Swift Boat Liar wants to run against Kerry

John Kerry's nightmarish challenge by his Swift Boat veterans and their allies may not be over.

NewsMax recently chatted with Jerry Corsi, the co-author with Swiftee John O'Neill of 'Unfit for Command' - the runaway New York Times best seller that torpedoed Kerry's presidential campaign.

Attending a conference in the suburbs of Washington recently, Corsi let it be known that he is actively considering a run against Sen. Kerry when his term is up.

Corsi is not a Massachusetts native, but says he has already scouted for property to declare his residence there.

He appeared excited about the challenge. Federal law allows him to declare his candidacy at any time and open up a full fusillade against the Senate's most liberal member.

I think that's a wonderful idea, as he would get creamed by John Kerry and the people of Massachusetts. They will prefer a real war hero against a proven liar and carpetbagger whose only qualification is the swift boat smear.

But John Kerry's term is up in 2008, so when he wants to run for president again, he might retire from his senate seat.

link: http://www.iowapresidentialwatch.com/cartoonarc/CorsiVKerry.htm

•  I've never seen anyone suggest this

  But a lot of people have been talking about Gore again...do you think something like a Gore/Kerry ticket would be appealing?  Kerry could always do what Lieberman did and run for Senate and VP at the same time.  I have a feeling that he wont run for Prez in 2008 just because he's up again for the Senate, but VP is a possibility.

  by FleetAdmiralJ on Tue Jan 25, 2005 at 02:23:48 AM PDT

  •  I dont' see Kerry as VP

    His past leadership and stature and just the way he speaks, etc don't really give me a vice presidential vibe.  I know this isn't a scientific analysis but that's just how it feels to me!

    I'd support either Gore or Kerry in 2008 contrary to what many here feel.  Because in my mind they weren't really losers.  The party itself failed them.  Both by its lack of organization, poor PR / media relations, and horrendous staffing (can you say shrum shrum shrum?)

    The Repugs on the other hand -- stay on message, attack attack attack, and they totally manipulate the media now.

    by diplomatic on Tue Jan 25, 2005 at 02:27:41 AM PDT

    •  We also have several pluses in 2008

      that may help either win

      1. (presumably) no Clinton factor.  I still believe Clinton was the #1 reason why we lost in 2000.

      2. No war-time president.  While war-time Presidents win, war-time parties in an open seat elections do not.  They are 0 for 2 (though both Democrats losing to Republicans).

      3. Ok...so Bush is apparmently all religious and charismatic...but who else in the Republican Party is?  The only two people I've heard who are interested in running are Frist (talk about a piece of wood), and Gingrich (not exactly the posterchild of morality).

      by FleetAdmiralJ on Tue Jan 25, 2005 at 02:51:04 AM PDT

    •  By the way

      If i remember correctly, Kerry was one of Gore's finalists to be VP in 2000.

      by FleetAdmiralJ on Tue Jan 25, 2005 at 02:54:52 AM PDT

•  No Way

  Politics is a contact sport in Boston.  I don't think Corsi the carpetbagger could get on the Republican ticket.  Heck, I don't think he'd even be able to park his car in Boston.

  I'd imagine that what this is about is really funneling Washington anti-Democrat propaganda through him.  The "Senatorial campaign" will just be an excuse to get more anti-liberal hatred in the media.

  by Gareth on Tue Jan 25, 2005 at 02:47:30 AM PDT

  •  Oh, I dunno

    how hard it'll be for Corsi to get on the ticket.  It's not like the R's have a deep bench to draw from.  It would be fun, though...he wouldn't get the same swooning treatment he did from Fox "News" in Boston (except probably from Howie Carr, but maybe he'll die soon).

    by MAJeff on Tue Jan 25, 2005 at 02:57:05 AM PDT

  •  The GOP bar is awfully low

    If they're capable of parachuting Alan Keyes into Illinois, they'll have no compunction about backing Corsi in Massachusetts. At a minimum, they'll hope to turn the race into a circus.

    by Dump Terry McAuliffe on Tue Jan 25, 2005 at 03:28:14 AM PDT

  •  True: Massachusetts is brutal

    Corsi would get savaged should he try this. It would only boost Kerry's* appeal to the voters. It would be like putting a golfer on skates against a hockey team. I hope he does this.

