Earlier today, I blogged about an excellent editorial in today's Washington Post that demonstrated their intelligence and insight into the empty-suit phenomenon that is John Flip-Flop Kerry. Unfortunately, as Power Line notes, that intelligence doesn't extend much beyond its op-ed section. Dana Milbank, a consistently biased Bush detractor on their Politics desk, engages in an exercise of obtuseness regarding the new Bush campaign ad:

The ad accurately points out that Kerry has raised $640,000 from lobbyists, "more special-interest money than any other senator." And it fairly questions whether Kerry is disingenuous to accept money from those he would vanquish.

But the Center for Responsive Politics, which calculated the figure Bush cited about Kerry ($638,358 raised from lobbyists since 1989, to be exact), has some bad news for Bush, too. The president raised $842,262 from lobbyists in the current election cycle -- almost four times the $226,450 Kerry raised. And if you take away the funds Kerry collected for the presidential campaign, he is no longer the Senate's top recipient of special-interest funds.

Does Bush have a glass-houses problem here?

No, as Hindrocket notes, because Bush isn't traveling around the country piously denouncing "special interest groups" while shoving their money into his pockets with both hands. Besides, as George Will noted in the same edition of the Post, the term "special interests" seems to be defined exclusively in the context of groups one opposes.

At any rate, Milbank well knows all of this, and he knows that the difference between what Kerry raised as a Senator and what both will raise as presidential candidates is that presidential elections don't take place exclusively within Massachussets. To pretend that there is some sort of equivalence between a Senate race and a Presidential race makes Milbank out to be an idiot, or completely lacking credibility while covering Bush. In fact, it may make him out to be both.

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