"By bringing us to a higher alert, mobilizing law enforcement and first responders and informing this country of possible threats, President Bush and Tom Ridge are doing exactly what they should be doing. By questioning their intentions, Howard Dean weakens our national security and puts Americans at risk.

"Dean is trivializing America's security for the sake of politics. That's unbelievable.

"One of the reasons why Howard Dean's ambitions failed was his reckless comments. John Kerry should disavow himself from Howard Dean's comments and from Howard Dean," concluded Foley, R-Fla.

In fact, Dean's paranoid Gore-like complaint was so embarrassing that Kerry was forced to do just that today.

"I don't care what he said," Kerry said. "I haven't suggested that, and I won't suggest that. I do not hold that opinion. I don't believe that."

But Kerry echoed his wild-eyed surrogate. "I believe this administration, in its policies, is actually encouraging the recruitment of terrorists," he claimed this morning on CNN. The administration hasn't sucked up enough to foreign countries and Muslims, he fretted.

Kerry had planned to devote today to attacking Bush for not immediately following the 9/11 commission's recommendations, but the prez cut him off at the knees by announcing support for a national intelligence director and national counterterrorism center.

Really, you'd think Kerry and his Bush-hating underlings would coordinate a little better.

Editor's note: