Journalism? Wow!

Marc Sandalow, Washington Bureau Chief for the San Francisco Chronicle, commits an act of journalism in an American daily newspaper. Examining the Buscho 'flip-flop' attacks on John Kerry's Iraq position, Sandalow says in print what many of us have known all along.

Bush just lies.

President Bush, seated beside Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said Tuesday: "My opponent has taken so many different positions on Iraq that his statements are hardly credible at all."

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Yet an examination of Kerry's words in more than 200 speeches and statements, comments during candidate forums and answers to reporters' questions does not support the accusation.

As foreign policy emerged as a dominant issue in the Democratic primaries and later in the general election, Kerry clung to a nuanced, middle-of-the road -- yet largely consistent -- approach to Iraq. Over and over, Kerry enthusiastically supported a confrontation with Saddam Hussein even as he aggressively criticized Bush for the manner in which he did so.

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...taken as a whole, Kerry has offered the same message ever since talk of attacking Iraq became a national conversation more than two years ago.

And in response to the charge that Kerry's vote on the resolution that authorized the possible use of military force in Iraq was a vote "for the war," Sandalow tells some more truth.

Yet in the fall of 2002, several months before the air strikes on Baghdad began, Bush himself insisted the vote was not the same as a declaration of war but instead gave him the hand he needed to negotiate the peace.

It's kind of sad when an honest reporter is considered remarkable, but there it is.

Encourage him with a note of commendation.