by JAMES TARANTO
Thursday, October 14, 2004 3:48 P.M. EDT

John Kerry, Gay-Baiter
Last week we noted that John Edwards, during the vice presidential debate, had mentioned that Dick Cheney has a lesbian daughter, and we wondered if Edwards was playing to antigay prejudice. Last night, in his final debate with President Bush, John Kerry did the same thing. While Edwards framed his remark as a compliment to the vice president's family, Kerry's mention was entirely gratuitous, leaving little doubt that, as Mickey Kaus (one of the few commentators who also called Edwards on this) puts it, there is "some Machiavellian strategy behind the Democratic urge to keep bringing this up."

Here's what Kerry said, in response to a question from moderator Bob Schieffer about same-sex marriage:

We're all God's children, Bob. And I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney's daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she's being who she was, she's being who she was born as.

The Associated Press reports that Lynne Cheney, the vice president's wife, expressed her outrage while campaigning near Pittsburgh:

"Now, you know, I did have a chance to assess John Kerry once more and now the only thing I could conclude: This is not a good man," she said.

"Of course, I am speaking as a mom, and a pretty indignant mom. This is not a good man. What a cheap and tawdry political trick."

Blogger Edward Morrissey has an apt analogy:

It would be equivalent to Bush using Julia Thorne, Kerry's ex-wife, to refute Kerry's insistence that he is a practicing Catholic and that Kerry respects families. If Bush were to bring up Kerry's annulment . . . he would rightly be blasted by Democrats as a nosy busybody engaging in smear tactics. Why are Democrats so silent now, and why do people like Steve Fisher from the Human Rights Campaign (a gay activist group) rationalize the objectification of Mary Cheney?

Not just Fisher, but also Andrew Sullivan, who of late has become an abject apologist for the Kerry campaign:

The double standards are entirely a function of people's lingering prejudice against gay people. And by mentioning it, Kerry showed something important. This issue is not an abstract one. It's a concrete, human and real one. It affects many families, and Bush has decided to use this cynically as a divisive weapon in an election campaign. He deserves to be held to account for this--and how much more effective than showing a real person whose relationship and dignity he has attacked and minimized? Does this makes Bush's base uncomfortable? Well, good. It's about time they were made uncomfortable in their acquiescence to discrimination.

But this is not about Bush's base. It is about Kerry's base. Many Democrats oppose same-sex marriage, and some no doubt harbor antigay prejudice. By making an issue of Cheney's daughter's sexuality, Kedwards hope to discourage them from defecting to Bush.

Kerry said during the debate that "the president and I share the belief that marriage is between a man and a woman." But like Yasser Arafat saying one thing in Arabic and another in English, he says something quite different for a gay audience. Here's an exchange from an interview in The Advocate, a gay magazine:

Q: Would you ever change your mind regarding same-sex marriage?

Kerry: I have my view, and my view is my view. I can't tell you in 20 years or whenever, if someone made a persuasive argument, the world changes. You know, George Bush just changed his mind on a national security director, and he changed his mind on raiding Social Security, and he changed his mind on homeland security. So I don't predict the future. What I tell you is that my position is what it is.

Last night, just before Kerry brought up Cheney's daughter, Bush said, "I'm deeply concerned that judges are making those decisions and not the citizenry of the United States." This is the real issue: Kerry is more likely to appoint judges who would impose same-sex marriage nationwide. To someone like Andrew Sullivan, perhaps it's worth enduring, even rationalizing, a little gay-baiting in order to achieve this result. But if socially conservative Democrats help elect Kerry because Dick Cheney has a lesbian daughter, they're likely to be unhappy with the consequences.

What Bush Can't Say
By common consensus, last night's performance, in a debate supposedly devoted to domestic policy (though some foreign-policy questions did come up), was his best in any of the three debates. Many observers have also said that in the second debate, Bush performed better in the second, domestic half, than he did in the first half, which concentrated on foreign policy. Why would this be, given that foreign policy is supposed to be the president's strong point, while domestic issues purportedly favor Dems?

Part of it may simply be that Bush, especially during the first debate, was out of practice, and he's gotten better as the debates go on. Probably also there's a tendency to overestimate the popularity of the Democrats' domestic views. And of course Bush had six years experience as a governor, so he's actually done domestic policy.

