John Kerry: one of the best Democratic Senators ever

[ProSense]

Really, it's better to give and receive.

Senator Kerry gets a lot of awards and accolades. I'm guessing other Senators get some, too, but he really seems to get an awful lot of good ones, and recently, there's been a deluge. Certainly, it's important to recognize a job well done, like the Senator's 100% ratings from the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, the American Association of University Women, the Human Rights Campaign and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, all four organizations having recently recognized Senator Kerry's work.

The Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law has given Senator John Kerry its highest possible 100% rating, citing his work to help end poverty in America, raise the minimum wage, reduce the cost of college, provide access to affordable housing, his support of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and Head Start, as well as his staunch support of the Development, Relief, and Education for Minors (DREAM) Act.

The American Association of University Women (AAUW) has given Senator John Kerry their highest possible100% rating, citing his work on strengthening hate crimes laws, making college more affordable, addressing the pay gap between men and women, and raising the minimum wage.

The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) has given Senator John Kerry their highest possible100% rating, citing his work on the minimum wage, immigration reform and his opposition to judicial nominees who disregard basic civil rights.

Along with an endorsement of Senator Kerry's senate reelection, the HRC also gave him a 100% rating.

“Senator Kerry has been an outspoken leader for GLBT equality in the United States Senate. Most recently, Senator Kerry’s leadership was crucial to the advancement of legislation to lift the discriminatory HIV travel ban. We are pleased to endorse Senator Kerry for re-election and look forward to working with him on achieving equality for our community,” said Joe Solmonese, President of the Human Rights Campaign.

Pretty impressive stuff. Here's one, though, that has to really hit home. On Friday, the Senator was honored with the First Annual Father Drinan Award, which celebrates those who have maintained "a lifelong history of working for the goals of the Democratic Party, especially with a focus on social justice."

Being the first recipient is quite an honor. But the fact that Sen. Kerry and Fr. Drinan were long time friends had to have made that one especially significant. Sounds like the two had a lot in common.

Kerry focused on Drinan's social activism in Congress, especially his opposition to the war in Vietnam. "He brought to Congress a moral opposition to the war and his testimony against the war became that much more powerful," he said. Drinan was also the first congressman to call for President Richard Nixon's impeachment. However, these early protests were in response to the secret bombings in Cambodia, not the more popularly maligned Watergate scandal, Kerry said. This action showcased the "boldness and uniqueness of this priest in a critical moment in American history." All of this social activism stemmed from his two loves: the Catholic Church and politics, and despite the forced exodus from Congress, Drinan never really left public life. "There was no separation between his political life and his life," Kerry said.

It's got to feel pretty great to receive that kind of recognition, but maybe even more so to have an award bestowed in your honor. In this video, Middlesex County DA Gerry Leone describes the contributions Sen. Kerry has made that lead to the creation of the Senator John F. Kerry Leadership Award, and introduces Senator Kerry in advance of the recognition of three outstanding recipients.

more

KERRY ENDORSED BY HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN FOR HIS LEADERSHIP ON GLBT RIGHTS

BOSTON – The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has announced it is endorsing John Kerry for re-election to the U.S. Senate.

"I am honored to have the endorsement of the Human Rights Campaign, one of the savviest, most respected and most influential political, civil rights and human rights organizations in our country," said Kerry. "When you’re in a fight to change our country, you can always count on HRC to be there with you in the trenches, and there’s no better ally in the fight to advance the cause of freedom and equality for all Americans. I have been proud to work with the Human Rights Campaign for close to 25 years now in the U.S. Senate. We’ve fought together to combat AIDS, including our fight this year in the Foreign Relations Committee to lift the HIV Travel Ban, to pass the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, to end discrimination in the workplace through ENDA, and to work toward the day when same-sex couples are granted the same rights other Americans take for granted. We’ve spent a lot of our energy these last years stopping bad things from happening with a Republican in the White House. We’ve been proud to fight those fights, but I can’t begin to tell you how much I look forward to serving in a bigger, stronger Democratic majority in Congress under a Democratic president so we can wage and win the progress we’ve been waiting for and which the community deserves."

“Senator Kerry has been an outspoken leader for GLBT equality in the United States Senate. Most recently, Senator Kerry’s leadership was crucial to the advancement of legislation to lift the discriminatory HIV travel ban. We are pleased to endorse Senator Kerry for re-election and look forward to working with him on achieving equality for our community,” said Joe Solmonese, President of the Human Rights Campaign.

Kerry has a long record of fighting for equal rights for all gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgendered (GLBT) Americans.

Twenty-four years ago, one of Kerry’s first acts as Senator was to introduce a bill prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. He supports passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and has adopted a nondiscrimination policy for his Congressional offices based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

He is an original co-sponsor of the Hate Crimes Prevention bill, which would extend federal jurisdiction over serious, violent hate crimes. It would also finally include crimes motivated by sexual orientation and sexual identity to be considered hate crimes.

Kerry also introduced the HIV Nondiscrimination in Travel and Immigration Act that would repeal the outdated, misguided provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act, which bars HIV positive individuals from entering the United States, including HIV positive family members, doctors and experts, as well as refugees seeking asylum. This long standing ban against those with HIV only serves to stigmatize the disease and discriminate against those infected.

In 1990, Kerry cosponsored the first Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act (CARE)—which represents the largest discretionary federal investment in treating individuals with HIV and AIDS. Kerry also sponsored the Vaccines for the New Millennium Act, aimed at boosting contributions to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, a non-profit group working to promote development of an HIV vaccine in 2000. Kerry also introduced the U.S. Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, TB, and Malaria Act, which would increase the federal funding of international HIV/AIDS efforts from approximately $1.7 billion in 2003 to $1.9 billion in 2004. This effort led to the Act’s unanimous passage in May 2003. AIDS activists have characterized Kerry as one of Congress’s top leaders on HIV/AIDS policy.

During the Clinton Administration, Kerry opposed the White House’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Policy.” He was one of a few senators to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee and call on the President to rescind the ban on gay and lesbian service members.

Kerry has repeatedly said that same-sex couples should be granted rights, including access to pensions, health insurance, family medical leave, bereavement leave, hospital visitation, survivor benefits, and other basic legal protections, that all families and children need. He has supported legislation to provide domestic partners of federal employees the benefits available to spouses of federal employees including the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act. He was one of 14 Senators -- and the only one up for reelection in 1996 -- to oppose the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

Here in Massachusetts, just last spring, Kerry worked with Governor Deval Patrick and progressive legislators to help defeat a narrow and discriminatory constitutional amendment that would have banned same sex marriage in Massachusetts.

The HRC is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality. Altogether, HRC endorsed 14 Senators or candidates for Senate it says will continue advancing the issues the campaign cares about. In 2006, the HRC and its 700,000 members were involved in 200 House and Senate races. Their candidates won 94% of those races.

Human Rights Campaign's latest congressional scorecard (PDF)

[babylonsister]

1. What an honor! I love Senator Kerry, thanks for sharing! nt

[cali]

2. He's a damned good Senator and deserves the accolades

though I still deplore his IWR vote.

[YvonneCa]

44. He probably deplores...

...it, too. :7

[mtnsnake]

3. He's a great advocate for the environment

The environment is top priority with me, and that's why I won't have to think twice about supporting which ever Democrat gets the nomination. When Bush took over, he rolled back almost all of the environmental regulations that were passed during the Clinton administration and has done his best to give big corporations a free pass to rape the environment only as Republicans know how.

Without the efforts spearheaded by Kerry (along with the support of many of our other Senators, including Hillary and Obama), Republicans would get free reign to drill for oil anywhere they please, even if it would cause wolves and migrating herds of animals to become severely endangered or possibly go extinct in certain areas of Alaska. Republicans would rather rape and pillage the environment in the cause for Big Oil companies, rather than opt for alternative renewable energy sources that we're going to have to inevitably turn to if we want to still have a planet a few decades from now.

[karynnj]

12. You might want to check out these two hearing related to global warming

I had written this before for different reasons - but thought you might want the links - or at least to see the comments. When Senator Kerry opted not to run, he spoke at the end about the fact that many things needed to be done now - to make the mess that the new President will be handed more manageable. Within a few months, the Democrats were pretty united on Iraq and all spoke of needing to get out in a specified amount of time. Although I watched various hearings in various committees on global warming, and his CFR speech on it in late 2007, and knew he was the only Congressperson to go to Bali, I didn't know until I saw these hearings how much he did.

Global warming: Kerry was the Congressional delegation to Bali. Though the media gave little attention to this - Kerry was praised in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by the Bush administration for the work he did there. The President’s chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality, James Connaughton, spoke before the SFRC hearing chaired by Senator Menendez. Mr. Connaughton was part of the President’s delegation who attended the second week of the Bali Conference. Because of the Senate schedule, Senator Kerry flew 40 hours round trip to spend 36 hours as the sole US Congressional representative to the conference. At a SFRC hearing earlier this year, Mr. Connaughton, who represented President Bush said:
“I would particularly also want to call out thanks to Senator Kerry for coming to Bali. I would note that the remarks he gave in Bali were very constructive in helping to educate the international community on the needs, what it would take for America to move forward together in a bi-partisan way. I thought those remarks were very well received. Senator Kerry, thank you for that.”
Listening to the hearing, the Senator is praised for his leadership on this issue by both Republicans and Democrats.
http://www.senate.gov/~foreign/hearings/2008/hrg080124p.html .

Here was even stronger praise from an earth day SFRC hearing: Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat (around 4 minutes in) said:

"The fact that we had a treaty was significantly due to the fact that Senator Kerry was there. He was a virtual part of our negotiating team, without his day and night support and lobbying of the EU. we would not have gotten a treaty.
http://www.kerryvision.net/2008/04/in_defense_of_treehuggers.html#comments (I was surprised to see this on Kerryvision because I had heard nothing on this and it was the same day Kerry did an amazing job on the Future of the Internet hearing.

[ProSense]

24. Thanks for posting that information. n/t

[PoliticalAmazon]

4. Kerry has problems. He uses Senate power for contributors' benefits,...

...sometimes to the detriment of his constituents. In one case he attempted to get the Coast Guard to set specifications for boat equipment that a contributor in San Diego could meet.

[NavyDavy]

6. thats politics

[ProSense]

8. No, it's BS! n/t

[PoliticalAmazon]

26. I don't buy it. No when you are screwing your constituent. n/t

[karynnj]

14. Would you like to provide a link?

That is not what I have ever seen. In fact, in the case of one Coast Guard boat, I watched the hearing that led to replacing the contractors who were failing to perform. Snow and Lautenberg helped him. At that time several of us in the JK group followed many of the committee hearings - here was what I posted (for those not at TVs) while I watched.

This looks like good work - it may be those not meeting the criteria who may be spinning. This post and the replies to it show Kerry leading the effort to push to have the renewal not given.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=273&topic_id=124936&mesg_id=125286

Kerry was the 2004 nominee and there were NO proven quid por quo accusations.

[PoliticalAmazon]

25. I will have to search my archives. I found the info when researching Bush Jr's...

...TaiwanGate scandal, illegal use of Taiwanese slush fund monies, etc.

[karynnj]

30. You do realize that the Coast Guard not Senators

do procurement. Even in the link I gave you, Lautenberg, Snowe and Kerry could not force the agency to do anything. All they could do was hold hearing and get the facts out. Kerry also has never excepted PAC money. So, even if someone contributed the maximum amount of money possible to his campaigns, it is not likely that it was enough to buy favors from anyone - much less Kerry, who has always been listed as one of the cleanest politicians. It is more likely that this was something that Republicans wanted to accuse him of. If there were a clear cut case of quid pro quo we would have heard it in 2004 - even if there were things Bush did - just to diminish Kerry's reputation on such things - which is good.

[PoliticalAmazon]

33. Nope. I found the information from credible sources....

....I'll search my archives when I get home.

I have lots of bits of data I've collected over the year. I love to dive into public repositories of records. I found a bunch of good stuff in Arkansas.

When I find it, I'll post it.

[karynnj]

42. Nope, what

You contradict none of what I said and I don't doubt that someone claimed something - Tell me your favorite - who I think is Dean from search - and there will be plenty of similar claims - from "reputable" sources. It is easy to make those claims - all you need to do is look at things advocated for and compare that to contributors - you will find that for everyone. (In fact, Kerry likely gets donations from people working for alternative energy companies - and he advocates for votes for that - do you think they should contribute to Inhofe? This is why it is hard to prove GENUINE problems - correlated contributions to votes may reflect shared values.)

