'Fighting Bush is very therapeutic'(MAX CLELAND ALERT)

"It's not so much that he throws a knock-out punch, one-liner, or whatever. We'll leave Bush to do his one-liner stuff. The truth of the matter is that Kerry grows on you. He has depth, courage and leadership ability. He's got skill and he knows what he's doing. It comes across slowly, but it will come across."

So does melanoma, the trick is to excise it before it metastisizes.

there was a standing joke when Stumpy was running the VA that Stumpy was the WORST thing to happen to vets since they got home from Nam!!!

Compare and contrast:

To the outrage of Democrats and some Republicans, and in an early example of the tactics that are currently being used to discredit Kerry, his rival ran a ferocious television advert that questioned his patriotism for having voted in the Senate against new Homeland Security legislation. He had indeed voted against it, but only because of a particular clause inserted by Republicans. To ram the point home, an image in the advert showed Osama bin Laden staring off screen and Saddam Hussein shaking hands with one of his generals.

From the 2/7/04 NYTimes (re: Kerry vs. Weld, 1996): (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/07/politics/campaign/07KERR.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5070&en=524fef06665dae45&hp&ex=1092369600 Mr. Kerry planted himself in Massachusetts and pushed aside his longtime media adviser — much as last year he fired his campaign manager. He brought in Bob Shrum, a Democratic consultant known for sharp ads and who is now playing a major role in Kerry's presidential campaign.

Mr. Kerry began hammering the theme that would let him leap over the charm gap: that a vote for Weld was a vote for a Republican Senate and for Newt Gingrich's Republican revolution.

Kerry ads reminded voters that Mr. Weld had once deemed Mr. Gingrich — "Newtie," the governor had called him — his "ideological soulmate." They blended photos of Mr. Weld with those of Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond. At a debate, Mr. Kerry held up a Dole for President button in front of Mr. Weld.

Mr. Weld insisted there were "only two names on the ballot: Weld and Kerry." On its face, it seemed ridiculous to lump a Grateful Dead-loving, gay rights-supporting governor with Southern conservatives.

But even Weld advisers say it worked. "We thought, `Everyone knows Bill Weld, no one will believe this guy is Newt Gingrich, this is dumb strategy,' " said Raymond P. Howell, a senior Weld adviser. "It was brilliant strategy."

In the final debate, the week before Election Day, Mr. Kerry challenged Mr. Weld to declare whether he would support Mr. Helms's continued tenure as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "That was a tough question," Mr. Weld said recently. "I ducked."

What does Cleland have to say about this? How is it different from what Cleland claims was done to him?

Cleland lost in Georgia because he insisted on voting 100% down the Democratic line, including supporting Clinton at every step. There was no vicious smear campaign.

He's a whiner.