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.”

[karynnj]

1. Basically a nice article

Though it reminds me why I will always have a problem with Joe Biden, whose stories in the past are like the stories here. I have never trusted that his words match reality. He always seems to make stuff up. (Not to mention, Kerry is a far far better Chair of SFRC. His Afghanistan hearings have a focus that Biden's hearings did not come close to.)

I like Vanessa Kerry's comment - and it matches what we saw here. (PS Has a single writer referred to HRC's more than a month vacation from the Senate after she lost a primary (which should be easier than losing the general election, unless it is all about you.)

[beachmom]

2. Leibovich was at the epicenter of the "rough spell"

Remember? February 5, 2007.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/2/5/143453/0122

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/05/us/politics/05kerry.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print

A Presidential Also-Ran, Kerry Adjusts to What Passes for a Normal Life in the Senate

By MARK LEIBOVICH

WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 — Senator John Kerry keeps to himself around the Capitol. He is always rushing somewhere, head down, disappearing into elevators. A Senate loner for 22 years, Mr. Kerry seems all the more isolated now as he darts past the media hordes around the next set of presidential seekers, colleagues that include Hillary Rodham Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama.

Even in the best of times, Mr. Kerry’s face hung droopy and funereal, one of the most weary in American politics. Today, Mr. Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who was the exit poll president-elect for a few hours in November 2004, endures the peculiar pariah status that his party reserves for its losing nominees.

Here were the particularly cruel passages Leibovich wrote:

Even in the best of times, Mr. Kerry’s face hung droopy and funereal, one of the most weary in American politics. Today, Mr. Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who was the exit poll president-elect for a few hours in November 2004, endures the peculiar pariah status that his party reserves for its losing nominees.

...

Mr. Kerry ratified his status as Dead Candidate Walking in an emotional speech on the Senate floor two weeks ago. "We came close, certainly close enough to be tempted to try again," Mr. Kerry said, referring to his 2004 campaign.

...

No matter, the photo of Mr. Kerry breaking down ran prominently in the Drudge Report and elsewhere. It buttressed the notion of John Kerry as the forlorn loser who had finally bottomed out. It also served as a grim visual to another round of Kerry abuse, conjuring up the caricature of him as a helmet-haired, flip-flopping elitist.

"He is a stubborn, competitive guy, and it must have been very, very hard to get those words out," said Jim Jordan, a former Kerry campaign manager.

Senate colleagues and staff members say Mr. Kerry struggled to reintegrate himself in the Capitol after losing to Mr. Bush. He was never much a creature of the Senate to begin with, an outcast with few close friends there and a reputation for aloofness and occasional grandstanding. His solemn bearing betrayed a certain joylessness in his job. ("John Kerry walks into a bar," goes the Washington version of the old joke. "Bartender says, ‘Hey, Senator Kerry, why the long face?’ ")

Anyway, I suppose I'll read the new article, but I never forgot this NYT writer's name because it was beyond the pale what he did.

[wisteria]

5. Wow, what nasty comments. I had forgotten about these.

What a jerk.

[beachmom]

3. Do we believe this to be true?

After Mr. Obama was elected, Mr. Kerry lobbied hard to become his secretary of state — too hard, some administration officials say.

Mr. Kerry was stung by the rejection, and was not convinced that becoming chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee could be a worthy consolation.

“I think it took him a while, meaning a couple of months, to realize how influential he can be,” said Mr. Biden, who preceded Mr. Kerry as the committee’s chairman. “I remember having this discussion with him before we were sworn in. And it was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, Joe, I know. I mean, goddamn.’ ”

I don't buy this above story. At least to the degree it is described. After all, John Kerry himself commented on DailyKos that he was going to be Chairman of the SFRC. So, if he was all down in the dumps about it, why would he bother commenting, which was an unusual move for him. Now I believe that JK can utter "goddamn". I just don't buy that he didn't think his chairmanship was a big deal. He testified before that committee in 1971!!

My view is that he put it out there he was interested in SoS, was disappointed when he didn't get it, but immediately threw himself into his new job as chairman of the SFRC with enthusiasm. Am I wrong about this?

[wisteria]

6. I agree more this your take on this than the writer. I do think he really did want SOS, but to make

a real difference in our foreign policy, not just for the prestige associated with this cabinet post. I will never forgive Obama for what I consider a snub,though. But, with Kennedy's illness and unfortunate death, Senator Kerry needed to be there for Massachusetts and he seems to be doing so much as Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee that right now he is where he needs to be and probably wants to be also.

