John Kerry: No One Has Done More

[ProSense]

No one has done more than John Kerry to support Democratic candidates. Period. 11 million dollars. Over 200 candidates in more than 40 states. That’s how much, together, the johnkerry.com community and John Kerry have given to or raised for Democratic candidates and committees since November 2004.

http://www.johnkerry.com

“Give me five more John Kerry’s,” says Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.). “He’s a fighter, and he puts his money where his mouth is.” – Roll Call, 5.1.06

11 million dollars. Over 200 candidates in more than 40 states. That’s how much, together, the johnkerry.com community and John Kerry have given to or raised for Democratic candidates and committees since November 2004. John Kerry is aggressively fundraising for Democratic candidates in 2006 – making direct contributions to campaigns, attending and hosting events in the states, emailing his 3 million person list of supporters on behalf of candidates, and raising money for state parties, the DNC, DSCC and DCCC.

"He also won plaudits for working on behalf of House candidates. `The question is was somebody willing to stand up back in the dark days when I needed help, and he was,' said US Representative Rahm Emanuel, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee."
-- Boston Globe, Brian Mooney, 10/9/06

Kerry has personally traveled to 24 states to appear with candidates and rally support at the grassroots. Kerry has made over 85 trips across the country to support Democratic candidates this cycle.

Kerry gave $1 million to the Democratic National Committee and raised an additional $250,000 for the DNC online. Kerry also gave $1 million to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and $500,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Kerry contributed $50,000 to the Louisiana State Party and gave $250,000 to the Washington State Democratic Party which helped finance a recount when the Republican party challenged the win of Gov. Christine Gregoire in 2005.

With the help of the johnkerry.com community, together we have raised over 100K each for 11 candidates, including Cantwell, Bill Nelson, Byrd, Sherrod Brown, Ford, McCaskill, Klobuchar, Webb, Duckworth, Patrick Murphy and Joe Sestak.

"Kerry has a big electronic address book and he hasn't been shy about using it…it's also bringing in quite a bit of money for Democrats nationwide…he has given or raised nearly $10 million for Democratic candidates and committees since November 2004." - Washington Post, "Kerry Treasury Department," 7.2.06

Getting veteran candidates elected to key seats is a top priority for John Kerry in 2006. He has actively supported over a dozen veteran candidates, including Jim Webb, Tammy Duckworth, and Chris Carney. "The Winners: John Kerry: Kerry not only endorsed Webb but appeared with him Monday for a last-minute campaign rally. Kerry also used his national e-mail list to raise cash and turn out the vote."- Washingtonpost.com, The Fix, "VA Senate Winners and Losers," 6.14.06

Additionally, in 2005-06, John Kerry contributed or raised over $175,200 on behalf of the Massachusetts Democratic party, He has used his email list to recruit over 500 volunteers to support the state’s efforts to elect Democrats in November. In the last two months before the election, he will attend 5 events in support of Deval Patrick, the Democratic nominee for Governor, and the Democratic ticket.

[Kagemusha]

1. Okay, what was Bayh's excuse?

I'm not one who suggested Kerry was holding back. Seems Kerry has a case that he's done a ton for the party besides what's in his own war chest.

...Though that's not to argue maybe he can't contribute even more. This is not the time to be saying, "I've done enough, bug someone else damnit!" ...which is not the content of what the above post says, so I hope that is not what was meant.

[rox63]

7. He is continuing his efforts until the elections

He is continuing to raise money and campaign and raise money for other Dems up until election day. This is not a past-tense effort on his part.

Check out the man's schedule recently. (at link below) He's been at multiple fundraising and campaign events a day for Dems around the country. He's been doing this whenever the Senate's not in session all year.

http://www.johnkerry.com/election06/ontheroad/

[MH1]

28. Looks like he's planning to spend it where he sees fit

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/10/09/kerrys_barnstorming_sparks_talk_of_a_run?mode=PF

"The question is was somebody willing to stand up back in the dark days when I needed help, and he was," said US Representative Rahm Emanuel, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Kerry currently has four political committees with a combined $14 million cash on hand, but a portion of that will be pumped out to candidates or party committees in the crucial final weeks of the 2006 midterm elections. Of the total, $13.5 million remains in Kerry's two presidential campaign committees, about $300,000 is in his political action committee, and only $100,000 is in his Senate reelection kitty, Amy Brundage, spokeswoman for Kerry's political operation, said.