Lawrence Henry, an online columnist for The American Spectator, points to a reason why Bush's foreign-policy performance might have been weaker than his supporters would have liked: Because the president "actually is in the game of world politics," there are things he can't responsibly say. Examples:

When Senator Kerry insists that the United States is ignoring the threat of Iran, or that the United States is "distracted" in Iraq when the "real threat" is in Iran, could the President say this?

"What makes you think we're not doing anything about Iran? We already have special forces teams deployed all over Iran working with the democratic opposition to the mullahs. And we're already at war with Iran. It's a proxy war, going on right now in Iraq."

Nope. Can't say that.

Neither can President Bush make the obvious response to Senator Kerry's repeated accusation that the United States has "turned its back on its traditional alliances" and "failed to bring aboard our traditional allies" in the war on terror.

"What countries are you talking about there, Senator? France, maybe? Did you know that France was bribed by Saddam Hussein through the Oil for Food program, to the tune of X billion dollars? And that France sold weapons to Saddam right through our war in 2003?"

Not when the United States still depends on French cooperation for fighting terrorism in North Africa.

When Bill Clinton ran for president in 1992, he opposed granting what was then called most-favored-nation trade status to China on human-rights grounds. When George W. Bush ran in 2000, he promised to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the capital, Jerusalem. John Kerry of late has suggested he would get tough on our friends the Saudis. It's a lot easier to make such promises when you don't have the responsibility of actually being president.

'Integrity, Integrity, Integrity'
A truly strange moment came when John Kerry answered this question from Bob Schieffer:

It occurred to me as I came to this debate tonight that the three of us share something. All three of us are surrounded by very strong women. We're all married to strong women. Each of us have two daughters that make us very proud. I'd like to ask each of you, what is the most important thing you've learned from these strong women?

President Bush fielded the question first, and gave a fairly appealing answer--self-deprecating (they taught him "to stand up straight and not scowl"; Laura "speaks English a lot better than I do") and tender (when he met Laura, "I guess you would say it was love at first sight"). Here's Kerry's answer:

Well, I guess the president and you and I are three examples of lucky people who married up. And some would say maybe me more so than others. But I can take it.

Can I say, if I could just say a word about a woman that you didn't ask about, but my mom passed away a couple years ago, just before I was deciding to run. And she was in the hospital, and I went in to talk to her and tell her what I was thinking of doing.

And she looked at me from her hospital bed and she just looked at me and she said, "Remember: integrity, integrity, integrity. "Those are the three words that she left me with.

And my daughters and my wife are people who just are filled with that sense of what's right, what's wrong. They also kick me around. They keep me honest. They don't let me get away with anything. I can sometimes take myself too seriously. They surely don't let me do that.

And I'm blessed, as I think the president is blessed, as I said last time. I've watched him with the first lady, who I admire a great deal, and his daughters. He's a great father. And I think we're both very lucky.

The grace note at the end was very nice, but could Kerry really not think of anything to say about his wife other than that he "married up"--i.e., that she is loaded? His anecdote about his mother--"integrity, integrity, integrity"--is odd as well. It's reminiscent of a famous 1952 movie, reviewed a few years ago by the BBC:

There is a wonderful cynicism throughout "Singin' in the Rain", with everybody either kidding themselves or pretending to be something they are not. The tone is perfectly set at the start when Don (Gene Kelly) tells a gushing radio interviewer the career path to the top he and his friend Cosmo (Donald O'Connor) followed. "Dignity. Always dignity" Don says but flashbacks reveal a less than glamorous grind up through pool halls, burlesque shows, and vaudeville slapstick.

Filmsite.org says that Don claims the "dignity" message was "instilled in him by his parents from the very beginning." Kerry, by contrast, says his mother's "integrity" exhortation came "a couple of years ago," when the senator was already in his late 50s. As Roger Simon asks: "Why did Kerry's mother feel she had to remind him "Intergity [sic]! Integrity! Integrity!" from her hospital bed when he told her he was thinking of running for President? What did she know? My mother would have assumed I would have integrity in the same situation."

Bush Mocks CBS
More evidence of the diminishing power of the liberal elite media: During last night's debate, John Kerry declared that "two leading national news networks have both said the president's characterization of my health-care plan is incorrect. One called it fiction. The other called it untrue." President Bush's rejoinder: "In all due respect, I'm not so sure it's credible to quote leading news organizations about--oh, never mind."

