John Kerry is an idiot

... and so are the Republicans who are capitilizing on his mistake.

First things first: John Kerry is not a funny person, and people who are not funny should not tell jokes. What actually came out of his mouth the other day was stupid and offensive, and the joke he planned to tell wasn't much better*.

Still, this is not the sort of thing that should be influencing an election.

John Kerry is a has-been. The Republicans beat him 2 years, and exhuming his bloated corpse for another beating is the stratagy of desperation. For the last several months the Republicans have been losing ground because they've failed on the issues, and the American people know it: the war in Iraq is an epic disaster, Americas aren't safer, and the House is a swamp of cronyism and corruption. By flooding the airwaves 24/7 with their manufactured outrage over John Kerry's bad joke, the Republicans are doing nothng but seeking to distract the American people from their own failures.

The vicious irony of this GOP Stratagy is it is their politics which have actually endangered the troops. They are the ones who executed a poorly planned war. They are the ones who sent Americans into battle without body armor and other needed supplies. Meanwhile, John Kerry is a veteran who has always had a genuine bond with other veterans and soldiers. Also, his bad joke hasn't put them in any danger. So why is the outrage directed at him? If Republicans care about the troops, and the war, let them turn the criticism and disapprobation on Rumfield, Bush, Cheney, and the enablers and yes-men in the House leadership

[*For your amusement (and also for the edification of Tony "Squealer" Snow who, yesterday, professed not to fathom how Kerry's words might be construed as a joke) here is what Kerry actually said, with the dropped word added in bold:

"Do you know where you end up if you don't study, if you aren't smart, if you're intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq. Just ask President Bush."

He swung at the president, and hit the troops. The moron.]