Bob Kerry mulls Senate run
Bob Kerrey isn’t yet a U.S. Senate candidate, but he’s getting lambasted on the airwaves by a conservative group with deep pockets.
The television and radio advertisements label Kerrey an “East Coast liberal.” They were bought last week by Americans for Prosperity-Nebraska, a group tied to a national organization supported by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch.
The group is running the ad in the Omaha and Lincoln television market, and on radio stations across the state. In all, about $105,000 in advertisements were purchased, said Brad Stevens, state director of the group.
He noted that the nonprofit group does not have to disclose its donors, but said that more than 1,000 Nebraskans have donated to the group.
Kerrey is considering a return to Nebraska and a run for his old U.S. Senate seat, more than a decade after he decided not to seek re-election and moved to New York City. He said Monday that he expects to make a decision “soon,” about the bid.
A former Nebraska governor, Kerrey has said if he decides to run, he would return home and re-establish his residency.
He also has argued that he planned to spend more time in Nebraska before he considered a run for the Senate.
In the television ad, Kerrey is accused of “ditching” the state a decade ago and of wanting to return home to spread an “East Coast liberal agenda.”
Specifically, they note that he has said he would not vote to repeal President Barak Obama’s controversial health-care law.
Kerrey has argued that parts of the law were imperfect but that it does not need to be repealed. He said if he were to win election to the Senate, he would work to improve the law.
http://www.omaha.com/article/20120123/NEWS01/701249997/0#ad-kerrey-an-east-coast-liberal
Even in the local, Omaha media outlets one never hears who is funding ads designed to make Republicans look bad. How many Nebraska ads are characterized as those run by George Soros? When it’s a Democrat that looks bad, we get sources and characterization of those funding the ad, and we get attempts to diminish the ad before we even read the article about it.
If you’ve read the stories of Kerry’s mulling, you’d think that the only people against Kerry’s proposed run are Karl Rove and the Koch brothers. From what I hear that’s not the end of the list. People from small town Nebraska and…Omaha are saying that this guy has a long road ahead of him if he hopes to win my vote. Ask Nelson how easy it is to win a Senate seat without Omaha, ask Pete Ricketts.
Everyone knows that the only reason Ben Nelson isn’t running for re-election is his vote for Obamacare. Everyone knows that Tea Party pressure dug at Nelson to such a degree, over the vote, that he couldn’t take it anymore. Why someone who publicly supports the same health care initiative that Ben Nelson wouldn’t even consider mentioning in a pizza parlor would run for the seat Nelson once occupied has many Nebraskans scratching their head. He may as well wear a Longhorn cap to a press conference just to see if he can secure the Longhorn constiuency here. (There are some here, trust me.)
Why would the DNC turn to Kerry in a last ditch effort to secure the seat with someone more prone to vote for the Health Care bill than Nelson? Is it celebrity status? Do the Democrats think that we yokels in the cornfields will get so impressed with him that we’ll fall all over ourselves to get some star-studded representation in the Senate? Do they think that Nebraskans will greet him like Elvis returning home to Memphis?
Kerry’s new tag line is: “I’ve probably paid more income and property taxes than all the Republican candidates combined.” Ok, fair enough, you have made a ton of money in this state, but how many times, while president of the liberal New School, did you espouse conservative, Nebraska views. How many times did you even mention this state in your time in the Big Apple Bob?
The question Nebraskans are asking is why? Why would he run when, even if we didn’t live in an age of internal polling, Kerry could at least read tea leaves. He would be able to see that the less three elections have trended away from liberalism in Nebraska. Sure, Obama won the Omaha district in the last election, but as far as Senators are concerned we went from Chuck Hagel to Ben Nelson to Mike Johanns. It’s trending the opposite way for Kerry. Now we hear polling numbers say that 60% of Nebraskans think Obamacare is a bad idea, and Kerry is publicly stating he’s for it. He says he wants to change it, but he doesn’t say how. That’s a little critical Mr. Kerry, and 60% of Nebraskans are going to demand to hear how you’re going to change it. Would you make it more government oriented or less?
