Some fun with Lexus-Nexus: Senator Kerry

[Nazgul35]

Many people here love to discuss how Howard Dean flip-flops on issues...I personally believe that any politician, over time, is goin to show some inconsistancies over time.

I have decided to show that this is a case by doing a lexus nexus search on Senator Kerry, as there seems to be a considerable amount of traffic today about Gov. Dean's supposed waffle on IWR...

SO in the interest of fair play...perhaps someone would explain to me why:

In 1991, Senator Kerry voted against the Gulf War Resolution authorizing the use of force to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait?
Clearly Iraq was a threat...having actually invaded a neighboring country and had been stockpiled by the US during the Iraq-Iran war...yet this didn't constitute enough of a threat to require us to use force...

Kerry even called for a diplomatic solution...

The Boston Globe
August 28, 1990, Tuesday, City Edition
By Tom Ashbrook, Globe Staff

US should allow Iraq room to back off, Kerry says;
CRISIS IN THE MIDDLE EAST

The time has come to give Iraqi President Saddam Hussein diplomatic room to negotiate a withdrawal from Kuwait, US Sen. John Kerry said yesterday.

With an international embargo firmly in place and US troops poised to check further offensive action by Iraq, Kerry said, the United States and its allies now need to clear a diplomatic path for a solution short of war.

--snip—

But with the Iraqi leader now "boxed" by international arms and sanctions, the senator said, new initiatives are necessary to break the military standoff and defuse the Persian Gulf crisis.

What changed?!


So fast forward to 2002...the IWR is before the Senate and the Senator decides to trust Bush and give him the authority to invade another country preemptively...

But this isn't a flip-flop? Clearly, the situation in 1991 was far more severe than in 2002, yet he voted no when the threat was greater, and yes when the threat was questionable....

You don't think that the possible reason could have anything to do with the fact that the first vote took place after the 1991 November elections and the IWR vote took place before the 2002 elections, do you?


Some more:

El Salvador:Flip-flop or not...you decide

The Boston Globe
October 17, 1989, Tuesday, City Edition
By Fernando Gonzalez, Globe Staff

Kerry's vote to aid El Salvador sparks protest at Boston office

Labor and religious activists, veterans and members of peace organizations staged a rally yesterday at Sen. John Kerry's Boston office to denounce his vote for military aid to El Salvador.

--snip—

"He came out of Vietnam very sensitized to the issue of United States involvement in foreign affairs and so far, in Central America, he seemed very much a supporter of the peace process and demilitarization. Then he voted for contra support, which was the first big signal. . . . But this vote really took us all by surprise. It seems a real reversal of his position."

--snip—

A group of activists met with Kerry at his office yesterday morning to present their views and invite the senator to speak at the rally. While he did not decline the offer at the meeting, he did not appear at the demonstration.

And then there is this:

Afirmative-Action: Flip-flop or not

The Boston Globe
April 5, 1992, Sunday, City Edition
By Robert A. Jordan, Globe Staff

Kerry alienates many black supporters

Perhaps the speech was prompted by a political talk-show host who suggested that US Sen. John Kerry was "too liberal" to be a vice-presidential running mate for Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton.

And, as a result, Kerry decided to move himself politically from the left to center-right. Or perhaps it was simply a legitimate effort by Kerry to put the issue in proper perspective.

--snip—

Virtually every advocate of affirmative action and civil rights, as well as black supporters of Kerry himself, viewed Kerry's speech as an effort not to defend affirmative action, but to pander to the more conservative element of our society, including staunch critics of affirmative action.


Welfare Reform: Flip-flop or not

The Boston Herald
September 22, 1995 Friday SECOND EDITION
By ANDREW MIGA

Activists rap Kerry over welfare vote

WASHINGTON - Bay State human services advocates yesterday accused Sen. John Kerry of turning his back on the poor by voting in favor of the GOP's sweeping welfare reform bill.

"Sen. Kerry has sunk to the lowest level of political expediency," said Betsy Wright, head of the Massachusetts Human Services Coalition. "He's abandoned the children of Massachusetts."


--snip—

Wright charged that Kerry, a Democrat, backed the GOP plan in hopes of defusing criticism from Weld that he's too soft on welfare recipients.

"Kerry has one eye on Weld," said Wright. "It's disgusting. He's afraid to take the heat from Weld. Activists are horrified by Kerry."


