NYT: Bush and Kerry trade jabs

As Vote Nears, Stances on War Set Off Sparks - New York Times: "For at least a few hours on Tuesday, President Bush had a chance to relive his victorious campaign of 2004, taking a break from a bleak Republican campaign season as he attacked Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts over the war in Iraq.

Mr. Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who was Mr. Bush’s opponent in 2004, is not running for office this year. But the president seized on what he said were Mr. Kerry’s disparaging remarks about the troops — and what Mr. Kerry insisted was a botched joke aimed at Mr. Bush — as he sought to make Mr. Kerry the face of the Democratic Party this fall.

In the process, Mr. Bush brought renewed attention to the war in Iraq, which he defended with vigor while campaigning in Georgia, at the very moment that a number of Republican Congressional candidates, following the advice of party strategists, were stepping up their efforts to distance themselves from the White House on the war as the campaign enters its final days."

Seems like old times! But what a nonstory. Kerry clearly had a lapse of common sense (not the first time) and should have said something positive about the troops rather than angrily refuse to apologize for his "botched joke". But the fact that Bush and his cohorts are shrieking about it is breathtaking in its hypocrisy. Kerry is the war hero, he's been there, but once again in a deja-vu way the GOP has taken his words sort of out of context and used them against him. What this means in the days before the election is unclear. I'm sure it will get lost in some other gaffe news later today.