Change of tone - My fav Catnip Article of all time

[TayTay]

I had a sick day today and was rooting around aimlessly on the web, feeling a bit morose. I came across (on the Frontline site) a link to one of my all-time favorite pure catnip articles on Kerry. (I had read this before and then pure forgot about it.) This is some serious catnip. See a sample: from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59559-2003May30_4.html

There is something about him, "the Kerry effect," that provokes a visceral response. He is too towering, too confident and too rich (his wife's fortune exceeds half a billion dollars) for people to walk away indifferent. As one Kerry friend said, "People see him and say, 'Geez, I'm short, bald, stupid and poor.' " They feel either swept away or swept aside. When he smiles, one on one, people literally squint and blink; when he doesn't, light carves shadows in his face and his deep-set eyes sink into the dark. At a house party in Florence, S.C., the women giggled, charmed by the way he pronounced "y'all," and said he looked like GI Joe. The men anointed him the next JFK.

Read it and tell me what you think. Cuz I feel much better now! (And that's where I left the pic of him singing. I wondered where that had gotten to. I'm so absent-minded.)

WARNING: First few paragraphs not Vegan friendly!

[whometense]

1. here ya go:

http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/images/I64020-2003Jun01L

Most EXCELLENT catnip!!! Thanks - I needed that!

[Pirate Smile]

2. Reading it - some good catnip

"Kerry volunteered for Edward M. Kennedy's 1962 Senate race. He broadcast from a loudspeaker on his Volkswagen Beetle, "Kennedy for Senate." Then he added, "And Kerry for dogcatcher!" '

"In 1972, he ran for Congress as a "peace candidate," campaigning so relentlessly that once when an aide came to pick him up, he found Kerry asleep in the shower. "

[whometense]

5. just the mental image of JK

squashed into a VW beetle is enough to make me smile all by itself. :-)

[ginnyinWI]

3. thanks, taytay

I'm smiling now. :)

[Pirate Smile]

4. I love the ending about the hat. I wish that CIA guy would come forward

like JK mentioned during the MTP interview.

[whometense]

6. Fighting catnip with catnip

;-)

Here is my favorite catnip article. Some of it is pretty sad, but I love this part:

Under most circumstances, and in most U.S. settings, Kerry's shabby gentility would not have disadvantaged him. But St. Paul's was an extremely status-conscious place. As Brinkley writes in his biography, "At St. Paul's, unless you had a lot of money and wore the right clothes and had parents who belonged to the right clubs, you could be made to feel inadequate, born on the wrong side of the tracks." Fitting in -- to be a "reg," or regular guy, as the St. Paul's kids said -- meant having the right pair of loafers, the right Brooks Brothers suit, and the right ring belt. Kerry certainly dressed the preppy part. But there were obvious ways in which he could not keep up. While his classmates summered in Europe (or even took private jets to the Continent for long weekends), Kerry spent his breaks working as a Teamster in Somerville, Massachusetts, for the First National Stores, loading food onto trucks. He frequently borrowed money from friends. And, if his relative poverty weren't apparent enough, Kerry always had richer classmates issuing reminders of their bigger bank accounts. Barbiero recounted to me a symbolic incident. One of Kerry's poorer classmates had carefully compiled a record collection that was his proudest possession -- and everyone in the school knew it. But a rich classmate couldn't stomach the satisfaction felt by Kerry's friend, so he ventured into Concord and bought out the record store. According to Barbiero, Kerry empathized with the collector. "John was upset about this and thought it was a nasty thing to do."

I just love that kid. And he's still very much there, inside. :loveya: :loveya: :loveya:

[Lavender Brown]

7. Aww

High school outcast? I like him more now.

[JohnKleeb]

8. I often feel outcasted somewhat myself

Being one of the few Eastern Europeans in this part of Virginia, :) its not a big deal but it would be cool, if I knew there were others, I am not white white damnit, only white :). Yes I am being typical of myself and silly.

[Lavender Brown]

11. Well you're hardly an outcast at DU

:hi:

[JohnKleeb]

12. Cuz I got a big yap

:) and people find people who get hit with oranges very funny.

[TayTay]

13. Oh, I most certainly agree

Helping the underdog is very much a part of his charm.

Honestly, I just needed some catnip today. Twas one of those days. And I had so forgotten about this article. It's so damn sweet and sexy and well catnippy. (If that is a word.) Did the trick for me.