    *or his chosen successor's appeal. It doesn't really matter.

    by Saint Fnordius on Tue Jan 25, 2005 at 04:12:36 AM PDT

  •  Don't count on an easy Dem win in Mass!

    They are doing what Dean has been screaming about. They play BOLD in your face politics while the Democrats play weak defensive politics.

    No one thought that a Republican could become Governor in a libbrul state ...but he is.

    THIS IS HOW THE GOP TURNS BLUE STATES PURPLE THEN RED

    • The GOP does not write off the deep blue states like we right off the deep red states.

    • The GOP does not send in Dem-lite repubs into deep blue states looking to attract "swing voters". They send in the loudest boldest Republican they can find and they NEVER TAKE IN TO CONSIDERATION "WHAT THE DEMOCRATS WILL THINK".

    • They take their time and build up formidable Republican base and they play to them to the hilt.

    There is fertile ground in Massachusetts that has tiled and seeded by numerous hate radio stations. We are fools to think that this is in the bag. If the GOP doesn't win this time they will win the next because the Dems have lost almost complete contact with their base.

    I don't think Kennedy has been to Springfield in over 30 years. Kerry stopped by in recently for a high profile funeral and because he was planning on running but it must have been over a decade since he had stepped foot in Springfield which to swirling into decay faster than anyone could have imagined. And since Democrats are in charge it is prime retail for Republicans to take over because they can honestly say that the downfall it is due to the local Democrats.

    by dddemocrat on Tue Jan 25, 2005 at 04:45:36 AM PDT

    •  valid point except doubtful in this case

      Mass. was the only state that went for McGovern, remember.

      by pitbullEmily on Tue Jan 25, 2005 at 05:53:43 AM PDT

      •  What does that have to do

        with what is happening in Springfield and Holyoke, today?

        The Republicans are already there en masse. There are several hate radio programs. There has been a huge influx of Caribbeans (Jamicans, Puerto Ricans and  Dominicans) who are staunchly religious.

        Faith based funding has been flooding the Black churches for four years now.

        Massachusetts is ripe to be plucked from the hands of Democrats.

        by dddemocrat on Tue Jan 25, 2005 at 06:22:12 AM PDT

        •  Mainly because

          like the DC Dems the MA Dems have rested on their laurels for over 50 years.

          Kennedy doesn't even have to campaign anymore it is a given...so the grassroot...what's that?

          Kennedy and Kerry have written off Western Mass the same way that the DNC usual writes off the south or rural areas.

          There WILL be a Rude Awakening. The GOP is playing for keeps while we have the Dems playing for personal benefits.

          by dddemocrat on Tue Jan 25, 2005 at 06:26:09 AM PDT

    •  Absolutely true!

      Romney won because he was able to pick up on that feeling of abandonment in Western MA. We have to address this and start to pay attention to cities and towns that are 'West of Worcester.' Anything can happen and it is possible that the Repubs will come up with someone mildly viable and use these feelings of abandonment to hype the vote in Western MA.  We do have a lot of work to do as Dems in MA. There are no absolute locks in the State for anyone.

      by terribfromMA on Tue Jan 25, 2005 at 06:14:03 AM PDT

      •  Um

        IIRC, Romney lost in Western Mass: Pittsfield, Lee, Lenox, North Adams, Northhampton, Holyoke and Springfield all went for O'Brien.  Berkshire county went 66% for O'Brien, Hampshire Co. went 64% for O'Brien and Franklin Co. went 60% for O'Brien.  Only Hampden county was split 49/50 barely in favor of Romney.

        Where she lost was the suburbs inside and around 495, northern Middlesex County and along the New Hampshire border.  The Democrats have to make inroads in the suburbs if they want to retake the governor's office in '06.

        That being said, the idea that Corsi can carpetbag into MA and beat a guy who just got 62% (and 80+% in '02) of the vote this past year is laughable.

        by Jugwine on Tue Jan 25, 2005 at 09:13:24 AM PDT

        •  My bad, then

          And my exact area to do work in (Lowell.) Sigh!

          by terribfromMA on Tue Jan 25, 2005 at 11:20:10 AM PDT

          •  Work harder!

