Kerry Supporters beware: Rove is not the biggest threat

[dansolo]

We know that Rove and the media are going to smear Kerry every which way. But this is not his greatest threat. The greatest threat to Kerry is Tom Delay, Dennis Hastert, and Bill Frist. During the next year, with a Republican controlled House and Senate, you can bet that they are going to send up all sorts of bills that will force Kerry to either go against his campaign rhetoric, risk alienating the moderate voters that he wants to appeal to, or really piss off the liberal base. Once he has the nomination, he will probably get a lot of ABB feelings, but if he starts to cave in on major legislation, then the liberal base will stay home. A lot of eyes will be watching what Kerry does in the Senate over the next eight months.

[Dookus]

1. If it appears that Kerry will beat Bush

he can simply resign his senate seat to focus on the campaign.

[sistersofmercy]

2. That is an excellent point!!

I trust that Kerry will be able to handle himself though.

[dansolo]

9. I can already see problems with tax cuts

Kerry attacked Dean because he accused Dean of wanting to raise taxes on the middle class. Bush is currently making the case to make the middle class tax cuts permanent. He is also proposing more new tax cuts. If Kerry votes against Bush's new tax cuts, then Bush will say that Kerry is raising taxes on the middle class. If he votes with it, then his talk about eliminating Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy is just empty rhetoric, and voters will be reminded, again and again. Kerry is stuck in a lose-lose situation.

[eileen_d]

3. If Kerry gets the nomination, what will his role in the Senate be?

I admit complete ignorance on this. Couldn't he give up his Senate seat? It seems that IF he does get the nomination, running for president would be a full time job.

[Rowdyboy]

5. He could resign his senate seat but his replacement would be

picked by Republican Governor Romney. Trust me, won't happen.

The only instance I know of a nominee resigning from the senate is Bob Dole in 1996, and he was Senate Majority Leader. For a senator leader, it was impossible; for Kerry or any other average senator, it wouldn't be that difficult.

[eileen_d]

8. Yeah, I realize that picking his replacement

would be an issue. Looks like Kerry is on the record as far as not resigning anyway (see below)

[Dookus]

10. If he wins the election

his replacement will be picked by Republican Governor Romney.

[Catholic Sensation]

11. When is Romney up for re-election?

just wondering, maybe the dems can reclaim the governorship and appoint a Democrat WHEN John Kerry wins the Presidency in November :)

[dansolo]

6. Kerry to keep Senate Seat during campaign

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20040217_112.html

[eileen_d]

7. Thank you for the link! eom

[Catholic Sensation]

4. If Tom DeLay proposed anything that moderates support hell would

freeze over. The man is more right wing than Italy during the 30's and 40's, he doesn't have a moderate idea in his inbred brain.

[liberalron]

12. Which begs the point...........

why is there absolutely no activity on the Congressional Elections coming up (with the exception of Dean, who I understood to be fundraising for Congressional candidates, earlier, I have heard no one mention it.
No matter who wins the White House, if the Republican Leadership in Congress is not replaced, then at the most, all we will have is veto power. If more Republicans are elected, or wayward Democrats can't be persuaded to not cross over and vote with the other side of the aisle, we won't even have a sustainable veto.
The Congress is the biggest threat, as they pass the legislation.