Kerry's people also want to keep their man in front of the tv cameras on the nightly news. Now that Kerry has the nom all sewn up, America ain't payin' no attention to the race. So in those circumstances, campaigns need to stir a bit of controversy into the mix in order to get back into the news cycle.

I'm quite certain Kerry's "gaffe" was intentional, and done so that the screaming punditry could keep playing over and over and over "those guys are a bunch of liars and crooks".

That doesn't hurt Kerry, it helps him.