Kerry once told a group of New Yorkers that the longer he lives in New York City the further to the left he gets on ObamaCare. “From My Standpoint, It Isn’t Just Because I Live In Greenwich Village Now – The Longer I Live Here, The Further To The Left I Get On Health Care.” (Bob Kerrey, Remarks At Tishman Auditorium, New York City, 9/16/09)
“I Really Don’t Get How The Public Option Got Demonized So Badly, And Why It Became So Scary.” (Bob Kerrey, Remarks At Tishman Auditorium, New York City, 9/16/09)
“I Don’t Understand Why The Public Option Isn’t Seen For What It Is, Which Is A Nationalization, A Creating Of A National System.” (Bob Kerrey, Remarks At Tishman Auditorium, New York City, 9/16/09) Kerrey Said If He Were “A Right Wing Governor,” He’d Be For “Socializing” Insurance, And “Creating A Federal System Of Insurance.” KERREY: “So let’s say I’m a right wing governor …I’d be for socializing the insurance part. I’d be for creating a federal system of insurance.” (Bob Kerrey, Remarks At Tishman Auditorium, New York City, 9/16/09)
KERREY THANKED HARRY REID FOR HIS WORK ON OBAMACARE Kerrey Praised Majority Leader Reid For Taking On Health Care, Saying “We Need More Harry Reids.” “Former Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., who served during the Clinton administration’s failed health care reform initiative in 1993, said that Reid deserves ‘a tremendous amount of credit’ for taking on ‘the most difficult, the most emotional, and the most complicated issue in politics.’ Kerrey added, ‘We need more Harry Reids.’” (Alexis Simendinger, “Reid Faces His Biggest Test In Health Care Reform,” The National Journal, 11/21/09).
Kerry claimed he knew that that Climate Change Legislation Would Destroy Jobs, But He Believed It Was Possible To Create More Jobs Than It Destroyed “With The Right Investment Strategy.” Does this “right investment strategy” revolve around Solyndra and Beacon Power?
“As Nebraskans get reacquainted with Bob Kerrey, they’ll be surprised to learn that Kerrey cites his 11 years in New York City as the reason he’s an unabashed supporter of ObamaCare,” said National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) spokesman Jahan Wilcox. “Kerrey even supports the public option, which is an ominous sign for a person looking to replace the man who made government-run healthcare the law of the land.”
While running for President in 1992, Kerrey vowed to create a government-run healthcare system that would use taxpayer dollars to fund abortions – something he would later have in common with Senator Ben Nelson.
Kerry’s Senate record is spotty, but we do know that he voted against a partial birth abortion bill in 1997, he voted to save Bill Clinton’s presidency and later voted against overturning Clinton’s veto of the ban in 1999.
“Between his support for taxpayer-funded abortions and his repeated votes against a ban on partial birth abortions, Bob Kerrey is clearly out of touch with our state,” Fahelson said. “Ben Nelson alienated pro-life Nebraskans with his 60th vote for Obamacare, and Bob Kerrey’s equally indefensible record on abortion will not soon be forgotten.”
Kerry had said, in a KFAB interview, that he believes “America is headed in a dangerous direction,” but does anyone believe that Bob Kerry will stand tall before Harry “We need more Harry Reids” Reid and tell him that we need to cut spending?
Most people don’t think Bob Kerry will strive for Harry Reid status, and he’s simply enjoying his last fifteen minutes of fame. It has to be intoxicating to have so many of the power brokers of our nation chasing after you, but at the end of the day he has to have seen what Ben Nelson went through in his final term. Even an obscure blogger from Omaha doesn’t need the sophisticated, internal polling a potential candidate has to know that this is an impossible venture. The impossible does happen though, and we all know that, but we should also know that if we decide to put more Bob Kerrys in office we’ll probably end up getting more Harry Reids when it comes to fiscal responsibility and more Harry “you can smell the public coming down the hall a mile away” Reids charm in office.
http://negop.org/news/bob-kerreys-greatest-hits-an-indefensible-record-on-abortion/
