Kerry Spot    [ jim geraghty reporting ]
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From the Los Angeles Times:

While Kerry was relatively restrained in disputing Allawi's upbeat portrayal, some of his aides suggested that the Iraqi leader was simply doing the bidding of the Bush administration, which helped arrange his appointment in June.

"The last thing you want to be seen as is a puppet of the United States, and you can almost see the hand underneath the shirt today moving the lips," said Joe Lockhart, a senior Kerry adviser.

Hey, is Lockhart doing message consulting with the Sadr militia, too?

UPDATE: The Blogosphere responds. Greg Djerejian calls it "astonishingly irresponsible campaign rhetoric from a key member of the challenger's campaign team. To malign the serving PM of Iraq as appearing a "puppet" plays right into the handbook of insurgents operating in Iraq."

Instapundit calls it "appalling," and is building a case for his theory that the Kerry campaign is now aiming to "fire up the anti-Bush base" and save some Senate seats.

Your humble correspondent respectfully disagrees. Throughout Kerry's swoon, the argument from a smart group of strategists has been, "damn the torpedoes, let it rip, be yourself and let the chips fall where they may... If you're going to go down, go down as yourself, don't spend the rest of your life kicking yourself for listening to spin doctors who wanted you to be someone else."

What we are seeing now isn't the buttoned-up, stage-managed Kerry. It's - finally - the "real deal." Some will love it. Others will hate it.

[Posted 09/24 09:15 AM]