On the daily show tonight, Jon Stewart was challenged by his guest to name 3 achievements of Kerry in his 20 years in the senate. Off the top of my head, I could think of three. None of them happen to be legislative, because 1) the senior Senator from his state tends to be involved in that a lot, so Kerry deferred to him, and 2) his experience prior to joining the senate was as a prosecutor and lt. governor, not legislative. This plays in his favor for presidency, mind you….
1: Iran-Contra
From the Boston Globe:
[Kerry] had spent the spring [of 1986] conducting an unauthorized investigation into reports that the Reagan administration was illegally providing aid to the rebel Nicaraguan Contra armies, which were attempting to overthrow the left-wing government of that Central American nation. At this closed session, he planned to urge the committee to launch an official probe… As the senior Republican on the committee, [Jesse] Helms was the key to Kerry’s hopes… In the course of their investigation, Kerry and his staff had found evidence that some contras had ties to drug smuggling. If there was one class of villain that Helms deplored as much as the communists, it was drug traffickers… As Kerry finished his presentation, the senior members turned to Helms, taking his temperature on the issue. “Jesse? What do you think about this?” asked Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware, the ranking Democrat on the panel, according to a transcript of the then-secret session… “I will tell you what I do not support, and John Kerry and I have talked about this: anybody sending drugs into this country,” Helms told his colleagues. “I do not care whose side they are on.”
2: Brought down BCCI.
From the same page:
BCCI was an international bank of Middle East origins whose employees asked few questions of their wealthy and powerful customers, making it a favorite of arms merchants, drug dealers, despots such as Noriega, and intelligence agencies. At the CIA, which sometimes used the bank to launder its own activities, it was known as the “Bank of Crooks and Criminals.”… Kerry’s investigation, launched in 1988, helped to close the bank three years later…
3: Led the reconciliation with Vietnam including the reckoning of POW/MIAs with John McCain.
The better part of that interview was Jon Stewart badgering Bonilla about what was considered in the ‘first most liberal’ and ‘fourth most liberal’ ratings for Kerry and Edwards, respectively. Considering the congressman never gave a direct answer, I’m guessing it’s not a good thing.