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Bernard Goldberg, the CBS renegade (he actually suggested that there is a liberal media bias), warns that "if Dan Rather's source turns out to be a partisan, say goodbye to CBS's reputation."

Hugh Hewitt doesn't understand why Viacom is allowing the CBS News "brand" to depreciate severely while the Rather forgery scandal festers on. Don't they remember how Johnson & Johnson wrote the damage control handbook when Tylenol users started dropping dead 20 years ago?

Impish columnist Jonah Goldberg warns of "the perils of Dan-nial."

New York Daily News owner/columnist (when you own the paper you can publish a column whenever you want) Mortimer B. Zuckerman professes surprise: "Who would have thought that this year's presidential campaign might turn out to be more of a referendum on John Kerry than on President Bush?"

Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass called the Abilene Kinko's. He talked to "Coz," who confirmed that George Soros, James Carville, Michael Moore, et al have not been seen skulking around the parking lot.

Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer thinks John Kerry is done. Why? Because the election will be decided on the Iraq war, and "having taken every possible position on the war, there is nothing he can say now that is even remotely credible." There's "nowhere left to flop."

Columnist Mona Charen looks at Kerry and says hello to "Mr. Expedience."

The walls are closing in: Marc Morano of CNS News reports that the Navy insists that Kerry has some of his own records that he shouldn't have, and that he has not authorized the release of some of those documents that the Navy does have.

Well, this should inspire real confidence: Mark Leibovich and Jim VandeHei, covering the Kerry campaign for the Washington Post, reveal today that "one of the abiding truths about Kerry — and one that is often frustrating to his aides — is that he will listen to anyone."

And according to New York Post political columnist and former Clinton strategy guru Dick Morris, the recent Kerry staff shake-up is ... wasn't there an analogy involving deck chairs?

IOWAHAWK David Burge supplies some new and catchy slogans for the Kerry campaign, which needs help wherever it can find it. Two favorites: (1) "Projecting American Strength Through Intricately Complex Nuance"; and (2) "I Will Never Recuse My UN Ambassador from the Vote to Ask for a Permission Slip to Defend This Country." OK, make it three: (3) "Fear Not, America, I Have Deigned to Lead You."

It's brass tacks time, pal: columnist Michael Costello of The (Sydney) Australian predicts that Israel will have to destroy Iran's nukes before Iran destroys Israel.

New York Post columnist and former Army officer Ralph Peters argues that "The Muddle in Iraq" is going better than reported, but predicts a "bloody" October.

Re Iraq: brilliant classicist, military historian, and National Review online columnist Victor Davis Hanson warns that "leaving now would be a disaster."

Essayist Joseph Epstein would rather be "the first Jewish coal miner in West Virginia" than poet laureate of the United States.