It’s rare to see a major columnist offer an admission of error (see Dowd, Maureen), so let’s give credit where credit is due. As I wrote on Spinsanity, David Brooks was one of several columnists peddling the claim had endorsed the “outsourcing” of combat operations in Tora Bora to Afghan troops in 2001, only to change his views on the matter during the campaign. But the quote in question was bogus, and today Brooks admits it:

Not that it will do him much good at this point, but I owe John Kerry an apology. I recently mischaracterized some comments he made to Larry King in December 2001. I said he had embraced the decision to use Afghans to hunt down Al Qaeda at Tora Bora. He did not. I regret the error.