Kerry Wavers, But Eventually Rules Out ‘Boots On The Ground’ In Syria

BY BEN ARMBRUSTER/Think progress

Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday suggested that the Obama administration would not rule out the possibility that American troops would have to used as a consequence of any potential congressionally authorized military action against Syrian government targets in response to President Bashar al-Assad’s alleged chemical weapons use late last month. But Kerry clarified that the administration would welcome a provision prohibiting U.S. troops on the ground in Syria as part of a war authorization resolution.

During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ, the committee’s chairman, asked Kerry if “a prohibition for having American boots on the ground is that something that the administration would accept as part of a resolution.”

“It would be preferable not to, not because there’s any intention or any desire whatsoever to put boots on the ground,” Kerry replied. But he laid out a scenario in which U.S. troops might need to intervene inside Syria:

KERRY: I think the president will give you every assurance in the world as am I, as is the Secretary of Defense and the chairman, but in the event Syria imploded, for instance, or in the event there was a threat of a chemical weapons cache falling into the hands of al-Nusra or someone else and it was clearly in the interests of our allies and all of us, the British, the French and others, to prevent those weapons of mass destruction falling into the hands of the worst elements, I don’t want to take off the table, an option, that might or might not be available to a president of the United States to secure our country.

In making the case for military action in Syria, Obama administration officials have said it does not have any plans to introduce American troops into the conflict. President Obama said as much in his speech on Syria this Saturday.

“In that part of the world, there are ancient sectarian differences, and the hopes of the Arab Spring have unleashed forces of change that are going to take many years to resolve,” he said. “And that’s why we’re not contemplating putting our troops in the middle of someone else’s war.”

During the hearing on Tuesday, Menendez tried to clarify whether troops would be used for combat purposes. “Assuming that in the going to protect those weapons, whether or not they had to answer a shot in order to be secure, I don’t want to speak to that,” Kerry said. But the nation’s top diplomat then steered back to the administration’s pledge to not put U.S. troops in Syria.

“The bottom line is that the president has no intention, we do not want to put American troops on the ground to be involved in the fighting of this civil war,” Kerry said, later clarifying further that “[t]here is no problem in our having the language that has zero capacity” for U.S. troops in Syria.

Choice of Kerry May Harden Obama’s Foreign Policy Grip

By MARK LANDLER/New York Times

WASHINGTON — With a patrician bearing, nearly three decades of service on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a highly decorated combat career in the Vietnam War, even a father who was a diplomat, John Kerry is the very picture of a secretary of state.

“In a sense, John’s entire life has prepared him for this role,” President Obama said on Friday at the White House, as he nominated Mr. Kerry to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton, the first step in filling out a national security team for his second term.

Mr. Obama praised Mr. Kerry, 69, a Massachusetts Democrat, for having been immersed in “every major foreign-policy debate for nearly 30 years.”

But though Mr. Kerry would bring even deeper experience to the job than Mrs. Clinton did, his appointment is likely to further centralize policy decisions in the White House, where for the past four years the president and a small circle of advisers have kept a tight grip on issues like Iran’s nuclear program, China, Pakistan, and the winding down of the war in Afghanistan.

“There’s every reason to believe that we’re going to have a very White House-centric foreign policy,” said David J. Rothkopf, the chief executive of the Foreign Policy Group. “Kerry is going to have to show his loyalty and willingness to work within the Obama system.”

In contrast to Mrs. Clinton, whom Mr. Obama named to his cabinet after they competed against each other in the 2008 presidential primaries, Mr. Kerry has been a loyal supporter of the Obama administration, guiding an arms-reduction treaty with Russia to ratification in the Senate and playing diplomatic troubleshooter for the White House in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sudan.

He has also figured at critical moments in Mr. Obama’s career. At the 2004 Democratic National Convention that nominated him for president, Mr. Kerry gave the keynote speaking slot to Mr. Obama, then a little-known Illinois state senator, catapulting him to national prominence. In early 2008, Mr. Kerry endorsed him over Mrs. Clinton, and this fall he played the role of Mitt Romney in mock debates — sessions that by some accounts put the president’s teeth on edge.

“Nothing brings two people closer together than weeks of debate prep,” said Mr. Obama on Friday, looking at a grinning Mr. Kerry. “John, I’m looking forward to working with you instead of debating you.”

However lavish Mr. Obama’s praise, his instinctive choice for secretary of state was Susan E. Rice, the ambassador to the United Nations, who withdrew her name from consideration after Republicans threatened to block her nomination because of statements she made after the lethal attack on the American Mission in Benghazi, Libya.

Mr. Obama, his aides said, likes Ms. Rice’s blunt style and is in sync with her view of foreign policy, which places a premium on aggressively defending human rights.

As a result, Ms. Rice, who is staying in her post, remains a candidate for a major foreign-policy post in the second term, according to administration officials. Thomas E. Donilon, the national security adviser, is expected to stay on for a year or so, but Ms. Rice could be named to his job.

If she were to move into the White House, analysts said, that would pose a test for Mr. Kerry, given her access to Mr. Obama and their shared views on many foreign policy issues.

“The easiest model to see developing is one in which Kerry is on the road a lot, interfacing with foreign leaders, but the decision-making is done at the White House,” said Elliott Abrams, who held foreign-policy posts in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.

