More on how the right-wing trashing machine kicks into gear. The imbecilic Drudge John Kerry haircut story gets picked up undigested in Canada's National Post, the former flagship sheet of Conrad Black, Canada's would-be Rupert Murdoch. It also gets picked up and packaged with a lot of other bashing -- by turns, ludicrous and hideous -- in Tony Blankley's column in the Washington Times.

Of course, the real issue is the on-its-back insipidness of the mainstream press and how easily it gets pulled in by this stuff. Here's Judy Woodruff yesterday on CNN's Inside Politics ...

Just two days after moving closer to a presidential race, John Kerry already is in denial mode. His office says the senator does not pay $150 to get his hair cut, as claimed by Matt Drudge on the Internet. "The Boston Herald" quotes a source as saying that Kerry pays more like $75 to get what some have called the best hair in the Senate.

"The Drudge Report," which we've not yet confirmed, says Kerry's do is the work of a stylist at the chic Cristophe salon. And you may remember Cristophe from the $200 trim that he gave Bill Clinton on board Air Force One while it sat on the tarmac at LAX in Los Angeles. Clinton learned then what Kerry may know now. Even hair can be a cutting issue when you are or want to be president.

The conveyor belt. Watch how it works.