Kerry's biographer comes out with a goal line save!

"On Christmas Eve he was near Cambodia; he was around 50 miles from the Cambodian border. There's no indictment of Kerry to be made, but he was mistaken about Christmas in Cambodia," said Douglas Brinkley, who has unique access to the candidate's wartime journals.

But Mr Brinkley rejected accusations that the senator had never been to Cambodia, insisting he was telling the truth about running undisclosed "black" missions there at the height of the war.

He said: "Kerry went into Cambodian waters three or four times in January and February 1969 on clandestine missions. He had a run dropping off US Navy Seals, Green Berets and CIA guys." The missions were not armed attacks on Cambodia, said Mr Brinkley, who did not include the clandestine missions in his wartime biography of Mr Kerry, Tour of Duty.

"He was a ferry master, a drop-off guy, but it was dangerous as hell. Kerry carries a hat he was given by one CIA operative. In a part of his journals which I didn't use he writes about discussions with CIA guys he was dropping off."

Okay, this will certainly be good enough for Kerry fans. And of course, there's no way to disprove it.

Odd that Brinkley took this long to remember something like this from his own work.

Odd that Kerry didn't just bring up this correction immediately. Hey, he wrote the journals, right?

Odd that Brinkley left exciting CIA Cambodia missions out of a Kerry biography. If I'd been writing it, it would have been the first item in there.

I have no idea if any other crewmembers who must have gone on these missions with Kerry will speak up. None have so far. "Yeah, I remember that Cambodia trip. Don't remember quite when, but it wasn't something you forget."

It will be very odd if one of the Band of Brothers comes forward in the next few days with just such a recollection.