This is going out to all Mass. Dems that today is primary day in Massachusetts, and I hope all of you are going to vote for John Kerry, who we need sent back to the Senate with a sizeable mandate. I don't really want to get into his opponent, who is quite unremarkable, but to rather give a big pitch as to why Democrats need Senator Kerry as one of the great liberal leaders in the Senate. 2004 was very painful, but since then, Kerry has done many important things in the last 3 1/2 years, and I think he has a lot of fight in him to bring about a sea change in progressive policies in the Senate in concert with Barack Obama as our President. I just want to share a few of his past deeds, and to point out something he is working on right now that is huge, affecting not just Massachusetts but the entire eastern seaboard, North and South.
I still remember that day in November 2004, two weeks after John Kerry lost the presidency to George W. Bush by a hair, he was suddenly on the TV screen on CNN. Why? Because it was a lame duck Congressional session to raise the debt level (after Bush had already wracked up the deficit by an astounding amount, we needed to borrow more money or the government would shut down). There was John Kerry on the Senate floor delivering remarks on how Bush and the Republicans had mismanaged the budget, and that they were now forced to borrow more money. Suddenly, CNN's pundits interrupted Senator Kerry's speech, and Robert Novak sneered: why doesn't John Kerry just resign!!! It was at that moment that we found out what John Kerry was made of: it ends up he was not as vain and shallow as all the pundits insisted upon. He actually meant all those campaign promises he made, and intended to work on delivering those promises from the Senate or die trying. He started with his Kids First health care initiative and Military Family Bill of Rights. He also continued to speak out on Iraq, giving warning signs (even after the jubilantly described Iraqi elections in January '05) that it was not going well and changes needed to be made fast.
The good Senator had his ups and downs these last few years. After all, Democrats are famous for "eating our own" when they lose. Maybe Gore had the right approach: disappear for a while until the Democratic blame game storm has died down a bit, and then release a major Hollywood hit and win a Nobel Peace Prize (okay, that plan probably only was going to work for Gore, but I digress). But Kerry had a job in the Senate, so he unfortunately had to hear the bashing and see the finger pointing up close. But as they say, what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.
2006 was "A Tale of Two Cities" kind of year for the Junior Senator from Massachusetts. I still remember the first time John Kerry posted here on DailyKos, and received close to 2,000 comments in total, some glad he came, some still mad as hell at him for losing in '04, all very emotional. It was a conversation that needed to happen, but it wasn't easy. Soon after, the Alito nomination was to be voted upon, and Kerry decided to launch a filibuster, announcing it right here on DailyKos. I remember the excitement and exuberance here and elsewhere on the liberal blogosphere as we worked to flip enough votes to make the filibuster happen. That was a "best of times" moment for the Senator. But it wasn't enough and everything came crashing down, as Alito skated through the nomination supported by many conservative Democrats. Then the fallout: the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Economist all proclaiming either themselves or from annonymous "Some Democrats" that Kerry needed to STFU and go away. LOSER! Worst of Times.
Meanwhile, Iraq descended into civil war after the Samarra Shrine bombing, and Kerry had enough of nuance talk, introducing his timetable for withdrawal plan in April 2006, which became the Kerry/Feingold amendment, voted upon in the summer of 2006, garnering 13 votes. "Some Democrats" told the New York Times that Kerry was once again making a fool of himself, but that just didn't matter this time. He had emptied his conscience in a speech he gave on the 35th anniversary of his testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971 at Faneuil Hall. If you haven't read it, you should.
I have come here today to reaffirm that it was right to dissent in 1971 from a war that was wrong. And to affirm that it is both a right and an obligation for Americans today to disagree with a President who is wrong, a policy that is wrong, and a war in Iraq that weakens the nation.
I believed then, just as I believe now, that the best way to support the troops is to oppose a course that squanders their lives, dishonors their sacrifice, and disserves our people and our principles. When brave patriots suffer and die on the altar of stubborn pride, because of the incompetence and self-deception of mere politicians, then the only patriotic choice is to reclaim the moral authority misused by those entrusted with high office.
I believed then, just as I believe now, that it is profoundly wrong to think that fighting for your country overseas and fighting for your country’s ideals at home are contradictory or even separate duties. They are, in fact, two sides of the very same patriotic coin. And that’s certainly what I felt when I came home from Vietnam convinced that our political leaders were waging war simply to avoid responsibility for the mistakes that doomed our mission in the first place. Indeed, one of the architects of the war, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, confessed in a recent book that he knew victory was no longer a possibility far earlier than 1971.
By then, it was clear to me that hundreds of thousands of soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen—disproportionately poor and minority Americans—were being sent into the valley of the shadow of death for an illusion privately abandoned by the very men in Washington who kept sending them there.
It only gets better from there. It was a major Best of Times. Kerry was intent on changing things in Congress, so he raised or gave $14 million to candidates across the country. By late October, it seemed that things were actually going to go our way for the 2006 midterm elections. And then. The Joke. I do not know if Senator Kerry was definitely going to try for another run for the presidency, but it seemed that pronoungate (never did I know that forgetting one word "us" would get the gasbags on cable so up in arms) sealed the fate of any presidential aspirations. In January 2007, Kerry announced he would not be running for President again, and that he would be running for re-election to the Senate. The DC Establishmentseized the moment to attempt to crush him into oblivion. Those of us who have been following Kerry knew they were doomed to fail. But during another period out in the wilderness, John and his wife Teresa went on a book tour promoting their book "This Moment on Earth" about the Environment and the grassroots activists who had worked for change all over the country. He never let the bastards get him down, and most importantly, he never stopped working for the causes he believed in.
Meanwhile, the 2008 presidential election was heating up, and John Kerry stunned the world by endorsing Barack Obama right after Hillary won New Hampshire. We now know via The New Republic that Kerry had decided to endorse Obama at Christmas time, before Iowa, so needless to say, he wasn't afraid to risk a lot of his own hide (Mass. was heavily pro-Clinton) to choose the person he felt the country needed in this moment in our history. Kerry has been a top rate surrogate for Obama ever since culminating in his kick ass speech at the DNC last month (whom many have argued was the best non-acceptance speech this year). It ends up that among the many things Kerry did to influence the country in '04 (Bush has stolen a plethera of Kerry ideas over the years), one of the biggest was choosing Barack Obama as his keynote convention speaker. The world hasn't been the same since.
Of course, Senator Kerry is also a great local politician as well, doing much for Mass. as he detailed in the Lowell Sun yesterday, but I would like to also share an excerpt from a local named "Cadmium" in Mass. who gave a wonderful endorsement of Kerry on Blue Mass Group:
He gets deserved attention for riding for the Pan Mass Challenge, for his work for disabled veterans, and for his advocacy for stem cell research. One of the best kept secrets in Mass is his ongoing dedication to a progressive approach to working with people with developmental disabilities. This is where the support for Kerry becomes personal for me. While most people know about this riding for the Pan Mass/Jimmy Fund charity he also rides for the Best Buddies - a program dedicated to integrating people with disabilities into normal society.
(Mark Shields/CNN, 1/24/2005)
Let me tell you about a John Kerry much different from that glib stereotype. Seven years ago, Kerry personally recruited Brendan O'Donnell, then 19, to become an intern in his Senate office in Washington. Senate internships are coveted positions, often reserved for the children of well-connected or deep-pocketed campaign donors. Brendan O'Donnell's mother, Kathryn, was an honored elementary teacher and a widow. Her husband and Brendan's father, Kirk, was an enormously talented lawyer-politician had died unexpectedly the previous September. In the cold calculus of power, neither Brendan O'Donnell nor his family could do anything politically for John Kerry or anybody else.
What I forgot to mention is that Brendan is learning disabled. In 1999, he explained his condition this way in a statement John Kerry later quoted on the Senate floor: "I think there should be a different name for learning disabilities ... to me, it's not a disability -- it's just that I have something which causes a storm in my mind. When I look at something, I have to take my time and take it all in." But take it in he does, performing all his assigned tasks in the Senate office with enthusiasm and dispatch.
...
Don't try to tell Brendan O' Donnell that his boss, Sen. John Kerry, is aloof, self-absorbed or emotionally detached. He knows better. Brendan once spoke about individuals with learning disabilities: "We are the same as everyone else, and if someone takes the time to teach us, to work with us, and to help us understand, we can do whatever we want." He is right, and Sen. John Kerry has cared enough personally to take that time. Sorry if that shatters your stereotype like it shattered mine.
My wife and I do adult foster care (an inadequate phrase if there ever was one) for a man with major developmental disabilities and John Kerry seeks him out at events, chats with him -- no pictures he banters, and treats him as an equal -- proof of a basic decency that rarely gets reported in the press.
And finally, as promised Kerry has been working on a bill for high speed rail up and down the East Coast, and it has garnered support from unlikely places:
Q & A: Isakson talks about high speed rail proposal
Georgia republican supports Sen. John Kerry’s railroad initiative
By ARIEL HART
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, September 14, 2008
In the midst of a faltering economy and a transportation funding crisis, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is planning to introduce what appears to be a major rail initiative, and Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) is preparing to join him.
The idea is to finance an interstate high-speed rail network that could serve as the spine for local transit lines. Saying the current system is "broken," Isakson advocates treating rail just as the government treats airports: The government builds the airports, and the airplanes that ferry passengers are private.
Kerry’s office wouldn’t answer questions about the measure, dubbed the High Speed Rail for America Act, but a letter he sent to colleagues talks big: "$200 million per year in grants, $8 billion in tax-exempt bonds, $10 billion in tax-credit bonds for high-speed intercity rail facilities, and $5.4 billion in tax-credit bonds for rail infrastructure."
We talked to Isakson about the idea.
Q: Tell us about the initiative.
A: I have been very interested in the possibility of a high-speed rail line from Birmingham to Washington , very similar to the line from Boston to Washington that exists today. It’s ... a corridor that has a great deal of congestion on the interstates like I-85, and it’s a great way to travel. ... But I know the big deal with rail is being able to get the capital together at the beginning to put in the infrastructure to put in lines like that line. Sen. Kerry’s bill focuses on raising capital. ... Given the fact we’ve gone through the difficulties that we have on energy, the price of gasoline, the limited supply of oil, it makes an awful lot of sense looking to the future to make investments in those types of transportation systems that will meet our needs as the 21st century unfolds.
Q: How big is what you’re proposing?
A: I don’t want you to go off on some track that I’ve got some grandiose plan for the world in terms of rail. ... Kerry’s introducing legislation that deals with the funding of rail infrastructure, which from my interest, that goes back to the Birmingham to Washington run.
Q: If Kerry came out with this kind of more grandiose, much, much larger system idea, would you be inclined to support it?
A: I support creating the financing mechanism to reinvigorate rail in the United States of America and to focus on the things I’ve repeated myself on. ... If that’s a part of the Kerry legislation, yes I can. And it is.
For anyone who has been dreaming about bringing more public transportation to this country and reducing CO2 emissions and energy costs, we really need to see Senator Kerry stay in the Senate and get the above legislation passed. Considering that he hasn't dropped the bill yet, but already has a right wing Republican co-sponsor from Georgia is telling on what great work he has done. And this is just one example of the great things John Kerry will do in the Senate for Massachusetts and the nation.
John Kerry for Senate 2008. Vote for Kerry!