[XJarhead]

I hate to defend the guy, but....

This is the kind of allegation that doesn't help us. You could just as easily argue that walking out on that meeting without trying to convince other people that they were wrong would have been irresponsible. By staying there, arguing that it was wrong, and voting against it, he did the right thing.

You can try to spin that differently, but that's a pretty effective explanation in my view. He voted against it, and that's what his campaign will pound into the ground if Rove is dumb enough to bring this up.

This is up there with trying to link Clinton to various deaths. Anyone who isn't already firmly against Clinton is going to dismiss that as a whack-job argument. It serves no purpose other than to discredit the person who makes the allegation.

[crushkerry]

Rove isn't going to bring it up because of the reasons you mention. However, the press and grassroots orgs. like ours can do the job for him - leaving him "deniability". Also, the more fires it creates for them to put out the better.

But most importantly, this isn't something that was made up out of whole cloth. It's based in fact from the actual people who were there and comes from verifiable sources.

[thoughtomator]

Given the extent of Kerry's known activities, and his proven-false denials of having been at the meeting, I see no reason to take his word for it that he voted "no" on such a proposal.

Of course, I *do* still think Vince Foster and Ron Brown and Jim MacDougal were all murdered. So salt my humble opinion to taste before ingesting.