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In reply to the discussion: Hillary Clinton Bringing Out Mens Scary, Spitty Rage Strokes Again, By Existing. What A Bitch! [View all]karynnj
(59,503 posts)That is why he lost a race in 1972 where he was far ahead until Chuck Colson et al smeared him as badly as the liars did in 2004. This when he was a 29 vet dealing with everything he experienced in Vietnam. Once he was in the Senate, within a year, he took the job of investigating whether the Contras were involved in drug and gun running -- this was 1985/1986 -- when the Clintons actually had no problem with the Contras. He was smeared then AND his life was repeatedly threatened, but he continued.
His subcommittee developed the entire "Contra" side of Iran/Contra -- and he had very very few allies in Congress when doing so. Only when one of the planes crashed, providing proof was he believed. He was then EXCLUDED from the big Senate/House investigation, which gave immunity to many involved. Sooo, he turned to investigating BCCI, which was the Pakistani bank that was used to launder that money. He found that BCCI was a major player in transferring international crime money - including that of non state terrorist. It was Bin Laden's bank. However, they had put both big money Democrats and Republicans on the board of their US affiliated bank, so Kerry was asked by EVERY BIG Democrat you could name to stop his investigation. He stopped only when they took his subcommittee away and he was without subpoena power. So, he took everything to NYC DA Morgenthau, who closed down BCCI. Needless to say, through all of that he was attacked by everyone.
Kerry was attacked - in fact heavily by those allied with Clinton - with the attack that he did not fight back against the liars. (forgetting that Bill Clinton whined that Kerry spoke of Vietnam too much) Even Bill Clinton made that accusation -- and the reason was strategic, their argument was that ONLY THE CLINTONS KNEW HOW TO BEAT THE RW and that Hillary Clinton was far too vetted to be successfully attacked. (The worst part of the argument is that it suggests that Kerry should have known that his service could be a negative, even though his fitness reports were uniformly excellent and he earned two very prestigious medals.)
Not to mention, he actually ran a race that did far better than what was expected given that the economy was pretty good and many people were bonded to him because of 911. He ran a high road campaign that would have won had there been enough voting machines in Ohio cities. Yet he was attacked.