Good stuff! Kerry and the Democrats

[ProSense]

(Leading first with fraudulent, fear mongering Frist)

Frist, who is considering a run for president, will urge the government to implement a plan that focuses on communication, surveillance, antivirals, vaccines, research, and stockpile/surge capacity.

"A viral pandemic is no longer a question of if, but a question of when," Frist is expected to say. "We know, depending upon the virulence of the strain that strikes and our capacity to respond that the ensuing death toll could be devastating."

While Frist is talking in Washington about a potential plague, Sen. John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) will deliver his second "major" address on Iraq and broaden his remarks to winning the war on terror at a 1 pm speech before the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. Kerry, who is also considering a 2008 presidential campaign, will criticize President Bush's efforts to win the war on terror and emphasize it is imperative for the U.S. to not only "destroy the terrorist cells," but also win the "war of ideas."

"This war has drawn us smack into the middle of an internal struggle in the Islamic World," Kerry will say, according to excerpts of his speech released by his office. "A struggle ultimately for the transformation of the greater Middle East into a region that is no longer isolated from the global economy, no longer dependent on despotism for stability, no longer fearful of freedom, and no longer content to feed restive and rising populations of unemployed young people a diet of illusions and excuses."

Kerry's speech to CFR comes 24 hours after President Bush spoke on Iraq before the same group in Washington.

The Kerry address is being billed as an effort by Congressional Democrats to address several of their legislative priorities in a series of coordinated speeches across the country. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-New Jersey) will speak on prescription drugs and Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisconsin) will deliver an economic address, in their respective states. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) joins Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland) and Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D-Maryland) in Baltimore to talk about education, while House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California) speaks about corruption in Congress.

Gov.-elect Jon Corzine (D-New Jersey) has chosen Rep. Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey) as his successor in the U.S. Senate, multiple Democratic sources tell CNN. Menendez will serve the remaining year of Corzine's Senate term in 2006, while launching his own campaign for a full six-year term. Corzine and Menendez spokespeople would not comment on the appointment, but sources said an official announcement could come as early as today. Menendez was chosen over a handful of other Democrats being considered for the appointment, including Rep. Robert Andrews (D-New Jersey) and Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-New Jersey).

"I think it is a good move," said one Democratic source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "He has the statewide infrastructure in place, he has got the money, the fire in the belly and he will win."

But Republicans sought to cast the choice of Menendez as a "recruiting failure" because Democrats were not able to convince acting Gov. Richard Codey (D) to accept the appointment. It is not clear if Menendez will receive a primary challenger. State Sen. Tom Kean, who received the backing of National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Elizabeth Dole at a fund-raiser earlier this week, is the likely GOP nominee in the race.


http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/12/08/sr.thurs/index.html?section=cnn_latest

[karynnj]

1. Did they get Kos's approval?

Why would they pick Kerry to speak on the 2 most important topics? Who did he push aside this time?

[_dynamicdems]

21. LOL! He must have pushed someone aside. Maybe we should ask

K-zero-S because *he* obviously knows about all the sneaky, dirty tricks Kerry resorts to in order to hog the limelight. Maybe we should ask K-zero-S. No doubt, he'll come up with a name.

[whometense]

2. And CNN is reporting on this?

Wow.

Gobsmacked.

[ProSense]

5. In a brown paper bag

Buried in some article described as:

The Situation Report is a running log of dispatches, quotes, links and behind-the-scenes notes filed by the correspondents and producers of CNN's Washington Bureau. Watch "The Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer on CNN 4 p.m. ET to 6 p.m. ET and 7 p.m. ET to 8 p.m. ET weekdays.

Search Yahoo! and this is what you get:

The Situation: Thursday, December 8
CNN.com - 1 hour, 29 minutes ago
Posted: 9:30 a.m. ET From Mark Preston, CNN Political Unit


Did this report actually make it to broadcast? I hope so. Anyone know for sure?


Credit where credit is due: at least it's online.

[TayTay]

3. CFR Speech: not the first time.

This is kind of considered hostile territory, btw. The CFR is very Republican and pretty damn conservative. I know there will be national press there, but keep this in mind. Bush had the equivalent of a 'pre-screened' audience at CFR. Sen. Kerry enjoys going here and these forays in what could be 'hostile' territory. I think this is like his 3rd or 4th speech at CFR since 2000. (I think he just likes mixing it up with these people.)