[karynnj]

7. I agree with your comment and would add that by January, he had laid out major ideas for change

in the committee. He had the entire committee and spouses to a dinner party and by February 5th, he had his first round table (on Afghanistan). I agree with you that the DK comment and others, including one at a MA talk, where he joked about being chair of the committee while he could still talk without drooling - something he had not expected as there were so many people with greater seniority was one. In the MA townhalls, he was already speaking of hearings and investigations.

I think you are right on the SoS, but I suspect that he was always somewhat conflicted because of Kennedy's illness. Remember the article on Kennedy in the summer of 2008 speaking of Kerry's potential legacy (in the Senate), that had to mean Kennedy was lobbying for Kerry to stay in the Senate. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=273&topic_id=158814 I doubt Kerry would have dismissed Kennedy's comments out of hand - not to mention the fact that Kennedy was right (even without the SFRC chair) Kerry was very well positioned in the Senate.

What does not ring true is that Kerry lost the position because he lobbied too hard for it. This implies that he would have gotten it if he hadn't pushed for it as hard and that is ludicrous. It looks like Obama well before he won wanted HRC in this position - for whatever reasons. (I suspect the story that he offered her this in September is true and Biden's claim he had the choice of VP or SoS was Biden speaking through his hat.) Kerry had every reason to expect to be asked - Obama did owe him big time, he had excellent credentials, and he had done a brilliant job as the main foreign policy surrogate on the campaign - far better than the muddled job that Biden and Holbrooke each did on his campaign. This is why the media, which never does him any favors, listed him as the odds on favorite. (They also use that to imply that the diplomatic Kerry is tone deaf enough not to know when to stop and play into the "he's too ambitious" line that seems to apply only to JK.)

Thinking back to your TPTB Taibbi article, I suspect that Obama might have had intense pressure, not from Kerry, but from TBTB. Some of them had pushed HRC since 1992. The fiction that she meekly paid her dues as a Senate backbencher and had emerged as a power in the Senate was ok as long as she had the future of the Presidential run. The difference in her position in the Senate and her position with the power elite was a problem. If anyone had high powered lobbying behind him/her, it was HRC and it likely was before he won. (Remember that her team was even suggesting a co-Presidency in June when she was refusing to concede.)

As to Biden's comments, I have the same problem I always have with his stories. They always show himself as the wise, knowing person and diminish the other person, but not enough to justify any reaction. I used to think it was that he felt he needed to build himself, but you would think that as he was lucky enough to get the VP, he would stop doing that. Remembering the "sibling" analogy, this suggests that Biden still feels some need to flatter himself at JK's expense.

[wisteria]

4. It is nice to see, but still has Kerry defending all he has done since the 2004 loss.

No credit for his efforts regarding Alito, the Kerry/Feingold IWR amendment and he had to remind Leibovitch of his success in getting candidates elected in 2006. Senator Kerry raised and donated a lot of money towards this effort.

And, this comment, "After Mr. Obama was elected, Mr. Kerry lobbied hard to become his secretary of state — too hard, some administration officials say." I would like to know what "too hard" means. Usually, the right qualifications and enthusiasm for a position you're interested in is something that is welcomed and rewarded by those doing the hiring. So are we to assume that Clinton's inexperience, aloofness to the position is what landed it for her?

[karynnj]

8. Good points and well stated

I guess all the Get a Job books need to be rewritten, with recommendations to apply for positions where you have less experience than many others and to come in expressing doubts that you really want it. Yes, the playing "hard to get" idea is a fantastic strategy.

But, I thought it interesting that Kerry was shown more often on CNN at yesterday's state dinner than Clinton was. It might have been where there cameras were - but it was an impression I got. (Also, David Brinkley in answering who gets invited - said there are some people who are obvious - Joe Biden and John Kerry, the Chair of SFRC. That Brinkley admires Kerry goes without saying.)

[wisteria]

9. I missed the CNN coverage-darn. The little coverage I did see elsewhere focused in on Clinton and

Biden. I did get a glimpse of Kerry entering and walking quickly past the cameras. I was surprised though, no Teresa. I was looking forward to getting a glimpse of her. I suppose she had holiday and other commitments.