John Kerry's Watergate

Insight on the News ^ | Sept 16, 2003 | John Pike

[Hon]

Heard of Watergate? Get ready for Lowellgate.

On Sept. 18, 1972, the evening before the primary election during his second attempt for Congress, Kerry's brother Cameron and one Thomas Vallely, both part of his current campaign team, were arrested by Lowell police at 1:40 a.m. and charged with breaking and entering with the intent to commit larceny. The two were apprehended in the basement of a building whose door had been forced open, police said. It housed the headquarters of candidate DiFruscia. The Watergate scandal was making headlines at this time, and it was called the Lowell Watergate.

"They wanted to sever my telephone lines," DiFruscia said recently. Had those lines been cut, Kerry's opponent would not have been able to telephone supporters on Election Day to get out the vote and coordinate poll watchers, vital roles in a close election. "I do not know if they wanted to break into my office," says DiFruscia today. At the time he said, "All my IBM cards and the list of my voter identification in the greater Lowell area are in my headquarters."

Cameron and Vallely, along with David Thorne, who was Kerry's campaign manager at the time and has been close to him since they attended Yale together, did not deny the two entered the building in which they were captured. They said at the time they were in the cellar of the building to check their own telephone lines because they had received an anonymous call warning they would be cut.

This reporter heard an allegation that another congressional candidate placed the alleged anonymous call, which was denied. But if the Kerry campaign was concerned about someone breaking and entering to cut off its telephone service, why didn't they just call the police? Why break the law? And what does any of this say about Kerry's mind-set? Kerry campaign officials did not answer important Lowellgate questions.

The case was transferred to superior court and continued without a finding, where it was dismissed about a year later. But since it happened at the last minute, and Kerry won the primary but went on to lose the general election, this ugly business did not receive intense media scrutiny. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were busy investigating another break-in.

[Hon]

Note: The caption in the cartoon reads: "You say the Fifth in Massachusetts? I'll be right up."

[Hon]

To win the primary, the newcomer overcame the election eve arrest of his brother, Cameron, and campaign field director Thomas J. Vallely, both then 22, in the basement of a Lowell building that housed the headquarters of Kerry and another Democratic contender, state Representative Anthony R. DiFruscia of Lawrence. It was almost 2 a.m. - 30 hours before the polls opened - when the two were arrested on charges of breaking and entering with intent to commit larceny.

That day's Sun blared a memorable, double-deck headline: "Kerry brother arrested in Lowell `Watergate."' DiFruscia, getting some extra ink in the campaign's waning hours, had drawn the parallel to the break-in at Democratic headquarters in Washington three months earlier.

The Kerry camp declared it a setup, saying that the two responded to an anonymous phone call, minutes earlier, threatening to cut the campaign's 36 phone lines on the day before its get-out-the-vote effort. Lowell Police arrested the pair in an area near the trunk line for all of the building's phones.

To this day Kerry becomes animated talking about the episode, convinced it was part of a conspiracy against his insurgency. He said he does not know who was involved. He dismissed as ridiculous the charge that DiFruscia was a target. "He didn't figure in the race," said Kerry.

But some of Kerry's claims in the Lowell break-in are wildly at odds with the facts.

"That headline was held open. That page was held open, according to [Sun] typesetters, at 1 o'clock in the morning," Kerry said. "That doesn't happen at a newspaper, you know that. And that headline was out there on the streets the next morning, first thing."

The Sun, however, was an afternoon paper, and its first deadline was hours after the arrests, in plenty of time to write the story for that day's editions. The Eagle-Tribune of Lawrence also reported the arrests that day, in a smaller story under the headline "Shades of Watergate?"

Kerry's brother today declines to elaborate on the circumstances surrounding the arrests and the charges, which were dropped a year later.

"It was an impulsive, rash thing that we did and that John Kerry ended up having to deal with," said Cam Kerry, now a partner at the Boston law firm of Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo. "That's all we're going to say on that one."

Vallely, a former Marine who served in Vietnam and later became a state representative in Boston, had more to say.

"I kicked in the door," he said, and then, police swarmed the area. Vallely said DiFruscia's office was of no interest; the Kerry phone lines were. In hindsight, he said, "We probably were overreacting to someone who was joking."

http://www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry/061803.shtml

[Cautor]

Thanks for the post. Interesting.

[Dog]

This is how Chris Lehane works his black magic...

[Dog]

Kerry has just been smacked by Chris Lehane.

[Bogey78O]

Interesting...

[surrey]

I'm hoping that Howie Carr knows some interesting tidbits about our horse-faced Senator. I know Howie thought it pretty funny that Kerry keeps talking about "special interests". I guess he's the King of "special interests". Howie, if you're a lurker, which I'm pretty certain you are, start spilling the beans on John Forbes Kerry.

[Dog]

Beats the evening deadline so it can get in tomorrow mornings newspaper and will be repeated all day on the cable networks. Watch Drudge feature this later .....might even rate a siren and light.

[mewzilla]

Vallely on Ketchup Boy. From this link a quote:

“John needs a kind of tension to be at his best,” the article quoted Thomas Vallely, a Vietnam vet and close friend of Kerry. “Part of him needs the high-wire act.”

This from Ketchup Boy's friend and advisor...

[Cautor]

Kerry has just been smacked by Chris Lehane

Lehane: the king of political porn strikes again, this time hitting the French-looking candidate who believes we need a permission slip from the UN before we can protect our national security.

[Bogey78O]

Well we need to slow him down so Dean can catch up.

Heaven help us if they latch on to Edwards. EH's really their best chance of beating Bush.

[Hon]

Given that Anthony R. DiFruscia is now a state Representative in New Hampshire, you would think this might make some news in the New Hampshire primaries.

http://www.republicanstatehouses.com/profile.asp?ID=4385

But the media is too busy trying to figure who is ahead.

[Mo1]

LOL .. with pictures of the paper too !

[Dog]

I was wondering when he would strike. Cutting it a little close with this one.....wonder what major media outlet picks this up first. I know Lehane shopped this to several outlets so when this breaks ....it will overwhelm the Kerry camp.

That is the Lehane MO.....and how he almost did Bush in with the DUI charge..

[I_be_tc]

bump for later read

[Dog]

I love politics..

[mewzilla]

Click here for both parts of John Pike's article The Many Faces of John Kerry.

[mewzilla]

Is Mary Beth Cahill still Ketchup Boy's campaign manager? If so, with her around, who needs to worry about Lehane?

[Dog]

Hey mew did Lehane call you....LOL!

[mewzilla]

In his dreams :)