Replies

That is a GREAT article from suntimes.com. I just had to copy a few paragraphs and post it:

Sen. Kerry is a reincarnation of Stephen Douglas

May 1, 2004

BY THOMAS ROESER

He was ''personally opposed, but'' -- the nation's most prominent pro-choicer. A nationally known U.S. senator. Straddled the most divisive domestic issue of his day. Sought the presidency by flip-flopping to please all sides. Beset by clergymen he charged were mixing politics with religion. Married a controversial heiress whose vast holdings spurred severe criticism.

John Kerry? Sounds like him, but guess again.

It was Stephen A. Douglas, who served as Illinois senator for 14 years (1847-61). The biography of a flip-flopper by Robert Johannsen (Stephen A. Douglas, University of Illinois Press: 1997) takes on an even greater relevance in light of today's political struggle over war, abortion and other issues, where Kerry twists first one way, then another. Vermont-born Douglas mistakenly thought he could craft a middle-course solution to the slavery issue that could please powerful interests in the South as well as the North -- both of which he needed to get elected president. At first, Douglas played his street-smarts brilliantly: moving to Illinois, settling in Downstate Quincy, parlaying his scant legal training by winning election as Morgan County state's attorney. Then on to Illinois secretary of state, state House of Representatives, state Supreme Court justice and U.S. House before arriving at the U.S. Senate at age 34. Contrasted to the Douglas hare, Abraham Lincoln was a pathetically slow tortoise.

Along the way, Douglas married Martha Martin, whose father owned cotton plantations in North Carolina and Mississippi. The old man owned slaves and wanted to give the couple a plantation as a wedding present. No-no-no, said the senator, conscious of the political liability. Keep the ownership and will it to us at death. Then, with his fortune secure, Douglas burnished his Senate credentials and plotted for the presidency.