Generals get accused of fighting the last war but they're not the only ones: Some Republicans think past political battles provide better ammo than today's fight. Witness the phony furor over John Kerry's botched joke.

During a rally at a college in Pasadena, Calif., Mr. Kerry said: "You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

A reporter on the scene said the context of the remark was a series of one-liners about President Bush. A Kerry spokeswoman indicated the senator had departed from his prepared text, which was: "Do you know where you end up if you don't study, if you aren't smart, if you're intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq. Just ask President Bush."

In the garbled way it came out, it can be taken both ways -- critical of the troops and of Mr. Bush. Not surprisingly, the administration was delighted to take it the first way.

In a rational world, Mr. Kerry might be given the benefit of the doubt. He is, after all, a decorated Vietnam veteran who led U.S. servicemen in combat in a way that few of his pious critics ever did. That didn't stop Mr. Bush's supporters from trashing the senator's wartime record in the 2004 campaign.

Sen. Kerry's remarks only reinforced the false image so carefully constructed that he is an effete, elitist character not to be trusted with national security. However you cut it, this joke was stupid and fair game for political comment.

That said, the obvious glee with which Republicans seized upon it -- from the White House down to Rep. Melissa Hart, whose campaign dubbed Mr. Kerry "anti-troop" -- had a strong element of protesting too much.

For this was a wonderful excuse to change the national conversation. The only problem is that Mr. Kerry is not the leader of the Democratic Party. He is a failed presidential candidate and he is not even on the ballot in Massachusetts this year.

Mr. Kerry was right yesterday to apologize for the misunderstanding, but the real controversy about the troops is the stuff of daily headlines: Why is there no plan to extricate them from the hellhole that is Iraq? On that, as Mr. Kerry should have said, "Just ask President Bush."