TAPPED--JOHN KERRY, MAN FOR ALL SEASONS.

[Mass]

I do not know a lot about Tim Fernholz, but this is a nice article about Kerry, and one which reminds that he is an important player when it comes to foreign policy in his own right.

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=12&year=2008&base_name=john_kerry_man_for_all_seasons

John Kerry, who gets to become chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations after he wasn't picked for secretary of sate, reacts to the announcement of the Clinton appointment with grace: "President-Elect Obama has chosen a terrific national security team to protect our security and help restore America's rightful place in the world."

As an appreciator of the tragic, I've always liked Kerry and hoped he would get the State appointment over Clinton -- who I think will do a fine job -- if only because I think he is a more developed foreign policy thinker. I don't think his failed presidential campaign really was a disqualifier; if anything, as Jason Zengerle chronicles in this recent profile, it allowed Massachusetts' junior senator to blossom into a more aggressive and thoughtful politician. Certainly, Kerry's long engagement with the issue of terrorism, and particularly his early willingness, muffled by political fears during his presidential campaign, to reject the "War on Terror" formulation in favor of a smarter and more effective approach to combating terrorist groups, would have made him a formidable State Department chief.

But as we speculate over the developing policy processes of the executive branch and the relationships between the various appointees, don't count out Kerry's influence. He'll have a decent public pulpit in his new chairmanship, and his close relationship with the various administration principals means he'll have a voice in the new administration as well. Obama's apparent commitment to working closely with Congress suggests that his committee will have more power than Dick Lugar's did throughout the Bush administration. Many of the foreign policy challenges that the U.S. currently faces, from Iraq and Afghanistan/Pakistan to climate change and nuclear proliferation, will spur complicated debates among liberals and the country at large, and Kerry is in the right position -- and may be the right person -- to effectively frame these discussions and develop coherent ideas into effective foreign policy.

It is good to see that Kerry is appreciated by some.

And a photo of Kerry and Biden, today, at the Kennedy ceremony at Harvard.


As well as a beautiful picture of Kerry in India last winter (that AP reposted on yahoo, given the tragic events of this week-end, I guess.

[ProSense]

1. Nice, and love the photos.

Are you going to post this in GD-P?

[TayTay]

2. What a delicious title to that post on TAP

A Man for All Seasons is the title of a play (and 1966 movie) about http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=324">Sir Thomas More. Sir Thomas, later canonized as the patron saint of lawyers and politicians * in the Catholic Church, opposed King Henry VIII's desire to divorce his wife so he could remarry to produce a male heir to the throne of England. The play is more a hagiography than honest look at Sir Thomas, but still, it is delicious to contemplate.

The play/movie contains one of my favorite lines, especially as spoke by the actor Paul Scofield:

William Roper: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!

Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?

William Roper: Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!

Sir Thomas More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!

I concur. The law matters. It is our most basic protection from tyranny and applies to all.

* On October 31, 2000, Pope John Paul II proclaimed St. Thomas More, martyred in 1535, to be the patron of statesmen and politicians. He has also been known as the patron of Lawyers. http://www.wf-f.org/Litany-ThosMore.html

[beachmom]

3. Thanks to you and Mass for posting all of this.

It is always amazing when somebody out there "gets it".

Today, I admit was tough. But I think it will only get better from now on.

[karynnj]

4. Thanks for all this background

I never knew More was the patron saint of lawyers and politicians. Good choice for one who values an integrity - not so good for triangulators. I assume the Pope was trying to tell politicians and statesman circa 1535 to have integrity.

[fedupinBushcountry]

5. Thanks for posting Mass

I have stayed away from all news today, so this was great to read. JK is da man.

[MBS]

6. oh, thanks for that photo of JK and Biden

I was there, and down on the main floor, and actually SAW this very moment, in real time. . .I thought to myself, as I witnessed this EXACT view --"if this isn't a phot-op, I don't know what is. . and, damn, no camera" (they'd been banned for us peons)

Thank you thank you thank you