[LANMaster]

no link


Just How Liberal Is John Kerry? According to Liberal Newspapers, Kerry is VERY liberal!


The Economist, April 21, 1984
Of the Democrats, marginally the best known in Massachusetts is Mr Kerry. He is a down-the-line liberal who won election as lieutenant-governor by emphasising his anti-war credentials. Having been decorated for bravery as a naval commander during the Vietnam war, he came home to testify before congress that the war was wrong. He founded a nationwide protest movement of Vietnam ex-servicemen.

1984 The National Law Journal, November 5, 1984
Other Democratic candidates are using the court issue, Professor Dershowitz noted, including Lt. Gov. John Kerry in Massachusetts. Mr. Kerry has been running for the U.S. Senate on a platform stating he'll vote against Reagan nominees to the court, he said.


Lieut. Gov. John Kerry and Representative James Shannon, both Democrats, joined their hands in a sign of mutual victory Saturday after about 500 representatives of groups advocating a nuclear freeze throughout the state awarded the the unusual dual endorsement to the only candidates who vowed to work for all- out nuclear disarmament.

The Economist, SEPTEMBER 22, 1984
In the Democrats' hard-fought senate primary, there was no ideological divide between the winner, Mr Kerry, and Mr James Shannon, who has been named the second most liberal member of congress by both Mr Ralph Nader and the National Journal. Together these liberal rivals outpolled two conservative also-rans by four to one. Mr Kerry had the advantage of being better known, two years after his campaign for lieutenant-governor. He had also made a name for himself as a war hero, the founder of Vietnam Veterans against the War, and as a crusader against acid rain.

The Washington Post, October 21, 1984
The Vietnam War has been over for 10 years, but not here. It has blazed up as an issue in the slam-bang Senate fight between conservative Republican Ray Shamie and John Kerry, a much-decorated combat veteran who came home to lead the Vietnam Veterans against the War in the most powerful and moving protest of the time.

Gen. George S. Patton III, the flamboyant field commander who once said he "loved to see the arms and legs flying" in battle, came to Boston to blast Kerry for "probably" causing "some of my guys to get killed" by his dissidence. "There's no soap ever been invented that can wash that blood off his hands."

The Washington Post, October 24, 1984
To a great extent, the contest between Kerry, 40, the liberal Democratic lieutenant governor, and Shamie, 63, a political novice who defeated Elliot L. Richardson in the GOP primary, is tied to the battle between President Reagan and Democratic presidential nominee Walter F. Mondale in this state.

Kerry has pledged not to vote to raise taxes but instead to cut expensive weapons programs such as the MX missile and B1 bomber and to slash agricultural subsidies.

The Economist, OCTOBER 27, 1984
The campaign has crystallised into two arguments, of which the first is over who should get the credit for the continuing Massachusetts boom (unemployment has been around 4% for almost a year, the best performance in the industrial states). Mr Kerry thinks this is the happy result of public-private partnerships in education and development, including the low-interest state bonds for industrial expansion which Mr Shamie made use of for his own factory. Mr Shamie, a supply-sider who attributes the recovery mainly to the Reagan tax cuts, also believes that Massachusetts prospers because of the proposition 2 1/2 tax revolt of 1980, a version of California's proposition 13 which cut property taxes; Mr Kerry criticised the measure from the sidelines at the time as an "impulsive overreaction". The Democratic candidate, who does not want government any smaller although he is not a great one for raising taxes, reminded Mr Shamie the other day in a typically literate bit of mischief of a line from Longfellow: "And so we plough along, said the fly to the ox".

The New York Times, October 30, 1984
In an acrimonious fight for the Senate, Raymond Shamie, a conservative millionaire businessman who has wrapped himself in the mantle of President Reagan's policies and popularity, appears close to overtaking Lieut. Gov. John F. Kerry, a liberal Democrat.

The general election campaign has been bitter, with Mr. Shamie repeatedly accusing Mr. Kerry of lying and Mr. Kerry attacking Mr. Shamie for being vague and not answering questions in debates. Mr. Shamie has also asserted repeatedly that Mr. Kerry would vote to raise taxes, an assertion Mr. Kerry has denied.

[bassetman]

Kerry is a Liberal??? Wow, now you're on to something Lan!

[LANMaster]

AWOL in the Fight Against George W. Bush
It's all in the Kerry record.

Link

Sen. John Kerry, emerging as the favorite to win the New Hampshire primary, often tells supporters he has the courage and qualifications to stand up to George W. Bush when it counts. "I have the ability to stand up to George Bush," Kerry said as he campaigned in the last days before the Iowa caucuses. A few days earlier, Kerry said voters want a candidate who can "stand up to George Bush and his bullies."

As a senator with the responsibility to cast a vote on a variety of contentious issues, Kerry has had many opportunities to square off with the president. Yet an analysis of Kerry's 2003 Senate voting record shows that he did not show up for most of the Senate's confrontations with the White House.

The publication Congressional Quarterly examined 119 recorded votes held in 2003 in which the president had taken a position. CQ found that Kerry was present for just 28 percent of those votes. In contrast, Kerry's colleague from Massachusetts, Ted Kennedy, was present for 97 percent of the votes.

When Kerry showed up, he did indeed vote against the president a significant number of times. In 2003, according to CQ, Kerry sided against the president 70 percent of the time. Kennedy, usually viewed as the gold standard of liberal orthodoxy, voted against Bush 53 percent of the time.

In a larger examination of all Senate votes, CQ found that Kerry and Kennedy have compiled remarkably similar voting records — a fact that will no doubt be used by Republicans who will seek to portray Kerry as a classic Massachusetts liberal, should he win the Democratic nomination and face President Bush in November's general election.

