Fighting words

Before she died, John Kerry’s mother reminded him that it’s all about “integrity, integrity, integrity.” For the Senator, though, intelligence (or its appearance) trumps integrity. Consider this exchange between Kerry and Tom Brokaw:

Brokaw: Someone has analyzed the President’s military aptitude tests and yours, and concluded that he has a higher IQ than you do.
Kerry: That’s great. More power. I don’t know how they’ve done it, because my record is not public. So I don’t know where you’re getting that from.

But, in the past, as Captain Ed reminds us, Kerry has insisted that his entire record is public. For example, he told Chris Matthews:

I released all my military records. Mr. Gillespie thought it was important enough to go travel to another state, make a big speech, demand that I release my records. I did. Everything. All of it. Including my officer fitness reports.

In sum, faced with the choice between admitting the meaningless but unthinkable proposition that his IQ might be slightly lower than President Bush’s or effectively acknowledging that his prior statements about the availability of his records are untrue, Kerry selected the former option. Is anyone surprised?

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