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Politics : The TRUTH About John Kerry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: PROLIFE who wrote (142)	2/27/2004 11:32:54 AM
From: redfish	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1483

I think the "zombie" behavior is probably attributable to fear. When everyone thought Dean had it locked up, Kerry had nothing to lose and was more spontaneous ... now he feels the nomination is his to lose, and he is scared to do anything other than play it safe.

To: PROLIFE who wrote (142)	2/27/2004 11:37:29 AM
From: JakeStraw	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1483

>>"The scariest moments have been when he's doing one of his Q&A sessions with folks," says the >>staffer. "He'll give this incredibly long-winded answer, then the people just sit there. No applause, >>no feedback, no nothing. And he just stands there. You can hear a pin drop. That's not good in >>campaign settings." Exactly! Why do you think that is?

To: PROLIFE who wrote (142)	2/27/2004 12:04:24 PM
From: JakeStraw	Respond to of 1483

Kerry's fervour opens him up to fiscal scrutiny By Joshua Chaffin in Washington Published: February 26 2004 Among the most passionate moments in Senator John Kerry's presidential campaign has been a fierce attack on "Benedict Arnold" companies that side-step US taxes by moving their corporate headquarters to Bermuda. But Mr Kerry's assault has been somewhat blunted in recent weeks by the revelation that his wife, Teresa, earned a tidy profit by investing in just such a treacherous company. Mrs Kerry, according to financial records disclosed by her husband, made as much as $200,000 in 2002 by selling shares in Ingersoll-Rand, a manufacturing company that stoked widespread controversy after it relocated to Bermuda in 2001. "People are going to raise issues about how you can criticise a company for moving offshore when your family is invested in them," said Larry Noble, director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan Washington watchdog group. It is too soon to tell whether the stock sale, which was first reported by Newsweek magazine, will become a focal point of Republican attacks in a general election. But if nothing else, it raises the broader issue of whether a vast financial portfolio will undercut Mr Kerry's bid to portray himself as a populist. But Mr Kerry has accepted money and fundraising assistance from top executives at companies that fit the candidate's description, that of a notorious traitor of the American Revolution. Executives and employees at "Benedict Arnold" companies have contributed more than $140,000 to Mr Kerry's presidential campaign, according to Thursday's Washington Post. It also reported that two of Mr Kerry's biggest fundraisers, who have raised more than $400,000 between them, are top executives at investment firms that helped set up companies in offshore tax havens. The Massachusetts senator is one of the wealthiest members of Congress, with a fortune estimated at more than $500m that is the result of his wife's first marriage to the late Senator John Heinz, an heir to the ketchup family fortune. A list of the Kerrys' assets, which runs to more than 60 pages, includes shares in companies from a variety of industries. Few of these appear to be as thorny as Ingersoll. Most are contained in his wife's trusts, over which Mr Kerry may have no control. Nonetheless, they could leave Mr Kerry open to charges of hypocrisy from President George W. Bush on a variety of issues. The Kerrys, for example, own shares in retailer Walmart, the scourge of fair-wage activists; Monsanto, the leader in genetically modified foods; nearly a dozen pharmaceuticals companies, such as Pfizer, which Democrats have attacked over high drug prices; and large oil companies, such as ExxonMobil, which go against environmentalists' support for renewable energy. news.ft.com