CQ found that in 2003, Kerry voted with Kennedy 93 percent of the time on roll-call votes in which both men were present. While that might seem like a lot, it was, historically, a rather low number for Kerry; who voted with Kennedy 100 percent of the time on key votes in 2001, 1999, 1998, 1993, 1992, 1989, 1988, 1987, 1986, and 1985, according to a Republican analysis of CQ's designated key votes from those years.

There are other indicators that Kerry's liberalism, when he is present for votes, matches or even exceeds Kennedy's and those of other liberal icons in the Senate. For example, Kerry has earned a lifetime rating of 93 from the liberal Americans for Democratic Action, which selects key votes each year and rates lawmakers according to a perfect liberal score of 100. Kerry's rating puts him in league with Kennedy, whose lifetime score is a slightly less-liberal 88, and other liberals like Vermont's Patrick Leahy, with 93, and California's Barbara Boxer, with 96.

Viewed from the other side of the ideological divide, Kerry has a lifetime rating of six from the conservative American Conservative Union, which uses a similar methodology to rate lawmakers according to a perfect conservative score of 100. Kerry's rating is the same as Leahy's and New York's Charles Schumer's, although it is slightly less liberal than Kennedy's lifetime rating of three.

On the issue of showing up for Senate votes, CQ found that Kerry's fellow senators running for president, John Edwards and Joseph Lieberman, also missed a significant number of votes, although far fewer than Kerry did. According to the CQ analysis, Edwards was present for 53 percent of the recorded votes in which the president took a position, while Lieberman was present for 45 percent.

Most senators were present for more than 90 percent of the votes.

So where was he???? The other candidates found the time.
Any one of us would be fired for such poor attendance.

Lets launch an official investigation into Kerry's absence!!!


Actually, I like him there as little as possible anyway

[LANMaster]

Originally posted by bassetman:
Kerry is a Liberal??? Wow, now you're on to something Lan!

Sure looks that way, doesn't it?

[LANMaster]

Kerry was the Lt. Gov. under Mike Dukaikas...the poster boy for American liberalism.

Kerry votes like his pal, Teddy Kennedy and most Americans do
not want Socialism and Govt run everyting from cradle to grave.

Mondale led Reagan in the polls in the year before election and
got killed in the election.

No, Ketchup boy may be good at hustling rich widows but
Americans are not ready for the Communist/Socialist agenda of
the Yankee from Mass.

[LANMaster]

John Kerry, Mr. Insincerity

Rich Lowry

March 15, 2004

John Kerry doesn't mean what he says. This statement doesn't represent a partisan attack on the Massachusetts senator. For his supporters, it's one of his most attractive qualities. Indeed, if it weren't for his insincerity, John Kerry would face a revolt among his liberal base and a political meltdown generally.

Consider: Liberals think that opposition to gay wedlock is bigoted and backward. John Kerry, who repeats his opposition to gay marriage whenever asked, has therefore outed himself as a kind of gay-basher. He joins Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and the rest of the Christian right gang in seeking to deny gays their "civil rights." So, John Kerry must be a hateful fundamentalist merely posing as an intellectually condescending Boston Brahmin.


Full Story

[Lurker1]

OK Lan
Is he a leftist liberal like you said or is he a conservative against gay marriages like you pointed out in the last article. Which one upsets you the most???? Trying to stuff Kerry into the corner and he won't go along with your idea of what a Liberal believes??

[eggplant43]

Let's see, 1984, that was about 20 years ago, wasn't it?

[LANMaster]

Hello Lurk & EP.

I'm not stuffing Kerry into any corners.

Several times there have been articles posted claiming how Bush has abandoned his party. Why shouldn't I be able to post how Kerry may be alienating his own base?

More to the point, the man believes in nothing.
Stands for nothing.
Holds his finger to the wind and speaks whatever might be politically adventageous at the time.

Kerry is a quagmire of contradiction.

First he's a war hero. Decorated hero! But wait, then he's a protestor and activist who trashed his medals. But wait, they weren't his medals, But wait, he cites his war hero status for political gain, But wait, he votes to cut military spending. But wait, he supports the troops, but wait, he votes against Gulf War 1. But wait, he re-cants and says it was the right thing to do. But wait, he supports Gulf war 2. But wait, he now says it was the wrong thing to do.

And that is just being as brief as I can with a single subject.

But wait.

All one need do is wait a little while and John Kerry will have a new spin in the rinse. :rolleyes

[eggplant43]

This is the most apt decription of GW Bush I've ever seen.

More to the point, the man believes in nothing.

[bassetman]

LOL Bush a "real nowhere man"!

Lurker1, to Lan it has to be black or white!

alienating his own base?

Don't you wish!

[LANMaster]

[eggplant43]

Former Malaysian Leader Endorses Kerry

Thu Mar 18,11:56 AM ET


PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia - Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad endorsed Democratic contender John Kerry (news - web sites) in the U.S. presidential race Thursday, saying he would keep the world safer than President Bush (news - web sites).


"I think Kerry would be much more willing to listen to the voices of people and of the rest of the world," Mahathir, who retired in October after 22 years in power, told The Associated Press in an interview.


"But in the U.S., the Jewish lobby is very strong, and any American who wants to become president cannot change the policy toward Palestine radically," he said.


Mahathir, who was one of the most outspoken leaders in the Islamic world, also said the March 11 train bombings in Spain demonstrated that the Iraqi war has aggravated international terrorism and raised hostility toward Washington and its allies.

[bassetman]

Like duh!

Thanls eggy!

[LANMaster]

We pick our leaders here in the US.
I cannot believe that you are so willing to surrender America's sovereignty to the world.