at some point, during the media's years-long lovefest with John McCain, some reporter would wake up in a cold sweat, and ask, "Oh, my God! Am I dating John Kerry's ex?"

And now, the race to paint JK as scorned senator - never mind the actual crap McCain has pulled ever since his perfunctory denouncement of the SBVT in 2004.

I don't want to make too much of this, because, actually, I have very little interest in the friendship between Senators Kerry and McCain - maybe because, unlike the rest of America, I have very little interest in John McCain. I've never been able to get too worked up about the notion of McCain as JK's VP, and we've certainly never gotten any satisfyingly enlightening info about whether or not that was a possibility. Which is fine - these two are entitled to their private conversations.

I just want to point out, though, that the constant dragging of McCain's name into the '04 race had little to do with his friendship with the Democratic nominee, and everything to do with the MSM's love of typing the letters "M-C-C-A-I-N" over and over again.

The MSM has a similar affinity for the letters "C-L-I-N-T-O-N," which was also conspicuous back in '04, and one wonders what purpose that actually served. (Or maybe one doesn't. I do. I, personally, wonder: what purpose did 4 years of Hillary chatter serve?)

So, yeah. Rather than come to JK's defense here - because I think, in spite of his making some points that I think ought to have been made, this is a non-story - I should ask, "why is this personal?" Why is John McCain's bad judgment with regards to the troops in Iraq - remember them? - being placed into the context of some Senate soap opera?

If I stop being friends with somebody because they torture kittens, it's not to rouse up some level of interest in me. It's about the kittens.

Let's try to keep our focus on the kittens, people.