John Kerry on DailyKos now!!

[beachmom]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/7/31/760272/-Forgeries-to-Distort-Climate-Change-Debate

Already getting slammed by people who thinks he needs to only talk about the public option.

http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2009/7/31/133447/963/10#c10

The whining really gets on my nerves. Maybe he should respond to her, though.

[karynnj]

1. Some people seem incapable of thinking of two things at a time

If he responds to that I hope he picks someone else. It is clear from all her comments that she really does not want an answer. She becomes worse and worse post by post. though it might shock her if she did.

The AnericanRiverCanyon person was really attacking Kerry's insurance tax on other threads and repeatedly lying about it after several people posted the facts that it was on the marginal amount above a threshold that was higher than most middle class people get - unless you let middle class go pretty high.

[beachmom]

2. Yeah, the thread is really ugly. Ugh, like 2006 or earlier.

The best is how people tout other Senators as being better, when really, they are reacting to grandstanding, which John Kerry, being so senior now, does not need to do.

I'm out of the thread now. Not sure if the Senator will respond. He may be busy today.

[karynnj]

3. Kerry did write a nice update

He spoke of planes being delayed in the north and wrote about health care.

In this diary, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/7/31/161651/002 , on Franken defending him by attacking Pickens, the op's article said Kerry was at a lunch with his interns and pages - but someone from MA posted that he was at a funeral in Cape Cod for a soldier.

[Inuca]

4. Very nice update indeed

I like the directness of it, directly engaging with the posters, no nononsense and not hiding behind words. Anybody who reads this and can still doubt that he is going to fight to the end to get the best feasible bill is a blind idiot.

[karynnj]

5. True, but his actions on this are not likely to satisfy the extreme partisans

They will not be happy unless Kerry suddenly morphed into a cross between Michael Moore and Kucinich, who would be their new champion rejecting any compromise. It is oddly that they respect his ability to lead and his strength and the knowledge that he is for something close to what they want that seems to frustrate them. Someone posted a response from the man who targeted Kerry in the campaign that is now running ads against Baucus. He essentially said that all Kerry needed to do was to put out a sentence saying he would not vote for anything that watered down a robust public option. Then there was the single payer abuse guy attacking because Kerry will not lead a futile effort to get single payer.

The fact is that these people, and others like them, have failed to make the transition from being in the minority, where taking idealist core positions is reasonable because you have no ability to win any improvements at all and are lucky if you stop any losses of things you already won. Now, in the majority, we are in the position to actually do some of the things that reflect those values we defined back in the years we were in the minority. When we are in the majority, we need to use diplomacy to forge coalitions to actually make gains. You can't build coalitions by attacking the people who you deem not perfect.

Here, if you look at the NYT article Tay posted, the likely compromise bill will be a very major accomplishment. It will genuinely be a major accomplishment and likely the biggest improvement since the 1960s. Yet I predict that the next several months will be hard on us here. It is highly likely the Democrats on the Finance committee will have to vote out a bad bill. I think that is a necessary step to more to the next step. When that happens all hell will likely break out on DU. (I even predict that given the number of votes needed, some like Schumer, who is up for re-election, may vote against it, while others will be the necessary votes to get it out of committee.)

That said, I like Kerry's update here - it is very open and honest. I really do not know how he has the strength to do everything he does ignoring unwarranted attacks from the left and nearly his entire caucus honoring a man like Pickens.

[Inuca]

6. A cross between Michael Moore and Kucinich you say?

Hmmm... esthetically speaking and all other considerations aside, that would be a HUGE loss :-). No, thank you.

More seriously, your 2nd paragraph is very wise and unfortunately so true. And I don't think it only applies to to blogoshpere and various other "regular" people, I am afraid quite a few in Congress act in a similar way (and then of course there are those who forgot why they became democrats in the first place, but that's a different story).

3rd paragraph: yes, most likely. A bad bill will come out of he finance committee, and to make things worse and unless Reid, the WH and I have no idea who else do some serious arm twisting, it will NOT come out before the recess which really makes me VERY mad. I heard Conrad on the radio the other day saying this, and how the lovely gang of 6 will use teleconference to meet in August and how hard they will continue to work on this. What the hell are they still talking about? And this whole idea that it's top secret and other senators are excluded... can this be for real or is it something here that I do not know or understand? I heard Durbin commenting on this, do not remember exactly, but basically saying that he has some general updates about the negotiations but DOES NOT KNOW THE DETAILS. I find it difficult to believe that Durbin would be lying about this, but who know... Anyway, the fact that they will not be able to work on the two Senate bills during the recess, means IMHO that there might not be a signed bill even by the end of the year! I hope I am wrong.

More to comment on Kerry (I feel talkative today :-)) but my cats are increasingly vociferous in their desire to be fed NOW.