MCCAIN WON'T TAKE LAUER'S BAIT, REFUSES TO CRITICIZE KERRY

Hilarious. Matt Lauer was interviewing John McCain on The Today Show and trying everything he could think of to get McCain to say something negative about John Kerry. McCain, that sly dog, wasn't having any. Asked if Kerry has a "fundamental misunderstanding" of the war on terror, McCain replied, "No, I don't think so." Asked if some Kerry statements about Bush had been over the top, McCain responded that the rhetoric of both parties is the worst he's ever seen. Matt tried another tack: Bush says things in Iraq are getting better every day, and of course elections wil be held soon. Yet John Kerry says the situation is unraveling. They can't both be right. Who's correct? McCain: Well, in the north and south it's getting quieter and things are going pretty well. In the Sunni Triangle they're not. Lauer: So Is Bush being accurate in telling the American people that things in Iraq are getting better every day? McCain said, well, not perfectly accurate. The most Matt could get out of Old John was him saying that he thought Bush was better qualified to run the war on terror -- but it was pretty feeble and almost went unnoticed, sandwiched in as it was between equivocations.

This is the kind of thing that will drive the right-wing yahoos nuts. Ten days before the election, one of the Republican Party's stars, who's actively campaigning for Furious George, refuses to attack John Kerry, even refuses to criticize him unless he evenhandedly spreads the blame to both parties and both candidates. Laura Ingraham likes to screech about the "disloyalty" of what she calls "McHagar" (an amalgam of McCain, Hagel and Lugar) -- I bet we'll hear her explosion clear down here in Texas.

And speaking of explosions, I heard Bush 41 saying on the radio this morning that Miss Barbara doesn't like all the negative things being said about her darling baby boy. "She's steamed, and you don't want to see her steamed," he remarked. "I don't know which is going to explode first, Barbara or Mount St. Helens." I'D like to see her steamed -- I'd like to see her steamed on network TV, where she can show all her adoring fans just what she's REALLY like, a very mean bulldog with a privileged attitude.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention McCain's comment on Bill Clinton coming out to actively campaign for John Kerry. He said Bill Clinton was a beloved figure, a star, "We won't see his like again." Wow.