Upcoming mudfest provides opportunity to focus

President Bush's misspent years as a young adult are about to do a happy jig across the media landscape once again. The President's gyrations will be very interesting to watch. Danny Terrio don't have nothin on Georgie when it comes to puttin the shake, shake, shake on the cold hard truth. George has some serious moves. Oh yes, the President is a great dancer, but he won't be able to spin free completely.

First, 60 Minutes will interview Ben Barnes, former Texas House Speaker and Lt. Governor tomorrow night. Barnes is the fellow who arranged for Dubya to enter the guard. Next, new records are being yanked out of the Pentagon that illuminate Bush's military no show in Alabama. The Texans for Truth [Website - News] are about to Swift Boat Bush (if you will excuse the ugly verbification of a once honorable craft). The attack is unfortunate in a way, because the message the Texans deliver - though true - is very similar in form and function to the original Swift Boat ads. It will very likely be framed by the yapping boobacracy as a pathetic Democratic response to the Swifties.

Vis-à-vis, obscure Southern campaigns: Linda Allison remembers Bush peeing on a cars in drunken sprees down Alabama way while he was supposedly serving.

Finally, Kitty Kelly's new book, The Family, will slither onto shelves next week. She will paint a portrait of a politician as a young man with a nose for coke, weed and liquor. That would be El Presidente.

Will any of the Bush skeletons help Kerry get elected? It's possible, but Bush’s greatest political gift is his Teflon hide. We won't learn anything new about him. He won't say anything new. He will mumble something charmingly disingenuous and move on. None of the President's supporters will jump ship and his detractors will only like him less.

Kerry can use the mudfest to his advantage by ignoring it. Everybody already knows that Bush was a craven, drunken boor who found Jesus and a good woman. The fact is that the Bush-9/11 brand trumps his wicked youthful ways. But there is no trumping his ghastly record as president. The truth about Bush is in the numbers, and more numbers, in record deficits, in over 1,000 dead in an ill-advised war, in a Republican Platform that is truly radical.

Please John, focus. Focus on communicating the case against Bush. Use small words. Be loud; be clear. You are a prosecutor, John. Prosecute.