Speculation.

[xcmt]

I'm not completely sure which is the case:

1) Democratic spokesmen are woefully uninformed and generally weak on their Kerry defenses, which is why it's taken weeks (or months) of sites like DU and Daily Howler pointing out the fact that Bush threatened to veto the defense spending bill before talking heads have (finally) begun mentioning this on TV.

2) Someone important on the strategy side of the Democratic party pulled a Rove and figured out that playing dumb for x months about the Kerry defense-bill for-then-against discussion corners the Republicans into solidly backing the concept that a vote against funding is a vote against the troops, which can then later be exploited via the Bush veto issue.

[NMDemDist2]

1. maybe a little of both, we need a "Carvell" type who knows how to

go for the throat

the Big Dog said on TDSWJS monday that he loved "getting thrown in the briar patch" cuz then he could attack back without sounding "negative"