Fighting The Last War

John Kerry is taking a break from trying to lose this war to re-fight the last battle he lost.

Renewing a debate that raged through much of the 2004 presidential race, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., on Friday accepted Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens' offer to pay $1 million to anyone who can disprove allegations by veterans who disparaged Kerry's Vietnam War record.

Kerry and his top aides said that failing to respond more quickly and aggressively to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads had been a mistake, and they attributed the Democrat's narrow loss to President Bush, in part, to the attacks.

Kerry said Friday that he would no longer let such challenges go unanswered.

"I welcome the opportunity to prove that you are a man of your word and that the so-called 'Swift Boat Veterans for Truth' lied," Kerry wrote to Pickens.

Pickens was one of the principal financial backers of television ads that alleged Kerry, a Navy veteran, had lied about his war experiences, didn't deserve his medals and betrayed soldiers with his vehement protests after the war.

The Texas billionaire, a prominent supporter of Bush and other Republicans, made his $1 million challenge at a Nov. 6 dinner in Washington sponsored by The American Spectator magazine.

This is just what the Democrats need - one of their most colorless politicians ever re-emerging to remind America just what the Democrats are really all about.