Cheers, Ken Hanly
--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> New York Sun - September 11, 2007
> <http://www.nysun.com/article/62343>
>
> Kerrey Edges Toward a Senate Comeback
>
> BY JOSH GERSTEIN - Staff Reporter of the Sun
>
> The president of the New School, J. Robert Kerrey,
> is a step closer
> to a possible bid to return to the Senate following
> Senator Hagel's
> announcement yesterday that he won't seek
> re-election next year.
>
> If Mr. Kerrey runs and wins, the Nebraska seat would
> switch from the
> Republican to the Democratic column. That would be a
> boon to the
> Democrats, who currently have a narrow 51–49
> majority in the chamber.
>
> However, Mr. Kerrey is far from a party-line
> Democrat, particularly
> on the central issue of the moment, the Iraq war. In
> addition, if
> Nebraskans replace Mr. Hagel with Mr. Kerrey, they
> will be trading a
> Republican who has called the war "hopeless" and "an
> absolute replay
> of Vietnam" for a Democrat who has insisted that the
> invasion was
> justified and that an abrupt withdrawal would hand
> an unacceptable
> win to Al Qaeda.
>
> Mr. Kerrey has tangled publicly with the left wing
> of his own party
> as recently as May, when he wrote an op-ed for the
> Wall Street
> Journal questioning the logic of "American liberals"
> who favor
> military intervention in Darfur but a prompt
> withdrawal from Iraq.
> "We must not allow terrorist sanctuaries to develop
> anywhere on
> Earth," the former senator vowed.
>
> Together with senators Lieberman of Connecticut and
> McCain of
> Arizona, Mr. Kerrey was an original sponsor of the
> Iraq Liberation
> Act. In December 2003, he told The New York Sun that
> the invasion was
> "going well" and was sure to be hailed in the
> history books. "Twenty
> years from now, we'll be hard-pressed to find anyone
> who says it
> wasn't worth the effort," he said.
>
> In any Senate bid, Mr. Kerrey, who backed Mr.
> Lieberman in the
> Connecticut senator's fight with the Democratic
> Party's liberal wing
> last year, is sure to be at loggerheads with
> left-leaning Web
> loggers. On Web bulletin boards yesterday, he was
> already under
> attack as a "Liebercrat."
>
> A political analyst in Washington, Stuart
> Rothenberg, said liberal
> bloggers were likely to "cause trouble" for Mr.
> Kerrey and might even
> try to draft a primary opponent to run against him.
> However, Mr.
> Rothenberg said those efforts would probably come to
> naught. "Most
> credible Nebraska Democrats, if Kerrey wants the
> nomination, they'll
> be happy," the analyst said.
>
> In a statement yesterday, Mr. Kerrey offered lavish
> praise for Mr.
> Hagel and said, "Any discussion of my political
> future will have to
> wait for another day."
>
> Senator Schumer, who chairs the Democratic
> Senatorial Campaign
> Committee, is reportedly among those strongly urging
> Mr. Kerrey to
> make a run.
>
> An adviser to Mr. Kerrey, Paul Johnson, said the
> former senator is
> giving serious thought to becoming a candidate and
> has talked the
> issue over with trustees at the New School. "We've
> spent a lot of
> time going through it and gaming things out," Mr.
> Johnson said. He
> said voters will accept Mr. Kerrey's unusual stance
> on Iraq even if
> they don't agree with it. "It's the nature of Bob,
> quite frankly,
> part of what makes him attractive as a politician,
> that he's never
> been willing to go along to get along," Mr. Johnson
> said.
>
> Mr. Kerrey, a former Nebraska governor, represented
> the state in the
> Senate between 1989 and 2001. However, he has lived
> in New York since
> that time, a fact that Republicans might try to
> exploit.
>
> A Senate race analyst for the Cook Political Report,
> Jennifer Duffy,
> said Republicans are likely to seize on his
> affiliation with the New
> School and perhaps even scour course catalogs for
> risqué subjects
> that could paint Mr. Kerrey as out of touch with
> Nebraskans. "I
> imagine some of that will come up," she said.
> However, she noted that
> New York would also serve as a lucrative
> fund-raising base for Mr.
> Kerrey's campaign.
>
> A primary battle is likely on the Republican side
> between Agriculture
> Secretary Mike Johanns and Nebraska's attorney
> general, Jon Bruning.
> ___________________________________
>
http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>
Blog: http://kenthink7.blogspot.com/index.html Blog: http://kencan7.blogspot.com/index.html