Kerry's nation

Can Sen. John Kerry, derided by his critics as an arrogant press hog, do in 2004 what his fellow liberal Al Gore couldn't do?

By Jake Tapper

Aug. 10, 2001 | ADAMS, Mass. -- It's Monday, Aug. 6, and on the westbound lane of an interstate highway, the gangly body of Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., is wedged into the front passenger seat of a minivan.

It's 6:40 a.m. and Kerry, headed to western Massachusetts to spend the day meeting with constituents, tears through the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald and the New York Times. He remarks that the day before, both Times columnist Maureen Dowd and a Times editorial slammed former Vice President Al Gore. He doesn't sound joyful about it, but neither does he sound all that sympathetic about the man who ran one of the worst presidential campaigns in recent history.

In the middle of the sports section, Kerry asks a staffer if his scheduled visits will permit him to get home in time to watch the Boston Red Sox face off against the Texas Rangers. He had tickets to Friday's game, which was rained out.

No, he's told. He won't get back in time.

Kerry sighs. But the race for the American League pennant isn't the Boston vs. Texas matchup Kerry is asked about as he makes his way around the state. Whether it's supporters or politicos or editorialists from the Berkshire Eagle and the Springfield Union-News, everyone tries to get Kerry to step up to the plate and admit that he's going to run for president in 2004.

"You still haven't answered my question about the presidency," jokes Eagle editor David Scribner halfway through their meeting. "Oh, we won't tell anybody!"

Kerry shrugs off every pitch, insisting that his senatorial reelection contest in 2002 is foremost in his mind. The state GOP, though, has yet to field a decent candidate, and it seems pretty clear no Republican in the state could be half as daunting as was Kerry's last Republican challenger in '96, popular then-Gov. William Weld. Despite having been reelected governor in 1994 with 71 percent of the vote, Weld lost the Senate race to Kerry, 45 percent to 52 percent.

Kerry clearly is taking nothing for granted, but that doesn't mean he doesn't recognize what essentially right now is political kabuki theater. I cannot even hint that I want anything other than my Senate seat, lest they resent me for it. Not any of his potential rivals for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination -- Gore, Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware -- will cop to anything but an intense interest in the 2002 elections.

But Kerry's presidential campaign seems pretty certain, even if he's playing coy, complying with political tradition. He's made small gestures to boost his profile, like renaming the Oceans and Fisheries subcommittee he chairs to Oceans, Fisheries and the Environment, exploiting a growing national interest -- and an area of potential vulnerability for the current administration. (When the Senate returns to session, Kerry has also vowed to filibuster any bill that allows drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.)

Thursday night, Kerry -- the author of a July 19 Senate letter to Bush in favor of full federal funding of stem cell research, signed by 59 Republican and Democratic senators -- blasted Bush's attempt at a middle-ground decision on the matter in starkly philosophical terms with a presidential garnish. "Leadership is making choices, and governing means laying out priorities," Kerry said. "Regrettably, tonight's announcement aims to create a political middle ground where there is no scientific one. Compassionate conservatism could have meant lifesaving treatments for those suffering from Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease; instead, it appears to be using words of compassion to mask efforts to keep a campaign promise to conservatives."

On a more pragmatic, back-scratching political level -- where Kerry has traditionally never excelled -- he spent Sunday in New Hampshire, where he appeared as the star attraction at fundraisers for a couple of local politicos. (He'll return to the Granite State to keynote the AFL-CIO convention Oct. 18.) And as if Kerry's Sunday nod toward the state with the first presidential primary weren't enough, Tuesday night, at the Beacon Hill townhouse he shares with his second wife, Teresa Heinz, he hosted a fundraiser for the Democratic governor of Iowa, Tom Vilsack. Kerry also helped Vilsack raise reelection funds in June in Iowa, which happens to host the first presidential caucus.

As political chits are being stacked on the side, Kerry's campaign coffers are being filled. He has raised $2.2 million this year, all without PAC contributions, which he has refused in all three of his Senate races.

And in this, Kerry seems to have an early lead over his potential rivals. Edwards, up for reelection in 2004, has $1.2 million in the bank, having raised $615,360 for his campaign committee in the first six months of this year. After holding 10 fundraisers, Lieberman's leadership political action committee -- Responsibility, Opportunity and Community PAC, or ROCPAC -- has raised $585,604 in its first three and a half months, with an additional $1.1 million left unspent from his 2000 Senate race. Biden, who is up for reelection in 2002, has raised $726,775 in the first six months of the year, with $1,466,330 cash on hand. Daschle, reelected in 1998, has $735,000 in his campaign committee coffers. Gephardt has $247,566 in his leadership PAC, and $501,823 on hand in his campaign committee, having raised $851,650 since January.

But to watch Kerry now is to watch a man who appears to be sounding out to himself his own reasons for running, as if to build the kind of self-conviction that, say, Gore never seemed to really have. As President Bush begins a month-long "working vacation" at his Texas ranch, Kerry thinks about themes, tests out rhetoric and practices arguments that sound far better suited to a national campaign than the more parochial one he faces next fall.

Next page: Does Kerry "get it"?