Beyond Parody

Has Instapundit ever read his own writing? There's evidence to the contrary:

ACCORDING TO THE VOTE SMART WEBSITE, John Kerry gets a zero rating from the American Legion. Even Ted Kennedy gets a 50.

Since I don't know what the votes are for, I don't know what this means, exactly. But it probably accounts, in some part, for Kerry's cool reception in front of the American Legion last week.

UPDATE: Reader Greg Campbell writes:

You may notice that Senators received either 0, 50, or 100% ratings from the American Legion for 2003 votes. This is due to the fact that the Legion apparently only endorsed two Senate issues during that year:

Link

As you will note, John Kerry got a 0 because he voted "No" on the first issue (the budget resolution), and did not vote on the second issue (the Tom Ridge confirmation). The budget resolution was mostly a party-line vote (except for John McCain and Zell Miller), and the Tom Ridge confirmation was obviously not in any danger of being voted down (passing 94-0), so I assume Kerry (along with Joe Lieberman) felt it was acceptable to skip it and focus on campaigning.

Hmm. The link above doesn't make clear that these are the same votes, but this explanation makes sense. Kind of makes you wonder why the Legion bothers with the ratings, then. It also suggests that Kerry's cool reception didn't stem from his missing these fairly trivial votes. [Emphasis in original.]

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...Dear reader, do you see what I see? Let's take a closer look:

But it [Kerry's voting record] probably accounts, in some part, for Kerry's cool reception in front of the American Legion last week.

Right. Gotcha. Kerry's votes on crucial Am. Leg. issues alienated the Legionnaires. That probably makes him weak, or something. But wait:

It [the fact that the votes turned out to be trivial] also suggests that Kerry's cool reception didn't stem from his missing these fairly trivial votes.

Hold on! Now this is sinister. "Kerry's cool reception" (so non-hackneyed a phrase that it deserved verbatim repetition) didn't have anything to do with his votes.

Uh, ouch (?). No, wait, I mean, heh.