The moderator of the debate was Bob Schieffer of scandal-plagued CBS. It's telling that Bush feels he stands to gain more than he loses by making fun of the news media.

The Sinclair Challenge
Blogger Jay Rosen, a journalism professor at New York University, has an interesting take on the Sinclair Broadcasting kerfuffle. The broadcaster has invited Kerry to appear on its stations to respond to "Stolen Honor," a documentary about Kerry's Vietnam antiwar activities, which will air next week. Rosen argues that the Kerry camp is wrong to dismiss the offer:

Kerry should accept.

If he takes the deal it sets up an historic broadcast. A final confrontation with the Right. Isn't that what the Right wants too? A chance, indeed, to clear the air about Vietnam, and a lot of other things. Will America watch? America will watch. And if he can't win that broadcast, he does not deserve to win the prize.

But the main reason he should take the deal is that his advisors are gonna say: are you nuts? And that's the point: to create Kerry unbound. Alone with the camera. Let him prove himself right there and make the election about even more than it is now.

Take the deal and get someone really smart to negotiate it. The program must be live, and air unedited. Sinclair must use its own people on the panel--no hiring Britt Hume. No adding Bush to the panel. The closer to election day the better.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports that the former prisoners of war featured in "Stolen Honor" are joining forces with the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and are airing new anti-Kerry ads in Colorado, New Mexico and Ohio. "We feel this is a widely discredited group who is doing the dirty work of President Bush," says Kerry spokesman David Wade. This is why Kerry will never follow Rosen's advice: For him, Vietnam isn't a serious matter, just a political opportunity. It's much easier and less risky simply to smear Vietnam veterans who dissent from the Kerry line.

Our Friends the Saudis
"Seventeen months into a shadowy terror campaign that has killed more than 100 people, numerous Saudis express less anger at the insurgents than at the United States for its invasion of Iraq, the signal event that they say touched off the attacks inside the kingdom," the New York Times reports from Riyadh:

In interviews over the last week, the Saudis condemned the terror attacks, aimed primarily at foreigners, but called them a small inconvenience that has not forced them to make significant changes in their daily lives. By contrast, they expressed unremitting disdain for the United States. . . .

Saudis unceasingly complain about American support for Israel and the war in Iraq, which they call unjustified, though Saudi Arabia allowed American troops to operate here during the war. Government officials also say they deplore the Bush administration's call for more democracy here. "It's none of their business," one of them said with scorn.

Wow, they sound just like John Kerry.

Did Drudge Dowdify Edwards?
In a Tuesday item, we cited the following quote from John Edwards, which came from the Drudge Report:

When John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve are going to walk. Get up out of that wheelchair and walk again.

It turns out that this quote was incomplete. Here is the full sentence, courtesy of columnist Jay Ambrose:

Well, if we can do the work that we can do in this country, the work that we will do when John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve are going to walk, get up out of that wheelchair and walk again.

The truncation of the first part of the sentence does change its meaning, though we leave it to the reader to decide how much.

It Served in Vietnam!
An online survey finds that "more Halloween revelers would rather trick-or-treat dressed as President George Bush than as Democratic challenger John Kerry," United Press International reports: "More than 25 percent (25.43) of respondents to a survey conducted by Savers Inc., an international thrift store chain, said they'd most like to wear a Bush costume this Halloween. A Kerry costume came in second place with 22.74 percent."

This isn't really fair to Kerry, though. As this blogger suggests, he is probably facing a strong third-party challenge from Frankenstein.

Chicken of 10,000 Lakes--II
The Washington Times has a report on reaction in Washington to Sen. Mark Dayton's decision to close his Capitol Hill office until after Election Day, citing terrorist threats:

In addition to mocking responses from city leaders and congressmen, Mr. Dayton's decision was greeted with outrage yesterday from D.C. residents, including hot dog vendor Imam Lete.

"I think he's selfish," said Miss Lete, 49, at her hot dog cart on C Street NW near Capitol Hill. "He's rich, he can afford to stay home. If I stayed home, I wouldn't eat. I'd be broke and I'd be homeless." . . .

Miss Lete said terrorist fears would not move her from the same spot where she's had her hot dog cart for 17 years.

