Sen. Biden Says Bush Is 'Brain Dead'

The latest from the Political Grapevine:

Tony Takes It Back?

Washington Post lobbyist Tony Podesta (search), who is running John Kerry's Pennsylvania campaign, has apologized for urging Kerry supporters to "take action to fight against" a showing of the anti-Kerry documentary "Stolen Honor" at a movie theater near Philadelphia.

Podesta had sent out an email with the theater manager's phone number in it, warning that unless Democrats do something, "this garbage" will be shown in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.

The next day, Podesta put out another email insisting, "Yesterday's email may have been construed as an attempt [at censorship] ... we would never imply that it is not their right to make their opinions known. I apologize for any implication to the contrary."

By then, however, the theater — amid mounting pressure — had canceled the showing.

Oops... Times' Report

The New York Times Thursday reported, "On the rare moments when he has been asked, [President] Bush has never answered the question of how he would react if Iraq or Afghanistan or other nations in the Middle East held free elections, and they freely chose fundamentalist Islamic governments."

Two days earlier, the Associated  Press — of which the Times is a member — reported the President as saying in an interview, "If free and open Iraqi elections lead to the seating of a fundamentalist Islamic government, 'I will be disappointed. But democracy is democracy... If that's what the people choose, that's what the people choose."

Bush Is 'Brain Dead'?

Discussing President Bush's prescription drug plans, Delaware Democratic Sen. Joe Biden (search) called the president "brain dead."

But under sharp criticism from Republicans, Biden has this to say about it:

"What I meant by brain dead is that he doesn't understand the plight of the middle class. ... How can anybody say that a meager tax cut the middle class got even remotely compensates for the increased costs in heating oil, gasoline, health care, [and] tuition."

Worried About Witches

The Puyallup School District (search) in Washington State has canceled its annual Halloween parade and banned all other Halloween activities, insisting the costumes may be offensive to real witches and followers of Wicca (search) — a form of Paganism.

A school district spokeswoman, quoted by local KOMO-TV, says, "Witches [masks] with pointy noses and things like that are not respective symbols of the Wiccan religion, and so we want to be respectful."

But, aside from that, school officials say Halloween activities are a waste of valuable class time and too expensive for some to take part in.

— FOX News' Michael Levine contributed to this report