Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
A couple weeks ago I wrote about Kerry's raging hypocrisy when it comes to taking special interest money.
He was being critical of W for taking special interest money. You may have heard the famous Kerry quote. Kerry warned all the lobbyists, "We're coming. You're going. And don't let the door hit you on the way out."
All that when over the last 15 years, Kerry was the number one special interest money taker in the senate. Why, in the past 9 years he's taken in more than $30 million.
All politicians do the flippy-floppy stuff. It's just what they do. But Kerry seems to have a particular bent for it.
Special interest money isn't the only issue that pegs the needle on the hypocrisy meter.
• I think W is pretty vulnerable on issues of spending. W and his administration are spending money like an independently wealth 10-year-old at a Toys 'R' Us.
So, of course, Kerry talks about "runaway spending." But if Kerry's rhetoric is to be believed, he would spend even more on things like health, education, highways, school construction, pollution cleanup, energy projects and more in an attempt "to create 3 million jobs in 500 days."
And at the same time - just like W - he talks about cutting the deficit.
Talk's cheap. Policies are what I want to hear about, but so far, he hasn't said how he would achieve his goals of expanded programs and lower deficits.
• Kerry is highly critical of W on education, but that didn't stop him from voting in favor of he voted in favor W's No Child Left Behind Act to achieve educational accountability.
Kerry also has expressed support for charter-school experiments and has been critical of some teacher-union positions. These are positions which put him in agreement with W, even though he has been critical of W for holding those positions.
• Kerry voted to support the war in Iraq, but has since been quite critical of the war, saying, for instance, that he did not want President Bush to proceed without more international support. Then why vote yes?
• Kerry wants to keep Bush's middle-class tax cuts intact. O.K., but he also said that the Bush tax cut only went to the wealthy.
Here's a quote form his book, "A Call To Service."
This administration has made its top wartime priority the easing of the tax burden on its wealthiest citizens-the citizens least likely to face sacrifices at home or abroad in a time of war. The president has all but endorsed the most invidious conservative policy of our time: that cutting taxes for the people who least need help, turning budget surpluses into deficits, and piling debts on our children are all useful strategies because they will effectively paralyze our own government - the instrument of our democracy-by denying it the revenues to pay for progress. Using tax dollars to comfort the comfortable while starving the commonwealth has become an item of orthodoxy for the Republican party.
Well, there either was middle class tax relief or their was a starving of the commonwealth. I guess we'll sort that out later, but the disturbing part of Kerry's take on taxes is what he proposes.
He wants to restore the taxes paid by wealthier groups. While that may make some points with voters I think it' democratically dangerous and economically foolish to create a small class of citizens who foot most of the bill while others get all the breaks.
On other issues Kerry pretty much toes the liberal line, favoring things like abortion and gun control.
Examining the 119 votes Kerry made in the Senate in 2003, one finds that he is the classic Massachusetts liberal.
In fact, in 2003, he voted against W 70 percent of the time. (Of course, busy campaigning, Kerry was present for just 28 percent of the Senate votes in 2003.)
Interestingly, Kerry's colleague from Massachusetts, Sen. Ted Kennedy - long-known as the epitome of liberal ideology - voted against W only 53 percent of the time. (Of course, Kennedy was present for 97 percent of the votes.)
Congressional Quarterly also notes that Kerry and Kennedy have highly similar voting records.
In 2003, Kerry voted with Kennedy 93 percent of the time on roll-call votes in which both men were present.
And historically, that was a low percentage according to a Republican analysis of Congressional Quarterly.
On "designated key votes" in 2001, 1999, 1998, 1993, 1992, 1989, 1988, 1987, 1986 and 1985, Kerry voted with Kennedy 100 percent of the time.
Americans for Democratic Action, which rates lawmakers based on a perfect liberal scale of 100 give Kerry a 93. Kennedy gets an 88. Vermont's Patrick Leahy gets 93 and California's Barbara Boxer gets a 96.
Meanwhile, the American Conservative Union, which rates lawmakers on a perfect conservative scale of 100, gives Kerry a six - the same as Leahy and New York's Charles Schumer. Kennedy got a three.
I can assure you of one thing. There will be a lot of the "L" word bandied about during the coming months of the presidential campaign. And I don't mean "love."
W will attempt to paint Kerry as a liberal and it shouldn't be too difficult since he is, in fact, quite liberal - not that there's anything wrong with that.
But I think the Demos are making a mistake. Bill Clinton's popularity came from his ability to co-opt the best ideas from both parties.
He furthered the Democratic party by being a centrist. I think that's what the majority of Americans want, somebody who's not too far left or too far right.
Kerry doesn't fit that mold.
