He didn't make it look like Dean and Gephardt were for "raising taxes" on the middle class.

Frank, where were you? For months, and at least two of the televised debates, Kerry said, in exactly these words, "Dean and Gephardt want to raise taxes on the middle class." Thus, the "vituperatve rhetoric" that will lose this election for the Democrats has come directly out of Kerry's own mouth.

Honestly, it appears to me that you just began watching these guys two weeks ago.

Big Mick, there's one thing you can be sure of. If political operatives like Rove and Cheney SAY that they are salivating at the prospect of a Dean candidacy (which they are saying), then they are lying. They're lying precisely so it will scare Democrats into voting for a candidate they perceive as "safe." Like Kerry. One of the first rules of politics: don't take advice from your enemy.

Remember, it was Kerry who was Dukakis's lieutenant governor, and Clark who is trotting McGovern around as an endorser. We'll surely see that rhetoric used on either or both of them.

In other News, The New York Times reports today That Kerry and Edwards, new converts to populism in the last three weeks, accept more money than any of the other democrats from corporate special interests, then hypocritically declare themselves to be against corporate special interests in their speeches. In fact, much of Kerry's money comes from industries he supposedly regulates as a Senator (Sounds crooked to me...):

While Senator John Kerry regularly promises to stand up to "big corporations," his campaign has taken money from executives on Wall Street and those representing the telecommunications industry, which is under his purview in Congress. Mr. Kerry denounces President Bush for catering to the rich, but he has depended more heavily on affluent donors than the other leading Democrats except for another populist, Senator John Edwards.

(...)

Mr. Kerry is an experienced fund-raiser, having worked to
raise money while on the Democratic Senatorial Campaign
Committee and for his own campaigns. In his campaign for
the nomination, he has collected more than $1 million from
employees of securities and investment businesses. He took
in $70,000 from employees of Citigroup and $62,500 from
workers at Goldman Sachs, according to the Center for
Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks
campaign finance trends.

Kerry's top career donor is the law firm Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky & Popeo, according to a study by Chuck Lewis, executive director of another campaign-finance group, the Center for Public Integrity. Mr. Kerry received $231,000 over the course of his career from lawyers in the firm, where his brother, Cameron F. Kerry, is a telecommunications lawyer.

The firm has represented clients like the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association and AT&T Wireless Services, whose industry falls under the jurisdiction of a Senate subcommittee that includes Mr. Kerry, the report said.

(...)

Mr. Kerry has criticized the current "creed of greed" and
faulted Mr. Bush letting "the privileged ride high and reap
the rewards." But his typical donors share at least one
similarity with the president's, an ability to give $2,000,
the legal maximum.

Fifty-five percent of Mr. Kerry's money has come from
donors giving $2,000. For Mr. Bush, the comparable figure
is 73 percent, according to the Center for Responsive
Politics.

The center's analysis shows that small donors, those giving
$200 or less, have provided 12 percent of Mr. Kerry's
campaign money, the same percentage they provided for Mr.
Bush.

Mr. Edwards collected even less, 3 percent, of his campaign
money from contributions of $200 or less, the analysis
showed. In his stump speech about "the two Americas," Mr.
Edwards promises to protect ordinary citizens against the
wealthy and the powerful. But 65 percent of the money in
his campaign has come from Americans who are able to donate
$2,000 or more, chiefly lawyers, according to the research
group.