Kerry Urged to resign Senate post

Prominent Republicans, led by Gov. Mitt Romney [related, bio] and President Bush [related, bio], yesterday urged Sen. John F. Kerry [related, bio] to resign - saying his fulltime presidential run makes him a no-show senator.

Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey called Kerry's Senate voting record ``abysmal.''

``I'm calling on John Kerry [related, bio] to resign so we can fill that office with someone who can spend 100 percent of their time representing the people of Massachusetts,'' Healey said, noting Kerry missed 87 percent of the Senate votes this year.

``If any of us attended our job only 13 percent of the time, we'd be fired.''

Senator Bob Dole also urged Kerry to step down.
Kerry should resign
To further muddy the waters, Kerry supporters in the Massachusetts legislature are trying to circumvent an 80 year old Mass. law which gives the governor the power to name a replacement. A legislative vote to hold a special election instead is slated for next week.

It is obvious that Kerry doesn't think he can win the election, or else he would play by the rules.

Maybe the process of stepping down is a tedious and time consuming process or Kerry could use his position as senator to his advantage in the presidential run compared to him not being senator. He could use his position as senator to get insider information about the state of masechusettes and possibly converse with other senators about the other states.

It's always a no win situation for any challenger on this. You're either a FORMER something or a NO SHOW now.

Edwards did resign his Senate post (to his credit), though I think it was a BIG mistake.

Immediately, all the spin meisters from the right were like He abandoned North Carolina to run for President....what makes you think he won't abandon America? Total crap like that.

So you lose no matter what you do.

But I can't see BUSH getting muddy with this. The PRESIDENT asked him to resign? That doesn't seem smart to me. You send your bulldogs after your enemies. The incumbent is supposed to be above all this. Well, they're supposed to not be losing in the polls right now either so I understand.

John Kerry continues to draw the salary of a U.S. Senator (not a trifling amount), continues to enjoy the benefits of the office he holds (healthcare and a retirement plan to die for), yet he fails to "show up for work". Senator Kerry took an Oath of Office:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.

Please note "I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter". Sounds cut and dry to me, but Senator Kerry is all about having it both ways. Ask yourself this, "could I disregard my job, and keep it"? Probably not. Neither should Senator Kerry.

Oh please, MM. Should Bush give back all he made before 9/11? He took an oath too.

Records show he was on vacation nearly half the time leading up to that (I believe 43%), and probably planning an Iraqi invasion the remaining time.

There's a 9/11 investiagtion on TV right now laying out how nobody was in charge that fateful day, no one responded, we did nothing.

Can we get back the military budget along with Bush's paychecks?

Forget all that. Bush is campaiging every day of the week now...on MY DIME. In Air Force One. Using the Secret Service. By the very function of his job, he gets on TV and gets to take jabs at Kerry.

Please, if you're going to make a scandal out of Kerry about this....don't forget about Bush. Every campaign road trip is time not working. Or if you say but Bush can do both then so can Kerry.

I'm loving this Lt Gov Healey clown calling for "John Kerry to resign so we can fill that office with someone who can spend 100 percent of their time representing the people of Massachusetts."

Then I want Bush to resign while he campaigns so we can fill that office with someone who can spend 100 percent of their time representing the people of AMERICA.

Please, this is ridiculous.

Kerry cannot travel around the country seeking votes and still claim to be on the look out for Mass best interests. When was the last time that he talked to one of the members of his state about a state issue? It is time to find out where his true loyalties lie.

RANT, if we used your system we would never have a two consecutive term president again. That is just not going to happen.

Me neither!!

You do know that Bush has been out of office & on the campaign trail nearly non-stop, right?
The most uses of AF1, the most fund raiser attended, month long vacations, short frequent vacations between Texas/Maine/Camp David.

There was a thread started by this real handsome fella lamenting & detailing on our part time president.....you know them both: him with his scars & the president with the here-to-fore-never-seen-proclivity for taking month long vacations during war time!!!!

Originally posted by COOL HAND
RANT, if we used your system we would never have a two consecutive term president again. That is just not going to happen.

My suggestion was sarcastic, pointing out the hypocrisy of the right on this.

