October 4, 2004 5:59 AM

Look at the man's record...you might just be surprised

Kerry in the Senate: More investigator than legislator

If you believe that the hallmark of a successful US Senator is the number of bills he or she has written and seen passed into law, you’re probably going to think that John Kerry has been something of a slacker for the past 20 years. Were you to draw that conclusion, as Minnesota’s empty-suited excuse for a junior Senator, Norm Coleman, seems to have done, you would be sadly mistaken. You would also be disregarding and dismissing some of Kerry’s greatest accomplishments during his tenure in the Senate.

In April 1985, just three months after becoming a U.S. senator from Massachusetts, John Kerry flew to Nicaragua on a fact-finding mission. The specter of a U.S. foreign policy misadventure was once again on his mind.

Tempered by his own experiences in Vietnam, Kerry had developed a deep mistrust of government. It was a preoccupation that would shape his 20-year Senate career, turning him into a high-profile investigator and watchdog, rather than someone focused on bringing home big projects or passing major legislation bearing his name.

“He has been more important as an investigator than a legislator,” said David Mayhew, professor of political science at Yale. “He’s not a major legislator — nothing really jumps out.”

Republicans see an undistinguished Senate record that produced a lot of showmanship but few Kerry bills of any note. The Senate has passed 59 bills and resolutions that carry his name, 11 of which became law.

“I’d like to say give me five significant pieces of legislation,” said Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., co-chairman of President Bush’s Minnesota campaign. “But I’ll lower the ante. Give me two. Give me one.”

But Kerry’s Democratic allies say that’s a poor measure of his legislative accomplishments. They describe him as a foreign-policy expert who used his perch in the Senate to investigate U.S.-backed contra rebels in Nicaragua, government drug trafficking in Panama and missing U.S. servicemen and POWs in Vietnam.

“It’s a pretty good legacy,” said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.

Kerry has used his position to focus on the misuse of the powers of government. Shining the light of his bully pulpit on what he felt to be wrong, illegal, and/or immoral behavior, Kerry has worked to worked to curb the federal government’s efforts to bolster rogue regimes and prop up corrupt dictators.

If you think writing legislation is the only legitimate measure of a Senator, you will completely miss the impact that John Kerry has made over the past 20 years. Whether it was opposing aid to Nicaragua’s Contras, investigatingng the BCCI scandal or Panama’s Manuel Noriega and his ties to drug trafficking, this former Prosecutor has worked hard to shine the light of truth on political cockroaches.

Yes, Kerry has consistently come down on the Left side of the political spectrum. Some have even argued that he has the most Liberal voting record in the Senate. Much of that argument, I suppose is open to interpretation. Still, when you evaluate John Kerry’s Senate career, evaluate the WHOLE record, not simply a few choice votes. You might just find yourself surprised at the breadth and depth of the man.

John Kerry is not an empty suit, something you couldn’t easily say about the current occupant of the White House. While George W. Bush is best in dealing with broad, abstract moral concepts that can be cast in black and white, John Kerry knows the nuts and bolts of issues. He can deal with shades of grey. We need, and we deserve, a President that can deal in the myriad shades of grey that confront a President.

WE DESERVE BETTER.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on October 4, 2004 5:59 AM.

It's OK, because I'm a War President was the previous entry in this blog.

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