CASH AND KERRY'S "BIG DIG" (RNC Research)

CASH AND KERRY’S “BIG DIG”
AP: “Kerry Blocked Law, Drew Cash”
_________________________________________________

Charles Lewis, Head Of The Center For Public Integrity: “The Idea That [Sen. John] Kerry [D-MA] Has Not Helped Or Benefited From A Specific Special Interest, Which He Has Said, Is Utterly Absurd.” (John Solomon, “Kerry Blocked Law, Drew Cash,” The Associated Press, 2/4/04)

In 1999, Clinton Transportation Department Uncovered An Insurance Loophole That Had Netted $129.8 Million From Boston’s Infamous “Big Dig” Construction Project. “[I]n 1999, the Transportation Department uncovered a financing scheme in which the project had overpaid $129.8 million to AIG for worker compensation and liability insurance that wasn’t needed, then had allowed the insurer to keep the money in a trust and invest it in the market. The government alleged AIG kept about half of the profits it made from the investments, providing the other half to the project.” (John Solomon, “Kerry Blocked Law, Drew Cash,” The Associated Press, 2/4/04)

In 2000, Kerry Blocked Provision That Would Have Stripped $150 Million From “Big Dig” And Ended Insurance Funding Loophole. “A Senate colleague was trying to close a loophole that allowed a major insurer to divert millions of federal dollars from the nation’s most expensive construction project. John Kerry stepped in and blocked the legislation. … Kerry’s office confirmed Wednesday that as member of the Senate Commerce Committee he persuaded committee chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., to drop a provision that would have stripped $150 million from the project and ended the insurance funding loophole.” (John Solomon, “Kerry Blocked Law, Drew Cash,” The Associated Press, 2/4/04)

CASH AND KERRY THEN RECEIVED LARGE CONTRIBUTIONS
FROM “BIG DIG” INSURANCE COMPANY, INCLUDING SOFT MONEY

Since Then, Insurance Company Has Donated $30,000 In Corporate Soft Money To Kerry’s 527 Committee And An Additional $18,000 To His Senate And Presidential Campaigns. “Over the next two years, the insurer, American International Group, paid Kerry’s way on a trip to Vermont and donated at least $30,000 to a tax-exempt group Kerry used to set up his presidential campaign. Company executives donated $18,000 to his Senate and presidential campaigns.” (John Solomon, “Kerry Blocked Law, Drew Cash,” The Associated Press, 2/4/04)

Ø In 2001, Insurance Company Even Paid For A Kerry Trip To VT. “In September 2001, Kerry disclosed to the Senate ethics office that AIG had paid an estimated $540 in travel expenses to cover his costs for a speech in Burlington, Vt.” (John Solomon, “Kerry Blocked Law, Drew Cash,” The Associated Press, 2/4/04)

Other “Big Dig” Contractors Contributed At Least $60,000 In Soft Money To Kerry’s 527 Citizen Soldier PAC: Jay Cashman Inc.: $25,000; Lelio “Les” Marino $25,000 (Co-Founder of Modern Continental Construction Co.); and Modern Continental Construction Co. $10,000. (Political Money Line Website, www.tray.com, Accessed 2/4/04; Dick Dahl, “The Big Finish,” Boston Business Journal, 10/5/01)

In 2001, Kerry Warned His Senate Colleagues Of Very Thing He Did On “Big Dig.” “In March 2001, for example, [Kerry] warned his colleagues that taking money from special interests created the perception that Congress was for sale. ‘When somebody sitting on a particular committee has to go out and raise money from people who have business before that committee, or when someone in the Senate has to ask for money from people who have legislative interests in front of them on which they will vote, there is almost an automatic cloud, he [Kerry] said.’ Kerry should know. Over the course of his Senate career, he has not been averse to taking campaign cash from companies and firms with a direct interest in his work.” (Charles Lewis and The Center For Public Integrity, The Buying Of The Presidency 2004, 2004, pp. 364-365)

THE REAL KERRY

By HOWIE CARR

February 5, 2004 -- BOSTON

ONE of the surest ways to get the phones ringing on any Massachusetts talk-radio show is to ask people to call in and tell their John Kerry stories. The phone lines are soon filled, and most of the stories have a common theme: our junior senator pulling rank on one of his constituents, breaking in line, demanding to pay less (or nothing) or ducking out before the bill arrives.

The tales often have one other common thread. Most end with Sen. Kerry inquiring of the lesser mortal: "Do you know who I am?"

And now he's running for president as a populist. His first wife came from a Philadelphia Main Line family worth $300 million. His second wife is a pickle-and-ketchup heiress.

Kerry lives in a mansion on Beacon Hill on which he has borrowed $6 million to finance his campaign. A fire hydrant that prevented him and his wife from parking their SUV in front of their tony digs was removed by the city of Boston at his behest.

The Kerrys ski at a spa the widow Heinz owns in Aspen, and they summer on Nantucket in a sprawling seaside "cottage" on Hurlbert Avenue, which is so well-appointed that at a recent fund-raiser, they imported porta-toilets onto the front lawn so the donors wouldn't use the inside bathrooms. (They later claimed the decision was made on septic, not social, considerations).

