One can understand the reluctance of the New York Times to backpedal on what it thought was a sure-fire takedown of George Bush, eight days before the election, even though their reporters and editors wound up only doing a half-ass job of research. (They undoubtedly did not plan on having NBC make them look like idiots.) It's difficult to understand, however, why the Kerry campaign and especially Joe Lockhart continue to push such an egregious and thoroughly demonstrable lie, as CNN reports in its update to the Al Qaqaa debacle:

NBC News reported that on April 10, 2003, its crew was embedded with the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division when troops arrived at the Al Qaqaa storage facility south of Baghdad.

While the troops found large stockpiles of conventional explosives, they did not find HMX or RDX, the types of powerful explosives that reportedly went missing, according to NBC.

The Bush campaign fired its own salvo at the Kerry campaign after NBC's report late last night, scolding Kerry for having run with the Rumor Of The Day without also having done any checking to see if the story was true. Kerry had called the missing explosives "one of the great blunders of this administration" without explaining how he would have done anything differently or guaranteeing that he would have secured 100% of the loose munitions in Iraq.

And here's where the Kerry campaign gets stupid. Joe Lockhart issued a quick reply to the Bush campaign which demonstrates that (a) Lockhart can't read, and (b) the Kerry campaign concerns itself with rumor and innuendo rather than facts and truth:

But Kerry senior adviser Joe Lockhart fired back with a statement of his own, accusing the Bush campaign of "distorting" the NBC News report.

"In a shameless attempt to cover up its failure to secure 380 tons of highly explosive material in Iraq, the White House is desperately flailing in an effort to escape blame," Lockhart said. "It is the latest pathetic excuse from an administration that never admits a mistake, no matter how disastrous."

Lockhart did not elaborate on how the Bush campaign was distorting the NBC report.

Unless Lockhart is a practicing ironist, which might be a side effect of working for Bill Clinton, that statement contains more projection than an IMAX theater. Kerry and Lockhart got caught up in yet another media meltdown, and as with Rathergate, having jumped on the bandwagon within milliseconds of its publication find it difficult to jump off now that it's headed over a cliff. Instead, Lockhart accuses Bush of not admitting a "disastrous" mistake and oddly asserts that they distorted the NBC report. NBC stated flatly that the explosives weren't there when the troops showed up at Al Qaqaa, and its own reporters confirmed it. So who's distorting what?

Lockhart, Kerry, and the port side of the blogosphere can continue their deathgrip on the failing reputation of the Paper of Record in order to keep from drowning in this debacle, but witnesses on the ground at the time -- disinterested, third-party witnesses -- have proved the Gray Lady to be little different than a common streetwalker, with the DNC as its pimp.

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» Kerry Kamp keeps kicking from Airborne Combat Engineer
... using discredited information Don't stop him. He's on a roll. 1040Z TUE 26OCT04. Captain's Quarters. The perspicacious Captain Ed notes: "Kerry and Lockhart got caught up in yet another media meltdown, and as with Rathergate, having jumped on the [Read More]

Tracked on October 26, 2004 5:45 AM

» Capt Ed to Joe Lockhart: "Whack!" from LeatherPenguin
Best bit:Unless Lockhart is a practicing ironist, which might be a side effect of working for Bill Clinton, that statement contains more projection than an IMAX theater.Go read it all.... [Read More]

Tracked on October 26, 2004 5:57 AM

» NYT "Weapons Loose" Scare Story Discredited from DOUBLE TOOTHPICKS:Worldviews Behind The News
Why run the story now?To help Senator Kerry's election chances. The story's been discredited, but that doesn't keep Kerry from continuing to use it. Truth, my friends; this election will be a referendum on the nature of truth. [Read More]

Tracked on October 26, 2004 7:51 AM

» The Non Story That Still Lives from Secure Liberty
Most of you know about the New York Times story, indicating a disappearance of 380 tons of high explosives in Iraq that our military was supposed to be guarding. CBS ran with a similar story. NBC later ran with a story that completey gutted the NYT a... [Read More]

Tracked on October 26, 2004 8:23 AM

» NY Times Story on Al QaQaa if Full of CaCa from Infidel Cowboy
Via Drudge, we discover that Kerry's stooges in the MSM were breathless with excitement about this New York Times report indicating that 380 tons of weapons disappeared in Iraq: **ABCNEWS Mentioned The Iraq Explosives Depot At Least 4 Times **CBSNEWS... [Read More]

Tracked on October 26, 2004 10:27 AM

» NY Times Story on Al QaQaa if Full of CaCa from Infidel Cowboy
Via Drudge, we discover that Kerry's stooges in the MSM were breathless with excitement about this New York Times report indicating that 380 tons of weapons disappeared in Iraq: **ABCNEWS Mentioned The Iraq Explosives Depot At Least 4 Times **CBSNEWS... [Read More]

Tracked on October 26, 2004 10:27 AM

» Weapons Arsenal Used to Target Bush from bLogicus
According to Drudge, "News of missing explosives in Iraq -- first reported in April 2003 -- was being resurrected for a 60 MINUTES election eve broadcast designed to knock the Bush administration into a crisis mode." The story of the... [Read More]

Tracked on October 26, 2004 2:49 PM