"I look up in the sky and I know there's a God above. If it's going to happen, it's going to happen. I'm not moving."

Dayton is up for re-election in 2006; his opponent may have fun mocking him for this.

Chicken of the ACLU
"A local civil rights activist asked the FBI on Tuesday to offer training and counseling to two agents who he contends intimidated him after a recent Muslim community dinner," reports the Kansas City Star:

Dick Kurtenbach, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and Western Missouri, said Tuesday that two agents confronted him after a speech at the Heartland Muslim Council's annual dinner on Sept. 25. In the speech, Kurtenbach had been critical of alleged ethnic and racial profiling by FBI agents.

Kurtenbach said that after the dinner, Supervisory Special Agent Debby Stafford, who leads an anti-terrorism task force in Kansas City, confronted him and said, "I don't appreciate what you said about the FBI tonight." . . .

"She was in my face and confrontational, challenging my concerns about racial profiling by saying the FBI follows up on every lead," Kurtenbach wrote in a letter of complaint to the bureau.

Here is an FBI agent defending her agency by exercising her own right to free speech, and the ACLU, supposedly a champion of the First Amendment, wants to send her off to some sort of re-education camp.

Homer Nods
The Tennessee state legislator who distributed a flyer about President Bush and the Special Olympics is Craig Fitzhugh, not Chris, as we said in an item yesterday (since corrected). It also turns out the concept for the brochure is ripped off from a popular Internet gag. The original says "Arguing on the Internet is like running in the Special Olympics. Even if you win, you're still retarded."

Would Gutenberg Be Better?
"Israel Presses Offensive in Northern Gaza"--headline, Associated Press, Oct. 14

Steamed Rice Gets Its Way

"Steamed Rice Reiterates Call for Trade"--headline, Associated Press, Oct. 13

"Chicken Soup Replaces Flu Vaccine"--headline, Associated Press, Oct. 14

Lucky Duckies
"Katherine Williams says the yellow ducky sponge she put on sale at a flea market is merely a child's toy," the Associated Press reports from Spring Hill, Tenn. "City officials say the vibrator inside makes it a sex toy":

Williams, whose Passions & Pleasures business sells lotions and adult novelties at in-home parties, described her product line as "PG-13" and said she got only two negative comments at the flea market.

"Nothing we do is nasty, unless you have a nasty mind," she said, turning a knob on the yellow ducky's tail to make the sponge vibrate. "My 3-year-old son loves to play with this duck in the bath. He puts it on his neck and on his head."

This puts in a whole new light the "Rubber Duckie" song, which the Muppet Ernie used to perform on "Sesame Street":

Rubber Duckie, you're the one,
You make bathtime lots of fun,
Rubber Duckie, I'm awfully fond of you;
(woh woh, bee doh!)

Rubber Duckie, joy of joys,
When I squeeze you, you make noise!
Rubber Duckie, you're my very best friend, it's true!
(doo doo doo doooo, doo doo)

Every day when I
Make my way to the tubby
I find a little fella who's
Cute and yellow and chubby (rub-a-dub-a-dubby!)

Ernie formerly lived with Bert, another Muppet, whose visage showed up a few years back next to Osama bin Laden's on pro-al Qaeda posters in Bangladesh. Snopes.com, however, reports that the Bert-Osama pic was merely a Photoshop gag. As far as we know, then, the story of Ernie and Bert's terrorist ties was merely a canard.

(Carol Muller helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Ethel Fenig, Samuel Walker, S.E. Brenner, Tim Keane, Barak Moore, Douglas Mooney, Lavonne Kuykendall, Jim Orheim, Rod Pennington, Naftali Friedman, Janet Stroble, Henry Hanks, Storrs Warinner, Dan O'Shea, Joshua Weiner, Charlene Smith, Eddy Parker, Dick Katz, Seth Bomse, Garth Jowett, William Greig, John Sanders, M. Gilbertson, Reginald Thornton, Tom Karter, Shale Wealti, Nick Felten, John Makarewicz, John Forsberg, Alexander Kerdman, Julie Beck and Evan Slatis. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)

Today on OpinionJournal:

• Melanie Kirkpatrick: John Kerry tells fish stories about Osama bin Laden.
• John Rosenthal: The myth of America's "squandered sympathy."
• Jeffrey Gedmin: Antipathy between France and America is nothing new.