Two candidates on the stump

Today in Cleveland Ohio, Bush spoke before a women's business group and defended his record speaking of the worthwhile cause in Iraq, the effect of tax cuts on the economy, and reminding his audience that unemployment remains quite low.

John Kerry accuses Bush and his people of being liars and the most corrupt group of (garbled) that he's seen. The quote at CNN, "Oh yeah, don't worry man. We're going to keep pounding, let me tell you -- we're just beginning to fight here. These guys are the most crooked, you know, lying group of people I've ever seen."

There have been three explanations of this. #1 and most lame, Kerry was refering to talk radio, and aides have mentioned Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh. Had either of these two said anything particularly scathing in the past couple of days, or had they been hitting him hard on questionable areas, this might have been convincing. I don't listen to Rush and I only listen to Hannity in the car (alas the inferiority of choice on radio), but I do know what Hannity is talking about every day the half hour to an hour I hear every day, and his theme is that Kerry has no core of beliefs because he flip-flops on issues. Today he played clips of Dean attacking Kerry on flip-flops. This constitutes lies and corruption? Its not even a dirty trick, the NYT on Saterday asked, "Kerry's Shifts: Nuanced Ideas or Flip-Flops?" And of course there are the Dean clips. This is a real charge. See also this in Slate by noted anti-Kerry Dem, Mickey Kaus. Frankly, conservatie talk radio hosts need to say something not being said by Democrats to warrent the charge liars and crooked.

#2 and somewhat less lame is the claim that the quote refers to GOP campaign figures. So, perhaps Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie. Crooked? You mean the way Terry McAuliffe has been connected to Global Crossing? If Rove or Gillespie had some scandle floating around, this might have legs, but as far as I have seen neither of these two have any taint of corruption or crookedness. If he had just said lies, well, we could put this down as a "stop lying about my record" type of comment.

#3 and most plausible, he means Bush and Cheney. The Left has been making the claims that both have lied and are crooked for some time. Here is David Corn's list. There are the Enron charges, the Halliburton charges, &c, &c. This is the only real plausible target of the quote. Kerry was talking to supporters at a partisan event and make a charge worthy of MoveOn.org. In this Boston Herald op/ed, Kennedy is taken to task for claiming that the war in Iraq was a political product dreamed up in Texas. Kennedy is saying such things as he campaigns for Kerry. Its all part of the campaign plan, its not a slip or a misinterpreted statement. It can be understood right at the center of the Democrats (Bush was AWOL!) campiagn against the president.

On the John Kerry for President blog, under the entry "the 'mother' of all house parties" we find a post that includes this:
"When Teresa Heinz-Kerry arrived, she handed me a pin that read in the center: ?Asses of Evil? with ?Bush?, ?Cheney?, ?Rumsfeld? and ?Ashcroft? surrounding it. She met, greeted and talked to a jam-packed room of Kerry supporters and others who came for the MoveOn documentary. Many were curious, others undecided, or belonging to other candidate camps."