Another Kerry comes out fighting

The Age, Australia ^ | September 19, 2004 | Marian Wilkinson

[Cincinatus' Wife]

With her hair turning silver grey, her strong face and tall frame, there is no doubting the lineage of the woman introduced as Senator John Kerry's sister.

But unlike her brother, the presidential candidate, Diana Kerry is no politician.

At 57, the drama teacher has a forthright way of saying exactly what she thinks. Asked about the relentless attacks on her brother's Vietnam War record by the Republican-backed Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, she comes out swinging.

"We did expect that the opposition would use negative and divisive smear tactics, because that has been their strategy in the past," she said. "But at the same time, I also was dismayed at the depth to which it sank. I found both the Republican national convention and the outrageous lies of these people - I can't dignify them with the rest of their name - I just find it to be unconscionable."

Ms Kerry is one of the few insiders to talk publicly about the debate that played out in her brother's campaign in August over his delayed response to the barrage of Republican attacks.

Those attacks, including claims that he did not deserve his medals for heroism, led to a plunge in Senator Kerry's poll ratings and to commentators speculating that his prospects for winning the November election are seriously damaged.

There were reports that the Kerry family wanted him to hit back earlier. But what did Senator Kerry think?

"I think the debate was whether you dignify such outrageous claims with a response from John himself," said Ms Kerry. "I think, initially, one hoped that the official navy records and the word of the true witnesses, John's own crewmates, would be sufficient to lay to rest these scurrilous claims that had surfaced from certain individuals ever since (President Richard) Nixon enlisted them to undertake his dirty tricks."

They were not, and now Senator Kerry has been forced to sharpen his attacks on President George Bush and run a far more aggressive campaign.

Ms Kerry's job is not advising her brother on tactics. But in a sign of just how much effort is going into this campaign, she is barnstorming the globe as chairwoman of Americans Overseas for Kerry. She estimates there are between 40,000 and 100,000 eligible American voters in Australia, and the Kerry campaign wants a shot at them. "We're interested in every vote," said Ms Kerry, explaining that the Democrats lost the crucial state of Florida the last time by just 537 votes after the overseas absentee ballots were counted.

Ms Kerry, who taught in Jakarta at the International School for 15 years, hopes US voters living in Australia will feel some connection with her brother's campaign because Americans overseas are more "sensitised to issues of foreign policy and to relationships with the rest of the world".

But any American in Australia who wants to vote has only a few weeks to register with www.overseasvote2004.com before most states close registration on October 2.

While the Kerry campaign is battling the perception in Washington that President Bush has already won, Ms Kerry begs to differ. She remembers when everyone wrote off her brother's campaign in the primaries last November.

The next weeks, she says, will see Senator Kerry in action as he was yesterday, attacking Mr Bush on Iraq.

The polls are still looking good for Mr Bush despite his post-convention bounce flattening out, but Ms Kerry is, not surprisingly, ignoring the predictions of a solid Bush victory.

"I'm a drama teacher, and I believe that you build to the climax of the play in the final act, and that's what's we're doing," she says. "You want to peak just at the right time."

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Another Kerry comes out fighting

Well, that would make one.

[Conservative_boy_in_Bangkok]

Who the heck is his sister and what in the world does she really have to do with anything.

...This Just in. Kerry's third cousin on his mom's side thrice removed (a lunch lady from Joplin, MO) will be joining his campaign; rumor has it she has been calling the shots the whole time. Kerry's boat is all but sunk

[austinaero]

Kerry didn't "WIN" the democratic nomination through any hard work or skill on his part.

It was handed to him by Howard Dean.....

Gag me.

[Right_in_Virginia]

With her hair turning silver grey, her strong face and tall frame, there is no doubting the lineage of the woman introduced as Senator John Kerry's sister.

How flattering.

[Chieftain]

Here's the message that Kerry can't respond to:

S enator

We

I nsist

F orthrightness

T ruth

V eracity

E thics

T rustworthiness

S ervice

He won't respond because Kerry can't deal with the facts. That's the BIG reason he has tanked in the polls, he can't address even one charge laid out in the Swiftees killer ads!

You can bet the DemocRAT 'smear the Swiftees' campaign will be saying the same old thing.

The Swiftees are EXPOSING KERRY'S FRAUD!

These Swiftee stickers get the word out to the driving public and displays your public support for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth! It even displays their website address.

Swiftee sticker thread! Freep mail for details on how to get yours!

[Archie Bunker on steroids]

"We did expect that the opposition would use negative and divisive smear tactics, because that has been their strategy in the past,"

I hope the public is waking up....these people are the nastiest bunch of lying, devisive, negative campainers ever.

[OhMike]

The problem is that fraud Kerry thought he was IN a play, instead of in Vietnam. Actually, the phony must have thought he was making a movie, since he brought his camera, but in any case, the writing was bad...and it WAS fiction.

I know Kerry-ites may think that "Gook" cast members in the scammer's delusional auto-biography are fungible, but some of us object to replacing dead children with Viet Cong for dramatic effect. I know the script touch-up people will think it doesn't play well that their star was wounded in the ass by his own grenade fragments, so they want to re-write the scene to add "the most intense enemy fire" ever seen on screen, but special effects don't make a leader.

I'm pretty sure nothing, not even Hollywood, can turn that shameless gigolo into anything resembling a real man.

The reviews are in, and Kerry is covered with flop sweat.

[JesseJane]

Maybe she's the only Kerry that can make a fist. Isn't it odd that Kerry can not fight back using his own merit and power? I mean, can't he find ONE positive accomplishment of his own, that benefitted the country ?

It's getting weirder and weirder. Starting to remind me Mr. Barbra Striesand...

[QuietI]

First, we find out he throws like a girl. Now his sister comes out to defend him. What a wuss.

[RGSpincich]

I can't dignify them with the rest of their name

Drama teacher...

[BigCinBigD]

He has a sister? I thought the villagers burned down the lab.

[Fiddlstix]

Another Kerry comes out fighting

---

Well, that would make one.

Yeah.
One in a row.

[RGSpincich]

It was handed to him by Howard Dean.....

Kerry won it? What a scream.

[Brian Allen]

<< Another Kerry comes out fighting

Well, would make one. >>

And yet another of Murdock's Australian's fetid froth-and-foam-flecked Bush-haters lies again for Kerry.

Yawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwnnnnnnnnnnn.

[Fruitbat]

Baby sister getting involved...

No, this isn't good for the Kerry Campaign at all.

What's next, mom coming out and shaking her shame-on-everyone finger at the GOP for daring challenge the words of her son.

[JesseHousman]

"Is it 2008 yet? I'm reporting for duty!"

[timestax]

Should say ANOTHER sKERRY COMES OUT LYING (again)!

[Angry Republican]

"We did expect that the opposition would use negative and divisive smear tactics, because that has been their strategy in the past,"

The whole Democratic presidential campaign is a smear tactic! What on earth is this wench talking about?

[Republican Abroad]

Diana Kerry was up in Calgary Alberta about 1 month ago. She was speaking to all the Americans in Calgary. I understand that Calgary has the largest population of Americans living in Canada (approx 10,000).

From what I saw on the local news she had about 50 people show up for her presentation. Seemed to me that there were more MSN there than there were voters.

I wish that Diana would have vistied my city. I and some of the other Americans living in my city coulda had lots of fun.

[mass55th]

"At 57, the drama teacher..."

She probably helped him produce his reenactment flicks, and coached him with the screenplay he passed off as a war journal.