Time national political correspondent Karen Tumulty, in an October 31 article for Time.com, reported as a fact that Sen. John F. Kerry (D-MA) “insulted” U.S. troops when he said in an October 30 speech at a campaign rally in California: “You know, education -- if you make the most of it, you study hard and you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq.”

Tumulty's reporting echoed the claims of White House and GOP officials, who have attacked Kerry and demanded that he apologize for allegedly slandering U.S. troops. Kerry, however, has said that his remark was not an insult to American soldiers serving in Iraq, but rather a “botched joke” about President Bush -- something Tumulty neglected to mention in her article. Nor did she mention that, as the Associated Press reported, Kerry had delivered “several one-liners,” including one about Bush, immediately prior to his “stuck in Iraq” comment. And Tumulty made no mention of Kerry's assertion, as noted by The New York Times, that he misread his prepared remarks, which make clear that he was criticizing Bush. Also, former House Majority Leaders Dick Armey (R-TX) and Tom DeLay (R-TX), as well as former Bush campaign chief strategist Matthew Dowd, have agreed that Kerry was not referring to the soldiers in Iraq.

Armey went further, acknowledging on the October 31 edition of Hardball with Chris Matthews that Republicans were making political hay by “misconstru[ing]” what Kerry said: “Well, it`s pretty standard fare in political discourse. You misconstrue what somebody said, you isolate a statement, you lend your interpretation to it, then feign moral outrage.” When host Chris Matthews stated that Kerry “was trashing Bush,” Armey responded, “Right,” and went on to say, “A fundamental premise of politics is: We can make this work if people just never figure it out.”

From Tumulty's October 31 article:

You've got to wonder about John Kerry's eye-hand coordination. His career is falling into a pattern. Whenever Kerry is confronted with a big decision, he tries to compensate for his last mistake. He voted against the first Iraq war, which turned out to be a success. So when the second one came around, he swallowed his misgivings and voted for it. That also turned out to be a mistake. So when it came time to vote for the $87 billion to fund the war that he had voted for, he produced what must be the single most damaging sound bite in modern political history by voting for it before he voted against it.

So now, when U.S. troops are suffering their worst casualties in nearly two years, he insulted them. Could Karl Rove have dreamed up a better October surprise than having the Democrats' most recent choice for Commander in Chief suggest that the men and women are dying there because they weren't smart enough to get into law school?

From the 5 p.m. ET hour of the October 31 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews:

MATTHEWS: Mr. Armey, what do you make of this -- well, it's a rhubarb I guess, in politics terms. What is it? Is this a real “catch him,” “we got him,” or is it they're making it look like they've got Kerry saying something?

ARMEY: Well, it's pretty standard fare in political discourse. You misconstrue what somebody said, you isolate a statement, you lend your interpretation to it, then feign moral outrage; and Democrats have been doing it for years.

MATTHEWS: So, it's a bicoastal, bipartisan opportunity.

ARMEY: Absolutely. And I would say to John Kerry, “Look, you know, you live by the P.C., you die by the P.C.” I mean, the P.C. was a Democrat creation, so, I mean, share and share alike.

MATTHEWS: What do you mean the P.C.?

ARMEY: Political correctness -- you know, feigning moral outrage for what might be perceived to have been a possible slight, given my interpretation of what was said.

MATTHEWS: And so, the president -- well, according to the prepared statement we've gotten a copy of -- will jump on Kerry defending the troops when, in fact, Kerry may well have meant -- according to reading the script of what he said and the account of it -- he was trashing the very man who's now defending the troops. He was trashing Bush himself and Bush says, “Don't say those terrible things about my troops!”

ARMEY: Right.

MATTHEWS: So, this is a bit of theater orchestrated well by the White House. They have got the American Legion commander out there making a statement. They got him to do it. I'm sure -- I assume that most of these people did not read the whole statement of Kerry yesterday, but they are happy to jump on the quote they got.

ARMEY: A fundamental premise of politics is: We can make this work if people just never figure it out.