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Kerry's absence

Allies of Sen. John Kerry on Capitol Hill were busy yesterday "explaining why his absence didn't actually doom a push to extend unemployment benefits -- something he has championed on the trail," CNN's John Mercurio writes in the Morning Grind column at www.cnn.com.

"Democrats tried to attach the benefit to a corporate tax bill. But in a 59-40 vote, they fell just shy of the 60 votes needed to overcome objections that extending the benefits violated last year's budget deal," Mr. Mercurio said.

"Whether they supported the extension or not, Republicans pounced. 'Last month, John Kerry was pushing for the extension of unemployment benefits,' Bush/Cheney spokesman Steve Schmidt said. 'Today, he had the chance to actually vote on that question, but was too busy playing politics when he would have made the difference in the Senate.'

"Kerry, who was stumping in Kentucky while the Senate roll call was read, said [Tuesday] that Republicans engineered the vote to embarrass him. 'We were told no matter what would happen, they would change a vote in the Senate, and they were not going to let [the extension of unemployment benefits] happen. So it's really not a one-vote margin. They don't want it to happen,' he said in Jacksonville late [Tuesday]. 'They're playing a game.'

"That may well be true; that [Senate Majority Leader] Bill Frist is one sneaky Tennessean. Still, we look forward to watching Kerry offer that explanation during his next jobs bus trip through Ohio."

Stockholm syndrome?

During a telephone press conference yesterday by Bush re-election Chairman Marc Racicot, one reporter covering Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry defended Mr. Kerry from charges of politicizing the war in Iraq for political gain.

"I've been following John Kerry around, and it's like pulling teeth to get him to talk about this prison issue or Iraq in general," said The Washington Post's Jim VandeHei, according to a recording later posted on the Bush campaign's Web site. "Isn't this just a clever political strategy on your part to accuse him of politicizing the war when he's not politicizing the war, simply to make voters think he is politicizing the war? Why shouldn't we think that?"