You have to admire their perseverance, if not necessarily their adroit message development: John Kerry's staff is still out there banging away at how badly the war in Iraq was planned. Today's White House ceremony to honor former CIA boss George Tenet and former Green Zone overlord Paul Bremer with the Presidential Medal of Freedom struck Kerry spokesman David Wade as kind of fishy:

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My hunch is that George Bush wasn't using the same standard when honoring Tenet and Bremer that was applied to previous honorees like the Pope, Mr. Rogers, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr.

But that doesn't seem entirely fair. We're pretty sure Mr. Rogers only got his award in spite of his bungled invasion of the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. After all, setting up the puppet regime led by King Friday and Queen Sara cost billions of dollars and hundreds of lives.

Full release after the jump. -- "Joe Klein"

-----Original Message-----

From: "Boyd, April (Kerry)"
Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2004 14:07:25
To:"Boyd, April (Kerry)"
Subject: Medal of Freedom -- Kerry spokesman statement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: David Wade or April Boyd

December 14, 2004 202-224-4159

Statement by Kerry Spokesman on the

Presidential Medal of Freedom

WASHINGTON, D.C. - David Wade, spokesman for Senator John Kerry, released the following statement today on President Bush's latest recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom:

"Did George Tenet get the Medal of Freedom for his 'slam dunk' case for war based on weapons of mass destruction that didn't exist? Did Paul Bremer clinch this honor for speaking out against the administration's bungled war planning only after he'd left the job? My hunch is that George Bush wasn't using the same standard when honoring Tenet and Bremer that was applied to previous honorees like the Pope, Mr. Rogers, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. "

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