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[Jersey Devil]

1. Story and link to CBS news

Gephardt To Endorse Kerry

CBS) By David Paul Kuhn,
CBSNews.com Chief Political Writer
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rep. Dick Gephardt will endorse Sen. John Kerry for president, a source close to Gephardt told CBSNews.com.

The announcement is expected tomorrow in Michigan, sources tell CBS News. Kerry has been campaigning in Michigan ahead of the state's primary on Saturday

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/02/05/politics/main598358.shtml

[JohnKleeb]

3. wow

Cool. I really like Dick on labor and hopefully he will help out in this.

[ringmastery]

2. Gephardt clamoring for a VP spot?

"There are two reasons Gephardt's backing is important to Kerry," said Donna Brazile, Al Gore's campaign manager in 2000. "Edwards has a lot of credibility with labor. The states to come are labor intensive. Dick Gephardt has a lot of institutional support. He left the campaign on good graces. Dick Gephardt could conceivably be a potential VP candidate."

[LiberalFighter]

46. I rather have him as Labor Secretary

[Feanorcurufinwe]

4. Gep may help the ticket regionally as Veep, but I still hope it's not him.

I think he would drag the ticket outside of his own region, and that would outweigh the benefit of having him on.

[loyalsister]

5. Everyone else in MO

went with Edwards. That includes lots of local legislators. Of course, they were also people who can't stand Gep so they don't have much in common in the first place. An amazing number of elected officials waited until Gep was out to endorse anyone.

[SaintLouisBlues]

18. STL Mayor Slay endorsed Kerry, as did many others here.

As for Gephardt, typical cautious self.

[sistersofmercy]

29. Carnahan and Eagleton also endorsed Kerry eom

[FeelinGarfunkelly]

33. Edwards got the best MO politician, though:

Lt. Gov. Joe Maxwell. Carnhan and Eagleton, though heroes (I'm still not gonna let the fire go out), are kinda.. old news, IMHO. Maxwell can energize a room like no other.

[oasis]

6. I take back all of the bad stuff I've said about Geppy.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

7. If Gep's unions go for Kerry

It's over, Kerry wins, and I'll vote for him in the GE (while holding my nose tightly).

Then, I'll work my ass off the destroy the DLC and take the DNC away from people like Kerry and the plutocrats aristocrats, and corporations that have bought the party.

[blm]

15. Gephardt as Sec. of Labor would make you happy, no doubt.

Kerry is NOT the kind of DLCer you assume he is.

He was furthest LAFT of all of them. He was there to maintain balance with the centrists.

You don't rack up highest lifetime ratings from environmental and labor groups if you're a corporatist.

[flpoljunkie]

25. Or a lifetime rating of 94% from PIRG on environment, consumer, and good

government issues.

http://www.pirg.org/score2003/massachussetts.html

[MAlibdem]

32. HAHA

Who would've guessed Stephen Lynch, my congressman, would have a 100% rating across the board? Good for him, I worked for the other "guy" (Cheryl Jacques) in the Democratic primary (it's Joe Moakley's old seat).

[RetroLounge]

8. One loser endorses another...

eom

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

9. actually, Kerry is winning, Dean is losing

them's the breaks.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

11. winning is losing and war is peace

:shrug:

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

36. well, no, winning means getting the most votes

Kerry is getting the most votes. Dean got some great poll numbers for a while there, but Kerry is getting people to actually vote for him. That's the difference.

[creativelcro]

10. WOW could not have said it better....

[mitchum]

20. Huh?

Kerry 2004

[SaintLouisBlues]

24. Gephardt bashing is misplaced

He fought off Newt and Co. while we sat on our collective asses and let the radical right takes over our government from the school boards to Washington.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

35. thank you!

Gephardt DID fight off Newt and the rest of them while Clinton was "triangulating" to save his own ass, and half the Dems decided to become "New Democrats" and act like "Old Republicans".

