Monday in brief

I wasn't able to post all day... too busy with other projects. But here were the big stories of the day, as I saw it:

1) John Kerry's speech on Iraq at NYU: in the same site where Al Gore ripped into the Bush Administration for their prosecution of the war in Iraq, John Kerry was slightly more muted, but no less impassioned, as he took apart the failures and tragedies that have befallen us since we invaded Baghdad in March of 2003. I was emailed a transcript of the speech by the Kerry campaign (which I thought was a nice touch, and they've never done that before, so obviously they've decided on this as the major theme of the last 40-odd days). His three-sentence defense of his vote on the Iraq War Resolution is the most succinct I've ever heard:

Two years ago, Congress was right to give the president the authority to use force to hold Saddam Hussein accountable. This president, any president, would have needed that threat of force to act effectively. This president misused that authority.

And he outlines exactly why Bush misused the authority. We all know the arguments, but it was great to see them lined up in a row. The speech kicked quite a bit o' ass. You can go read it right here.

After that, Kerry appeared on Letterman (which hasn't aired yet here on the West Coast), then took in a bushel full of money at a fund-raiser. Not a bad day.

2) Bush's response to Kerry's tough talk on Iraq is comical, as Atrios notes: Bush says Kerry's plan is the same as his, AND Kerry wants to retreat. So George, are you saying YOU want to cut and run in Iraq? Well, that's what Bob Novak says you're saying, in private.

3) CBS mea culpa: I almost feel like I put my credibility on the line in defending CBS over the allegedly forged TANG documents used in their story about Bush's service. They were, incidentally, not central to the story. If the story was an interview with Ben Barnes, we're not having this discussion. If they would have had Col. Killian's secretary, Marianne Knox, on the record in that first story, we're not having this discussion. And the story would have been unquestioned. (Well, it would have been labeled "partisan,' but that doesn't address the facts.) But the documents were in there, and now CBS has admitted that they can't prove their authenticity. Far be it from me to disrupt the gloating party over at Instapundit and Free Republic, but before so go on to ask for Dan Rather to be fired, tell me who's firing you sought in the scandal over forged documents from Niger being the basis of a faulty sentence in the 2003 State of the Union address. The hypocrisy is stunning.

4) The Senate Intelligence Committee will vote on the confirmation of Porter Goss as CIA Director tomorrow. John Edwards is on that committee, and I think the campaign could have gotten some mileage out of his questioning of Goss. Doesn't look like that'll happen.

5) The debates have been confirmed, and there will be three of them. Boy, George Bush is just going to kick his ass, right? Kerry might as well not even show up! He can't even string two words together! What a slaughter...

There, you're up to date.