it's official, II

A couple of days back I pointed out a particularly inane pronouncement by the Democratic nominee.

But it seems that Kerry was only getting warmed up.

On Wednesday he gave a pair of interviews, first to NPR's Morning Edition and later to CNN's Judy Woodruff. But as Gerard Van der Leun notes, there are two versions of the Morning Edition interview: the one that aired, and a longer one available at the NPR website. Kerry's take on this week's Iraq flashpoints were somehow edited out of the broadcast version. Which seems a trifle odd, considering our current challenge.

Not to fear, though: both James Lileks and Hugh Hewitt are on the case (and no one does it with the panache of Lileks on a good day). But these worthies missed something.

Here's the transcription, courtesy Gerard:

“They shut a newspaper [belonging to al-Sadr, the cleric whose militias are currently killing Americans] that belongs to a legitimate voice in Iraq.”

bq. [Short pause]

bq. “Well, let me … change the term 'legitimate.' It belongs to a voice — because he has clearly taken on a far more radical tone in recent days and aligned himself with both Hamas and Hezbollah, which is a sort of terrorist alignment.”

First, al-Sadr's “more radical tone” is not a development of recent days. But: what is up with “…aligned himself with both Hamas and Hezbollah, which is a sort of terrorist alignment”?

Question: What terror group has killed more Americans than any other besides al Qaeda?

That would, of course, be Hezbollah.

Then there's the niggling detail that both Hamas and Hezbollah are sort of inclined to drive every last Israeli into the Mediterranean.

Lileks coins the term “diplobabble” to describe Kerry's verbal style. The word does capture the candidate's obsession with nuance. But one begins to wonder if his penchant for ambiguous statements masks a slippery grasp of basic facts.