Hartbroken

Gary Hart sent me an e-mail this morning. Actually it was from info@johnkerry.com, but it had Hart's signature at the bottom. I wasn't a fan of its contents.

"When I first read John Kerry's October speech on Iraq, I knew it was a turning point. He spoke with the same unwavering voice -- truth speaking to power -- as he did when I first heard him speak out about the war in Vietnam in 1971. John Kerry got it right last month when he said, 'Asking tough questions isn't pessimism; it's patriotism' and then answered those questions by offering a detailed plan to get the troops home."

Why would Hart smear himself with Kerry's lame Iraq politics? Maybe it was that Kerry's e-mail list is somewhere around three million. It's understandable that a politician would want to tap that. But there's no excuse for saying peverse pep-talk nonsense, like this:

"When John Kerry called for accelerated training of Iraqi troops, greater international involvement, and improved reconstruction efforts, you amplified his voice."

OR:

"...I am confident about what the johnkerry.com community is sure to accomplish in the future."

Does it get any less authentic than that? What's the point of sounding like a jaded, Vicodin-addicted high school principle at commencement? Hart comes off as insincere about exiting Iraq, which totally collapses the point of his missive.