John Kerry: Should This Man Be President?
by Jon Keller
"But there's a catch. Unfortunately for Kerry and his acolytes, chances are that the long, heavily scrutinized march to 2004 will unveil another side of John Kerry, one at odds with the stirring steadycam image of the former protester turned statesman: the apparent opportunistic hypocrite on display weeks later at a protest by laid-off Logan Airport airline workers.
Union officials have rounded up several freshly fired employees to amplify labor's political message: that the Republican-sponsored bailout of the airline industry is a disgraceful misuse of funds that should be spent on benefits for their members. 'We need real help; we don't need tax breaks for the super-rich and for corporations,' says Rodney Ward, a laid-off US Airways flight attendant. The airlines, he says, 'are carrying out the cuts and restructuring that they wanted to do before September 11 and blaming it all on our national tragedy.'
Next to Ward in front of the cameras, nodding vigorously and wrapping a reassuring arm around his shoulder, is Kerry. The Republican response to the economic fallout from the terrorist attacks is 'unconscionable,' he agrees, decrying 'the largest one-month increase in unemployment in the past 21 years in our country.'
Then comes question time, and a reporter points out that Kerry voted for the airline bailout he has so briskly denounced, as well as for a huge subsidy for the insurance industry."
bostonmagazine.com |