You didn't contradict what I said - the Coast Guard itself procures what they need and they - not the Senate write the specifications. This sounds like something written to hurt Kerry in MA. The fact is that he was very throughly vetted in 2004 - every thing he ever did was examined.

[blm]

70. Please share - we're waiting...

and you really owe Kerry an apology for not BOTHERING to know the truth about him all this time, especially when he was the nominee in 2004. You certainly could NOT have been helpful to Dem cause with your lack of perspective.

[blm]

16. Kerry has UNCOVERED and exposed more government corruption than ANY LAWMAKER in DC

of the last 35 years.

And considering that he wrote the Clean Money, Clean Elections bill that he submitted in 1997 with Paul Wellstone, to take ALL corporate money out of campaigns and has been a top advocate for public financing of campaigns since 1985, I think you are WRONG deliberately or allowed yourself to be misled by any one of the scores of propagandists who have targeted Kerry for takedowns since Nixon White House, efforts that were increased in the 80s and 90s because Kerry uncovered IranContra, illegal wars in Central America, BCCI and CIA drugrunning operations of Poppy Bush.

Wake up and realize that if NOT for John Kerry's efforts in DC this nation would be in its SECOND DECADE of Full on Fascism by now.

[PoliticalAmazon]

29. If I was able to find the fedw things I found about Kerry...

..when I actually wasn't researching him, but Bush Jr's TaiwanGate scandal, I'm ure there is much more.

We've seen Hillary say she is against outsourcing jobs, when in reality she is probably the greatest facilitator of sending jobs to India. She promised India that outsourcing would continue.

I'm glad Kerry has done some good. It also appears that he screwed a constituet to favor a contributor whose business was out of his state.

[blm]

31. BALONEY - propagandists have been planting lies about JK for DECADES.

'some good' is what you call accruing the BEST record in DC uncovering corruption of government and advocating for open government?

Geez - you must loathe the rest of DC lawmakers who haven't even been able to get even CLOSE to Kerry.

[karynnj]

32. Senator Kerry is NOT HRC

HRC has been caught in many lies, Kerry has been caught in ... none. Even though he went through the general election as well as the primaries in 2004.

The fact that HRC says one thing and does another does not prove Kerry does - and we still haven't seen your link. The facts are that the Senate does not award contracts for the Cost Guard, nor do they write the specs. This would make it very hard for Kerry to do what you are saying. The other thing is that he has a national responsibility as well as a state one - if the case was that he wrote legislation favoring safety features or other requirements that the CA product had and the MA one didn't, it would still be bid out by the coast guard.

In fact, I have seen that the majority of tech companies that come before his Small Business Committee are from MA. The University most often with people there is MIT. If this were not true - I would not think this was wrong. His job is not to favor MA over doing good work. It happens that MA is good on technology - and he has lots of contacts there.

Kerry was the 2004 candidate - if there were many problems we would have heard of them. The fact is he is pretty clean.

[ProSense]

34. You can say that again, often. n/t

[Fabio]

58. Props for JK

from a straight, white guy

[beachmom]

27. Put up the evidence or shut up!! nt

[politicasista]

38. Thank you

Hear the sound of crickets? chirp, chirp, chirp,

[politicasista]

68. Day 2, crickets still chirping n/t

[LSK]

36. some people would find fault if GOD himself were a Congressman

[dailykoff]

59. Sounds like he didn't vote up some Bushbot contract.

If Kerry handed out pork like a puke he'd be president.

[frickaline]

5. I love my senator, I suppose the GOP thinks he didn't earn these awards either

[midnight]

7. Can those of you who know this Senator so well explain to me

and others who are still confused about the last stolen election? Where did all the money he asked us for go? He said it would be used for his legal fund to fight the stolen election?

[karynnj]

11. They did have lawyers contesting a huge number of things in that last month

One example was that in Ohio, Blackwell ruled that all the registrations that came in on paper that was not the correct weight would be thrown out. Now, the Cleveland Plain Dealer had printed a registration form, as they had done in many prior election - as a public service. This was the first time they contested it.

