairness to Mr. Kerry, his aides were faced with a strategic dilemma that has become distressingly familiar to campaigns in this era when so much unsubstantiated or even false information can reach the public through so many different forums, be it blogs or talk-show radio.

Oh, please! It's really great when the premier media spinners turn "holier than thou." No word on how many column inches the Times devoted to the unsubstantiated charges about President Bush's military record. But don't let us keep you, Adam! You don't want to be late for the Kool-Aid chugging contest!

Geez, guys, Kerry said he’s telling the truth. Let it be. The carefully scripted, evasive half-answers and the New York Times’ tilted take is good enough for the Democrats. So, what’s the problem? I mean, who cares if 60 eyewitnesses, and a total of 254 combat mates, think Kerry is a grade “A” bulls**t artist? No need to check the facts: they’ve gotta be wrong, and Kerry’s obviously right. Drink the juice.

Now, repeat after me: it makes no difference that John-boy claimed until just last week that he spent Christmas Eve 1968 in Cambodia. It’s really just a bit of poor navigation that he was 55 miles away, deep in Vietnam, although he insisted on it every chance he got including on the Senate floor.

And it really, really doesn’t matter that he claimed Richard Nixon was the lying president at the time, although he still was waiting to be inaugurated. We all know that worse things have been said about Nixon, so you can’t blame the ever-so-honest, self-righteous John Forbes Kerry.

More by following the link.

UPDATE: More meltdown news in a NY Times article from yesterday:

Stephanie Cutter, the Kerry campaign's communications director, said Mr. Kerry decided Wednesday night to respond to the attacks, hours after receiving a mixed reception at a convention of Veterans of Foreign Wars. Many veterans interviewed there parroted the charges from the Swift boaters' group.

Parroted? It's the Slimes.

"When somebody's attacking your military record, you reach a boiling point, and he reached a boiling point last night," Ms. Cutter explained. "When you go and fight in a war, when you spill blood for your country, your instinct is to fight back and defend your record."

Give him his meds and put a bandaid on it, Stephie.