Best Counter For "Kerry Hasn't Done Anything in Mass.?"

I was telling this MA person on the other board -- he must have done SOMETHING or why the hell does he keep getting elected?

Good benefits, high median income, low levels of poverty, relatively high numbers of insured people, hig education levels, lots of health centers.

Go to www.census.gov and look up the figures for Massachusetts vs. Texas. Hint - Texas is among the worst states in all socio-economic-health indicators.

Follow the Money

How John Kerry busted the terrorists' favorite bank.

By David Sirota and Jonathan Baskin

Two decades ago, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) was a highly respected financial titan. In 1987, when its subsidiary helped finance a deal involving Texas oilman George W. Bush, the bank appeared to be a reputable institution, with attractive branch offices, a traveler's check business, and a solid reputation for financing international trade. It had high-powered allies in Washington and boasted relationships with respected figures around the world.

All that changed in early 1988, when John Kerry, then a young senator from Massachusetts, decided to probe the finances of Latin American drug cartels. Over the next three years, Kerry fought against intense opposition from vested interests at home and abroad, from senior members of his own party; and from the Reagan and Bush administrations, none of whom were eager to see him succeed.

By the end, Kerry had helped dismantle a massive criminal enterprise and exposed the infrastructure of BCCI and its affiliated institutions, a web that law enforcement officials today acknowledge would become a model for international terrorist financing. As Kerry's investigation revealed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, BCCI was interested in more than just enriching its clients--it had a fundamentally anti-Western mission. Among the stated goals of its Pakistani founder were to "fight the evil influence of the West," and finance Muslim terrorist organizations. In retrospect, Kerry's investigation had uncovered an institution at the fulcrum of America's first great post-Cold War security challenge.

More than a decade later, Kerry is his party's nominee for president, and terrorist financing is anything but a back-burner issue. The Bush campaign has settled on a new strategy for attacking Kerry: Portray him as a do-nothing senator who's weak on fighting terrorism. "After 19 years in the Senate, he's had thousands of votes, but few signature achievements," President Bush charged recently at a campaign rally in Pittsburgh; spin that's been echoed by Bush's surrogates, conservative pundits, and mainstream reporters alike, and by a steady barrage of campaign ads suggesting that the one thing Kerry did do in Congress was prove he knew nothing about terrorism. Ridiculing the senator for not mentioning al Qaeda in his 1997 book on terrorism, one ad asks: "How can John Kerry win a war if he doesn't know the enemy?"

CONTINUED...

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0409.sirota.html

He did this as Lt Governor I believe, what makes Kerry so damn good to me is what he's done over time.

John Kerry, the driven lawyer

By Mike Williams
Cox News Service
Monday, June 28, 2004

BOSTON — It was 1972 and suddenly John Kerry was at loose ends. He was 28 years old and had already compiled an impressive resume: Yale graduate, thrice-wounded Naval officer with decorations for valor in Vietnam, outspoken critic of the war whose 1971 testimony before Congress thrust him onto the national stage.

But added to the list now was a black mark: failed political candidate. Always politically ambitious, Kerry had jumped from his role as an anti-war leader into a 1972 campaign for Congress in a Massachusetts district, only to taste defeat in a race he was expected to win.

His next career move fit the time-honored path of many politicians-in-the-making: law school.

But instead of going into private practice or working as a public defender following his 1976 graduation from Boston College Law School, Kerry became a prosecutor. That added a law-and-order twist to his background that his campaign doesn't hesitate to cite as rebuttal against charges by conservative opponents that Kerry is a classic liberal.

CONTINUED...

http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/news/content/shared/news/politics/stories/06/27lawyer.html

He's amazing I think, from a war hero to future president of the US, and so many stuff in between, thats what makes him so great.

about Kerry. (from Kerry's website) but I've also seen the same stories elsewhere.

Washington, DC - Today, Lowell (Mass.) Chief of Police Ed Davis made the following statement in response to the Bush/Cheney national radio ad.

“As a law enforcement officer, I have worked with John Kerry since he was a prosecutor here in Lowell. From his years as a prosecutor to his fight to expand the crime bill to add more police on the streets right here in Lowell, across the state and the nation, he had been a fighter for protecting our neighbors.

“John Kerry has a plan that will cut taxes for middle class families and get us the support we need from Washington to defend the homeland.

“John Kerry will also fight to get health care costs lowered for working families. While there are many misleading charges by the Bush campaign, John Kerry has been a fighter for law enforcement all his life and he will be a fighter for us in the White House.

“John Kerry came to Lowell in 1994 to tour our most troubled precincts, he understand the crime problem. Senator Kerry and I conferred while he was preparing the first crime bill. His work gave us the resources we needed to reduce the crime rate over 60%. The city of Lowell is a better place because of the Senator Kerry’s commitment to law enforcement. When John Kerry continues this type of success when he gets to the White House, America will be a much safer place.”

They don't do things in their home state.

There's a big difference.

He has a history with Mass. as a prosecutor and Lt. Gov, but if that person is looking for bills, etc regarding what he has done for Mass the person doesn't understand government. He's not a state senator, he's a US senator.

since 1985?