Something occured to me: All this Swifty nonsense has given Kerry an opportunity to do something that wasn't possible before.
Something that -- if successful -- would be the equivilant of a nuclear strike on the Bush campaign.
Think about Kerry's response to the Swifties attack, and his latest ad (Ashamed), and his FEC complaint, as well as the NYT's story on who the Swifties are and where they got their money and support....
What do they all have in common?
George W. Bush. They're aimed at making sure the public seeks George Bush as responsible for these vile accusations, for making the public see that they're political smears of the worst sort (the kind that practically beg for a backlash).
But I think there's a secondary target, one of almost equal importance: John McCain.
And his latest ad solidified that. I think Kerry is aiming this all at McCain. His latest ad reminds McCain that Bush did this crap to him in 2000. The FEC complain addresses McCain's own chief gripe: He could never prove Bush and Rove were behind that South Carolina smear.
I think, in essence, Kerry is trying to have a dialogue with McCain: "They did this to you. When they did it to you in 2000, I stood behind you. I signed that letter. I stood up for you against these vile attacks, the sort of gutter politics you've devoted yourself to eradicating. Now they're doing it to me, people you support. People you're lending your credibility to. What are you going to do?"
McCain won't endorse Kerry. He's no Zell Miller. But the longer these vile attacks continue, the more links Kerry can build between them and Bush, well....the internal pressure to force McCain to "unendorse" George and step to the sidelines grows.
If McCain steps off the Bush campaign, resigns as a co-chair for the Arizona headquarters, the effect among the moderate wing of the GOP would be pretty big, even if he does or says nothing more about the 2004 campaign.
I don't know how likely McCain is to step down, to rebuke -- officially or not -- Bush's tactics directly. (In essence, to tar Bush as the one responsible, rather than asking him to "denounce this ad"). But I'm willing to bet that he's growing more and more disgusted with Bush every day....