KERRY-ING ON
Now that John Kerry is the presumptive nominee, doomed or blessed to challenge the Junior Bush in November, I’ve been waiting, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Although the RNC and its sycophants in the right-wing and mainstream media were quick to snuff out the Dean rabble-rousing, they have been slow to tackle the Kerry enigma. Where do (can) you conduct a Politics of Personal Destruction (PPD) campaign against a war hero turned war brave protester with a long, progressive record in the Senate? After various silent steps and trial balloons, a pattern seems to be emerging.
The first attempt is always to try to make the opponent look silly. Although the Bushies themselves and not even the more outwardly rabid RNC could not have come out on this issue, they left it to their favorite helpful wing-nut, Matt Drudge, to raise the "issue" of whether Kerry has or has not employed Botox to smooth his furrowed brow. In the service of his Master Karl Rove, Drudge posted several photos of Kerry on his site; those with raised eyebrows taken before...what was the date of the alleged Botox injections again?...showing lines in his forehead, and those after the mystery date – all of which showed Kerry with his eyebrows focused down – showing no such lines.
Well. This is the sort of silliness embraced by the weaker political commentators and comedians among us. Add to this the predictable Kerry denial and the claim that his wife is a Botox advocate (I bet that’s not true, either), and you have a classic non-story, masquerading as political theater. Like the lie about Al Gore claiming to be the inventor of the Internet, denials and even actual same-day footage showing the same lines on the same face fail to quell the juvenile pursuit of a politically entertaining non-event.
Once again, the mainstream media and the entertainment industry has been far too willing to swallow the wingnut line – and only about a Democrat. Where are the punchlines and investigations of Bush’s change from identifying himself as George Bush, Jr, to his political facelift of naming himself "George W. Bush" just before he ran for Texas Governor? Where are the critiques and facile explorations of Junior’s often-confused and always ignorant demeanor at his infrequent, but always ludicrous press conferences? Again, the mainstream media continues to hold Democrats to a higher standard than Republicans, expecting more and always finding less, while the Republicans are allowed to put forward the most feeble of mind and man (Reagan, Bush II) and nary a discouraging word is heard.
The Botox non-issue is only the most outrageous claim of the creeping campaign against Kerry. Now, today, the Washington Post reports that Kerry took more money from lobbyists than any other Senator in the last 15 years. Wow. How much has Bush soaked out of lobbyists recently? With Tom Delay’s campaign to eliminate all lobbyists with Democratic ties, how many lobbyists would dare give to a Democrat these days, anyway?
Of course, the Post story dodges the real issue by focusing on a) Senators and b) Democrats. The story remarkably (and purposefully) refuses to compare the Kerry contributions with those of Bush. This is all presented as some sort of reflection on Kerry’s supposedly insincere campaign against the "special interests" that are feeding at the trough of the Bush Administration. But a President Kerry would never give the outright appearance of the quid pro quo that the Bushies give every day of their sorry lives.
The mainstream media wouldn’t let him get away with it.
9:59:51 PM 
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