Over a decade later, in confronting the uniformed and bemedaled figure of Oliver North, who really could have been his evil twin from Vietnam, Kerry came close to unmasking yet another secret Republican state-within-a-state. I vividly remember the way in which his Senate office and then his subcommittee became the clearinghouse for a whole series of seemingly unbelievable rumors about the Iran-contra connection, most of which turned out to be true. And much credit belongs to Kerry for winnowing out the genuine stuff, about drug running and death squads and slush funds and secret deals with foreign dictatorships, from the conspiratorial garbage. He had played a similar role in the Vietnam veterans' movement, keeping the Pol Potists in their place at the admitted cost of some rhetorical excess on his own part. Two-sidedness has its uses
This was how I first noticed Kerry, and positively. To my mind, it's still the highlight of his career. And yet, he hasn't mentioned it once on the campaign trail. Think about the implications of that.
He still gives, to me at any rate, the impression of someone who sincerely wishes that this were not a time of war. When critical votes on the question come up, Kerry always looks like a dog being washed.
You gotta love Hitch. Yup.
We are looking at a man who would make, or would have made, a perfectly decent peacetime president
Even a peacetime president must be able to make and communicate decisions. His advisors can "on the one hand, on the other hand" into the sunset; the president must do something, must say something. The more I see of Kerry, the more I think he might be fit for a cabinet post, but not the top job. |
