Rivals Mine Kerry Senate Years for Material to Slow Him Down

[baby_bear]

http://tinyurl.com/3h35s

NYTimes Jan 25, 2004

<snip>
The moment John Kerry began to seem like the candidate to watch in the Iowa caucuses, the campaigns of his Democratic rivals Howard Dean and Richard A. Gephardt swiftly used a handful of Mr. Kerry's decade-old Senate votes and statements against ethanol and agricultural subsidies to attack him as not supportive of Iowa's essential industry.

Now that his opponents are moving even more aggressively to slow Mr. Kerry's rise, his 19-year voting record as the junior senator from Massachusetts could loom as his greatest political vulnerability, to Democrats and Republicans alike. The sheer length of Mr. Kerry's service means that he has built a paper trail of positions on education, the military, intelligence and other issues — stands that might have looked one way when he took them but that resonate differently now.</snip>

much much more....


You have to know Karl Rove is working overtime on this. I also think he may have been behind the virtual beheadings of Dean and Clark.

They know Kerry's vulnerabilities, so they aren't so formidable, perhaps?

Just wondering, and cynical because I know how much manipulation the WH is capable of.

s_m

[bobthedrummer]

1. This pResident is capable of anything, I agree-

but I disagree with your statement about "the virtual beheadings of Dean and Clark.", both have received some blunt force trauma upside the head, but they are both viable still IMO.

[bleedingheart]

2. NPR started to chip at Kerry on this point

apparently Kerry for all his tenure in the Senate isn't a big legislative giant like Kennedy...he hasn't authored many bills which could possibly be used against him...(not sure how...but that was what the commentator said)

As I always say...ya gotta have the skin of a rhino to work in politics.

[leesa]

3. It will be easy for them to portray Kerry as weak and indecisive

He changes his mind depending on which way the political wind blows. This is why the GOP/WhoreMedia/DNC has chosen him for us.