Nevermind they're using their majority pull to purposefully schedule votes to embarrass Kerry now. Then pointing to the "scandalous voting record" they assisted in orchestrating as evidence of Kerry's supposed hypocrisy.

I'm not saying Kerry or any politician is perfect...but come on. This nontroversy stinks to high heaven. Isn't it obvious?

Originally posted by RANT
Forget all that. Bush is campaiging every day of the week now...on MY DIME. In Air Force One. Using the Secret Service. By the very function of his job, he gets on TV and gets to take jabs at Kerry.

Please, if you're going to make a scandal out of Kerry about this....don't forget about Bush. Every campaign road trip is time not working. Or if you say but Bush can do both then so can Kerry.

Counting your dimes when President Clinton was on the campaign trail for re-election against FORMER Senator Dole? Yes, former, as in the decency to resign his Senate Seat to campaign for President. The incumbent President has always had the "home field advantage" in a re-election year, regardless of party affiliation. Furthermore, a sitting Vice President has the same advantage as well when running as heir apparent (few more dimes that have been lost track of, in the case of Vice President Gore).

Originally posted by RANT
I'm loving this Lt Gov Healey clown calling for "John Kerry to resign so we can fill that office with someone who can spend 100 percent of their time representing the people of Massachusetts."

As Massachusetts has been represented by only one Senator since 1962 (for those too young, or victims of public education that was when Senator Ted "Drivers Ed Ted" Kennedy was first elected to the Senate), and now currently none, I see this as a Constitutional issue, taxation without representation (as if the residents of Taxachusetts would notice). An appointment of a Republican to Senator Kerry's seat would most likely be short lived (as far as anything is short lived in the Senate), as the seat would come up for grabs with the 2008 general election. As to Lt. Governor Healy being a clown, at least you have the decorum to address her by her office, an omission that is otherwise painfully prevalent in this forum, but a bit of partisan name calling does not invalidate her call for Senator Kerry�s abdication.

Well bully for Senator Dole that his party had the saftey net of being able to HAND the position of Senate Majority Leader to Republican Trent Lott so Dole could resign and devote all his time to salvaging a campagin he was losing.

I seriously doubt anyone could be an effective Senate Majority Leader and run for President...but Dole tried until JUNE when it became obvious he was going to lose the Presidency if he didn't do something fast. The fact the Republicans were already planning an assault on the sitting President surely had nothing to do with it either. No, Dole distancing himself from the punitive partisan efforts of his party, securing replacement Republican leadership to prosecute the President, and granting himself 100% of his time to attempt a last ditch effort to breathe life into his failing campaign... that's all just a good man doing the right thing.

Yet, when Kerry here in mid June runs for President...doing the exact same thing I already pointed out the President is doing, and you pointed out every President does (WHICH IS ENTIRELY MY POINT)...it's suddenly a frailing CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUE.

There's no partisanship in Healy or Bush's call for Kerry to resign, right? No one is setting up votes now to embarrass Kerry. The good, honest Republicans are just genuinely scared Massachusetts will fall off the map in the next few months if Kerry isn't immediately replaced. I'm sure it just pains them all to hell to have to make such a call in the press. It's a darn shame those altruistic saints have to dirty themselves with politics at all.

Thank God you set me straight on who's being hypocritical. Dems bad; Republicans good.

Got it.

[Edited on 17-6-2004 by RANT]

Kerry could never see senate floor again and will have spent more time in office than Bush. Bush spent months on vacation. He would work for a week then take a month off. Then when we get attacked he blames Clinton. Well, if he had been working for most of the 8 months instead of spending 4 months on vacation we may have not been attacked.

Bah, why should Kerry give up his seat? Cause Dole did? That's nonsense! If the people of Mass. don't care why should we. And are we really missing his vote? Couldn't Kennedy jsut vote for him? I mean Kerry was pretty much a rubber stamp for Teddy anyway.

Seriously, he is only two years into a six year term. If (please, please) he loses in November he still has four years to serve. If I were someone in Mass. that had voted for Kerry, I would want him to continue to represent me in that event.

The real news here is the dems in the Mass state house that are all up in arms over an existing law that would allow Mitt to select Kerry's replacement if he wins. Guess that old law was fine when a dem was Gov. but now just won't work at all. Typical. Let Kerry stay and if he wins change the law. I guess you can have it both ways.