I don't blame him at all for not giving it to the likes of Reid and Schumer. Just sayin.

[Kagemusha]

29. And Dean can pound sand, I take it?

Just saying.

[WildEyedLiberal]

30. Actually Kerry has given over $1 million to the DNC

He gave Dean a $1 million dollar welcoming gift and has given since then. He also sent out an email raising money for the DNC right after Dean was elected. Kerry supports Dean's efforts, it is clear.

[Kagemusha]

31. That's good, hope others do so as well.

nt

[MH1]

33. I would not include Dean in "the likes of Reid and Schumer"

and, as noted by another poster, Kerry has given a significant sum to the DNC.

There is a post by Josh Marshall speculating that Reid and Schumer are unhappy because Kerry hasn't given very much to the DSCC. But, he is supporting lots of candidates directly, with lots of dough.

Sounds to me like Reid and Schumer want to control the flow of dollars, and I am suggesting that Kerry has good reason for not kowtowing to them.

[saltpoint]

2. Ah. Facts.

Good ones.

Available ones!

Why -- ANYONE could read them!

Perhaps a handful of folks on these boards will be drawn to reconsider their vehement dismissal of Senator Kerry based not only on the rectitude of this post you've given us here, but on the fact that Kerry's generosity and effectiveness as a Democrat ought to prevail over some posters' bias.

Very nice post. Thank you.

[babylonsister]

3. Thank you, ProSense. I too appreciate FACTS. nt

[blm]

4. I'm curious why this is even necessary. Who's behind the disinfo campaign

that was launched accusing Kerry of hording money when it's been fairly wellknown that he's been the top donor and fundraiser for OTHER Dems for some time now?

This reminds me of the way swifts were behind that wintersoldier site in 2003 that so many Dems believed was a lefty site and kept spreading their lies, completely unaware that it was GOP operatives.

This is a shame.

[globalvillage]

27. It is a shame.

I saw this on kos last night. Un-friggin-believeable.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/10/18/192644/13

No one has done more than Sen Kerry for '06 candidates. I'd like to know who's behind that crap, it's sickening.

[politicasista]

5. K&R. I like facts.

Glad he is supporting Ford. Go Kerry!


Thanks ProSense.:patriot:

[derby378]

6. Speaking of facts - any of that cash make it down to Texas Democrats?

We've got some great candidates, but they need all the help they can get.

[rox63]

10. I know he's sent money to Nick Lampson

Probably to some others, but I'm not sure who.

[derby378]

11. $50,000 to Lampson - it's a start

Now if we could just get him to help fund Barbara Ann Radnofsky's Senate campaign...

[benny05]

75. And Nick Lampson is a shoo-in

Which is OK, but Lampson doesn't say openly who helps him, which kind of pisses me off. Edwards did a fundraiser for him based on a contest held on the OAC, and Lampson, along with Patty Wettering, got the most votes. Lampson said nothing on his blog or web site about it, thus there was no news about it either. He doesn't sound like he wants to be associated with real progressives, but he'll take their money.

Hi Rox63..:hi:

[kestrel91316]

8. What? No anti-Kerry posts here yet? I give them 5 minutes, tops.

Some peolpe just can't wait to burst other people's bubbles.

[stillcool]

9. Oh my lord!!

I've read through six (6) posts..and not a Kerry-bashing one among them. Have I won some kind of prize?

[WildEyedLiberal]

12. Speaking of FACTS:

http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2006/07/warner_staffs_u.html

A footnote: Warner's PAC will release an estimate of the amount of money he's raised for other Democrats this cycle -- about $5M. That puts him in the ballpark of Sen. Hillary Clinton, who has raised at least $7.5 million for Democrats, Ex-Sen. John Edwards, who has raised at least $6.5 million. Everyone lags Sen. John Kerry, who has raised close to $14 million.

Whoever is saying John Kerry has not raised money for Democrats is openly lying - he has, in fact, raised THE MOST for other Democrats. The figure is well over $15 million by now.