In many other states there were various schemes where people collected registrations and ones selecting the Democratic party were invalidated. There were also several cases where they went to court to protect the rights of people to get provisional ballots and other things.

The Republicans had a huge bag of tricks - all with the same goal. To in a low tech way eliminate a huge number of likely Kerry votes. They were creative and the local parties and the Kerry campaign stopped many, but were blind sided by others. In Ohio, it seems there most successful method was to provide an inadequate number of machines in urban areas. This led to huge number of people being unable to wait long enough to cast votes they came to cast.

As to why he didn't fight it. The simple answer is that in November and December 2004, there was no sufficient proof that he won Ohio. THERE STILL IS NOT SUFFICIENT PROOF. The RFK jr study uses estimates of the number of votes that were lost because the lines were excessive - this is valid in a study and does prove they disenfranchised people - but these are NOT votes - and Kerry could not claim them. This wasn't something a recount could change - the loss was way too big. A case proving fraud would be like the NH one where it was clear cut that the Republicans illegally jammed the GOTV lines took about 3 years to get through court and finding people quilty and sending them to jail did not remove Sununu.

He has spoken in great length in the Senate, detailing the problems they found that occurred - and he spoke of the voter suppression as early as MLK day in January 2005. (In 2005 alone, he and Teresa Heinz Kerry spoke of these issues at least 10 times - while other few elected officials other than Boxer, Conyers and Stubbs-Jones did - Edwards was silent, contrary to later claims.)

[blm]

17. IIRC, isn't Kerry-Edwards still IN 3 court cases in Ohio that have been slow-walked by GOP courts.

.

[YvonneCa]

20. I'd never pretend to know Senator Kerry ...

...but, to those still confused, I understand the confusion. I think it stems from the lack of coverage in November, 2004. If the media had even 'reported' the court case and the recount and the hearings in Ohio...there would be less confusion. The fact that the media didn't do it's job, together with how hard it would be to prove the case made it an impossible situation.

Now, in 2008, I believe the only way for the truth to come out is 'by the people'. I have learned that John Kerry is an honorable and intelligent man...and probably knows this is up to the people. The goal I have watched him pursue since 2004 is the truth...on a host of issues, from Iraq to the economy to his support for Barack Obama.

As to the money, I contributed before 2004 and have continued to contribute since to Kerry's causes (Roadblock Republicans, Campaign for the Country, etc.) through johnkerry.com because I have learned of his integrity and patriotism. He fights for this country, our veterans and a better America...even as he himself was shut out of the presidency...because he understands our country was headed in the wrong direction. As long as he does that, I consider any donations I have made (in 2004 or since) to be well worth it. Because of that integrity, I would bet he honored those words.

[ralbertson]

48. I don't have to pretend, but...

...I am always amazed & impressed by how much more such good people as ProSense, beachmom, karynnj, blm, YvonneCA, et al know about the details of the good Senator from Massachusetts' long history of service than I do. The fact that he has so many outstanding (and, yes, for the record, not-paid non-staffer) advocates on the intertubes speaks volumes about the man and how highly respected he is.

And, also for the record, I don't believe in his innate integrity because I happen to work for the guy -- frankly, the cause and effect relationship is in precisely the other direction. I''m not in the general business of working for politicians. I was just fortunate enough, after years of volunteering and supporting, to finally get a chance to work for this one. And I honestly do consider that to be both an honor and a privilege.

[blm]

69. Too many THINK they know about him from media spin set up against him in recent years.

They just don't understand that EVERYTHING Kerry has done the last 4 decades has drawn a target on his back from every GOP administration he exposed as corrupt.

And the last Dem administration is apparently siding with BushInc as they undermined Kerry and buried his work exposing BushInc as well.

[karynnj]

9. Wonderful post and great that he is getting some of the credit he deserves

It's nice to see someone as hard working and as principled as the Senator get these awards. It was so fitting that he got the first Drinan one. They really were friends for decades and their mutual respect is so obvious. Like you, I think they have a huge amount in common. Reading and watching Kerry's Pepperdine speech on the his faith as it relates to his politics, I was struck by how much the Catholic Jesuit Social Justice themes resonated through what he said - and how much - in less overtly religious tones they did run through much of what he said in 2004 and since. I wonder how much Drinan influenced Kerry on that.

