[vacets-gen] Kerry's legacy in the Senate

[Tin Le]

The following was posted by a friend in another forum.

-------------------------------

As pointed out by Donna Brazille on Crossfire (8/3/04), during
his over a decade in the house, Vice President Cheney managed to
pass two bills into law as a representative. In comparison, John
Kerry has passed 57 into law. Although Kerry has "no signature
legislation," that is largely because he has not chosen to insist
on his name being attached to his bills. Instead of pushing for
that self-aggrandizing gesture, Kerry has allowed other
colleagues near retirement to put their names on bills that he
worked for.

John Kerry started and led the Senate investigation into
Iran-Contra. He worked with John McCain to find out what happened
to American POWs in Vietnam. He served on the Senate Foreign
Relations committee, passing up a more lucrative opportunity on
the Appropriations committee.

In his almost 20 year career, he has sponsored (667) and
co-sponsored (4117) a total of 4784 bills and amendments. By
comparison, during the same years, John McCain only was
associated with a total of 4247.

At least 85 Kerry-sponsored legislative actions have been signed
into law by the President.
Here are just a few:
S.AMDT.396 to H.R.2577 To provide that none of the monies
appropriated in this Act can be used to fund directly, or
indirectly, activities against the government of Nicaragua which
have not been authorized by or pursuant to law, and for other
purposes.
99th Congress

S.AMDT.746 to H.J.RES.372 To provide for an annual report
analyzing the effect of increased and improved tax enforcement
and collection on tax compliance and revenue generation.
99th Congress

S.AMDT.1396 to H.J.RES.465 To prohibit the use of funds to
conduct, in connection with the Strategic Defense Initiative
program, development, test, or evaluation involving any explosive
device which uses fissionable material.
99th Congress

S.CON.RES.99 : A concurrent resolution condemning North Korea's
support for terrorist activities.
100th Congress

S.AMDT.170 to S.853 To provide for the implementation of a
uniform system for handicapped parking designed to enhance the
safety of handicapped and nonhandicapped individuals.
100th Congress

S.AMDT.614 to S.1420 To provide that between 20 and 50 percent of
foreign loans offered by local third world banks will be
guaranteed in order to facilitate loans to small and micro
businesses.
100th Congress

S.AMDT.872 to S.1394 To provide for a penalty for the illegal use
of funds for political or propaganda purposes.


On Fri, 8 Oct 2004, Tin Le wrote:

> Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 13:43:48 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Tin Le <tin at le.org>
> Reply-To: Gneral forum for members of VACETS <vacets-gen at vacets.org>
> To: Gneral forum for members of VACETS <vacets-gen at vacets.org>
> Subject: RE: [vacets-gen] Bush's View on theSouthVietnamese
> 
> Hi anh Luc,
>
> I think we are now getting to the meat of the matter.  Anh Dung was 
> generalizing and saying that Kerry did not do his job over some 20 years as 
> senator.  I just wanted to know on what did anh Dung based that on.
>
> So you and I agreed that over Kerry's 20 years career, he did perform his 
> duties.  Case closed.
>
> On to the matter of changing minds.  I think the Republican did a very good 
> job smearing and assassinating Kerry's characters (you gotta admired Karl 
> Rove, their master strategist, he plays dirty and he play to win).
>
> If you and I has a discussion and disagree on something.  Over the course of 
> the discussion, one of us persuaded the other to change opinion. Would you 
> then characterize the one who changed opinion to be a "liar"? Or would you 
> say flexible, reasonable, open minded?
>
> Which one would be a fair characterization of the person?
>
> Cheers,
> Tin Le
>