[saltpoint]

14. I've been saying 10-11 Million bucks, but defer to your updated

figure of 15 million.

Fifteen million smackers is a lot of dough if you ask me.

But maybe the posters who are slamming Kerry for stinginess might want to throw in a buck or two for Democrats to ADD TO KERRY'S 15 MILLIION.

Just a thought.

As usual, WEL, a fine post. Thank you.

[WildEyedLiberal]

19. That Hotline blog post was from July

Kerry has been TIRELESS in the past two months raising money for Dems in 2006. I do not have access to the official figures - perhaps someone who does can correct me - but I think $15 million is a very, very conservative estimate.

[saltpoint]

24. I bet you're right.

Go, John Kerry.

[saltpoint]

13. I even like that photo there of the crowd and Kerry talking with

the people.

I see a lot of smiles and faces alight.

Very undertandable. Many of them must be thinking, "And Christ, instead of visionary Kerry we wound up with a petulant monkey like Bush."

[ProSense]

15. From Open Secrets:

Kerry's PAC (nearly all contributions):

Keeping America's Promise: Expenditures
Total records: 54607

Total Spent (view expenditures)
$4,217,706
http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/expend.asp?strID=C00409508&Cycle=2006


Clinton's PAC (nearly all wages and administrative expenses):

HILLPAC: Expenditures
Total records: 2045

Total Spent (view expenditures)
$2,401,758
http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/expend.asp?strID=C00363994&Cycle=2006

[emulatorloo]

16. kick n/t

[Luftmensch067]

17. kick!

great post!!!

[zulchzulu]

18. Yeah, but.... but... but...

Thanks John! Let's hope it works! And thanks to Howard too!

[cadmium]

25. It's necessary work

Gotta love the 50 state strategy. Kerry really understands this possibly because it became apparent after 2004 that there is no way to make sure the votes are counted without better local and state representation. I'm a Kerry supporter but I can't address this topic without saying kudos to Wes Clark too. He has been doing great work around the country for local and state Dems. I like the way they are fanning out over different parts of the country.

[WildEyedLiberal]

26. Gotta love the real DEMS working their tails off for victory

JOHN KERRY... HOWARD DEAN... WES CLARK... all have been busting ass to ensure a Dem victory in 2006.

Sure is funny how an anonymous source is questioning the goodwill of the Dem most responsible for raising money for other Dems in 2006, while meanwhile, other candidates with much larger warchests - which they are hoarding all for themselves - are getting a pass.

This does not take a genius to figure out.

[benny05]

34. Wildeye -- you live in my district

Have any idea why Kerry couldn't throw a couple of thou in David Gill's direction? He has name recognition beyond 50% and only 27% those polled said that they would support reputhug Johnson again? We need some rural candidates in IL to also go blue. We are in a good position to make most of the state blue in Congress.

Thanks, Benny

[WildEyedLiberal]

39. I wish he would, I wish someone would

Unfortunately, with 200+ contested races, it's hard to narrow down who to support. I do wish Gill was higher on the radar of national Dems... he needs money to win. His ground organization is nonexistent.

I think a better choice for fundraising would be Obama. He is an Illinois Senator, and instead of going to every other state to raise money for candidates, why not help elect Dems right here in his own state?

[benny05]

73. I guess I was thinking of this year...

and Obama is now beginning to think about running for President in 2008.

[benny05]

77. He would have more if he had a few extra...

I'm still pulling for David Gill. He's one of the few doctors running for office that supports universal health care.

[Twist_U_Up]

20. Just look at Greatest Page

He could have stopped all of this if he would have just contended the election results.

Go figure the country is just now realizing what the fascists are up to.

Skull n Bones

MIHOP
Twist

[MH1]

38. Huh?

Contending the election results would not have avoided what * is doing now.

It may have drawn more attention to problems with how elections are run in this country. Or, it could have caused people to turn away from the Democratic Party as "sore losers" and "conspiracy theorists." But it wouldn't have overturned the election results, because there was no proof sufficient to make up a 120,000 vote difference. Hell, Gore WON in 2000 - not a doubt about it - and the country just yawned.

