Reply #85: True enough. Well, that plus I have mixed feelings on it.

[TayTay]

This is the sort of 'civil war' that the Dems have been having for a while. We want the Dems to be strong and stand up for basic principle and then we also want them to recognize that politics is also the 'art of the possible' and that we have to be practical and recognize that things like gay marriage and abortion and such are not garnering votes. (Or at least not with the language we are using now.)

That plus I want Sen. Kerry to be the Senator form Massachusetts and be a national voice for the Dems. Those things sometimes are in conflict. That really bothers me sometimes. Sometimes I wonder if it is better for a state to have national names for Senators or not. (This is a case of 'wanting to have your cake and eat it too,' I'm sure.) It is a real fuzzy area for me. It will become more so over the next couple of years. Undoubtedly that will come out in here in posts. I will make posts that are proprietary in nature and want Sen. Kerry to be the Sen from MA and do what 'we' want.

The IWR vote is a case in point. I hated that vote. I have back-justified it since, but I hated that vote at the time. I thought he voted that way for technical reasons that, being technical did not invoke the passion I felt at the time over a bad decision to go to war. (I really think that Sen. Kerry believed that the Constitution gave the President the right to protect the country from imminent threat and that the possibility of WMDs constituted an imminent threat. That is a cold argument for such a hot topic and I was pissed at his vote. Not pissed enough to not vote for him in 2002, but still.) I never thought that Sen. Kerry, of all people, was voting for war. (That was a silly argument, based on his history.) But I did think it was the wrong vote and for the wrong reasons. I was not a happy little camper. It bothered me then and it still bothers me, even though I know more now than I knew then. Sigh!

There is a lot that depends on how the elections go this fall. I want a Dem Gov in MA. I more than half suspect that if Sen. Kerry wants to run again for Pres that he might wind up resigning his seat. (I am really starting to think strongly about this. Especially since last weekend. Hmmmmm.)