Opps. forgot my :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya:

[karynnj]

9. Not Vegan Friendly is an understatement!

Gee, I only voted for him because Fox News said he was a metrosexual guy who got manicures!

[whometense]

10. hahaha

he is a man of many facets. ;-)

[TayTay]

14. That metrosexual thing always made me laugh

Cuz, ahm, it's so not true. (Well, he does clean up real good) but honestly, any suggestion that JK is somehow frilly or whatever that is supposed to mean is pretty funny hahahahahahaha! (Long knowing Masshole laugh.) Oh gawd, just go ask the Glob. hahahahahahaha The *ie must be vey insecure. (And we know * uses a sock to enhance 'Mission Accomplished' moments. So, consider the source.)

[whometense]

15. good call.

I'm not sick, but some days the spirit flags a bit. Nothing better for that than a little catnip. :loveya:

[whometense]

16. Okay, I spoke too soon.

Forgot about this article, which is the most delicious of all.

There were five of us there, sipping some cool restoratives, and Kerry was telling tales of his days as an antiwar counterculture hero in New York City at what turned out to be the shank end of the Age of Aquarius. One of our company had been a bartender at the late, lamented Lion's Head in Greenwich Village at roughly the same time, so he and Kerry had run in the same circles, and they swapped stories about who had gone home with whom at the end of whatever long evening. The names flew and I lost track of them after a while, and I believe I somehow ended up with the notion that G. Gordon Liddy had participated in enthusiastic tag-team gymnastics with Joni Mitchell and Bella Abzug.

And this:

But he's always on the outside of things. The signature image in Douglas Brinkley's hagiographic account of Kerry's early life and service in Vietnam is that of twelve-year-old John Kerry, son of a career diplomat, riding his bicycle through the bombed-out streets of a ruined Germany. Even in the 1970s, he steered by his own star. He was impatient with the revolution-for-the-hell-of-it crowd and with the wilder elements in his own organization, the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. The triviality of the Abbie Hoffman end of the antiwar movement offended his intellect, and to this day, he bites off his words so sharply when he talks about them that it's plain he still considers them largely a waste of time.

Pure catnip, beginning to end.

[LittleClarkie]

17. Here's mine:

http://www.post-gazette.com/nation/20020605teresanat1p1.asp

What Teresa Heinz found and what she lost

Pittsburgh's forthright 'Saint Teresa' could play compelling, wildcard role in husband Kerry's presidential hopes

Wednesday, June 05, 2002

By Mark Leibovich, The Washington Post

WASHINGTON -- Teresa Heinz is getting up a full head of rage while her husband, Sen. John Kerry, fidgets.

They are in the living room of their Georgetown home, where Heinz has lived ever since her late first husband, John Heinz, came to Washington in 1971 as a Republican congressman from Pennsylvania. In the front entrance, the first things a visitor sees are two framed photos of Teresa Heinz cuddled with tall, smiling men with big heads of brown hair: In one is John Kerry, in the other John Heinz.

She still calls John Heinz "my husband" and doesn't always correct herself -- "my late husband" -- even when Kerry is around. She still wears the blue sapphire engagement ring that Heinz gave her.

But John Heinz's enduring presence in Teresa's life is best revealed when someone slights his memory. Which, at least indirectly, is why she and Kerry are now in mid-bicker.

"That guy does not deserve diplomacy," says Heinz. She is referring to Sen. Rick Santorum, the Pennsylvania Republican who offended her in 1994 during his campaign for John Heinz's old Senate seat. She won't elaborate on what Santorum said to earn her enmity, only that she won't speak to him again.

more...

[elshiva]

18. I looove that article!

I love Teresa. SO independent and forthright. She's right about Santorum, he's pond scum compared to Heinz.

[LittleClarkie]

21. It's one of the articles that helped me get to know her, and like her

And get closer to Kerry during the campaign when I was working my way from ABB to Kerrycrat.

I was touched by two things: that he still has 'Nam nightmares and that he could cry at a movie. And I like the way Teresa looked him in the eye and made him give a straight answer to a question.

What do you think about the fact that Kerry says he gets along with Santorum, and keeps trying to play diplomat. Does that suggest perhaps that he isn't as angry at these people as he should be? Or is it more a function of the fact that this article is from 2002 and so much has happened since then?

Anyway, I'll go back into my old posts and see if I can find another.