[nam78_two]

21. k&r/nt

[Crunchy Frog]

22. Wish that Hillary would use some of her war chest

to help other Democrats. How much is she sitting on anyway, and no real threat to her seat.

[The Count]

44. I don't know that she doesn't. She does less posturing apparently.

Not a Hillary fan here, but I am aware of a Hillpac and I do get mailings asking to support different candidates (maybe because I wrote her on some issues). A lot of democrats are doing a lot for the election, I don't see them bragging like Mr "I deserve it"

[WildEyedLiberal]

52. Actually:

http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2006/07/warner_staffs_u.html

A footnote: Warner's PAC will release an estimate of the amount of money he's raised for other Democrats this cycle -- about $5M. That puts him in the ballpark of Sen. Hillary Clinton, who has raised at least $7.5 million for Democrats, Ex-Sen. John Edwards, who has raised at least $6.5 million. Everyone lags Sen. John Kerry, who has raised close to $14 million.

Sure, Hillary donates some - but she has the most cash on hand and has donated less to Dems than, say, Kerry. So you might not want to make the argument that she's working just as hard. A good deal of her fundraisers have been for her Senate campaign, too - despite the fact that her opponent is polling in the 20-30% range.

[The Count]

63. Actually, this entire discussion is so crass, my teeth hurt....ME!ME!ME!

They are NOT supposed to run yet on their own. Congressional elections, remember? Not "I deserve" statements time - congressional elections only weeks away....
Remember, this is the "Character counts" week.

[_dynamicdems]

69. I've attended many events where Kerry has campaigned for local Dems

at ALL levels. It's never about John Kerry. He always talks about the individual and how that person will impact our government. It doesn't matter how small the office, Kerry stresses the need for grassroots action from the lowest levels of government. He's so good at bringing in money for these candidates. He completely energizes the room and gets people to sign up to help the candidate he's speaking for besides the huge amount of money his appearance generates. It's wonderful to see. And his e-mails have generated millions for Democrats in tight races across the nation. Senator Kerry's focus is on 2006. He not only gives more to Dems, he campaigns as hard as anyone has for Dems.

I haven't followed Hillary Clinton as closely, because she hasn't exactly knocked herself visiting my state to help our local Dems the way Senator Kerry has.

[_dynamicdems]

67. Me too. It's not like she's got a tough re-election ahead of her.

I can't imagine why she's collecting and hoarding so much money. :sarcasm:

[many a good man]

23. Golly! He sure IS running for president !

Smart politician.

[dwahzon]

32. Nice post, Prosense

I'm glad that someone has put the correct info up.

[ecstatic]

35. Awesome. Maybe Kerry could be the next DNC Chair? And Dean can re-run

for President?

[mloutre]

36. shucks, he's even donated money...

...to plenty of Democractic candidates I wouldn't have donated to directly myself... but that's what the whole Big Tent thing is all about, right?

;)

[kerrygoddess]

37. Fighting Longer and Harder Than the Rest and It’s Still Not Enough?

Fighting Longer and Harder Than the Rest and It’s Still Not Enough?
October 19th, 2006 @ 6:18 pm

Hotline on Call reports today that there’s an attempt in the blogosphere and with in the Democratic party to get certain Senators to pony up from their war chests for the mid-term elections and the bulk of the cries to pony up are directed towards John Kerry. AP News also has a piece along the same lines. Now let me be clear, working to get other’s to pony up out of their war chests is fine, but it’s interesting that this “grassroots” effort comes by way of an anonymous website that was registered through Domains by Proxy and has the owner’s information blocked and it’s sad that the claims on the website are misleading at best.

The truth is no one has done more for Democratic candidates in this election cycle than John Kerry, but evidently it’s still not enough as far as some are concerned. I find this curious because John Kerry was not sitting around dawdling months ago when success for Democrats appeared more like a fantasy than something attainable. No — he was out there working hard to raise money for Democratic candidates long before anyone else got the notion to get involved. He did not wait until this late stage in the campaign to pitch in and help like others have, because Kerry understands that “early money” counts the most and it is usually hardest to raise. Kerry’s team applied that rule of early support of Senate candidates on the top targeted Senate races.

Off the bat, in 2004, John Kerry gave 1 million dollars to the DSCC at the beginning of this election cycle when the DSCC’s coffers needed a boost to show a positive balance at year-end — he wiped their debt clean.

Since 2004 the bottom line all combined: the Friends of John Kerry, Keeping America’s Promise PAC and JohnKerry.com grassroots contributors have provided $3,540,553 in direct contributions, directed donations and online contributions to the DSCC and 22 Senate incumbents and candidates. Here’s a breakdown (via Kerry’s PAC) of what Kerry has done for Senate candidates:

{snip}

Again, the bottom line here is this - no one and I do mean no one has done more the party this year, in the past 2 years actually, than John Kerry. So let me quote John Kerry here from yesterday, when he pitched for people to donate to The Patriot Project, another worthy cause within our ranks, the call for Kerry to do more from HeyJohn.org is simply a “chickenshit attack” in my opinion from members of the grassroots who don’t have the courage to put their names behind their claims.

It’s times like this when I sit back and shake my head bewildered by the lack of support for the for the one leader in the Democratic party that has fought harder on all the issues that count. He’s not stopped since November 2004. No in fact where others might have drifted off by the wayside, John Kerry went back to work right after the election and he’s a better man, a better fighter and we all owe him our gratitude for leading the fight against Alito, for leading the fight to save the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, for leading the calls to bring our troops home from Iraq… the list goes on.

Let me make it clear, I’ve watched and noted here on The Democratic Daily everything that John Kerry has done in the past 15 months. You won’t find a more complete archive of John Kerry news anywhere on the blogosphere. Why have I done this? Because I believe in John Kerry. I believe in what he stands for. I believe in what’s he’s done for Democrats in the past and I believe that our future and the future of this country is tantamount on the work he continues to do every damn day of the year.

So let the chickenshits at HeyJohn.org come forward and tell us all who they are — because “No one has done more than John Kerry to support Democratic candidates”:

MORE & LINKS - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=4507

[The Count]

64. Enough for what? Are there primaries I am not aware off?

I thought it's congressional elections now.
Shouldn't you be sitting on these a few weeks?

[mloutre]

40. get your hands out of my wallet, whiners

All other niceties (such as the many complicated legal entanglements that are involved in repurposing campaign contributions after the fact) aside...

I gave money to John Kerry because I wanted to give my money to *John Kerry*, not to some random 2nd- and 3rd-tier schmoes who have no money in their campaign war chests because not even their own constituents are willing to donate money for them to put in their campaign war chests.

So to all the whiners out there gritching about how John Kerry should cough up even more of his funds to support their pet candidates...

Please stop all the shilling and shrilling about what *you* think *he* should be doing with *my* money, thankyouverymuch. That’s between him and me, and it’s none of your damn business.

[WildEyedLiberal]

41. Heh. Welcome to DU!

Nice post! Also, John Kerry HAS raised over $15 million for Dems this cycle alone, so to complain that he's doing nothing is bogus.

[TayTay]

42. Welcome to DU!

It's a pleasure to see new peole joining in this year. And I agree, that money was donated to John Kerry and he has more than repaid it by working his arse off for Dem candidates.

[The Count]

43. ummm, so it's about John again...not elections...I get it.

A bit crass if you ask me. The timing of this as well as the "I deserve" statement - very, very crass.

[WildEyedLiberal]

45. It's because a cowardly anonymous front group is lying about his money

Claiming that he has not done enough for raising money for Dems in 2006.

This is an easily disprovable lie: http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2006/07/warner_staffs_u.html

It actually WAS about the election, NOT Kerry - until this Swift-boat style cowardly attack singled out Kerry to lie about.

[MH1]

47. Bullshit - this is a RESPONSE to LIES that are currently being spread in

the blogosphere.

Didn't everyone say Kerry didn't fight back hard enough or fast enough against the smearboat liars?

Well, some liars are at it again. He's fighting.

[nam78_two]

54. He did not say he "deserves" anything

That was Faux's "helpful" little interpretation of his statements, which they then made their headline. They asked the question-he did not even bring it up.

I hate Fox :spank:-its their subtler crap thats the most egregious....

If you read the entire interview, you see that he never says that...

