Swell Aristocrat John Kerry Wants A Nice Capper For A Distinguished Career

Rah!

Kerry isn't one of the bad guys. For a multimillionaire he's pretty good. I seem to recall he's the richest man in the Senate. And he's done a decent-enough job in the Senate-- not the best, but certainly not the worst among the Democrats. When he ran his disjointed abortive campaign for president, the GOP claimed he was "the most liberal" man to ever run for president and the "most liberal" man in the Senate. But they claim that about every Democrat who runs. They even said it about Obama; didn't that turn out pretty ironic! According to ProgressivePunch's lifetime crucial vote score, Kerry has an 87.41, making him the 22nd most progressive. He's no Jeff Merkley (93.68) or Barbara Boxer (94.54) or Bernie Sanders (95.32) or Al Franken (96.28)... but on the other hand, he's a league above the real garbage like Ben Nelson (45.39), Joe Manchin (62.79), Max Baucus (62.98), Mary Landrieu (64.92) and Mark Pryor (66.56), Democrats who pretty consistently vote with the GOP against the interests of working families and in favor of the interests of the wealthiest two percent.

And now he wants to leave the Senate and crown his career with a grand title, Secretary of State. And he'd be as good as any other monkey a president as limited in scope as Obama would ever nominate for the job. Obama's not ever going outside the bounds of Beltway consensus-- which is, when all is said and done, a conservative consensus-- to find any cabinet members. We'll have a Wall Street hack as Treasury Secretary and an imperialist as Secretary of State-- if not John Kerry, then some of more-of-the-same kind of guy, better than John Bolton, of course... but no Dennis Kucinich or Howard Zinn. But this selection isn't about American policy... it's about John Kerry and his ego. Fuck John Kerry's ego!

As I've mentioned before, if Kerry leaves two things happen: a crazy anti-Cuba zealot, Bob Menendez, takes over as head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee-- one of the least competent senators to sit as head of that committee-- and Obama, following the demands of the GOP, hands the Massachusetts Senate seat over to the Republicans. A new poll finds that 58% of Massachusetts voters have a favorable view of defeated Republican Senator Scott Brown (currently playing up to the state's voters by backing curbs on assault weapons, unlike his party, which will never allow an effective ban to pass) and only 28% view him unfavorably. And in head-to-head match-ups, Brown seriously outpolls the 3 congressmen most likely to get the Democratic nomination, liberals Ed Markey and Mike Capuano and virulently anti-Choice ConservaDem Stephen Lynch.



Democrats are scrambling for names to oppose Brown now since Obama isn't one do put what's good for working families above what's good for any aristocrat, let alone one of his palsy-walsy aristocratic buddies. Prediction-- although it's one I've made before-- Obama goes down in history not just as the first African-American president and not just as another in a long line of mediocre presidents since Eisenhower, but as the Democrat who wrecked his party's brand and made the Democrats as anathema to American voters as Republicans already are. How sad will it be watching how many things Senator Brown screws up as a Republican senator in a blue seat while Kerry gets the chance to live out his dream of being a Foreign Minister!