BTW, if you were Harry Reid, who would you send to CFR in NYC to speak? Geez, it wouldn't even be a contest for me.

[karynnj]

4. If he wanted WWIII in the Democratic Party, Lieberman

It's interesting that it's not Hillary or Biden though.

[TayTay]

6. Leiberman already did a Foreign Affairs event this week

It's up on the C-Span site. But Kerry has always been a very good go-to guy for the Dems for Foreign Affairs. (And I like him at it better than Biden. For some reasons or another, I always thought Biden was better at Judiciary response stuff. It just seems to suit him better. Maybe it's just me.)

BTW, the CFR site does say that audio and/or video will be up at the CFR site 24-48 hours after the event and a verbatim transcript will be up 24 hours after the event. These transcripts include the Q&A sessions. (Which can be highly entertaining, btw.)

http://www.cfr.org/publication/by_type/transcript.html

[karynnj]

7. Thanks for the link

I much much prefer Kerry to Biden on Foreign Affairs. Biden confuses me when he attempts a full speech. His logic seems to go in real strange patterns.

I didn't realize Lieberman's speech - which I unfortunately knew of - was here too.

[TayTay]

8. I don't think Leiberman's speech was CFR

It happened in the Russell Building. I watched it, sort of, yesterday on a rebroadcast. (Someone else sponsored it and I'm too lazy to go look it up, as I wasn't that impressed with it. )

It was on C-Span though.

[ginnyinWI]

10. you wouldn't know it looking at them yesterday

If that is a big Republican audience, they were still pretty stoney-faced at *'s talk yesterday. I won't dignify it by calling it a speech. It was a carefully parsed mea culpa if you ask me.

[sandnsea]

12. PNACers say it's liberal

These are the kind of UN touchy feely folks that Heritage and AEI were created to fight against, after the Birchers failed in their mission. I think the CFR tries to present a broad range, but their commentary leans more to the right.

[Fabio]

19. CFR is not republican territory

Firmly a realist school of thought. Richard Haas, the current head, is fairly conservative. But Les Gelb, the previous long time president, was quite liberal.

[TayTay]

20. Ah, I stand corrected.

I was looking at some of their columnists and they had that idiot Max Boot from the LA Times posted there.

I actually think the place is a wonky collection of people who are knowledeable about and interested in foreign policy issues. Biden spoke here a month ago and he was fairly well received. Bush's speech yesterday was sponsored by these folks, but took place in DC. The article on it in the WaPo said that the hall was not filled and the aides to Bush had to remove empty seats in order to make the room look filled.

Thanks for the correction. and, ahm, what else do you know? Some of us are sort of feeling our way around here and welcome more good voices of reason that have good knowledge of stuff. So, spill already, what did you think of the speech?

[Fabio]

23. I thought it was a good speech.

Full of truths, for a savy audience. Everyone who doesnt have a stake in this administration but works in public policy, government, ex military or business (collectively the membership of CFR) knows full well we are in a difficult tactical situation in Iraq that has made America weaker on the world stage and strategically weaker in the poorly named War on Terror.

As for Max Boot - you are right about him. I have read essays of his about military policy that are good, but more often than not, he ends up towing the line. There was a time of thought the same of David Brooks (ie sometimes on the mark), but no more.

As you might infer, I have some (insider) knowledge of the counsel. I would comment that the lack of on the record press for JK today (as seen discussed in other forums) is not unusual. However, the president dropping in and not taking questions...i think that was an abuse of the council forum.

[TayTay]

26. Sen. Kerry did mention the Isreali/Palestinian conflict

today and again noted how important this is to bringing some peace to the Middle East. (And taking away some of the ammo that extremists use to recruit against the US.)

There has been some welcome news on that front lately. There is also a lot going on that I have either no real knowledge of or no real deep understanding of. Any thoughts on that? I really think this is a *currently* underreported aspect of what is going on (at least at DU and the lib blogs) and how developments in that region are affecting the overall ME, including the Iraq conflict.