He fought the first great world battle against corporations - NAFTA and MAI - on our side, while the DLC decided that corporations paid more bribes, er, contributions.

Frankly, of the "electable" candidates, Gephardt was better than the lot of them.

[sistersofmercy]

30. So let me get this straight, every Democrat that endorses Kerry is

bad according to a vocal minority of Dean supporters!?!?!?!

[GalleryGod]

40. Dean" Which Dean? Ohhhhhhh! Jan & Dean !

Grab your board and your side-walk sur-fin' today!:hippie:

[DrFunkenstein]

44. And Every Insider That Endorses Dean Is Groovy

Glad we got that straight.

Oh, and lobbyists that run the campaign are ok, too.

[mmonk]

12. Congratulations

Gep's a good man.

[HFishbine]

13. If that

Bush apologist and crafter of the IWR get the VP nod, I'm staying home. Sorry folks, every progressive has his limits.

[Jerseycoa]

14. I've been waiting for this

:toast:

I was thinking Gep is quite the gent to have held off until after Missouri's primary giving the rest of the field a clean shot. Nice. :)

[Leilani]

22. Agreed

Also, not very surprising Gep endorses Kerry.

I think this does help Kerry among labor.

[DJcairo]

16. This is big for one reason...

This weakens Edwards with respect to labor. If Geppy endorses Kerry that means a huge chunk of AFL-CIO will go with Kerry making it almost impossible for Edwards to gain much blue collar appeal in MI and elsewhere.

[Tom Rinaldo]

17. We have already found that endorsements don't guarantee success

This is of course good for Kerry, but Gep did not run strong this year, not even in Iowa where he came in fourth. Kerry is already expected to do well in Michigan, so piling on there won't have much of an impact. The key is what happens with Clark Edwards and Kerry on Tuesday. Either Clark or Edwards has to come out of those contests with some "momentum" to set up more of a classic head to head match up against Kerry. If Kerry loses one of those states, and also Wisconsin the week after, the race will open up again for the following week when most of the delegates are at stake. Kerry's support is not that deep yet. If he stumbles in those earlier highly contested contests, he becomes somewhat vulnerable to another turning of the tide.

[ludwigb]

28. The problem is...

The Unions (particuarly the Teamsters) have emotionally bonded with Gephardt. Edwards had a shot at drawing their support, but Geppy's presence by Kerry's side severely weakens Edwards.

If Kerry can finish off Dean this weekend in Washington, he may just go for the kill next Tuesday in Tennessee.

Wisconsin may not mean much if Kerry is already annointed.

[GalleryGod]

42. Kerry Wins Wisconsin. Flat out. after Michigan win.....Turn out the lights

:wtf: the Boston Express is warming up!

Look out Bean Town! We're Headed HOME!!!

[bigtree]

19. Wow

There go Sen. Edward's strongest differences with John Kerry: NAFTA and Free Trade. And there go the unions away from Dean.

[corporatewhore]

21. My mom (she likes kerry and dk) has a theory about what Gep did

She used do some political work before i was born.She said that kerry owes a big debt to Gephardt because he went after dean with the big guns (osama ads) and did the dirty work.He destroyed him self but did alot of damage to dean in the process and she said kerry owes Geppy a big debt

[Freddie Stubbs]

23. Yet another delegate for Kerry!

[HazMat]

26. Let's not kid ourselves about Dick Gephardt

While he may have run a lackluster campaign and is sometimes thought of as 'old news', Gephardt is still a Democratic heavyweight, with much clout with labor. There is no bigger champion of labor than Gephardt. He is very respected on both sides of the isle, and generally thought of as a good guy. IMO, Gep would be much better on the ticket than Edwards. Gep could easily carry his own state and several states in his region; Edwards can't. Gep can pull in the blue-collar Reagan Democrat types who are pro-labor but not so liberal on social policy.

