Wake up, Sen. Kerry!

It's no surprise that plenty of Dems are disgruntled that Howard Dean isn't our nominee. Now, with Bush's support down to 44 percent, John Kerry can afford to start being the pit bull that Dean would've been.

Kerry has been wise not to make political hay out of the growing Iraqi prison scandal. But when it comes to domestic issues, he needs to attack Bush whenever and wherever he can, even if it means taking a break from the campaign trail to do the job the people of his home state elected him to do - represent their interests in the Senate. Kerry was the only senator who missed the vote to extend jobless benefits to the millions of unemployed Americans who've been crushed by Bush's economic policies. Guess what? The measure was defeated - by just one vote.

Kerry can pontificate all he wants. He's good at that. But damn it, he needs to start walking the walk, too, and that means being in the Senate for key votes like this. Here's a letter Texas Deanocrat Jerry Lobdill wrote to Kerry on this topic. If he hears back from Camp Kerry, we'll post the reply here, too.

Dear Senator Kerry,

According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram today you were the only senator absent from the vote on extension of unemployment benefits in the Senate yesterday. The measure failed by one vote. Yet, there was no news of any mitigating reason for your absence from your job--no story about some important campaign appearance or anything at all.

Today I received an email on your behalf from Bill Clinton asking for a donation. I am a delegate to the Texas State Democratic Party convention and, as a Dean delegate, I will support you at the convention.

Bill and Hillary and the DLC managed to derail Gov. Dean's campaign through Atwateresque means, and we were told that you were electable and he was not. If you were so electable, why is your campaign now
frantically seeking to milk the Dean supporters for contributions? Electability requires that a candidate be able to attract sufficient contributions to win, so why are you coming to us common and increasingly poorer Democrats for money?

Unfortunately for me and you, I gave in excess of $1000 to Dean's campaign before it was so obviously derailed by the New Democrats, and I will be paying that donation off for months to come, since I have to
rely on a small pension and Social Security for my subsistence.

Your use of Gov. Dean's stump speech has diminished drastically since you were annointed by the DLC, and your absence from a critical vote in the Senate yesterday confirms our perception that your
priorities did not, and do not now, reflect a commitment to Dean's positions as laid out in his stump speech that you adopted before he was derailed.

I am sending a copy of this email to all the progressive email lists that I subscribe to, and I ask that you answer this email. I will forward your response to my lists.

Thank you,

Jerry Lobdill

Comments

[Sharon in Idaho]

The way I heard it, the only reason it lost by 'one vote' is that several Republicans voted for it on purpose to have it come out that way to make Kerry look bad.

[bill]

On May 11, 2004, John Kerry failed to show up to vote in the senate to extend unemployment benefits to hundreds of thousands of people out of work because of President Bush's foolish economic, tax and trade policies. This bill failed to pass by ONLY ONE VOTE! – John Kerry’s. Moneybags Johnny couldn't make it because he was much too busy campaigning in Kentucky - a state with terribly high unemployment.

Senator Kerry spends more time politicking and making jokes about how nice his hair is than he does actually taking care of his senatorial duties. The man has missed 75% of the votes and has cost his state millions upon millions of dollars. Now he wants to do the same for the nation.

Bush is a decisive idiot who is financially ruining this country but Mr. Kerry is a shameless liar who falsely prides himself on his superior intellect. So what are we going to do with these two gentlemen?

Personally, I'm voting for a 3rd party candidate. A third party candidate won’t get elected but a protest vote is very important nonetheless. Voting for a third party candidate could have far more impact than supporting status quo politicians.

Don't throw your vote away by voting for either the selfish gigolo multimillionaire Kerry or the monkey-brained Mt. Bush.

As far as terrorism goes, read "Osama's Revenge." According to the author, terrorists presently have 20 nuclear suitcase bombs (10 times more powerful than Hiroshima's) that they plan to set off within a year. Thank you Republican and Democratic leaders.