            O'Brien only won Lowell by 87 votes in '02! ;)

            by Jugwine on Tue Jan 25, 2005 at 11:25:26 AM PDT

            •  It's worse than that

              I am in the 'burbs, some of which Kerry lost last fall. We have to work really, really hard. Strange that I am repped by Marty Meehan and he is a good lib, but the Merrimack Valley is pretty conservative.

              by terribfromMA on Tue Jan 25, 2005 at 04:58:04 PM PDT

•  massachusetts liberal

  mass. only elects liberals to the senate, even the
  occasional republican has to be a liberal. they also don`t like outsiders coming in to run for the senate. kerry is a senator for life if he wants to run again, but if he  wants to run for president he has to choose , he can`t do both.
  gore  is yesterdays news ,his political career is
  dead.
  democrats should root for frist to get the nomonation, talk about a robot, even hillary could beat him.

  by JOEL1954 on Tue Jan 25, 2005 at 03:07:37 AM PDT

  •  Gore has a better shot in 08 than Kerry

    He actually won in 2000, but anyway his "loss" is further in the past.  Gore was running against a guy who seemed like he couldn't be that bad.  Kerry was running against one of the most unpopular presidents ever.  I really do not see Kerry coming back from this loss to run again in 2008.  His presidential hopes ended with his loss this time.  

    by Asak on Tue Jan 25, 2005 at 03:30:27 AM PDT

•  Corsi for Senate?

  Bring it on!

  by The Messenger on Tue Jan 25, 2005 at 06:25:38 AM PDT

•  Amazing, but not unexpected

  I thought it would be O'Neill who would run for something in Texas.  O'Neill has no honor or apparent morals, but he is not crazy.  Or maybe Schachte, who is a very smart, well-connected former JAG lawyer-admiral.  Schachte was careful not to have his name anywhere on the book (and I think he does not appear in the ads, though I'm not sure), and he only did two interviews--making him a very hard target for the future.

  One of the most revealing, both sad and laughable, things about Corsi the crackpot is his book Leonardo da Vinci: A Three-Dimensional Study (1995). Believe it or not, it is a pop-up book!  The title itself is priceless.  The text reads like a bad undergraduate lecture, and a very short one at that (the book is only 12 pages, much of which is the pop-ups and other illustrations.  He bills himself as "Dr. Jerome Corsi, who received his Ph.D. at Harvard University ..." I guess he sees himself as a sort of Renaissance Man.  My favorite passage from the text is in the introduction, where he tells us:

  "Here, in a twentieth-century pop-up format, Leonardo da Vinci's wonderful motion-based designs are brought to life as the artist might have envisioned them."

  Unfortunately, the "twentieth-century pop-up format" does not do Leonardo justice, to put it mildly!

  by rasmus on Tue Jan 25, 2005 at 06:54:43 AM PDT

•  On Kerry 2008

  I can understand why Kerry wants to run again. He is pissed off about the Swift Boat fake controversy, which was personal and not politics-as-usual, and he wants to prove them wrong.

  He may be angry about other things as well, like how his campaign was run, but I give him enough credit to imagine that he blames himself as much as anyone else for everything else that went wrong, other than the Swift Boat fake controversy.  Yes, the campaign should have seen the attacks on his antiwar-protester years coming, but no, I don't think the lies about his military service record could have been predicted--they are just so utterly false.  

  Frankly, though, Kerry might as well not run if he is going to continue to try to portray himself as somehow socially adept.  You don't get to be Yale's valedictorian by hanging out with the guys and gals all the time.  Yes, he played hockey and such, but that doesn't mean he was busy throwing all-night parties in his dorm room.  He needs to portray himself as the man he really is, a tough, accomplished, private person who understands what is going on in the world.  He needs to learn to joke about his social awkwardness, and let Teresa handle the social butterflies.

  It pains me when I see politians trying to be somebody they're not, and I think the American electorate picks up on that.  That's the genius of Bush's public image--it is ultimately based on his very real "come on over, there's a party going on in my backyard" self.
  

  by rasmus on Tue Jan 25, 2005 at 07:53:53 AM PDT

•  corsi

  If Kerry uses the same incompetents as he used for his run at the White House look for Senator Corsi from Mass.

  After the dismal showing by the spinless I emailed both the DNC and DLC today about the majority of Democrats rubber stamping Bush's failure, Rice, for Sec of State.

  by usedmeat on Thu Jan 27, 2005 at 10:32:22 AM PDT