AP’s Democratic operative Jennifer Loven has a new story out, this time moaning about the “aggressive” language used by the Bush campaign. Why, they’re actually calling Kerry a (gasp!) liberal! Stop the insanity! Bush Rhetoric Becoming More Aggressive.

Hoping to stunt the momentum the Massachusetts senator gained from a much-praised showing in the first debate and a week of difficult news for Bush on Iraq and the economy, aides are signaling the anti-Kerry arsenal is far from depleted.

“There’s a lot more in (Kerry’s) record that the American people are going to hear and know about by the time it’s all over,” said Karl Rove, Bush’s chief political adviser.

Looking ahead to the final debate, set to focus entirely on domestic issues, Bush is devoting more time to talking about Kerry’s record on taxes, health care and other domestic issues.

In the process, he is seeking to drive home two main characterizations of his rival: that Kerry is a die-hard liberal who lacks credibility because he tries to paint himself as otherwise. It’s the domestic version of the weak, flip-flopping image the Bush team has tried to attach to Kerry on Iraq and the war on terror.

Campaigning Saturday in Missouri, Iowa and Minnesota, Bush mocked Kerry’s debate promise never to raise taxes on those earning less than $200,000 as unbelievable and ridiculed his rival’s plan to increase the number of people with health insurance as a federal takeover of health care, a characterization Kerry says is false since his plan does not call for nationalized health care. Many of Kerry’s statements, Bush now likes to say, “don’t pass the credibility test.”

Bush then warns — his audience often chanting along with him — that Kerry “can run but he cannot hide” from a record that the president criticizes as both unimpressive and unabashedly liberal.

In chats with reporters, two Bush’s closest advisers — Rove and Karen Hughes — together used the word “liberal” nearly a dozen times to describe Kerry.