Katherine Mangu-Ward at the Weekly Standard takes notice of Diana Kerry, who last week attempted to sow a rift in the wartime alliance between Australia and the US. Mangu-Ward at first notes that several presidents have had their embarassments with siblings, most notably Billy Carter and his lobbying for Libya and his penchant for beer. However, she quickly decides that this sibling may be different -- and more destructive:

The Weekend Australian's Roy Eccleston, who broke the story, added: "Asked if she believed the terrorist threat to Australians was now greater because of the support for Republican George W. Bush, Ms. Kerry said: 'The most recent attack was on the Australian embassy in Jakarta--I would have to say that.'" She also mentioned the October 2002 bombing of two Bali nightclubs, in which many of the victims were young Australians.

Alert readers, including Amanda Sokolski on this magazine's website, quickly picked up on errors in Ms. Kerry's timeline. The Bali bombing took place long before Australia got mixed up with those nasty Americans and their "wanton disregard for international law." And the September 9 attack on the Australian embassy was perpetrated by Jemaah Islamiyah, al Qaeda's Southeast Asia franchise, which has considered Australia a target since well before the Iraq war. Evidently, the details of this timeline were blurry for Ms. Kerry, who has been busy shuttling around the globe on her brother's behalf for the last several months.

All of which seems of a piece with the general Kerry cluelessness on terrorism that has been on display in this election cycle already. But her cluelessness is not limited to the US-Australian partnership or the war on terror. Diana Kerry expounds on conspiracy theories like Bush's supposed blocking of the overseas vote, which in any case would hardly be considered an electionbreaker.

Mangu-Ward discusses the curious lack of American media response Ms. Kerry's remarks received earlier, especially considering the damage her remarks were intended to do. She reviews the response Ms. Kerry got from the blogging community, including Captain's Quarters:

After the Command Post blog noted the Weekend Australian article, the comments section featured these reflections: "Dianna [sic] Kerry and John Kerry represent the Deaniac Demoncrat [sic] wing of the Islamofascist al-Queda [sic] party. . . . That is the Flip side! On the Flop side Diana and John Kerry represent the Michael Moore Muslim Moonbat brigades."

On the Rabble.ca chatboard, "Screaming Lord Byron" posted this insightful note after seeing Ms. Kerry speak earlier in the summer: "Had I seen her around town yesterday, I'd have thought 'What is Senator Kerry doing walking around Calgary dressed as a middle-aged businesswoman? That can't go down well with the swing voters.'"

On a more serious note, "Captain Ed" of the Captain's Quarters blog wrote: "Diana Kerry acts on orders from her brother John to undermine the Australian alliance."

For the second time in as many weeks, blogger conspiracy theorists may be onto something. There has been no discernible fallout from Ms. Kerry's comments at the campaign headquarters.

Mangu-Ward gives a bit of a misquote here but gets the essence of what I said last week, which was this: "Does John Kerry care more about grabbing power than he does about the United States? It certainly appears that way. Who gave the order for Diana Kerry to interfere with the Australian election? Who told her to act in a manner that is calculated to undermine the American-Australian partnership on the terror war? Frankly, not only should this disqualify him for the presidency, it should disqualify anyone involved in his campaign from ever holding public office. Those who condone this interference in a wartime alliance must be punished at the polls, and their party as a whole should be blocked from any power whatsoever until they atone for their actions.

The mainstream media should be embarassed to have missed this story, and Mangu-Ward should be commended for keeping it alive.

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