Briefs from the Kerry campaign as it seemingly heads for the exits. . .

What was Vice President Cheney saying? For months he and President Bush have been insisting the nation is safer under the Bush presidency, which embraces pre-emption against declared enemies, than it would be under a Kerry presidency. In Des Moines Sept. 7, Cheney was unscripted and spontaneous:

It's absolutely essential that eight weeks from today . . . we make the right choice, because if we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we'll get hit again and we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the point of view of the United States, and that we'll fall back into the pre-9/11 mindset . . . that in fact these terrorist attacks are just criminal acts, and that we're not really at war.

XXX

Is it lunacy to suggest a vote for Kerry is a vote for more terrorist strikes? The Washington Post's Bob Woodward has put it another way: "The missing piece (is) how would Kerry respond" in the terror war? Yet Kerry running mate John Edwards termed Cheney's remark "un-American." Al Gore termed it "sleazy and despicable." Kerry adviser and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright termed it verging on the McCarthyite. Such comments may do nothing so much as lend credence to what Cheney said.

XXX

This from a Democratic Convention story in the New York Times-owned Boston Globe: "At a meeting of the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgendered Caucus at the Sheraton Boston Hotel, (Teresa) Heinz Kerry told the group: 'You can call me Mama T anytime.' As the crowd cheered, she said: 'At least, if nothing else, you will have a mom in the White House that will love you.'"

XXX

Here's Kerry in an MTV interview on how he would romance reluctant U.S. allies:

Question:

Your exit strategy for Iraq is based on the idea that if you're elected, you'll be able to bring all of our traditional allies back to the table to help our cause. But what if they say no to you?

Kerry:

Well, I have a lot of tools available to me. This president has not done the statesmanship and has not shown the leadership necessary to bring other countries to us. Iraq, and their resistance to Iraq, is not only based on Iraq. It's based on the fact that we walked away from the global warming treaty and we dissed 160 nations that worked 10 years to try to build a cooperative attitude. . . . In addition, the president has done almost nothing to reduce the increasing clash of radical Islam with moderate Islam and the rest of the world's religions. We need to reach out to people and isolate the fundamentalist extremists, not have them isolate us. That's a big difference.

XXX

Kerry is blasting President Bush for letting the 10-year congressional ban on the sale of certain assault weapons expire. Bush favors the ban's extension. How diligently, over how long, did Kerry toil with his Senate colleagues to extend the ban?

XXX

On the consistency front, consider this: On Sept. 7, Kerry said weapons of mass destruction were the "only legitimate reason" for going to war. In August he said, "Yes, I would have voted for the (presidential) authority" to take the nation to war against Saddam even if Kerry had known no WMDs would be found. Continued...