Kerry letter to Bush: "Over the last week, you and your campaign have initiated a widespread attack on my service in Vietnam, my decision to speak out to end that war, and my commitment to the defense of this nation.

* Kerry letter to Bush: "Over the last week, you and your campaign have initiated a widespread attack on my service in Vietnam, my decision to speak out to end that war, and my commitment to the defense of this nation.... I will not sit back and allow my patriotism to be challenged." ... More Kerry: "I think George Bush is on the run and I think he's on the run because he doesn't have a record to run on." ... Even more Kerry: "In all the years I've been in public life, I've never seen the system tilted against the average person as much as it is today." ... Bush campaign media adviser Mark McKinnon suggests possible anti-Kerry theme, in Washington Post: "He's been wrong for 32 years, he's wrong now." ... AFSCME president Gerald McEntee on Howard Dean, whom his union previously endorsed for president, in New York Times: "I think he's nuts." ... Ralph Nader announces independent bid for presidency.... Gov. Bill Richardson (D., N.M.) on Nader, on Fox News: "It's terrible if he goes ahead, because it's about him, it's about his ego, it's about his vanity." ... Teresa Heinz Kerry discusses her husband, on CNN: "I think he's a man who likes complexity, understands it, and doesn't shy away from looking sometimes as though he is saying one thing and doing another when in fact, anybody who understands this knows exactly what he means. I think only people who like simple notions or simple solutions--well, simplification, let's say--would expect that to be so. I find complexity interesting and so does he. And we do live in complex times."