John Kerry Rips Into Joe Lieberman

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Gloves Are Off

Most Senate Democrats are supporting liberal challenger Ned Lamont in the Connecticut Senate race, but avoiding attacks on colleague Joe Lieberman, who's now running as an independent.

But not John Kerry.

Kerry ripped Lieberman this weekend for "making a Republican case" on the war in Iraq. Kerry told ABC's "This Week" that Lieberman is "out of step with the people of Connecticut," saying, "To adopt the rhetoric of Dick Cheney, who has been wrong about almost everything he has said about Iraq, shows you just exactly why he got in trouble."

Lieberman called Kerry "an old friend," but dismissed his remarks as "just plain politics by somebody who has ambitions of his own."

Laying Down the Law... But Not Really

A British law criminalizing the encouragement of political violence — passed in the wake of last year's London terror bombings — has yet to result in a single arrest, even as Islamic extremists continue to call on Muslims to kill British and American citizens.

The New York Times reports one London cleric still celebrates the deaths of coalition soldiers on his popular Web site, while yesterday, Muslim scholar Azam Tamimi glorified martyrdom "in defiance of George Bush and Tony Blair" before a crowd of 8,000.

One Islamic activist even encourages Muslims to attack bank employees because they charge interest in violation of Islamic law.

Opposition leader David Cameron blames Prime Minister Tony Blair for failing to enforce the provision.

Hezbollah Helped From West?

Israeli intelligence has complained that Hezbollah terrorists had some help from the West in targeting Israeli soldiers after the IDF found 250 British night-vision goggles in a Hezbollah stronghold.

Turns out, the state-of-the-art equipment was shipped to Iran in 2003 under a U.N. program to combat rampant drug smuggling through the country's northern mountains. British officials are working to determine how the goggles ended up in Hezbollah's hands.

Meanwhile, an Israeli spokesman tells the San Francisco Chronicle the goggles were found in a highly sophisticated command and control center, saying: "We're talking here about hundreds of millions of dollars given by Iran to Hezbollah in the last six years."

Traveling on the Taxpayers' Dime

Former Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Sharpe James may have dropped his re-election bid earlier this year, but he stuck the city with the $6,500 bill for a five-day trip to Rio de Janeiro in the final week of his 20-year tenure.

What's more, the Newark Star-Ledger reports that his luxury hotels and fine dining in Rio were the tip of the iceberg, finding trips to Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republican, Martha's Vineyard and Atlantic City all charged to a city credit card.

James says the trips were all official city business, but new Mayor Cory Booker called the spending an "egregious and unacceptable use of public funds."

—FOX News Channel's Aaron Bruns contributed to this report.