All pardons to the comedy novel of the same name. The reason the Drudging of Kerry is happening now is simple: Bush needs to be immunized on AWOL - that is, the scandal has to go far enough so that in October, if anyone asks about it - they will get Bush Flacked with "the President released all relevant and available records and was found to have been on base in 1974."
Whether the Kerry story is true or not - and the rumors have floated around for some time - is not important, the point is that AWOL was allowed to come up now, but they have gotten all of the immunization they need. Time for something else, and the press needs to be misdirected.
So how do we deal with this one? The rule of dealing with attacks is "cut the balls off the dog" - find what gives the story its drive, and neuter it.
Here the word that drives the story "Clinton". The right wing wants the entire idea of a Democrat twisting in the breeze.
How to do it? Depends on the tone Kerry wants to set. One way is to use THK as the surrogate and say "what happens in our marriage is private. It's more 'Politics of Personal Destruction'".
But the key is to take it off the table.