John Kerry Did Pull Something Out

It was a pen, but not just any pen…. this pen:

On a more serious note, here was the response released from the Kerry campaign:

October 4, 2004 — Was John Kerry trying to pull something at the debate last week?
That question was burning up the Internet yesterday after a slo-mo review of the footage showed the Massachusetts senator taking an object out of his right pocket before the first question.

Was it a cheat sheet ? as some conservative bloggers claimed ? or was it something innocuous?

Either way, it would violate the debate rules agreed to by both campaigns: “No props, notes . . . or other tangible things may be brought into the debate.”

Many blogs offered links to the “Pocket-gate” footage. One, INDC Journal, even posted frame-by-frame stills purporting to show Kerry pulling out a notecard and placing it onto the podium.

But the mystery was solved when The Post reviewed a Fox News Channel feed from Thursday’s debate: Kerry pulled out . . . a black pen.

Kerry campaign spokesman David Wade remained angry at the bloggers’ guilt-by-insinuation.

“The right-wing attack machine will say anything to steal a debate do-over,” he said.

“We plead guilty to having a pen.”

The Bush campaign did not comment.