THERE'S a lot that Democratic frontrunner John Forbes Kerry doesn't want you to know. Sure, there are those famous initials, the decorated combat tour in Vietnam and 19 years in the United States Senate. Kerry wants you to know he voted for the resolution authorizing President Bush to use force in Iraq, though for the wrong reasons. John Kerry would even seem to have destiny working in his favor as the junior sidekick of the brother of the last man to make the jump directly from the Senate to the White House: the real JFK. All of this doesn't hide the truth however, that John Kerry is a quintessential Massachusetts liberal unfit to be president.
In 1991, John Kerry voted against the resolution for the first Gulf War, citing that although he was "for kicking Saddam out of Kuwait" he felt that "we needed a little more time." Time for what? Allowing Saddam to steal more from Kuwait, or to better organize his forces for an invasion of Saudi Arabia? Kerry, to his credit, did vote for the 2002 Iraq resolution, as did all the other Democrats with national aspirations, but his motives must be questioned given the negative political implications associated with being seen as soft on Saddam on both occasions. In addition, when pushed by the anti-war faction for reasoning as to his vote, Kerry weakly offered that he "voted to threaten the use of force to make Saddam comply with U.N. resolutions." Even John Q. Public knew Bush didn't go to Congress to threaten Saddam -- he went to obtain authorization to wage war.
Kerry's waffling on the war issues is just one of his many problems. The Americans for Democratic Action, a left-wing group, rates his lifetime voting record at 93 percent, astounding considering he makes Ted Kennedy, the liberal standard-bearer in the Senate, look conservative at an 88 percent rating. Luckily for Kerry, most Americans won't be able to know his oft liberal positions on many recent issues as Kerry missed 64 percent of the votes, including the historic Medicare and energy votes, in the Senate during the first session of the 108th Congress. The time and energy consumed by a campaign is understandable when evaluating missed votes, but missing a large majority of votes merely demonstrates Kerry's irresponsibility to his office and to the public.
Throughout his campaign, Kerry has made a point to fight against corporate special interests -- odd, considering Kerry is the undisputed champion of special interest dollars. Since 1989, the Center for Responsive Politics reveals Kerry has raised more money from paid lobbyists than any other Senator. In 2001, shortly after voting to outlaw soft money from national parties, Kerry, in an effort to offset the effects of said ban, comically created his own soft money committee called the "Citizen Soldier Fund" to accept unlimited soft money contributions from corporations and labor unions. The committee has taken in more than $1.3 million from businesses like AT&T and insurance giant AIG ("John Forbes Kerry the Hypocrite,"Vol. I, Issue 3," gop.com/RNCResearch, Feb. 6). A politician in bed with special interest isn't a rare occurrence in Washington, but Kerry consistently deceives the public when it comes to his own ties to corporations and PACs.
The biggest skeleton in John Kerry's closet occurred nearly two decades ago: A two-year stint as Massachusetts' Lieutenant Governor under Michael Dukakis -- yes, that Michael Dukakis. While in office, Kerry staunchly defended the Dukakis furlough program that allowed violent offenders weekend prison leaves for good behavior.
A potential Bush vs. Kerry match-up is decidedly intriguing. In 1988, the elder Bush crushed Dukakis; in 2004, there is a strong potential the younger Bush will run against an "even more liberal than Dukakis" Kerry. Democrats can only hope that the classic conservative versus liberal showdown fares better for them this time around.
For the conservatives out there reading this and worrying that Kerry's ultra-liberal, devious, special-interest packed record will remain unknown to the American public, fear not. Soon after Kerry (if he does indeed capture the nomination) becomes the Democrats' anointed one, Republicans will drop a $100 million smart-bomb of political ads and the like on the Kerry campaign in a pre-emptive strike to, as Time magazine says, "define that Democrat before most of the country can pick him out of a lineup." In the meantime, sit back, relax and admire the perfectly-coifed hair and allegedly botox-refined forehead of the next Massachusetts liberal to see his presidential aspirations go down in flames.
(Joe Schilling's column appears Tuesdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at jschilling@cavalierdaily.com.)
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