Reply #33: I agree - (the following is not directed at you, but reflects my frustration with

[karynnj]

the fact that people look to Kerry for every fight, then give him little support when he is attacked back.) He is working on some of the toughest issues facing us in the Senate - even though he is rarely given much public credit.

Kerry was one of the first out with strong comments in the media on this. It helps that his immediate reaction on Petraeus was that he thought it wrong - for exactly the reasons, Limbaugh is wrong on this (infinitely) wrong Rush comment. I think it far better that Jon Soltz and Patrick Murphy be the main people out there. Fair or not, Kerry is treated worse than anyone else. He made a statement, but he should not be the person used as the Democratic attack dog. It is immensely unfair to him and doing it more than anyone else in the last 3 years has made the target on his back bigger. Kerry has led more fights and received less support for doing it than anyone else. It is striking that it is more often Kerry than anyone else that people here demand fight, but when he is attacked, the support is never as strong as for others.

On issues like this - which go to who he is - he needs to do exactly what he thinks is right. Why, when most of the party didn't risk anything defending him as the nominee, should he be looked at to make attacks that are beneath his dignity. Meanwhile, he is criticized for not fighting back. A large part of the sentiment for hitting Rush is because of the way the MoveOn.org ad was handled. If all Democrats had responded as Kerry did, the fake outrage on that ad would have been defanged. There are huge risks to reputation in playing the attack role as long as Kerry did. He was willing to do it for real reasons - like defending vets and he did it in his own way. Kerry is more of a statesman than anyone else in the party - and I include Clinton. As he was forced out of the race, he should be allowed to do what he said he would do work in the Senate to try to make some progress on world problems and global warming.

Why not call on Hillary to lead this? After all we KNOW she can fight the right wing better than anyone else. Or Bill Clinton?