After a Rough Spell, Kerry Returns to Form

[Mass]

(More groupthinking. Apparently, Mark Leibovitch had not written his article about Kerry's evolution. Nothing really new, I think, and Leibovitch is far from being my favorite writer -- I remember his 2003 article where he gave an horrible interview of John Kerry and THK (http://www.post-gazette.com/nation/20020605teresanat1p1.asp) which was the basis of about every other article about their relationship in 2003-2004.

Who will write the next one.

BTW, happy thanksgiving.

thttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/25/us/politics/25kerry.html

After a Rough Spell, Kerry Returns to Form

WASHINGTON — Senator John Kerry was sounding almost giddy — and, as a general rule, John Kerry does not do giddy.

But he was in his Senate office this month gushing over the news that Setti Warren, a young Navy veteran and former aide to Mr. Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign, had just been elected mayor of Newton, Mass., a Boston suburb.

“Setti, baby!” Mr. Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat, exclaimed, shaking his fists. “Can you believe that?”

Mr. Kerry’s long, lined face will always suggest some weariness, and he is walking more slowly around the Capitol than he used to after a hip replacement in August (“too much hockey, too much running, too much soccer and too much skiing”).
...

Lawmakers say Mr. Kerry now lingers in hallways more often than before, cracking jokes and finding common cause with colleagues he previously had little to do with. He has bonded with Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, over their shared love of the Pink Panther movies (“We even have a little dog called Clouseau,” Mr. Kerry said of his black schnauzer, named for the films’ detective.) This Pink Panther alliance recently grew into a partnership on energy and climate change that many see as the best chance of any bipartisan success in passing an energy bill.

“If we save the planet, it will be because of Inspector Clouseau,” Mr. Graham said.

...

There remains some disconnect between how others view Mr. Kerry’s career arc and disposition since 2004 and how he does. He dismisses suggestions that he ever went into a serious funk or was ever anything less than focused on “getting the job done.” He stumped for 80 candidates before the 2006 midterm elections, he points out, 60 of whom won. He never “sat around and moped,” Mr. Kerry said.

Similarly, Vanessa Kerry, the senator’s younger daughter, bristles at any hint that her father has somehow been transformed of late. “I have the rare privilege of talking to my dad every night at 10 p.m. and hearing about what he did that day,” said Ms. Kerry, a resident at Massachusetts General Hospital. “To me, these conversations are still the same.”

For his part, Mr. Kerry has little interest in self-reflection, at least in public. This is as close as he comes: “I’ve been up, and I’ve been down,” he said. “I am very comfortable with where I am, and I’m not sitting here yearning for anything.”