(Is this too broad a topic? Probably. Okay, is the breakup of the Likud Party and Sharon going off to create a new party something we should be paying close attention to? Does this mean anything for the neocon alliance with some factions of the Israeli political structure? Thanks! I was glad to see Sen. Kerry put this in his speech yesterday. It points to a more comprehensive knowledge of the big picture in that area and Bush is not mentioning it at all.)

[TayTay]

9. This is what LiberalOasis is looking for in a 'big speech'

1. Don’t start with an exit strategy for Iraq, start with a broader foreign policy vision

Currently, the public has no clue what foreign policy direction the Democratic Party would take America to achieve lasting peace and secure the nation.

If Democrats laid out a overarching positive vision (which an Iraq policy could fit into) not only would it serve the Dems’ long-term need to define what they stand for, it would also make it harder for GOPers to attack exit strategy ideas as plans to “cut and run."

Why? Because people would have a clear sense of what would come after the exit strategy.

People would see that Dems are thinking several steps ahead, not looking to pull troops and then cross their fingers, hoping things don’t spiral out of control.

http://www.liberaloasis.com/

Hey, this might be pretty dang close. Sen. Kerry excel's at this kind of long-range thinking and seeing around corners in foreign policy. (Hey, this is why I have voted for him so many times. He is wicked, wicked good at this. ;)

[ginnyinWI]

11. yes he is very good at seeing the Big Picture

and I agree with whoever said he's so much better than Biden.

What do you think of how they always say "who is also considering a 2008 presidential campaign" when they mention Kerry? I think it's a good thing, because if/when he decides to run again, it won't hit the public as a complete shock. It gives people another reason to sit up straight and listen to him, too. And for those who are watching, it explains the attacks he's getting from the RW.

[Island Blue]

13. I think "who is also considering a 2008 presidential campaign"

is much, much better than "failed 2004 presidential candidate". I've always hated that qualifier.

[whometense]

15. hahahaha -

great minds. ;-)

[ginnyinWI]

16. Amen to that!

Every time I hear that, it's like a punch in the stomach.

[_dynamicdems]

22. Yeah, the "failed" word was pretty popular for a time. I'm happy to see

that replaced myself. I've noticed that he's being called a "Massachusetts Senator" in place of the reference to last year's election. I wonder if this shying away from the "failed 2004 Presidential candidate" moniker has anything to do with Bsh's declining popularity. I mean, why remind everyone that they elected Bozo when they could have had this brilliant statesman instead.

[TayTay]

24. Well, they should emphasize those Foreign Policy credentials

Sen. Kerry does have 20+ years on the Foreign Relations Committee. That is some genuine bona fides. The only Dems with longer experience are Chris Dodd, Paul Sarbanes (who is retiring in '06) and Joe Biden.

And I think Sen. Kerry is the better thinker of all of them. He just tends to have more depth in what he is saying and he sees the big picture more and can articulate a more expansive position.

[whometense]

14. At least it's an improvement

over "failed presidential candidate." ;-)

By the way, great sig picture.

[ginnyinWI]

17. thanks-- I'm remembering the day. n/t

[whometense]

18. They talked about him a lot

on Morning Sedition today.

[ProSense]

25. More, plus RNC attack ad

While national Democrats are sorting out their political differences in the nation's capital, Florida Democrats will be holding their party conference to discuss strategy for the midterm elections. But the focus will be on the handful of potential 2008 presidential candidates who are parachuting into Orlando for the three day affair. Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack (D), former Sen. John Edwards (D-North Carolina), and Virginia Gov. Mark Warner (D) are all scheduled to address the conference. Other notable attendees include Dean, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Illinois).

"The convention is a great opportunity to meet and work with Florida activists who will be key organizers in the 2006 Democratic victories," said a political adviser to one of the Democrats eyeing a 2008 presidential campaign.

Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee releases a new web video this morning attacking Democrats on the Iraq War. The video titled "Democrats: Retreat and Defeat on Iraq" features statements from Dean and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-California) and Sen. John Kerry (D-Massachusetts). As the ad is being posted, President Bush heads to Minnesota to help Rep. Mark Kennedy (R) raise money for his 2006 Senate bid.


http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/12/09/sr.fri/index.html?section=cnn_latest