[revcarol]

31. Labor BETRAYED.

Geppy endorses a man who voted for NAFTA, WTO, FAST TRACK GATT,etc...

I can't believe he would betray labor like that.Well, I guess I can. He's run for President so many times and lost, that I guess he is going to try to go with the "winner" and get VP.

Terrible for labor!!This just makes me want to cry.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

37. I'd take Gephardt/Kucinich any day

over any combination with Kerry. Who was Gephardt going to endorse - Dean? Clark? They are both super free traders. Edwards I could see maybe.

[Cocoa]

38. he worked with Clinton for years

and he touted it repeatedly in his campaign this time.

So I don't see why you see endorsing Kerry as a betrayal. Why wouldn't you have considered him already sold out due to his work with Clinton?

[revcarol]

39. Check out my post. It says LABOR was betrayed.

Kerry is nada for labor, probably the poorest candidate for labor there is, except one.

[Cocoa]

43. Clinton was who Gep was fighting against

among democrats, Clinton was the person most responsible for NAFTA.

And like I said, Gep still worked with Clinton on many other things, and Gep spoke with pride of their cooperation, particularly on the first budget.

So why is his endorsement of Kerry such a shock, and why does it represent a betrayal?

[DrFunkenstein]

45. Pure Silliness, Of Course - Kerry On Fast Track

Dear (Decision Maker),

I am writing to ask you to support the Kerry Amendment to FAST TRACK. The Baucus-Grassley Trade Bill is not good enough. I would appreciate your support for this amendment. Specifically, the amendment will:

1. Ensure that foreign investors don't get greater rights than US citizens or investors. We need to make sure that the US Constitution is the benchmark for investor treatment.

2. Clarify the definition of expropriation in future trade deals to conform with the US Constitution and recent US Supreme Court rulings.

3. Protect US laws on public health, safety and the environment from attack by investor-state lawsuits.

4. Ensures that minimum treatment under international law is defined in a way that follows the US Constitution. We don't want to follow that of some other country.

5. Require diplomatic check. Before a corporation could go into one of the secret trade tribunals to sue for taxpayer compensation (avoiding the domestic court system), they should have to check in with their own government.

This amendment will be voted upon soon. I urge you to vote for it and keep the problems that are already happening with NAFTA Chapter 11 from happening under future trade agreements.

Sincerely,
Your Name
Your Address

http://www.unionvoice.org/alert-description.tcl?alert_id=2005

"The current Fast Track bill is an environmental nightmare," said Carroll Muffett, director of international programs for Defenders of Wildlife. "The Kerry Amendment would have fixed one of the biggest problems with it. Without Kerry, Fast Track is just a license for unchecked environmental destruction."

http://www.charitywire.com/charity51/03074.html

Unlike the amendment sponsored by Sen. John Kerry, the Baucus-Grassley Amendment does not set the U.S. Constitution as the benchmark for the scope of property rights available to foreign investors in the United States.

The Kerry Amendment would repair the investment model of NAFTA. Under the Kerry Amendment, a foreign investor would be required to demonstrate that the policy in question was enacted primarily with discriminatory intent against foreign investors or investments.

The Kerry Amendment is based on U.S. Supreme Court rulings on expropriation in that it would guarantee that future trade agreements improve upon the NAFTA model and restrict such investment protection actions to only those cases where government action causes a physical invasion of property or the denial of all economic or productive use of that property.

http://www.commondreams.org/news2002/0515-04.htm

[GalleryGod]

41. Wait'll Gep Starts Workin' the Phones Behind Doctor's Back

:evilgrin: :smoke:

[JNelson6563]

27. I knew this was coming when Geppy threw

his votes to Kerry in Iowa.

*yawn* Any more "news"?

Julie

[George_Bonanza]

47. Yes, again, everything revolves around Dean

Gephardt hated Dean so much that he ruined his own political ambitions just to see the satisfaction of a rival triumph over the doctor.

[Duder]

34. Not surprised