"Once again, Kerry is Obama’s go-to guy in Senate" (BG article)

[beachmom]

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/12/06/once_again_kerry_is_obamas_go_to_guy_in_senate/

WASHINGTON - John F. Kerry of Massachusetts has emerged as the White House’s ambassador in the Senate on a wide range of issues, a role the Democratic lawmaker will showcase in the coming weeks as he lobbies his wary colleagues to support President Obama’s Afghanistan war plan.

Kerry has already been the go-to senator for Obama on climate change and health care, negotiating compromises to keep both major efforts alive in the divided chamber.

As one of the few Democratic lawmakers openly backing Obama’s call for 30,000 more troops, Kerry will be critical in easing the worries fellow senators have about expanding an unpopular war.

While Kerry emphasized in an interview that he will publicly differ with the White House when warranted, he is already working to help Obama sell the Afghanistan policy, nudging administration officials in a Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week to address lawmakers’ specific concerns about the strategy. Kerry also said he is planning another trip to Pakistan to assess the situation.

The Bay State senator’s cozy relationship with the White House has dramatically elevated the national stature of a man long overshadowed by the larger-than-life presence of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who died in August. And Kerry, once seen as somewhat distant among his colleagues, has adopted many of the personal touches and negotiating tactics that made Kennedy famous on Capitol Hill, colleagues say.

Read the rest at the link. Anyone else feel like the BG is saying, "Once again we can't BELIEVE how powerful Senator Kerry has become"?

[MBS]

1. thanks for posting this -my favorite quotes. .

White House officials are eager to portray Kerry as a close ally and adviser.

“He’s been extraordinarily helpful, both with his counsel, but also with his work on the Hill,’’ Obama senior adviser David Axelrod said in an interview. “He’s worked hard to find common ground, to use his relationships with colleagues to try and force consensus.

“In a meaningful way, he’s playing the kind of role Senator Kennedy was playing, taking different issues and trying to find common ground,’’ Axelrod said. “He’s subjugating his own ego to the greater good.’’

. . . .

White House senior officials say Kerry has come through for the president at critical junctures when Obama’s agenda was imperiled.

“He has been someone who in a very calm and deliberative and visionary way is kind of looking beyond where we are right this second,’’ to figure out how to calm a colleague “whose ego is a bit out of joint because they haven’t been in a meeting,’’ said Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office for Health Reform. “He’s just filled that role as the grown-up in the room,’’ DeParle said in an interview.

[karynnj]

2. It really shows their inability to really change their perspection once a stereotype is made

It is like ALL those comments on Kerry speeches or talk shows, expressing surprise that he was so good - even though he was exceptional as a speaker from 1971 on.

Yesterday, on health care really showed that. These observations back the assessment above.
1) Kerry's amendment, which does have substance, passed unanimously - even with McCain's vote!
2) When Burr called Kerry on the statement, Kerry's response was polite and reasonable. Honestly saying he hadn't seen the factcheck and saying that he never heard the campaign contradict what he said.
3) Kerry in ALL his appearances spoke of bipartisanship
4) Kerry politely repeated his point to McCain, when he stormed in, pointing out that there was no disagreement on benefits.
5) Kerry distanced himself from the Obama ad, which was unfair on the benefits claim. As Kerry had been 100% right on what he actually said, he didn't have to do this, but it was the right thing to do.

The entire episode really was the best Democratic defense on the harmful Republican Medicare lie.

I am concerned about Kerry's backing of Obama on Afghanistan, though he did a good job balancing his own views (and I am grateful that he gave the speech on Afghanistan expressing that). The fact is that Obama picked a national security team all to the right of where we thought Obama was. Then, I was more upset because of the SoS pick, but the composition of the entire team, which actually ended with Biden, who was substantially to the right of Kerry as the left most voice. I worry about the caution in Kerry's SFRC statement that they can go beyond where Afghans could step up. If that happens, I would assume that the visions of Vietnam where we "won" areas only to move on, later to return to "win" them again - all with huge costs will cause Kerry to speak out, both privately and publicly.