[elshiva]

19. I'm a vegetarian, but I love that article.

One of the few things I disagree with him about is the hunting bit. Oh well... But a great guy. Really very corny, but sincere about his corniness.

[sandnsea]

20. The Windsurfer Article

Bar none. I had been waiting for Kerry to run forever, but still wanted to be objective and fair. Was leaning towards him, of course, but when I read this article, .... sigh... what can I say, this kind of brain just turns me on!
:loveya:

"And so I've also always been fascinated by the Transcendentalists and the Pantheists and others who found these great connections just in nature, in trees, the ponds, the ripples of the wind on the pond, the great feast of nature itself. I think it's all an expression that grows out of this profound respect people have for those forces that human beings struggle to define and to explain. It's all a matter of spirituality.

I find that even - even atheists and agnostics wind up with some kind of spirituality, maybe begrudgingly acknowledging it here and there, but it's there. I think it's really intriguing. For instance, thinking about China, the people and their policy-how do we respond to their view of us? And how do they arrive at that view of us and of the world and of life choices? I think we have to think about those things in the context of the spiritual to completely understand where they are coming from. So here are a people who, you know, by and large, have a nation that has no theory of creationism. Well, that has to effect how you approach things. And until we think through how that might effect how you approach things, it's hard to figure out where you could find a meeting of the minds when approaching certain kinds of issues."

http://www.americanwindsurfer.com/mag/back/issue5.5a.html

[TayTay]

22. That was an incredible article

I loved how he just went out there and did his thing, wasn't afraid to fall or look a little foolish. That was great. I also admit, I find the idea that he would blow off the interview in order to just go out and sail as absolute pure catnip joy.

[whometense]

23. WHY is this man not president?

AW: You don't believe that the country might be wanting a leader in shining armor?
JK: I think what happens is you get set up and you get ripped down. It's a process of constant give and take. I've been there before and I've seen it happen and I've watched with quite a few people and I think that it's a very. . . It's a fragile process nowadays and you have to approach it, recognizing it.

[karynnj]

24. I think if most American knew who he really was

he would be President. He really is a complex person and has done so many significant things. I think one thing that was missing was a real biography. The Tour of Duty book does cover his life through the anti-war movement then skips to briefly mention the POW/MIA work and the beginnings of running for President. It actually mentions that the POW/MIA stuff would take a book in and of itself. It's sort of like He needed a second volume to cover the Contra stuff, BCCI, and the POW/MIA.

(Then when people said he did nothing in his Senate career we could at least have a book to throw at them - because it was so annoying that people bought the line that he did nothing for 20 years )(It's almost as if they flipped the candidates' attributes
with Kerry as a sort of playboy Senator.

[TayTay]

25. That is so true

Gawd, just the relationship with McCain is worth a book. I read McCain's comments about Kerry in his book and it is still completely engrossing. I am angry at McCain because he rolled over for the *ies, but that relationship with Kerry is still special. (And I hope it does survive. For the good of the nation, because it was a truly wonderful thing.) Gawd, just surviving in politics this long, with the rolling fashion statements that national politics has become is worthy of a book.

Some poignant, wistful catnip from one of my alltime fav Kerry articles:

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/content/?020204fr_archive03

In 1984, thirteen years after that protest at the Capitol, John McCain, by then a United States representative from Arizona, went to Massachusetts to campaign against Kerry, a first-time Senate candidate. At a rally in the North End of Boston, McCain spoke in support of the Republican candidate, a businessman named Ray Shamie. "I hadn't met John Kerry," McCain told me. In Boston, conservative opponents had tagged Kerry as Ho Chi Minh's candidate. McCain, in his appearance for Shamie, talked about the events of April, 1971. "I said he shouldn't have thrown his medals on the steps, and that I heard about it while I was in prison."

John McCain has never changed his mind about Kerry's participation in that antiwar demonstration, but he has changed his mind about the man. Much sets the two apart. Kerry is tall and lean, with carefully coiffed dark hair, a sharp nose and chin, and a mouth that seems small for his face, which perhaps explains why his expression falls into a smile only with reluctance. He could be cast in any movie as the patrician senator. McCain looks more like a senator's friendly appliance repairman. He is stocky, with washed-out white hair and the slightly pasty skin of a man who has been through something. But a smile comes into McCain's face like a boat into its slip. McCain is the son and grandson of admirals, while Kerry's mother was a Boston Brahmin and his father a Foreign Service officer. Kerry, a liberal Democrat, is at ease in the role of Senator Edward Kennedy's junior partner; McCain is proud to hold Barry Goldwater's Senate seat. Kerry came out of Vietnam as a leading critic of the war, McCain as one of its few true heroes.

