Random Kerry Quotes & stories. Very random.

[TayTay]

Okay, today was one of those 'before the long weekend' Fridays and I had a lazy day. I went archive diving. I had a dorky purpose (I wanted to compile an Excel spreadsheet of the vote count in every city and town MA for every race Kerry has ever run state wide and then compare and contrast. Which is easy to do. Then the next time the Boston Globe says he doesn't relate to ordinary people I can pull out the numbers and say, he relates just fine to anyone who doesn't live in Weston, you lying bastards.. Geeky TayTay.)

Anyway, I came up with some great random quotes and stories that are not depressing. (Honest WEL. I swear on a stack of bibles.) Thought you might like some:

From: Heard on the Hill
ROLL CALL (USA), Sec. HEARD ON 06-09-2003
By Ed Henry

Kerry's Other Election Cycle. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D) has a story he likes to tell about why he thinks his Massachusetts colleague, Sen. John Kerry (D), has enough determination to make it to the White House.

Kennedy is reluctant to pass along all of the details because it pokes a little fun at his nephew Anthony Shriver. But at a meeting with Roll Call editors and reporters last week, the Senator just couldn't resist passing along what happened at last year's bike race that Shriver holds to raise money for Best Buddies.

The race covers 76 miles from the Kennedy Library in Boston to the family compound in Hyannisport on Cape Cod. It was raining so hard at last year's event that three-time Tour de France champion Greg LeMond, who was on hand to boost the charity, said it was the worst conditions he had ever seen for a bike race. "Vickie and I are in the kitchen at the Cape and there is a knock and somebody says, 'There is a bicyclist at your door,'" Kennedy recalled. "And I walked out and there was John Kerry, just finished it - blue hands and absolutely frozen."

Kennedy marvelled about the 76 miles and then mused, "I shouldn't tell this but I am going to. My nephew Anthony, who spends two and a half hours at the gym every day, has the best build of anybody I have ever seen in my life and is as strong as an ox - (he) lasted 42 miles. I mean John has a drive."

OMG! What a great story. I just had to share, even if it is old.

[TayTay]

1. Random: The kind of things that spawn tea leaves

This excerpt is from a brief article in the Globe from 1999. I only bring it up (not to bore you) to show what Sen. Kerry does to move on and learn from his mistakes. I sometimes think about this and ponder the tea leaves about what lessons he will learn from the '04 race and what he will do to correct perceived mistakes.

KERRY'S ABOUT-FACE WINS OVER MAYORS
Boston Globe, THIRD, Sec. Metro/Region, p B2 12-11-1999
By Globe Staff BRIAN C. MOONEY

(SNIP) Re: the fallout from the '96 Senatorial race agsint Weld.

For all his political stature and skill, Kerry was considered by many local pols to be aloof and preoccupied. Foreign affairs and national headlines shape a senator's image, but grinding local problems affect constituents every day. Kerry, many mayors complained during the 1996 campaign, was out of touch.

After his close call with Weld, the junior senator vowed to pay more heed. Skeptics rolled their eyes, but then, in August 1997, Kerry hired Newburyport Mayor Lisa Mead as his state staff director. That turned heads. She was responsive and effective - "brilliant," Kerry said - and the impact was immediate. (Mead won back the mayoralty last month. Jeffrey A. Bean, regional director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and former mayor of Fitchburg, will succeed her.)

"I went from having no relationship with Kerry to the point where it seems he's here all the time," said Medford Mayor Michael J. McGlynn, a Democrat who sat out the Kerry-Weld fight. Kerry has worked tirelessly on TeleCom City, a plan to convert 200 acres along the Malden River in Malden, Medford, and Everett into a vast complex of telecommunications-related research and technology development, said McGlynn, describing himself now as "one of Kerry's biggest cheerleaders."

Malden Mayor Richard C. Howard is also sold. A Democrat who backed Weld over Kerry, he said Kerry "has worked very well with us" on TeleCom City, police department funding, and a drug-elimination grant for a local public-housing project.

"I have to admit that Kerry's been very gracious, especially to someone like me, who took the position I did in that election," Howard remarked.

Telling a similar story is veteran North Adams Mayor John Barrett III, another Democrat for Weld.

"I once wrote Kerry a letter saying he spent more time monitoring the elections in the Philippines than he did job losses in North Adams," Barrett recalled. "Now, he's done a complete turnaround. He's done everything right."

Now, I believe Senator Kerry met with the CBC this week and asked them to critique his run last year and tell him what went wrong. He got feedback that he conceded too soon and that Dems need to fight election fraud and voter suppression harder. (Among other things.) Doesn't that want to make you go, 'Hmmmmm!'

Oh, and that bastard * blocked people who had supported Kerry from even serving on a global Telecom commisssion. Kerry doesn't tend to burn bridges with people, he went and courted them back to him.

[whometense]

4. Great story.

I didn't know this one, but it doesn't surprise me, either.

To me, one of the most appealing aspects of his personality is his inner lifelong learner. I love people who are intellectually curious, eager to learn new things, and unafraid to admit there are things they don't know. Kerry is all of those things. It's part of what keeps him youthful.

[TayTay]

2. I have a couple of articles that can't be excerpted

They have to be read in full. Does anyone know how to get them into an archive that is available to all? Thanks!

Like this:

HOW AN OLD LIBERAL RECONCILED HIS VIEWS WITH A SENATE PEER A GORE-KERRY RAPPROCHEMENT
Boston Globe, THIRD, Sec. National/Foreign, p A24 08-06-2000
By Globe Staff Michael Kranish

WASHINGTON - Sixteen years ago, two Vietnam veterans, John F. Kerry and Al Gore, joined the elite club of the US Senate. They were a study in contrasts, the Southerner who opposed gun control and federal funding for abortion, and the New Englander who quickly became one of the Senate's most liberal members.

or this:

NIGHT OF INTENSITY, FOCUS -- AND DRAMA
Boston Globe, Third, Sec. Metro, p A1 10-29-1996
By Globe Staff David M. Shribman

You have watched them debate the minutiae of state government. You have watched them maneuver for cheap advantage. You have watched them in the ritualistic joust and parry of petty politics. You have watched charge and countercharge. And you may have wondered what all the fuss was about.

But last night was the climactic event of the signature US Senate race in the nation, and what you and two million viewers saw were two men of intellect and intensity in a debate that was rough and raw.

But it was something else, too: Perhaps alone among debates across the country this autumn, it was senatorial.

or this:

FOR KERRY AND KENNEDY, CHILL IS GONE CAMPAIGN PUTS THAW IN RELATIONS
Boston Globe, THIRD, Sec. National/Foreign, p A1 05-10-2003
By Globe Staff Glen Johnson

WASHINGTON - A few years ago, Senator John F. Kerry parked his car in a Capitol Hill space some thought was reserved for the handicapped, and an aide to his home-state colleague, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, called the newspapers to alert them. Snickers echoed through Kennedy's suite in the Russell Senate Office Building. Curses filled Kerry's quarters across the hall.

There was tension between the two offices, and at times, Kennedy and Kerry themselves. Kennedy had a reputation as the liberal lion in the Senate and the embodiment of Massachusetts politics. Kerry, in the eyes of some of Kennedy's staff, was a like-minded opportunist who rode Kennedy's coattails in Washington and Boston while pursuing his personal political agenda.

So when Kerry announced his intentions to run for president - the office Kennedy tried to win in 1980 - many who knew the two men expected backbiting. Sure enough, rivals whispered that Kennedy secretly supported another candidate, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, and that any public endorsement of Kerry - as Kennedy delivered at the National Press Club in January - was a sham.

Today, the relationship has gone through a transformation. Not all the staff bickering has ended, but Kennedy has set a fresh tone by throwing himself into Kerry's campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in the past couple of months. Aides in both camps say the senior senator has accepted that his junior colleague has eclipsed him on the national stage, at least for the time being, and he sincerely wants his fellow Massachusetts Democrat to succeed both in the race for the nomination and against Republican George W. Bush for the presidency.

So, how'd we get to the JFK Library Awards and all that love. Intereting story.

BTW, Great Torrecelli/Lautenburg stuff deleted. They hated each other! That was some great stuff!

Just wondering. They are fun, informative and interesting. Thought someone might want to see them in full.

[whometense]

5. I'd love to read these.

Maybe you could put these stories in their own thread? The way AD did the JK history stuff? Like, say, a Boston Globe story archive thread?

[TayTay]

6. Copyright violation

DU and copyright.

Archives are another matter.

[whometense]

7. Ah, right.

Damn.

[Sick_of_Rethuggery]

11. If you email me the stories

I could put it up on my website?

[whometense]

3. I love that story!

I read it somewhere before, but it stuck in my mind as one of those stories that really illuminates an aspect of JK's character - absolute stubborn never-give-up determination. It perfectly illustrates why all those lefty-freeper "he has no spine" assholes are full of shit.

[politicasista]

8. Thanks for the 411 Tay Tay

Happy Birthday! :party: :hi: :hug: :yourock:

[TayTay]

9. I had another one

but I neglected to mail it to myself from work. Next week. It was a lovely 'think piece' from the Globe (honest, I was shocked) that had some great quotes in it.

Oh, and a piece about his house. I liked it because it was historical. (Yeah, I forgot that he now lives where the Episcopal convent was on BH. I probably won't ever post this, as who besides me would care.)

[ginnyinWI]

10. wonderful story---thanks!

You know this is what we come here for! :)

[vinessa4freedom]

12. So Love this one...

I know I shouldn't be thinking 2008 already, but stories like this one just reaffirm that he will do it. I got goosebumps when I read it. I think I mentioned long ago that Kerry didn't win me over until just before the primaries. He doesn't try to sell himself, which is exactly what people really want. He just is who he is. In a most unassuming way. Unfortunately, that's why I didn't notice. (It was through no fault of his, I was just uneducated. :blush: ) I'm printing your post. Thanks, TayTay! and Happy, Happy Birthday!:party: :toast: