On several occasions so far, a Kerry incident, minor or not, has been met by an immediate knee-jerk reaction by his campaign people, usually a blatant lie, disproved often within hours or even minutes. The campaign then backs water, sometimes coughs up a second lie, and finally dribbles down to incoherence.

The NASA photo flap. First it was that Kerry didn't know about the camera being there, although the photos were obviously posed. Then it was a dirty NASA trick. It went on from there.

There have been other badly-handled bits like this, usually inflating a minor irrelevancy into something else. This includes Cambodia incident, a thing with a campaign train stop today in Kansas, and more. It dates all the way back to "he never fell" on the ski vacation.

Like the Grinch, the campaign thinks up a lie, and thinks it up quick. Unfortunately, it often isn't a good one. This is not doing Kerry any good.