[ProSense]

10. Going after greedy companies

Kerry, Obama Push for Senate Investigation of Tax Shelter Abuses

WASHINGTON, DC – Senators John Kerry and Barack Obama sent a letter to the Chairman and Ranking member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Sen. Carl Levin and Norm Coleman respectively. Kerry and Obama asked that their colleagues consider investigating government contractors that circumvent paying payroll taxes by hiring employees through offshore shell companies. Last month, Kerry and Obama introduced the Fair Share Act of 2008 to close this tax loophole and save the American taxpayer an estimated $846 million over ten years. In the House, the bill is being sponsored by Reps. Brad Ellsworth and Rahm Emanuel, and was recently included in the Taxpayer Assistance and Simplification Act of 2008.

“Abusing offshore tax loopholes is wrong and at least one greedy company has fleeced the American taxpayer to the tune of hundreds of millions since the Iraq war began,” said Senator Kerry. “The American people who play by the rules and foot the bill for this war in Iraq deserve to know just how many companies are avoiding paying their fair share of taxes and how much it’s costing our economy. The Senate has a responsibility to shed some sunlight on the tax practices of these government contractors, and we will not be satisfied until these kinds of loopholes are eliminated once and for all.”

“It’s the responsibility of American companies to pay their taxes and ensure that their employees’ work is counted for future Social Security and Medicare benefits," said Senator Obama. "It's unacceptable for contractors to use foreign shell companies to avoid paying their share of payroll taxes, and that’s why Senator Kerry and I introduced legislation to close this loophole and hold these contractors accountable. I look forward to moving this legislation forward and working to crack down on tax havens and abusive tax shelters.”

Please find the text of Senator Kerry and Obama’s letter below:

April 23, 2008


The Honorable Carl Levin, Chairman The Honorable Norm Coleman, Ranking Member
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs
199 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Senators Levin and Coleman:

Recently, we introduced S. 2775, the Fair Share Act of 2008, which ends the practice of U.S. government contractors setting up shell companies in foreign jurisdictions to avoid payroll taxes. Representatives Ellsworth and Emanuel also introduced companion legislation. This legislation amends the Internal Revenue Code and the Social Security Act to treat foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies performing services under contract with the United States government as American employers for the purpose of Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes.

The legislation was introduced in response to a Boston Globe article in which Farah Stockman reported that Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) has avoided payroll taxes by hiring workers through shell companies in the Cayman Islands. American companies who are benefiting from U.S. government contracts are able to set up foreign subsidiaries in tax havens and treat American workers employed in connection with the contract as employees of the subsidiary. As a result, those employers can avoid Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes and their employees are denied the contributions for Federal benefits purposes.

We bring this issue to your attention because we think it is another example of the abuse of offshore tax havens used in order to avoid the payment of U.S. taxes. We believe closing this glaring loophole is consistent with your efforts to address tax shelters and tax havens. It is unclear how pervasive the practice used by KBR is, but there are numerous federal contractors that have subsidiaries located in tax havens and, as your investigations have uncovered, an abundance of tax professionals willing to help companies shirk their tax responsibilities whenever a loophole can be found.

We are working with the Finance Committee to close this tax loophole, and the House recently included this legislation as part of the Taxpayer Assistance and Simplification Act of 2008. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that closing this loophole raises $846 million over ten years.

We request that the Permanent Subcommittees on Investigations investigate this and similar abuses by federal contractors to avoid payroll taxes, and we look forward to continuing to work with you on measures to ensure fairness for American taxpayers.


Sincerely,


JOHN F. KERRY
US Senator
BARACK OBAMA
US Senator

[NJSecularist]

13. He should have been president.

He had so much to offer.

I would have to agree that he is one of the best Democratic senators however. But you just think of the power he could had as president. :(

[blm]

18. Kerry would've used his oval office access to OPEN THE BOOKS on BCCI and IranContra

just as he tried to do as Senator but was constantly shot down by previous presidents and their stonewalling of documents.

