Since Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., has begun to more and more look like The Man, the dirt has begun to fly in the relentless digging by the media to pry beneath the cool New England surface of the frontrunner.
Some of the nuggets that have been sifted recently in media reports include:
July 1996, when a cash-strapped Kerry was looking for fodder for his reelection fight, he entertained Johnny Chung, a Taiwanese-American entrepreneur with deep pockets. Included in the Chung entourage -- a Hong Kong businesswoman named Liu Chaoying. Kerry greased the skids to get the pair into see a senior SEC official. On Sept 9, Chung reportedly sponsors a Kerry a fundraiser at a Beverly Hills hotel.
The rub is that the feds later ferreted out the fact that Liu was a lieutenant colonel in China’s People’s Liberation Army and vice president of a Chinese-government-owned aerospace firm. Meanwhile, Chung, who visited the Clinton White House 49 times, rose to infamy in the foreign-money scandals of 1996. Eventually, Chung pleaded guilty to have made an illegal payment to the Clinton-Gore campaign and another to the campaign of Senator John Kerry.
Skeletons in the Closet
Skull and Bones selects members from the junior class at Yale University. The gothic and super-secret fraternity has been dominated by approximately two dozen of the country’s most prominent families - Bush, Bundy, Harriman, Lord, Phelps, Rockefeller, Taft, and Whitney. Initiates are taught that once they get out into the world, they are expected to reach positions of prominence so that they can further elevate the society’s status and help promote the standing of their fellow Bonesmen.
Both John Kerry and President Bush are Bonesmen. According to Alexandra Robbins, author of “Secrets of the Tomb,” Bonesmen already are buzzing over the prospect of the first Bones vs. Bones presidential race should Kerry win his party’s nomination and face Bush in 2004. “It’s pretty bizarre,” says Robbins.
Conspiracy Theories
In 1989 a subcommittee chaired by Sen. Kerry published a report documenting that the U.S. government had contracted with known drug traffickers to supply the Contras. The bombshell was downplayed in news stories published by the Post and the Times, while Newsweek dismissed Kerry as a conspiracy buff.
Kerry was also much involved in investigating the BCCI scandal that peaked in 1992. In an investigative summary, Kerry and associates concluded that many investigative leads remain to be explored, including the alleged relationship between the late CIA director William Casey and BCCI; the extent of BCCI’s involvement in Pakistan’s nuclear program; BCCI’s manipulation of commodities and securities markets in Europe and Canada; the use of BCCI by central figures in the alleged “October Surprise;” its involvement with foreign intelligence agencies; the financial dealings of BCCI directors with Charles Keating, including the possibility that BCCI related entities may have laundered funds for Keating to move them outside the U.S.; BCCI’s financing of commodities and other business dealings of international criminal financier Marc Rich…
The Special Interests Connection
The Washington Post reported that Kerry, who has made a fight against corporate special interests a virtual campaign slogan, has raised more from paid lobbyists than any other senator over the past 15 years, according to federal record.
Over the years, indicate the records, Kerry received nearly $640,000 from lobbyists, many representing telecommunications and financial companies with business before his committee, according to Federal Election Commission data compiled by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
Embellishing the Truth Department
Although Kerry stakes a claim on leading the charge against Arctic drilling, against Bush’s Medicare prescription drug legislation, for federal grants for new police officers, against attempts to lessen environmental regulations, Capitol Hill reporters often gave others credit for the leading such fights.
The Associated Press reported only eight laws had Kerry as their lead sponsor, five of them “ceremonial,” two relating to the fishing industry, and one providing federal grants to support small businesses owned by women.
Case-in-point: a Kerry ad claims he “led the fight against” President Bush’s Medicare prescription drug bill, but the Washington Post and others said the leader in that fight was Sen. Edward M. Kennedy -- not Kerry. |
