President Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, said Wednesday that the Bush-Cheney campaign is planning some October "surprises" for challengers John Kerry and John Edwards.

"We've got a couple of surprises that we intend to spring," Rove told ABC radio host Sean Hannity...

--NewsMax story, 9/29/04

A man called Sean Hannity after 4 PM ET today. Said he lived in Naples, FL, but originally lived in MA. He said that Kerry lost his first congressional race when networks aired a film of Kerry (in uniform) burning & urinating on an American flag. Sean was skeptical. The guy suggested checking with possibly John O'Neill or Howie Carr in MA. Anyone ever hear about anything like this?

--Free Republic discussion thread, 9/29/04

Coincidence?

An isolated event -- or the start of the next phase of Bush's sewer campaign?

Even Hannity expresses skepticism about this rumor, but that may be beside the point. In 1988 there were completely unsubstantiated rumors that Kitty Dukakis had once burned an American flag, rumors to which Bush the Elder made an oblique but pointed allusion while talking about running mate Dan Quayle.

Meanwhile, another FR thread notes that Bob Dornan tried to link Kerry to flag-burning in the '70s on Hannity's TV show in August:

Bob Dornan went on a savage attack, showing burned US flag and VC/Communist flags that were burned by Kerry's anti-war group in 1971.

The Freeper who describes this Dornan appearance goes on to say,

Dornan also wanted Fox to have anti-Kerry widows from the Vietnam war.

Which brings us back to the latest ad by the Swift boat Kerry-haters, which -- yes -- features wives of Vietnam POWs.

Oh, and, of course, Congress is about to take up a flag-burning amendment.

Is Rove delicately orchestrating this? Hard to say. Color me suspicious.