[The Count]

66. He should have changed the subkect - he's quite good at this - avoiding

direct answers. The time for this speculation is not now. Period. It was a direct quote, BTW. It's always someone else's fault with you guys - Clinton, McAuliffe, Carville, the press - this is starting to resemble some other fearless leader I know of...

[ProSense]

72. It was not a direct quote. I guess it's only

suppose to be Kerry's fault!

It's not Bush illegal war because Kerry voted for the IWR. The election was stolen, but Kerry ran a horrible campaign. Kerry threw the election because he's S&B. There was no evidence to challenge the election, but Kerry conceded without a fight. Kerry has given the most to 2006 candidate, but why is Kerry holding on to the money. Kerry has been the most vocal critic of Bush for years, but it's too little, too late. Kerry is fighting back against the Swift Boat Liars, too little, too late. It's the GOP media, but not when it comes to trashing Kerry, it's Kerry's fault.

When people are wrong and I disagree with them, it is their fault!

[seabeyond]

61. very very uninformed

you are. that, is worse than crass, dontcha think

[blm]

79. He never said he deserves - that was a reporter's headline lie. And his

site put that up in response to the ANONYMOUS website owner who all the blogs gave credence to who LIED about his donations to Dem candidates.

They put up a smear, and his site operators answered back with the truth.

Did you want them to NOT answer the new smears and let them make their way into the media uncountered? Should lies NOT be corrected? Is Kerry getting blamed for LIES made against him.....again?

[whometense]

46. What about this story?

Why pick on Bayh and Kerry, for god's sake? Unless this story is just one big political flap set up by the - um - Clintonians? How much cash does Hillary have on hand? Why Bayh and Kerry?

http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/10/18/212057/28

Unopposed House Democrats Sitting On $26,288,418

by Chris Bowers, Wed Oct 18, 2006 at 09:20:57 PM EST
Amidst all of this talk about taking out loans to fund key races and newly emerging races, not enough attention has been given to the huge amount of money House Democrats who are unopposed for re-election are currently storing away in their campaign bank accounts. I just did a quick tallying using Open Secrets, and calculated that the 45 Democrats who are not facing a Republican opponent this November have $26,288,418 in their campaign bank accounts as of September 30th, 2006. I put together a web page that details the cahs on hand for each of the forty-five unopposed Democrats:

Unopposed Democratic Cash

For the sake of comparison, the DCCC currently has $34,867,692 cash on hand, and the NRCC has $36,019,485 cash on hand. Further, Rahm Emmanuel apparently believes that Democrats are ahead, tied or competitive in 58 Republican held seats. The amount of money unopposed House Democrats are currently sitting on would equal $453,248.59 to each of those 58 districts.

That $26.3 million should be the fruits of the successful 435-district strategy this cycle, where for the first time in a long time Democrats ran candidates in more districts than did Republicans. This is supposed to be one of the ways that the fifty-state strategy actually drives resources to swing districts, rather than draining resources from swing districts. It is particularly disgusting that unnamed Democratic consultants are trashing Howard Dean for running the fifty-state strategy, rather than pressuring all of the unchallenged Democratic incumbents to donate their entire campaign bank accounts to the DCCC and / or Democratic challengers. These incumbents do not need election cash, since they have already won their elections. What these incumbents do need is a Democratic majority so they can actually govern for their constituents...

Great post, ProSense - you're absolutely right.

[Name removed]

48. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[mloutre]

49. wow!

The rest of us may as well pack up and go home. You have totally destroyed all our closely-held tenets with your irrefutable arguments and your rapier-like wit, sir.

[MH1]

50. ..

:rofl:

Thanks for beating me to it. You phrased it much better.

[WildEyedLiberal]

51. I can even supply the relevant smiley:

mloutre, you win my award for Newbie of the Month! :thumbsup:

[WildEyedLiberal]

53. Okay, can do!

[nam78_two]

55. LOL

:rofl:
You are a very bad girl WEL ;)!

[seabeyond]

62. it is more important to support a lie in your view? n/t

[_dynamicdems]

56. Damn straight!

Kerry's worked his ass of for Democrats running across the country. He's campaigned non-stop and he's raised more money than anyone else.

Anyone who thinks otherwise is either a drooling idiot, a Freeper or someone with an agenda of their own.

