For Beachmom: The other side: BGlobe 2/7/06 Kerry Article [View All]

[TayTay]

Having another go? Kerry doffs the gloves
By Peter S. Canellos, Globe Columnist | February 7, 2006

WASHINGTON -- John F. Kerry's decision to lead last week's unsuccessful filibuster of Samuel A. Alito Jr.'s Supreme Court nomination met with predictable ridicule from Republicans and some Democrats, but it could end up being his smartest political move in a long time.

The gratitude of liberal activists who hate Alito will be helpful if Kerry runs for president again. His willingness to pick up the flag and fight when no one except Edward M. Kennedy was willing to join him may impress those who think Kerry is a flip-flopper who has never exerted leadership in the Senate. And even the ridicule may be useful, in the sense that voters need to purge their frustration with Kerry before reconsidering him.

''I think it was a historic day yesterday," chortled the normally staid White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, after Kerry announced that he would lead the filibuster. ''It was the first-ever call for a filibuster from the slopes of Davos, Switzerland."

Indeed, Kerry's sense of imagery hasn't improved since 2004: He was attending the World Economic Forum in Switzerland when he announced that he would lead the filibuster. McClellan seized on the scene to revive the Bush campaign's 2004 depiction of Kerry as an aristocrat at play, goofing on the ski slopes. But it would have been just as much of a political hit to tell the truth: Kerry was hobnobbing with a bunch of international leaders.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/02/07/having_another_go_kerry_doffs_the_gloves?mode=PF