They're still lying…

…about that Kerry fella. What's Scott Johnson afraid of?

On his visit to Iraq, Senator Kerry apparently got something like the silent treatment from the troops who are "stuck" there. WDAY's Scott Hennen quotes a message from a friend serving in Iraq:

...Check out this photo from our mess hall at the US Embassy yesterday morning. Sen. Kerry found himself all alone while he was over here...eating breakfast with only a couple of folks who are obviously not troops…

Here's the snap (edited for size) as run at Powerline…



…and here it is brightened up a bit.



As you can see, when shadows are lifted, it's apparent that almost everyone in the Embassy mess at the hour in question was eating breakfast with only a couple of folks, and most of them are apparently (nothing's actually obvious in the picture) not troops. There seem to be more uniformed servers in the shot than uniformed Gis. In fact, the guy in the OD jacket sitting across from Kerry seems as likely to be a soldier as almost anyone in the mostly empty mess hall. Anyone else at Kerry's table has been conveniently cropped from the shot. It's just a typical, if not particularly effective, smear job.

Except it's more than that, because Johnson has access to the Republican megaphone…

UPDATE: Scott writes that he'll be filling in for Sean Hannity on his radio show Wednesday and Thursday, and promises to talk about the photo…

While talking about a dark, blurry photograph doesn't seem like particularly radio (maybe if they hold it really close to the microphone?), count on hearing a lot about how much the troops hate the Senator.

It's more than that, too, when even blue blogs pick up the smear...

Photo: John Kerry got silent treatment from troops during his visit to Iraq. Is he still thinking about running for president?

As with the legend of the joke - the one that was so badly "botched" that everyone in the audience laughed at the punch line - it's hard to see what the point of knocking John Kerry around might be unless people think that he is running again, and that this time he's likely to win.

I don't know if either of those things is true. I know this is true, though.

They're lying about John Kerry again.

The question remains, what are they afraid of?

Update: Steve Benen covers some of the questions surrounding the picture's provenance that Diane alluded to in a comment yesterday. Photo time stamps aren't proof positive, of course, but as Steve points out, there are a few things we do know…

* Kerry is a decorated war hero, and most of his critics aren’t.
* Any suggestion that Kerry’s “botched joke” was criticism of the troops is ridiculous.
* Kerry chose to spend time during the holiday season with troops in Iraq, and most of his critics didn’t.
* Kerry has spent the past few years being right about the war in Iraq, and most of his critics haven’t.

And, by the way, a big howdy to all the Carpetbagger Report readers who've been dropping by. Ya'll come back, hear?