Campaign Funding: Flip-flop or not

The Boston Globe
June 23, 1995, Friday, City Edition
By Kimberly Blanton, Globe Staff

Community groups seeking Sen. John Kerry's support for hearings on the merger of Fleet Financial Group Inc. and Shawmut National Corp. were unhappy yesterday to learn he would be feted by bank officials in a fund-raiser.

The fund-raiser is planned for Sunday night at the Narragansett, R.I., home of Fleet chairman Terrence Murray. Cohosting will be Joel Alvord, chief executive of Shawmut, according to people familiar with the event.

Massachusetts community groups said the event raises serious questions about whether Kerry can give his heartfelt support for their request for Federal Reserve hearings on Fleet's planned acquisition of Shawmut.

My purpose in this is to show that any politican has events in thier lives that can be called flip-flopping...this attitude of many around here that attacks a given candidate by using past words (and even with careful editing of a person's words) is just plain silly!!!

Kerry is an excellent candidate...Dean is an excellent candidate...all of them are excellent candidate...why not take the time to post all the positive stories I saw about Kerry (or anyone else) in lexus-nexus...instead of tearing down another person's candidate....

Just a thought....

[LuminousX]

1. One real question is...

is a person not allowed to change opinions?

To me a real flip-flop is not when a candidate moves from Position A to Position B and then maybe onto Position C, but when the Candidate goes from Position A to Position B, back to Position A. And it is more critical if it looks like they are trying to have their cake and eat it too.

[helleborient]

2. I agree...

Changing one's mind when conditions change can be a sign of very strong leadership.

Pragmatism demands the ability to change when conditions warrant...but we've had the long discussions here of how pragmatism is seen by some as nothing to be valued.

If you seek ideological purity...changing one's mind is bad.

If you seek the ability to respond to new conditions or information...changing one's mind can be very necessary.

I don't see any easy way to reconcile these two different approaches to the world.

[hedda_foil]

3. Thank you for posting this.

I agree completely that it is legitimate to change position over time as events necessitate. That's the sign of a thoughtful and intelligent person. At times, Kerry's changes in position have appeared to be more based on appearance and positioning than on conviction but that is simply my impression. That's why, when I found these and many other changes in his positions months ago, simply by googling Kerry flip flops and reading the news articles that came up, I did not post them. Oh yes, I was tempted by the repeated flame baiting and smearing tactics a few of his supporters have used against Gov Dean. But I believed then as I do now that internicine attacks at that level are inappropriate and refused to slam back with article after article against Kerry.

[Nazgul35]

5. what's so surprising...

is that for every "bad" article I found about Kerry, there were about 20 good ones...yet some people here....for all the candidates, prefer to do nothing but post negative articles...

Many are the same ones over and over again....

All it does is turn off people who become closed to any positive thing you might have to say later on about your guy....

[sandnsea]

4. *sigh*

People do post positive stories about Kerry. They drop in 5 seconds. Is the article by Edwards still up? It dropped in about 5 seconds in GD. The only time they don't drop is when somebody pops in with "he voted for the war" or "he voted for the Patriot Act". The Patriot Act vote is just stupid, there are things in that bill that were necessary at the time. Now it's time to fix it and any Democrat will, Kerry already introduced legislation. The war vote is legitimate for some, for others it's just an effort to deflect from the issues. To piss all over a post. If I thought people would actually discuss the issues, I'd post more positive theads. It doesn't happen. They get no response or pissed on.

But, to address the stuff you posted:

Kerry introduced the International Narcotics and Terrorism Control Act of 1989. He has been working on the connections between terrorism and drug running his whole life. He knows the difference between illegal wars and international criminal activities. People want him to be a pure anti-war guy, but he has been trying to define the difference between law enforcement and wars his whole life.

The difference between 1991 and 2002 is inspections that uncovered nuclear weapons programs and tons of bio/chem weapons.

The speech Kerry gave on affirmative action has been hashed over and is really old news. He was saying that we need to address the perception that whites have that affirmative action is hurting them. So over ten years ago, Kerry was addressing the way the country is being divided by race by the Republicans.

Welfare reform. Love it or hate it. Raising money. Love it or hate it.

Boston papers are horrible to Kerry. I'm not from Massachusetts so it's beyond me. Maybe that's just the way they do things there.