What Would Kerry Say?

Byron York of National Review offers a brilliant version of what John Kerry would say if we were attacked and Tom Ridge hadn't issued that warning the other day. Keep this in mind the next time Howard Dean opens his mouth and inserts his foot with lines like this:

"I am concerned that every time something happens that's not good for President
Bush, he plays this trump card, which is terrorism," Howard Dean, a former rival
of Mr. Kerry for the Democratic nomination, told Wolf Blitzer on CNN on Sunday.
"His whole campaign is based on the notion that 'I can keep you safe,
therefore at times of difficulty for America stick with me,' and then out comes
Tom Ridge," Mr. Dean, the former Vermont governor, added, referring to the
homeland security secretary. "It's just impossible to know how much of this is
real and how much of this is politics, and I suspect there's some of both in
it."

Okay, we all know Dean is full of crap. But here's the problem with Dean's formulation of when Bush should release the information. Dean acknowledged tonight on Hardball (kudos to National Review's Rich Lowry, who provided an early transcript at The Corner) that Bush and Ridge had the information in mid-July, but he's concerned that the release of the information was timed to kill John Kerry's "bounce" from the Boston Botox Party (a.k.a. the Democratic National Convention).

Let's start with the fact that polling data demonstrated little, if any, bounce for Kerry (Gallup published its poll showing a negative bounce) and that most of the polls were conducted prior to Ridge's announcement. Unless the people being polled all work for Homeland Security, the World Bank, or Citicorp, one wonders how the announcement could have affected anything other the Democratic Party surrogates' attempt to spin the lack of a bounce. Also, let's think about something -- if Ridge issues the same announcement one week earlier, he does it on the eve of the Botox Party, killing press attention for Kerry and engendering more speculation. Two weeks earlier... it still impacts the DNC, doesn't it? And what about three weeks earlier... oh, wait Kerry just named Edwards. It's got to be politically timed!

Give Kerry some credit for not jumping on Dean's bandwagon, as noted by the Detroit News. However, one should also note that Kerry has backtracked to Dean's position on other issues for political purposes, specifically on the Iraq War. At least his language here is pretty strong, although nowhere near as strong as the language employed by Joe Lieberman.

In the end, Kerry's getting briefed on the intel being used to make this determination, and he hasn't raised a stink about it. And he won't, since he has plenty of left-wing nuts, led by the Governor of Ben & Jerry Land, to make the case for him.