Man Without Qualities

Posted 11:23 AM by Robert

The Boy (Or Is It "Spermatazooan?") Who Cried "Dirty Tricks"

From a story linked by DRUDGE:

There was no "dirty trick" behind the photographs of Sen. John Kerry wearing the blue anti-contamination suit while touring the shuttle Discovery on Monday. .... Furthermore, NASA spokesman Bill Johnson said the Kerry campaign asked that the pictures be taken of the senator's unusually up-close tour of the Discovery and that processing be expedited so reporters could have them.
All of which is a bit different from the way Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill told it to FOXNEWS (again from DRUDGE):

HUME: i must ask you about this photograph that suddenly turned up and fell in our laps last night nobody thought it was come. nobody had reported on the event which led to-t but there he was, the senator, on all fours in this very peculiar outfit, which i guess nasa had given him. how did that come about?

CAHILL: well, yesterday senator john glenn, obviously he was an astronaut in his previous life sexrvings senator carr took a tour of a bio facility at nasa. it was just the two of them, and the nasa staff, and all of a sudden this is a leaked photo.

HUME: so the campaign had no idea there would be any photographs.

CAHILL: none.

HUME: when it was agreed he would put on his th costume.

CAHILL: there was no press there. there was -- nothing. all of the sudden these photographs are out.

HUME: do you smell a dirty trick here?

CAHILL: well, what do you think?

The Kerry campaign seems to be repeating a mistake committed by Al Gore in the last Presidential campaign: They've learned from Bill Clinton to lie big, casually and as often as needed, but they fail to incorporate his gift for telling lies that are difficult to check out.

MORE: From Spaceref.com:

NASA sources reveal that NASA KSC gave the Kerry campaign people about 30 CDs, which were to be distributed to local media by the Kerry people. The photos in question were on these CDs. Local reporters were seen with with these CDs later in the afternoon.

As such, assuming that the reporters got the CDs from the Kerry campaign, the Kerry people distributed the photographs themselves! There was no "leak".

FURTHER UPDATE:

More on the ongoing Kerry campaign bunnysuit clown show:

O'BRIEN: You know, here's the interesting -- I've been talking to my pals at NASA about this: This stuff was not leaked. It turns out that the Kerry campaign asked for all these images and then distributed them to the media.So, they didn't realize -- yes, I know you're slack-jawed...

BOORTZ: You're joking.

O'BRIEN: Yes -- yes, they let it out.

BOORTZ: You're joking. Well, we were talking this morning that the difference between the Dukakis tank picture and the Kerry bunny suit picture, being nice, is that in the tank picture, the campaign actually distributed that. And now you're telling me that the Kerry campaign has admitted the same thing? O'BRIEN: You can run with it. I -- this is true, the folks at NASA, who are absolutely incredulous...

BOORTZ: Wow.

O'BRIEN: ... that it was leaked, because they set the whole thing up at the request of the Kerry campaign to distribute the images.

Also note Al Franken stalking Boortz.

This is pathetic on John Kerry's part - and on the part of his whole organization. Just pathetic. Is anyone in the mainstream media going to ask the nominee about this, say around the time he gives his BIG SPEECH tonight?

Link from Henry Hanks.