Nevertheless, their names have become linked, both through their surprising friendship and through their work together on the Select Committee. "Kerry-McCain" is said as if it were one word. It describes legislation they have co-sponsored, and defines an unusual place in the political landscape. This past June, for example, a Kerry-McCain measure provided millions of dollars in compensation for the "lost commandos"—covert agents from South Vietnam whom the C.I.A. had long ago cut loose. "Our relationship is now so easy," McCain told me, "this latest, on the commandos . . . was a two-minute conversation. We didn't have to explore each other's views or anything like that. We both thought alike, and we just did it." Last month, when a CNBC talk show wanted comments on the United States missile attacks against Iraq, Kerry and McCain appeared as a duo. Across the boundaries of ideology, the men have formed a potent bipartisan partnership, grounded in a common, if rarely articulated, experience of the loss, grief, and bitterness that marked the generation of Americans who fought the war in Vietnam and fought against it.

[karynnj]

26. From the comments in the McCain book on their committee work,

Kerry came out looking far more Presidential than McCain. (I only read the Kerry part of the book) His explanation of how Kerry managed that committee really showed Kerry's patience, determination and just good sense. McCain, probably because it was in comparison to Kerry, came out almost too hotheaded.

The Senate is small enough and its function being what it is, I would imagine that they'll eventually work with each other. Kerry seems to have so many lifetime friends, that you would think he has to be very likely to forgive people and continue as friends. I'm just surprised that McCain has said things publicly like his comment a few days after the election that Kerry didn't return his call. As Kerry was secretive about the VP selection, do you thing all the McCain stories came from McCain?

The New Yorker article is interesting. They really are opposites in many ways. I hope they are able to become friends again. If only because McCain is likely to need a friend if the bushies (who hurt him once) attack him again.

If Kerry's mouth is too small for his face, how does he get that huge grin sometimes???

[TayTay]

27. I think he was hurt

I think these folks, not matter how famous or political or whatever, are still human and get hurt, like everybody else. Based on nothing but my own intuition, I think Kerry must have felt a bit betrayed by McCain. He had given McCain a chance for real statementship and a chance to truly try something innovative and creative and McCain had not just said no, but had allowed this offer to become base political fodder in a negative TV commercial. I mean, really, that has to hurt on the human level.

John Kerry strikes me as a grownup and I think he'll probably get over it. But first you have to acknowledge that there is an 'it' to get over. Sigh!

Edit: When Kerry does smile, it just lights up his whole face. An instance of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts. LOL!

[karynnj]

28. Agree

It's only after seeing Kerry gracefully and bravely publicly return to the Senate, that I would even think he would have the strength of character to be cordial to McCain.

If McCain was the one who spread the story of the offer then he really stabbed Kerry in the back. If McCain felt it was not a good idea or simply didn't want to do it, you think he would have quietly said no and thanked Kerry for the offer he had honored him with.

[JI7]

31. because McCain was an asshole

it's not that he supported Bush and campaigned for him since he is a Republican Senator he is kind of expected to do it.

but he made some comments before the election about how he isn't really Kerry's friend and how Kerry never invited him to his home and some other stupid shit.

[ginnyinWI]

33. who says the man doesn't smile!

He has a wonderfully contagious smile!!!!

<img src="">

[elshiva]

29. Did Kerry say the stuff in the quotations?

That's interesting about spirituality. His religious ideas are of great interest to me and I felt cheated when PBS did a show on Dubya's faith without mentioning anything about JK's religion.

[TayTay]

30. My guess would be yes

I have heard him speak in the past and he is very open to hearing about different forms of faith and spirtuality. (That said, he is a practicing and believing Catholic. Nobody goes for an annulment unless they have a good reason. My brother had his first marriage annuled and it was a painful process. I imagine his first wife was pretty pissed about it. It's not a fun process.)

[elshiva]

Yes, I could imagine him saying those things, too.

Annulment is hard. Most of those who become canon lawyers that is how they make their living. Very complicated, very painful within such a deep, powerful sacramental bond.

[DU GrovelBot]

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