Heat shield deployed

John Ellis notes that when the thin-skinned Senator Splunge is confronted with uncomfortable details - like his record of voting against defense and intelligence programs - he deploys his Vietnam heat shield.

There is, one supposes, a certain pre-emptive logic to Kerry campaign broadsides against the "GOP smear machine." It might, just might, deflect the criticisms incoming. But as a rule, you don't want a candidate who whines when he is attacked. And surely complaining about Senator Chambliss's attack comes under the general category of "whinery."

I find it bemusing that whenever Kerry is confronted by his record, his campaign sends out a press release saying something like "The Senator will fight against these smears." But there's never an actual rebuttal - it's always "we're gonna fight" and Vietnam. And Vietnam again.