By The Prowler on 2.3.04 @ 12:07AM
John Kerry’s main problem.
Sen. John Kerry's campaign says their candidate
has nothing to hide. They point out that Kerry's local paper, the
Boston Globe, had recently printed a seven-part series
that revealed everything embarrassing. "The man has been in the
U.S. Senate for more than a decade," says a Kerry staffer on
Capitol Hill. "We've seen all there is. The man is clean."
Perhaps. But despite all the fanfare and the seeming coronation
as the Democratic Party's nominee, Kerry isn't very well liked.
"What you're going to see is more and more stories about Kerry
is just reviled by his fellow Democratic Senators and by others,"
says a campaign staffer for Sen. John Edwards.
"The man is genuinely disliked for just being a big phony."
As an example, the staffer pointed to the veterans from Vietnam
Kerry has surrounded himself with. "Almost to a one, these guys
have said that they had reached out to Kerry over the years and
never heard back from him. Suddenly he's running for president and
he's all hot and heavy to use them to his advantage."
Another example, Kerry's seeming total lack of interest in the
legislative process of the Senate. Fellow candidate, former Vermont
Gov. Howie Dean lambasted Kerry for not getting
enough bills passed. Kerry countered that it wasn't the name on the
bill that mattered, but getting what you wanted into the bill that
passed. It isn't clear, even from some of Kerry's former Senate
staff, that he did much of that.
"I remember when Kerry saw the writing on the wall for welfare
reform back in 1996, he desperately tried to get his name connected
to one of the reform packages or a Democratic alternative to it
that was floating around," says a former staffer. "The problem was,
it wasn't an issue he'd cared about, nor did he do any work on it.
There wasn't a single Democrat in leadership that was going to give
him a nod on the issue. The same goes for a raft of issues he now
claims he played a key role shaping. The man just tries to ride
other people's coattails."
Now, perhaps, he's looking to ride the biggest Democratic
coattail around. According to a Kerry campaign volunteer, the
campaign has been playing with a campaign button or bumper sticker
that would play off the initials of the candidate.
The slogan? "A New Century. A New JFK."
topics:
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