John Don't Do It...

Looks like JK is about to be offered Foggy Bottom. I am under no illusions here, nobody reads The Chimes At Midnight, nonetheless duty compels me One Last Time to assert that the loss of John Kerry's leadership as Senior Senator from Massachusetts would be a tragedy for the Commonwealth. We have lost Edward Maximus and are already on our third Junior Senator from Massachusetts, this is a time for continuity, for statesmanship, for leadership...this is a time to Stand By The Commonwealth. Don't do it John please. For Every George Catlett Marshall there is a Dean Rusk on the flipside...Remember that Senator. This state is sadly rife with cynical bastards that are slavering at the prospect of a special senatorial election do not gratify them Senator Kerry, they are undeserving of such a boon! Don't Do It John, please. Elias N.

This is my Senior Senator...

He apparently loves pick up games of ice hockey...a lot.

Based on that battered & bruised mug of his, you'd never know John Kerry has had hip replacement surgery.

Jesus John...you can lay off goin' fer the hat trick, I mean age has some privileges!

Senator Kerry has

solicited from his constituents a request for ideas to "reduce the deficit".
This is of course, Kerry at his best, fostering dialogue, creating debate etc etc etc. However I'm not sure it comes to a Hill of Beans in the current political environment, we seem to have stopped listening as a republic.
Of course the last time we stopped listening for a prolonged period...the Civil War was the result.
So lets not "borrow trouble" to quote my white haired old father.
It goes without saying that I like John Kerry, he means well.  Anyone with the undying emnity of Joan Vennochi can't be all bad in my books.
But this deficit reduction stuff is doomed to failure...Its a world wide recession, the spender and hirer of last choice is always the government. And if it isn't then what is stopping the private sector from touching off a big economic revival? Taxes, they've never been lower, regulations, didn't bother anyone when Bush was abusing the White House...the deficit?
The deficit quadrupled in four years under Bush and you'd have to penetrate the seventh circle of hell before you found a tea partei stalwart who spoke up about any of it before election night 2008.
Still, John Kerry is a statesman, and I'd hate to leave him cold.
So how about this:
Jack up the top rate to fifty percent in this country, end the oil depreciation allowance, end farm subsidies for factory farms and cut the military budget twenty five percent. And if corporations are people let them ALL be liable for 15% off the top to the Social Security trust fund.
Just those five alone brought to debate in the US Senate could probably fracture the Federal Union.
Or else JK could just go down to the well of the Senate and in a short speech announce that the USA is now a miserable & squalid oligarchy that would shame the Rome of Commodus Caesar.
Might be quicker that way....

Senator John Kerry shot me a blast e-mail last night

requesting donations for the Red Cross Chapters of Western Massachusetts in the wake of last week's wave of tornadoes.
So here it is.
I won't conceal from my audience (such as it is) that this is a lightly trafficked blog, but if everyone who "dropped by" today contributed ten bucks, that would be about an even thousand raised at the end of the day.
Yeah like I said, "lightly trafficked", be that as it may, a thousand bucks is small money to most of you, but to people blown to hell by wild weather it buys blankets, diapers, food all the necessities.
So c'mon ten bucks, it hardly buys anything anymore, a movie ticket, seems like a worthwhile contribution in the aggregate...Besides have you seen those photos from Monson, next time it could be us!

Oops almost forgot to make an endorsement...

The Chimes at Midnight proudly endorses John Kerry for re-election to the United States Senate from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
To put aside his leadership in this critical time would be the absolute height of folly.
On the environment, defense, terrorism, foreign policy and down to the worries and woes of small businesses, John Kerry has taken the point sans demure.
He is not Edward Maxiumus, nor will he ever be...he was never whelped by legends out of legendary times.
But John Kerry has drive, brains, passion and a willingness to serve in both tough times and in fair weather...I for one will take that any day of the week.
Challenges of catastrophic proportions face the nation, our foreign policy is composed of a collection of ruins and the global financial system may well melt down starting today on Wall Street.
Now more that ever don't we need a voice of experience, a man of wisdom someone who will stick up for the little guy when the mighty start toppling?

Who we need is John Kerry, please vote for him tomorrow in the democratic primary.

