What's beyond wankery?

Whatever it is, Stuart Rothenberg's soaking in it. While looking for "The Worst Self-Inflicted Wound of 2006," he can't resist a dig at that Kerry fella...

On one level, the Kerry comment about getting good grades or you’ll end up in Iraq was worse than Allen’s "macac" comment, since Kerry wasn’t even on the ballot and, as my wife pointed out, he compounded his goof by insisting that he was trying to tell a joke when he almost certainly wasn’t.

Of course, he absolutely was. That Kerry's line was a joke is obvious both in the prepared transcript of the speech and in the transcript of the speech as delivered. It's one line in a string of barbed humor aimed directly at George Bush, and if you listen to any recorded version that hasn’t been deceptively edited, it was apparent to those in attendance, as well. In fact, while the lines themselves may have been misdelivered, as a joke it wasn't as botched as the conventional wisdom holds, since the audience laughed out loud. When I tell a joke, I generally take laughter as a sign of successful delivery.

In fact, Rothenberg's view seems to be one you could only arrive at without reviewing the actual words or circumstances themselves, relying instead on second-hand reports from people who would have you believe that a highly decorated combat veteran would deliberately demean troops in the field. You know, the purple-heart band-aid crowd. Some would call it 'swift-boating.'

Of course, Rothenberg not only completely misinterprets Kerry's remark, he completely misplaces him on his survey of the self-injured. As he notes, John Kerry wasn't on any ballot this year, and Rothenberg goes on to admit that most folks "shrugged off" the 'controversy' that Bushco™ tried to gin up.

So what was the point? I mean, if Kerry's really a man without a future, why all the focus on what was essentially a non-event? Politician tells joke, people laugh, his enemies lie about it. End of story.

Make that "should be end of story."

But the digs just keep on coming.

Kinda makes you wonder - why are they afraid of John Kerry?