Republican media manipulators effectively have dealt two hits to the Democratic image, just before and during this week’s convention in Boston, where the Johns have gone to “announce” their candidacy.

First came the news, days before the release of the long-awaited September 11 commission report, that Sandy Berger took commission documents that he shouldn’t have. The Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe quickly filed a Freedom of Information Act request that emphasized the lack of timeliness of the revelation; he posed the idea that Mr. Berger’s removal of documents had been known for months but stored up for a more opportune moment to make it public.

Then just yesterday, the Boston Herald reported that Teresa Heinz Kerry had called Ted Kennedy “a perfect bastard” in the mid-1970s. At the time, Mrs. Kerry was Mrs. Heinz, married to her first husband who was a Republican senator. Senator Kennedy’s office says that he and Mrs. Kerry, over the years, had developed a “deep friendship.” A lot can change in nearly three decades.

There’s nothing like trying to manipulate the media and nothing better than a public that can recognize it.

Vinnee Tong