BostonGlobe: Kerry "PROTECTING ailing Kennedy's vision for healthcare...on Senate Finance Committee"

[blm]

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/06/29/colleagues_say_kerry_is_in_midcareer_metamorphosis/

>>>>>>>>>

Long regarded as a loner, Kerry now lingers on the Senate floor during votes, talking with colleagues. Once known more for his solo speeches on the floor, Kerry for months has been leading weekly strategy sessions with other senators to find consensus on a climate change bill - a tactic usually identified with Senator Edward M. Kennedy - and following up with friendly meetings with individual senators to address their objections.

>>>>

And on a personal level, Kerry’s Capitol Hill colleagues say, the five-term senator looks happier than he has in years, bustling around Washington with renewed vigor. Having failed to win the presidency in 2004 - and making a wrenching decision not to seek the job again in 2008 - the 65-year-old Kerry has embraced his role as the Senate’s leading foreign policy voice, while protecting the ailing Kennedy’s vision for healthcare overhaul on the Senate Finance Committee, one of the panels writing the legislation.
>>>>>>>>



Those posting blog stories from unnamed sources trying to distort Kerry's role in the public option debate don't GET IT.....Not only has Kerry been for public option since long before he began promoting it regularly during his 2004 campaign...he's also PERSONALLY CONNECTED to the political debate as way of PROTECTING reform the way Kennedy envisions it. Do some of you not UNDERSTAND the bond between Kerry and Kennedy?

The Nation last month also reported that Kerry was reading letters from Dean's site into the record at these meetings.

Funny, how Howard Dean and Ted Kennedy trust Kerry to advocate public option in these meetings, but, some bloggers (intent on protecting Schumer's role as the trigger dealer) trust anonymous reports from 'some familiar' with the meetings.

[Lifelong Protester]

1. thank you for posting this

I think Kerry can do a lot for us in the senate, and I am glad to read that he is embracing that. Glad to also read that he is on board with Senator Kennedy's vision of health care reform, and that there is a bond between the two senators. You don't always get that information out here in the heartland, no matter how 'connected' we are electronically.

[blm]

3. Sadly, some disinfo tactics are being employed here at DU and in the blogosphere.

Sadder yet - some are hellbent on repeating the lies.

[TayTay]

2. No fair, that was attributed

No fair citing reporting in which they actually asked the person in question for their views. It is much easier to read about one news source quoting another, privately subscribed, news source about their views about a closed door meeting to which they weren't invited because it was a caucus for the other Party. Dear Lord, if we can't ask people who weren't there for their opinion and value it more highly than the opinions of the "party of the first part," then what kind of a discussion board are we?

Good Lord woman, if you start citing actual attributed reporting it could throw a monkey wrench in the entire effort to blame health care reform problems on the wrong people. Think of what you are doing!

[blm]

10. yes, I know FOX blogs and anonymous thug staffers are credible sources for some here at DU...

shame on those of us who dare call out the shills.

;)

[blm]

15. do factual posts about JK even GET 1/2 the kicks that the lie posts get?

And....why ARE those lie threads being allowed, anyway?

[annabanana]

4. bookmarking this thread to rebut the disinfo..... I expect this will

come in handy this week...

[blm]

11. it's the disinfo that gets more eyeballs than the truth...far too often for a site like DU, imo.

/

[babylonsister]

5. Rec'd with thanks. Senator Kerry has always been principled. I'm

glad he's doing what he's doing. He can provide a voice for himself and two powerful people.

[blm]

8. Because he IS so principled he doesn't disclose what is said in closed meetings. Kerry has said he

can take the slings and arrows of these battles and he proves it time and time again.

[blm]

16. Apparently Kerry's pissing off somebody who is busy planting stories to distort the debate.

There are a few threads citing the unsourced distortions.

[UTUSN]

6. I'll chime in here where I belong n/t

[blm]

9. Yes...you DO.

;)

[politicasista]

7. Kick

:kick: :patriot:

[annabanana]

12. kickety kick kick. . . n/t

[blm]

13. Thank you - for some reason, the disinfo brigade get their FOX fed threads allowed.

No source - no facts.

[blm]

14. Hopefully truth will win out over FOX fed disinfo.

.