[Phrogman]

57. Too bad he didn't fight like he said he would.

I might actually have voted for him again.

[wisteria]

58. Damn Right! Senator Kerry hasn't stopped raising money and

campaigning for others.
Those of us who support him are well aware of all the things he has done, all the money he has donated and all the hours he has put in to traveling to promote and support others.
This was a lousy smear, low and uncalled for, and it will backfire on those that conceived and promoted it.
We, nor Senator Kerry will back down to lies and smears. This maneuver has actually energized us and rallied us to continue the good fight.

[bear425]

59. I attended a fund raiser with Sen. John Kerry on behalf of

State Senator Ron Klein (v. Shaw (R) ) a couple weeks ago.

John was going from stop to stop all day without rest in order to support Dem races.

I could see he was beginning to be physically tired, but he always calls on his inner strength.

He doesn't stop working for others, including us.

Anyone who says otherwise doesn't know what he's talking about.

[blm]

68. He's been doing that nonstop - he, Cleland and Clark have been doing this

for three years now without taking much break for their own rest.

[zulchzulu]

60. For Kerry naysayers, read this and respond

"Fighting for Every Voter"

A few more words about an issue that is of the utmost importance to me. As political candidates, we spend considerable time and effort every election cycle fighting for votes...

A few more words about an issue that is of the utmost importance to me.

As political candidates, we spend considerable time and effort every election cycle fighting for votes. After the election, whether won or lost, many candidates leave the irregularities of the election behind. But we owe the voters more than that. When voters are disenfrachised, we owe it to them to seek justice and expose the truth.

That is why I have been so proud of the Kerry-Edwards campaign's ongoing involvement in the investigation and litigation of what went wrong in Ohio. I wrote to the candidates recently to ask that they continue to be involved in this important endeavor.

This is not about the past. It is about figuring out what went wrong and why -- and then getting the next election right, not for the Democratic Party, but for all of the voters.

- John Conyers

http://www.conyersblog.us/archives/00000213.htm

[The Count]

65. I'll celebrate when he acknowledges he won & my vote was stolen

As long as he compares himself to nixon, he legitimizes BFEE and lets most of his voters believe we lost, not even Conyers can whitewash THAT.
And why are we discussing Kerry now, anyway? Instead of say, elections, W declaring they lost the war, torture law & death of Habeas corpus, cocktober - you know - current events of note?

[_dynamicdems]

70. We are discussing Kerry now because someone created a smear

campaign with blatant lies using a cloaked identity on an anonymous Web site.

This should be a preview of coming attractions and Democrats should be concerned. These are blatant lies and they are claiming they are coming from Democrats. At first, that angered me. Then I thought about it: lies aren't a tactic Democrats have to use. We have truth on our side, so we don't have to make up shit.

We need to keep on our toes and be watchful because we don't have the House or the Senate yet. Might they be trying to get Dems fighting among ourselves as a diversionary tactic? Damn straight they might.

We need to recognize this for what it is: swiftboating. And we need to be ever vigilant because they won't go down in November without employing many more dirty tricks.

[zulchzulu]

80. Why Kerry now?

It's obvious to me that some want to try to poison/swiftboat Kerry again with phony anonymous sources from anonymous web sites that Kerry somehow isn't doing anything for this election cycle. Those anonymous sources are cowards... why don't they show themselves? If their "facts" are correct, then there shouldn't be a need to be a cowering wimp hiding in the dark.

There are plenty of people who have Kerry's back. We have our shields up and are ready to pounce on the bullshit...

[ohtransplant]

71. No one has done more.

Nuff said.

[MonteSano]

74. He's also proof of how.......

...top-notch people can be defeated by the lying politics of hate.

[brentspeak]

76. Too late to rec, but not to kick

:kick:

[Bucky]

78. I'm glad Kerry's done this. But why make this ad all about him?

Oh, wait. I know why.

[talk hard]

81. choke us with it why don't y ya?

[Mass]

82. This has to do with an anonymous website attacking Kerry on this

question!

[dailykoff]

83. $11mil? 200 candidates? 40 states? Since Nov. '04?

So what else has he done for me lately?

:sarcasm: