John Kerry, who is currently getting his ass kicked by Dean, is going over the edge:

Senator John F. Kerry, who has insisted that the Bush administration ignored a French-Russian plan to avoid war in Iraq last March, acknowledged yesterday that he did not know the specifics of such a plan but said that UN Secretary General Kofi Annan assured him "there were specific discussions" about a nonmilitary compromise that senior Bush aides "shut the door to."

In televised remarks Monday night, the Democratic presidential contender from Massachusetts said that three days before the war began March 19, he "knew at that moment in time that the Russians and French were prepared to in fact make a further offer" at the UN to find diplomatic alternatives to war. But the Bush administration told Annan at the time that "the time for diplomacy is over," Kerry said, citing a conversation between himself and Annan on March 16.

Several American officials at the UN disputed Kerry's assertions, saying that the Bush administration never shut the door on serious diplomatic overtures, even though the White House had concluded that the French and other nations opposed to the use of force would never move aggressively to disarm Saddam Hussein's regime.

OK, if Kofi Annan, by far the worst Secretary General in UN history, "assured" Kerry that a Franco/Russian plan was imminent and would have avoided conflict. If Kofi said it, well that's good enough for me. Don't the democratic candidates see that the American people look at the UN differently than in the past. It has lost its luster and prominence. Why would Kerry think that anyone should care what Kofi says? Oh yeah, he's got to play to the far-left fringe groups who are protesting today.