My favorite thing about John Kerry, he outed Iran-Contra.

[Melodybe]

Back during the primaries Kerry supporters brought it up a few times, I thought they were just being complimentary to their candidate, how wrong I was. I wish I had a link to the salon.com article about it, it was a great article. I just love that the more I find out about Kerry the more I like him.

He outed Iran-Contra!?! I mean that is huge to me, Iran-Contra was single handedly the biggest blow to Reagan/Bush's credibility during their entire 12 year run. I personally think that it might just be Kerry's most important contribution to American politics to date.

I just can not get over it, our candidate kicks so much ass. I just wanted to share the Kerry love.

[pnorman]

1. Here's what I found at Salon.com:

http://archive.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2004/07/22/kerry/

You may have to be a member to access it, although there's supposed to be a free day-pass system in place. I'm a subscriber, and am really getting my money's worth. I added it to my Avantgo list, so whenever I synch my PDA to my desk computer, the latest from Salon gets downloaded. (Likewise with Alternet, although that one is free).

pnorman

[Melodybe]

2. Thanks, we are suppose to be subscribers but I get the day pass thing

everytime I go there now. I'll have to talk to my hubby about it.

It is a great article though, isn't it.

I love John Kerry.

[pnorman]

14. I've been holding strong reservations

about Kerry, as he's perceived to be TOO close to the DLC for my comfort. But having reread that Salon.com article, and recalling what the other poster mentioned about BCCI, I'm feeling a lot more comfortable with him now.

with NO apologies, I supported Nader in 2000, and am getting fed up with some of the gratuitous and broad-brushed denunciations of him I occasionally see here. But this is 2004, and it's a different ballgame. ANYONE but Bush!

pnorman

[Zomby Woof]

3. yes, and in particular

He was key in getting the word out about the cocaine-contra ties. That was back when I first became politically active and hardened my opposition to the Reagan regime.

[JohnKleeb]

6. he was only a senator for a few years at the time too

The guy has guts.

[Warpy]

4. Check out the BCCI scandal, too

Kerry was about the only Senator willing to take that particular mess on. It showed just where the Bush family tentacles reach through a crooked bank, their money laundering for CIA black ops, etc.

Kerry may be just the guy we need to clean this family and its influence out of US politics.

[Laura_B_manslaughter]

8. Ah yes, the appropriately named......

Bank of Crooks and Criminals Inc. Another scandal that the "liberal" press let the reagan (actually bush) admninstration wiggle out of.

[Dems Will Win]

16. And he put Osama's brother-in-law Mahfouz under house arrest and had him

fined $225 million dollars and closed the BBCI bank.

Kerry personally knows which banks are still funding Osama and the Saudis and the Arabian Candidate are terrified that he will shutr them--and then the whole profitable and politically profitable War on Terror will implode.

[blm]

18. Kerry said he'll give nations 100 days to open books re:terror funding

and at the end of that 100 days if nations haven't complied then he'll start naming names.

Kerry will be way tougher on real terror and its very real funding by other governments than anything the dictatotrtot will do, especially since Bush family cronies are all part of the many decades long dirty dealings all over the world.

[JohnKleeb]

5. He sure as hell did

Many have the same feelings about Kerry as you do, like him more and more as they find out more, Ive always liked the guy I must say, he and I dont see eye to eye on everything but we do on a lot and I respect him a lot, plus he's well read and I like that a lot. Bush and my three year old bro probably have more than common reading wise.

[Laura_B_manslaughter]

7. Iran-contra was impeachable and should have been so used

The repugs kind of spun their way out of it. The real scandal was not the contra part but the iran part. The reagan team SOLD WEAPONS TO IRAN!!!!. After the soviets, iran was our number two enemy!! Dems should have accused reagan of treason but as i recall, weren't willing to make such a strong statement, justified though it was.

[Warpy]

10. The impeachable part was that he floated a private sale

of arms to an enemy (Iran) and used the proceeds to fund a bunch of murderous thugs Congress had specifically banned funding!

In other words, it was Bush family as usual, if the laws and the constitution are in your way, throw them out.

[HawkerHurricane]

9. That alone is enough to get my vote.

and forever lose it for the Republicans involved; Ollie North, Bush Sr, etc.

I hate being shot at. I especially hate being shot at by weapons sold to our enemies by my 'countrymen'.

[Radical Activist]

11. So how did he become so gullible regarding Iraq?

Given his experience with Vietnam and Iran-Contra how can "I trusted Bush to do the right thing with unlimited power" become acceptable? Was it ambition? Selective memory? He should have known better. I just don't get it.

[Warpy]

13. Perhaps he took Bush the Dumber at his word

that he'd keep the inspectors there until their job was finished, and only go to war if the inspectors were not allowed to do their jobs, and when the US had gotten UN support and built a real coalition. After all, the inspectors were only allowed in because of UN resolution 1441, and allowed to stay because of the war powers act.

Shoot, maybe he listened to Daddy Bush, too, who said invading Iraq was a huge mistake, and thought Bush the Dumber would listen to the voice of experience instead of to the liars in the Pentagon.

Who knows? I do know he's angry about how this has all played out, along with most members of Congress who were lied into voting for that resolution.

Don't forget, also, that Clinton told the same lies from the same source to Congress on more than one occasion, something else to consider.

The real problem is the Pentagon, folks, the nurturing place for ideologues who have now lied us into two disastrous wars (Vietnam and Iraq) and whose funding never seems to be in jeopardy.

[Dems Will Win]

15. When he voted in '91 to wait 6 weeks in Gulf War I, the right trumpeted it

as weak-kneed. Then Clinton passed over Kerry for Gore, who voted to invade Kuwait right there, for VP. So when Iraq came up, Kerry knew full well that in a so called time of war, the war President would kick his political ass around the block in the general election as having voted against the first Gulf War and now the Iraq War.

Now he can win AND THEN THE SAME TEAM THAT SOLVED KOSOVO, CLARK AND HOLBROOKE, WILL EVENTUALLY FIX IRAQ--ONE WAY OR ANOTHER.

[Radical Activist]

17. So you think it was ambition

But that thinking turned out to be wrong. Kerry's entire campaign is compromised by his inability to hit Bush hard on the Iraq war issue, and he's unable to fully take advantage of a large mobilized anti-war movement that would be working harder for someone who was more to them than ABB.
Doing the right thing would have been the politically smart thing in this case.

Kerry's vote for the war is what allows Bush to point to him as a flip-flopper and make headlines by challenging Kerry to answer "yes or no" if he would still support the war knowing what we know now. It makes Kerry look weak and indecisive. Your assumption that Kerry's vote for the war makes him more electable seem illogical and out of touch.

[ImThatOneGuy]

12. His role with the MIAs

Although the Iran-Contra affair was extremely important in exposing the abuses of the overzealous National Security Advisor Poindexter and his aide Oliver North, I believe that John Kerry's work with John McCain to find out the truth about the Missing in Action soldiers from the Vietnam War was his most important and significant legacy.

He helped to bring closure and finality to hundreds of grieving families and helped them on the road to coping with their tragic loss.