[maica]

This stuff is so damaging I am feeling the need for a tin-foil hat. If Kerry is hugely discredited before the Dem convention, Hillary will find a way to accept the heavy burden of running against GWB, and all the schoolteacher delegates will think she is the second coming.

Could it be Hillary operatives bringing all this focus (discreetly) (by manipulating the press corps into thinking they have found red meat with Bush's NG service) onto Kerry's activities?

[backhoe]

This stuff is so damaging I am feeling the need for a tin-foil hat. If Kerry is hugely discredited before the Dem convention, Hillary will find a way to accept the heavy burden of running against GWB, and all the schoolteacher delegates will think she is the second coming. Could it be Hillary operatives bringing all this focus (discreetly) (by manipulating the press corps into thinking they have found red meat with Bush's NG service) onto Kerry's activities?

FWIW, I suspect you are right. All this stuff about Mr. Kerry has been out there all these years- not like it's a secret!