It's a wonderful life these days for John Kerry. He sails Nantucket Sound in "the Scaramouche," a 42-foot Hinckley powerboat. Martha Stewart has a similar boat; the no-frills model reportedly starts at $695,000. Sen. Kerry bought it new, for cash.

Every Tuesday night, the local politicians here that Kerry elbowed out of his way on his march to the top watch, fascinated, as he claims victory in more primaries and denounces the special interests, the "millionaires" and "the overprivileged."

"His initials are JFK," longtime state Senate President William M. Bulger used to muse on St. Patrick's Day, "Just for Kerry. He's only Irish every sixth year." And now it turns out that he's not Irish at all.

But in the parochial world of Bay State politics, he was never really seen as Irish, even when he was claiming to be (although now, of course, he says that any references to his alleged Hibernian heritage were mistakenly put into the Congressional Record by an aide who apparently didn't know that on his paternal side he is, in fact, part-Jewish).

Kerry is, in fact, a Brahmin - his mother was a Forbes, from one of Massachusetts' oldest WASP families. The ancestor who wed Ralph Waldo Emerson's daughter was marrying down.

At the risk of engaging in ethnic stereotyping, Yankees have a reputation for, shall we say, frugality. And Kerry tosses around quarters like they were manhole covers. In 1993, for instance, living on a senator's salary of about $100,000, he managed to give a total of $135 to charity.

Yet that same year, he was somehow able to scrape together $8,600 for a brand-new, imported Italian motorcycle, a Ducati Paso 907 IE. He kept it for years, until he decided to run for president, at which time he traded it in for a Harley-Davidson like the one he rode onto "The Tonight Show" set a couple of months ago as Jay Leno applauded his fellow Bay Stater.

Of course, in 1993 he was between his first and second heiresses - a time he now calls "the wandering years," although an equally apt description might be "the freeloading years."

For some of the time, he was, for all practical purposes, homeless. His friends allowed him into a real-estate deal in which he flipped a condo for quick resale, netting a $21,000 profit on a cash investment of exactly nothing. For months he rode around in a new car supplied by a shady local Buick dealer. When the dealer's ties to a congressman who was later indicted for racketeering were exposed, Kerry quickly explained that the non-payment was a mere oversight, and wrote out a check.

In the Senate, his record of his constituent services has been lackluster, and most of his colleagues, despite their public support, are hard-pressed to list an accomplishment. Just last fall, a Boston TV reporter ambushed three congressmen with the question, name something John Kerry has accomplished in Congress. After a few nervous giggles, two could think of nothing, and a third mentioned a baseball field, and then misidentified Kerry as "Sen. Kennedy."

Many of his constituents see him in person only when he is cutting them in line - at an airport, a clam shack or the Registry of Motor Vehicles. One talk-show caller a few weeks back recalled standing behind a police barricade in 2002 as the Rolling Stones played the Orpheum Theater, a short limousine ride from Kerry's Louisburg Square mansion.

The caller, Jay, said he began heckling Kerry and his wife as they attempted to enter the theater. Finally, he said, the senator turned to him and asked him the eternal question.

"Do you know who I am?"

"Yeah," said Jay. "You're a gold-digger."

John Kerry. First he looks at the purse.

Howie Carr, a Boston Herald columnist and syndicated talk-radio host, has been covering John Kerry for 25 years.

New York Post/Howie Carr/The Real Kerry

Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff Statement on Possible Lawsuit Related to Boston Central Artery/Tunnel
(12/11/2003)

It has been reported that there may be a lawsuit accusing Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff (B/P) of misleading state officials about the true cost of the project. This accusation is demonstrably false.

B/PB is proud of its work on the Central Artery, and accepts full responsibility for that work. We remain committed to participating in an objective, fault-based and credible cost recovery negotiation process, which is the most efficient and effective way to resolve any differences. Should retired Judge Ginsburg determine that lawsuits costing millions of state dollars are preferable to the cost recovery negotiation process, we will without doubt show that B/PB kept the appropriate public officials fully and accurately informed about potential costs at all stages and that those state officials were in full control of all of the decisions which drove project costs.

This issue has received intense scrutiny and has been reviewed by several State and Federal oversight agencies. Indeed, the Inspector General of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts issued a report in March 2001 stating:

“In 1994 Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff (B/PB) provided the Governor and state officials with a Big Dig cost estimate of almost $14 billion, a figure uncannily close to the current $l4.l billion estimate. B/PB’s $14 billion estimate in 1994 starkly contradicted the $8 billion estimate (more exactly $7.998 billion) offered publicly by Big Dig officials at that time...These [state] officials made the management, policy and fiduciary decisions that led the Big Dig to its current financial situation[emphasis added].”

Any attempt to shift to B/PB the responsibility for accumulated decisions by successive administrations and their officials concerning one of the most challenging engineering projects in history is untenable.

We are confident that our accomplishments will stand up to any fair-minded review or legal challenge.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.