Flip-flop hip-hopper

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For a year or so now, I've been waking to a ton of e-mails each morning with the subject marked "Bush lied" -- or, to be more precise, "Bush lied" followed by multiple exclamation points.

I'm not one who thinks it helpful to characterize a policy difference as a "lie." So, when John Kerry says he supports the Kyoto Treaty even though he voted for a bill that declared the United States would never ever ratify it, that doesn't mean he's a "liar," it just means that ... well, to be honest, I haven't a clue what it means. You better to take it up with him, now he's out of the hospital after elective surgery.

"Elective surgery" means you vote to have the operation, and then spend the next year insisting you've always been strongly opposed to the operation.

Anyway, as I said, I wouldn't call Mr. Kerry a liar. But I did get the vague feeling in the following exchange that, if it had gone on a minute or two longer, the candidate's nose would have cracked my TV screen, extended across the coffee table and pinned me to the wall.

The time --last week; the place -- MTV. The interviewer asks: "Well, we know that you were into rock 'n' roll when you were in high school, and we know that you play the guitar now. Are there any trends out there in music, or even in popular culture in general, that have piqued your interest?"

"Oh sure. I follow and I'm interested," says John Kerry. "I'm fascinated by rap and by hip-hop. I think there's a lot of poetry in it. There's a lot of anger, a lot of social energy in it. And I think you'd better listen to it pretty carefully, 'cause it's important. ... I'm still listening because I know that it's a reflection of the street and it's a reflection of life."

Really? You're "fascinated" by rap and "listening" to hip-hop? You're America's first flip-flopper hip-hopper?

The best riposte to Mr. Kerry came from an encounter a few years ago between his predecessor Al Gore and Courtney Love, lead singer of the popular beat combo Hole, when they chanced to run into each other at a Hollywood Democratic party night.

"I'm a really big fan," gushed the vice president.