Zernike also writes today: "For Republicans and the White House, Mr. Kerry's 'botched joke' Monday was manna from Massachusetts, that reliable redoubt of liberal caricatures..."
Editor Kate Phillips: "And with the controversy over Senator John Kerry's 'botched joke' presumably (please) leaving the airwaves and the front pages after today...."
Conventional liberal wisdom reigns at a Times Talks gathering on the Upper West Side, where Assistant Managing Editor Richard Berke gripes about "mean-spirited" blogs that interfere with reporters ...
"Part of Mr. Kerry's outrage may arise from memories of 2004, when a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth raised allegations, never substantiated, that he had exaggerated his wartime exploits."