[karynnj]

23. He would have been the transformational President that he says Obama will be

Imagine the immediate change we would have had with a regional conference to deal with Iraq before it entered into the civil war it is in. Imagine Kerry leading at Bali on global warming. Not to mention Teresa Heinz Kerry would have been an awesome first lady.

[msallied]

15. A very honorable individual

That's what I liked about him as a candidate. He seemed very thoughtful and dedicated. But it just didn't seem to carry over well enough to win the trust of swing voters. Ugh. I hate Ohio. And I feel I can say that because I was born and raised there. lol

[BlueIris]

19. Still my favorite Senator. nt

[stillcool]

21. One of the few good one's left...

a damn shame what some his fellow "Democrats" did to him in 2004
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk1k0nUWEQg

[YvonneCa]

45. What they did to HIM...

...and to us, because he isn't in the White House.

[stillcool]

57. really burns me...

sure makes me wonder why.

[Hope And Change]

22. K & R!

:kick:

[beachmom]

28. K & R

[LSK]

35. K&R

[rockymountaindem]

37. Absolutely

He's one of the very few politicians to whom I could see myself really giving my loyalty.

[politicasista]

39. A banging' K&R

:kick:

[FedoraLV]

40. k & r/nt

[thoughtcrime1984]

41. Yes he is, he should've been our President, as Gore should have before him!

Maybe the chain of stolen elections will stop this time....

[Unbowed]

43. Happy to rec this post! Senator Kerry is the best of the best.

He's never deterred: he always does what he believes is right. And he is never afraid to speak out even if he takes a lot of heat (mostly from assholes IMO) for it.

[ProSense]

46. OOPS! FORGOT THE LINK, HERE>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Really, it's better to give and receive.

[JNelson6563]

47. K&R for Senator Kerry

He would've been an excellent President, had he been allowed to serve. :toast: :patriot:

Julie

[Eutanasio]

49. Kerry's senatorial approval in Massachussets doesn't even reach 50%

49% according to a Survey USA approval poll conducted 4-11 to 4-13.
If he were such a great senator, more people from Massachusetts would be satisfied with his performance.
http://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollReport.aspx?g=c9b3515a-c920-43c9-851e-345b6dc3bbeb

Kennedy, Clinton, Schumer and others have a better approval.

[ProSense]

50. Doesn't matter, SUSA has always shown erratic results for

Kerry

He won his last contest with 81% of the vote.

[Eutanasio]

55. Most recent approval has nothing to do with his last contest

It's how his job is rated that we are discussing. And why do you try to denigrate SUSA just because John Kerry's approval has not been always flat? I don't understand.

[ProSense]

56. Rasmussen has him at 55%, but a poll has nothing to do with the OP. n/t

[GetTheRightVote]

51. Let us not forget it was Kerry who got Obama into the lime light for the Dems

with his first speech at the Dem convention, thank you John.

[ProSense]

53. Video:

The speech that started a movement

[madrchsod]

60. john and dick durbin knew what they were doing...

barack was the future of the democratic party as soon as he was "bonafide" by senator paul simon.

[Dr Fate]

52. Kerry is the man. When I promise to get someone's back, I keep it.

I havent always agreed with him, but Kerry promised me he would filibuster Alito and I promised I would support him forever if he did.

I do my best to keep my word and I think Kerry does too.

Kerry = a fine man in my book.

[ray of light]

54. k/r

[tabasco]

61. Kerry's not perfect but he is damn good. One of the best.

I will never understand his IWR vote as long as I live.

[OhioChick]

62. I've Always Liked Kerry

Class Act.

:kick:

[Scurrilous]

63. K & R

:thumbsup:

[MagickMuffin]

64. Senator John Kerry is the BEST

He has always maintained his integrity and dignity. Even though he was slimed by the idiots controlling the RW echo chamber.

Me's :loveya: John Kerry.

Thanks for posting ProSense:thumbsup:


:kick: & RRRRR

[ProSense]

67. Thanks

:hi:

MagickMuffin

[barack the house]

65. Sounds like a caminet position to me at the very least.

[TheDonkey]

66. Unlike Clinton he voted NO on DOMA and didn't throw gays under the bus

when it was politically convenient. He's an American hero.