While we are waiting for Old Man McCain to make up his mind on a Vice Presidential nominee

Go to Kerryvision and watch JK's remarkable speech before the Democratic National Convention.

Oh and Joanie Vennochi

because I guess to her jaded sensibilities it has been a slow news week is trying to pump up John Kerry as a potential Secretary of State for a notional Obama administration.
Why the hell should John Kerry give up the US Senate now, potentially when Massachusetts needs him the most and when the political calculus in the Upper House favors the democrats going forward?
Moreover, if things break our way this fall it'll be very good indeed for John Kerry to have a friend in the White House, lists of appointments are drawn up, judges made, fundraising potential is spread around...why a Senator with a clear head, seniority and a good staff could accomplish all sorts of good things under those circumstances.
Anyway, Secretary of State ain't the sinecure it used to be there is a lot of oppressive prestige and responsibility, but in terms of power he or she rates no higher than the National Security Advisor to the President.
Nope my advise to Senator Kerry is simply stay put, "Power Is, Where Power Goes" said Lyndon Johnson.

Joanie Vennochi's thesis in today's Globe

bears some examination.
She insists (on the basis of no evidence) that Deval Patrick must somehow bend Speaker DiMasi to his will with respect to the issue of casino gambling or else risk defeat, ruin and political emasculation.
Now, lets get our facts straight here. Speaker DiMasi is agin' casino gambling (as is the Chimes at Midnight), Governor Patrick has said that he is interested if the right deal comes along.
So where does Joanie get this "do or die" show down scenario between DiMasi and Patrick?
Well, for one thing, she seems a lot more interested in writing an early political obituary for Governor Patrick than she in fostering a reasonable intelligent debate over casino gambling.
This was her same exact take on gay marriage back in the spring "Deval MUST prevail on SSM or face defeat, doom and impotence...blah blah blaaaah!!"
Okay...I get it.
Joanie hates Deval.
He didn't lose last year like a good wimpy liberal and that somehow offends Joanie's delicate political sensibilities. So now instead of trying to prove that Patrick is unelectable, she obsesses on demonstrating that he can't govern and must soon go off a cliff never to return.
One of the funnier offshoots of this obsession is Joanie's strange belief that Sal DiMasi is the political equivalent of Lex Luthor, powerful and too clever for anyone who doesn't sport a red cape to beat.
A lot of columnists have this problem, it is an ad hominem view of history.
Since policies and politicians have become disposable products, the columnistas tend to view defeat as final and irrevocable, especially if it befalls someone they disdain.
Steve Stark had the same problem with President Bill Clinton back in the early 1990's. Every week it seemed, Steve would devote precious column space in the Boston Globe to proving that Clinton was about to politically self destruct and be chased from office by a torch wielding mob.
Lost within Joanie's own farcical bid to play Cassandra is any objective discussion of the issue...and we desperately need one.
I think that Joan Vennochi is against casino gambling in the Commonwealth...but is she against it because it is a bad thing by her lights or is she against it because she assumes Governor Patrick is pro-gambling?
This cuts to the core as to what is wrong with Joan Vennochi as a columnist, we know WHO she dislikes, (John Kerry, Deval Patrick, Liberal Bloggers) but we don't know what she is for.
So much of her writing is about people, especially people she disdains...but as for what Joanie believes in who knows?

So...What is John Kerry up to?

The Junior Senator from the Glorious Commonwealth of Massachusetts is gadding about with a vengeance:
He has called on the admin to refocus on Al Queda's presence in Pakistan/Afganistan.

He has co-drafted a bill to aid families that are caring for injured soldiers.

He isn't voting to confirm James Holsinger as Surgeon General.

He helped pass a bill raising soldier's pay.

He has asked FEMA to test those Katrina Trailers for formaldehyde contamination.

He has come out strong for implementation of the Dole-Shalala commission's recommendations to improve veteran's healthcare.

And he is fighting hard to get the State Children's Healthcare Insurance Program fully funded.

All this when he isn't railing against our current policy in Iraq or trying to get the barbarous practice of dog-fighting outlawed.
And this is only in the last ten days or so....
There are those who will snarl that none of this is leadership...but it sure seems to get good and close to leadership for me.