Blog conference call with Kerry

[karynnj]

I was very lucky to be on a conference call with Senator Kerry with other bloggers. Here's my summary of the issues that he covered. Hopefully, the other DU people on the call will fill in the gaps. He was extremely detailed in his answers and covered a huge amount of subjects.

To start out, Kerry spoke of his re-election race, saying that he was engaged and was taking nothing for granted. He spoke of a signature drive, where he is working to get the needed signatures across the state. he said there were no short cuts to this. He said that there will be a Boston event in Dorchester this Saturday where they will meet, go out to get signatures than return for food.

Kerry then spoke about the many many votes they were casting in the Senate today on the Budget. He spoke of how they were attempting to give the tax breaks to the middle class that deserved them. He also spoke of the new version of the AIDS bill that provides $50 million. The original bill was written by Kerry and Frist in 2002 - and Kerry sounded very proud of it.

The first question was on re-election, where his opponent, O'Reilly has positioned himself as the more leftist, more progressive alternative. Kerry said that he won't change his positions and will keep working hard at his job. He then listed some of the issues that he has been working on:
- He spoke of leading the fight to end the war in Iraq, speaking of bringing Kerry/Feingold in summer 2006 - getting 13 votes then for what is now the majority opinion, due to his efforts to gain support, in the Senate that we need a deadline for leaving in a responsible way.
- He spoke of how he is considered the leader in the Senate on global climate change by all the environmental groups.
He ended by saying he will let the record speak.

The next question was on whether there was a geographic area in MA he was concerned or worried about for the election. He said he will work everywhere in the state and does so even when it is not an election year. Asked about the major challanges to MA, he spoke of the economy where they needed to create more jobs and worked to make them pay better. He spoke of how the cost of housing, energy, tuition, etc have gone up and wages haven't - squeezing many people. He spoke of having fought for the WH to include something to deal with house foreclosures and spoke of how his amendment was included in the Senate Finance committee's alternative that teh Republicans defeated. He did say the amendment would be added to another bill - and that now, a month and a half later the WH was in favor of it. He was definitely ahead of the curve here.

There were several questions on science and technology funding. He mentioned that he chaired the Science and technology subcommittee of the Commerce committee, which just had hearings the involved the Bush science adviser and the heads of relevant organizations. the hearings dealt with the fact that Bush cut money to science in this budget. There are amendments, among those voted today, to put money back - from this committee and from Kerry's small business committee. He also spoke of amendments for a study to look at ocean acidification and to provide communities with aggregate science information on adapting to global warming. He also spoke of the "America competes Act", that he was a co-sponsor of that was a commitment for education in science, technology, engineering and math.

He sounded very positive on Cape Wind, referring to a very positive environmental report and saying if the remaining reports continue to be positive, he hopes to be very happily in favor of it. He said he is a strong advocate of alternative energy, but also strongly in favor of process.

The last think he spoke of was how a Democratic president - either HRC or Barak Obama - would make so much difference in what could be done, calling the Bush administration unfriendly.

One last note - at one point he left for one of the votes. When he returned he said that he had restored sanity to the nation. (I suspect that needs to wait until January 2009, in reality though.)

[Blaukraut]

1. thanks, Karen!

Awesome recap :)

[dwahzon]

2. Thanks

for the report Karen. Sounds like it was a good call.

[beachmom]

3. Thanks for the summary, Karen. Pretty funny that he had to put you

guys on hold at times to go vote. I guess he is an excellent multitasker!

I just found this on Blue Mass. Group who were also on the call. Check it out:

http://bluemassgroup.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=10956

[karynnj]

4. Thanks for the link

I responded to one guy over there - who is still sarcastic about Kerry being an environmentalist with the link to teh SFRC hearing on Bali - because it's very clear that Kerry's efforts there were extremely well regarded. (http://www.senate.gov/~foreign/hearings/2008/hrg080124p.html ) The hearing starts about 20 minutes in.

[MBS]

5. that guy is a real pain

and I was really glad to see what you wrote, including the link you mentioned. I can't tell you how much it distresses me to see environmentalists and Democrats -- supposedly the "good" guys -- engaging in simplistic, data-less, judgmental thinking. Actually, environmentalists, pretty much by definition (that is, people who supposedly should be urging everyone to see the interconnectedness of everything), SHOULD never recommend fast-tracking any environmental impact analysis, alternative energy projects included. Not to mention their giving JK , of all people, a hard time on this.

Whatever happened to political conversation in this country? It's just all yelling these days. I can't stand it.

[karynnj]

6. I agree - you should take that and write the part about environmentalism

needing the process that you describe - by it's very nature it IS taking the time to think out the long term, down stream consequences. I too don't get the number of people who want everything done the instant anyone thinks of it - it's just a lack of thoughtfulness.

[wisteria]

7. Thank you for this detailed recap. I especially liked the last comment he made.

He is one of the few voices of reason and sanity in Congress right now.