February 18, 2004
PROGNOSTABLE?:
The Empty Seat Speaketh: No TV (Al Kamen, February 18, 2004, washingtonpost.com)
There's been much chatter of late about President Bush's attendance, or lack thereof, when he was supposed to be with the Alabama National Guard. But there was buzz on the Hill last week that maybe Bush is not the only one sensitive to charges of being AWOL.Seems staff for Democratic front-runner Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), ranking Democrat on the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, created quite a fuss by demanding that a Meredith Broadcasting TV crew be thrown out of a hearing in which Small Business Administrator Hector V. Barreto came to testify on the president's budget. [...]
So why all the static from Kerry's committee staff? Was this to prevent video footage of Kerry gone AWOL? Meredith happens to own WSHM-TV, of Springfield/Holyoke, Mass. A gaggle of print reporters went unhassled. Only Meredith's crew and reporter Andy Gobeil had problems.
The cases are somewhat different, because Bob Dole actually did things while he was in the Senate, but the 1996 GOP candidate resigned his seat in late May of that year--any guesses on when Cabana Boy folds to the pressure to follow suit? Posted by Orrin Judd at February 18, 2004 10:55 AM
He's not going to resign. Lieberman ran for VP and for Senate reelection in 2000 and was easily reelected. Kerry could focus on the Presidential race entirely and if he loses still has 4 yrs to make it up to the MA voters who, being mostly Dems, don't care.
While I think the GOP should point this out I don't think it will be a major negative for Kerry - the public understands that running for president is a full time job. You see the same complaints even when governors are running.
No one cares about vice presidents
Posted by: oj at February 18, 2004 12:28 PM"No one cares about vice presidents".-- Yep, don't forget Bentsen in 1988 did the same as Lieberman. There's something a bit cowardly about it, too.
Dole I think resigned because a) he tried to generate some excitement and b) this was the culmination of his career. I can see Kerry doing it for a) but not for b). I think that he is vain enough to think that if he loses in '04 he can win in '08 and needs the seat to run from. I also think that he plans to follow Kennedy, Byrd, etc. in that he won't leave the seat until he is horizontal.
Posted by: AWW at February 18, 2004 12:47 PMHere's a thought: he may well not give up his seat, just to avoid comparisons to Dole.
Posted by: Timothy at February 18, 2004 1:15 PMThe easy answer is that if he were to resign the Republicans would gain a seat in the Senate. The problem with this logic is that if he were to win the Presidency, the Republicans would still gain a seat in the Senate.
Posted by: Earl Sutherland at February 18, 2004 2:35 PMEarl - Kerry would pass an executive order that the MA senate seat must be filled by a Democrat, preferably a younger Kennedy to keep Camelot alive..
Posted by: AWW at February 18, 2004 3:03 PMSince Kerry's not up for Senate election in 2004, he doesn't have the same problem that Bentsen (using the lawe originally created for LBJ in 1960) and Lieberman did.
He'll keep his seat, unless the Republican leaders on the Senate decide to gin up enough controversal votes to make any decision by Kerry positively or negatively a problem, either among the core liberal Democratic voters or the more moderate group who will decide the general election.
Posted by: John at February 18, 2004 8:02 PM