women activists beware. you get too uppity, and mere association with you could bring down a liberal presidential campaign three decades from now.

in a particularly slime-ridden strategy, republicans both straightforwardly sleazy and straightforwardly, obsessively nuts are busy papering the internet with photos of john kerry next to "hanoi jane" fonda. i find it a little amusing, and immensely disturbing, that vets like the ones interviewed for the times story STILL have their knickers in a twist over jane's visit with the commies. in fact, they count kerry's same-time-same-place association with fonda their strongest weapon against him. why??

maybe it's because history has proven her right. [caveat here about how i'm not a communist and the VC were pretty bad too and blah blah blah, but for chrissakes just go see the fog of war.] maybe it's because she was supposed to be pretty, and show up in movies, and not have controversial opinions.

it's the same sort of mindless losing-battle bitterness that seeps out of right-wing editorials lambasting kerry for summarizing other vets' experiences with war crimes in vietnam. guess what, folks: it happened, it really did, and he was RIGHT to talk about it. the real shame here is that leaders of that era sold the soldiers so thoroughly on something so empty. they will never be able to see reason, and they will manifest that inability by paying $179 for the privilege of posting a fonda crowd shot with the future senator in it.

is this going to happen to the veterans of my generation, too? has it already?