Mr. Obama expressed confidence that Mr. Kerry would be confirmed by his Senate colleagues, a prediction that seemed safe, given that at a recent news conference, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, one of Ms. Rice’s fiercest critics, jokingly referred to Mr. Kerry as “Mr. Secretary.”

Mrs. Clinton has not announced her resignation, but she has made it clear she would not stay beyond a single term. Because she is recovering from a concussion, she did not appear at the midday announcement. Mr. Obama said that he spoke to her on Friday morning, and reported that she was “in good spirits.”

In a statement, Mrs. Clinton said Mr. Kerry was a leader of the “highest caliber,” who had advocated on behalf of diplomacy and development in Congress.

Mr. Kerry is working with her to adopt the recommendations of a recent report that harshly criticized the State Department for lapses in security in Benghazi, she said. The Benghazi attack, analysts said, underscored the management challenge for a longtime senator like Mr. Kerry in taking over a sprawling worldwide bureaucracy. Former aides to Mr. Kerry point out that he did oversee a huge, if temporary, campaign operation in 2004, which, though criticized for tactical missteps, was not viewed as poorly managed.

Although Mr. Kerry is not a global celebrity like Mrs. Clinton, his background as a presidential nominee and his chairmanship of the Foreign Relations Committee have made him well known abroad, accustomed to meeting monarchs and presidents.

In October 2009, he was viewed as instrumental in persuading President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan to accept the need for a runoff election. Mr. Kerry spent 20 hours over five days with Mr. Karzai, telling him over dinner and in long walks in the garden of the presidential palace in Kabul of his own frustrations at the ballot box in 2004.

“I told him, ‘Sometimes there are tough things,’ ” Mr. Kerry said in an interview at the time.

Before Syria exploded in violence, Mr. Kerry met several times with its president, Bashar al-Assad, hoping to draw him into a more constructive role in the Middle East. His failed effort at engagement may elicit some tough questions from Mr. McCain and other Senate hawks.

As a senator, Mr. Kerry compiled a strong record on climate change, and environmental groups issued enthusiastic responses to his nomination. But Mr. Obama, pressed at a recent news conference, said climate change would take a back seat to the economy, at least for now.

For Mr. Kerry, exerting influence internally is likely to be the greatest challenge of the job he has long coveted. Friends and former aides predicted he would carve out a role, just as Mrs. Clinton did.

“John was someone who from an early age dreamed of being president,” said Jim Gomes, a former chief of staff to Mr. Kerry. “As someone who grew up in a Foreign Service family, who testified before Senate Foreign Relations after coming home from Vietnam and who wanted to serve on Foreign Relations, this is a pretty terrific Plan B.”

Top Romney Spokesperson Urged Kerry’s Presidential Campaign To Release More Tax Returns In 2004

By Igor Volsky/Think Progress

Mitt Romney’s campaign has pushed back against calls he release more tax returns by insisting that former presidential candidates have only publicized a couple of years of tax documents.

“Well, as you know, the standard of– of releasing fully two years of returns, which goes above what the law requires, was a standard that Senator John McCain had adhered to as the Republican nominee in the last presidential campaign,” Romney adviser Ed Gillespie explained on Meet The Press this Sunday. “This is standard Senator Kerry adhered to as the Democratic nominee in the– in the election before that.”

But Gillespie, who served as the Chairman of the Republican National Committee during the 2004 presidential election, must know that “Kerry had put a total of 20 years of tax returns into the public domain by the time he ran for president.” After all, throughout that campaign he personally insisted that Kerry’s wife Teresa Heinz-Kerry, who files taxes separately from her husband, publicize her tax information — a position that is in direct conflict with his current spin for Romney. From an October 14, 2004 RNC press release:

“Throughout history, presidential candidates have disclosed income tax information prior to Election Day. We believe Americans value disclosure and transparency in campaigns.

During the 2003 filing year, Sen. Kerry made a $6 million loan to his campaign based on the value of a home jointly owned with his wife.

“Were it not for that infusion of cash John Kerry might not be on the campaign trail today. Because of her financial interest in the presidential campaign of her husband, Teresa Heinz Kerry pledged to disclose her tax information on October 15. Tomorrow is October 15 and Americans will find out if they plan to keep that promise.”

Throughout the 2004 campaign, Republicans pressured Heinz-Kerry to publicize her tax returns, given her investment in her husband’s campaign. She eventually released more information in October of that year, as Gillespie insisted that the documents presented “a legitimate question” for voters. Eight years later, the former RNC head is singing a decidedly different tune.

ROMNEY LIES: Claims John Kerry Released 2 Years Of Tax Returns But Kerry Actually Released 20

By Judd Legum/Think Progress

In a CNBC interview with Larry Kudlow to air later tonight, Mitt Romney defends his decision to release only two years of tax returns — both filed after he decided to run for President — by claiming that 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry also released two years. From an advanced transcript:

KUDLOW: Why not release your tax returns? Why not go back 10 years?

Gov. ROMNEY: Well, we’ve had people run for president before, and they’ve released two years. John Kerry released two years of taxes.. I’ve released one already, put the estimate out for the next year. We’ll have two years of taxes..

In fact, John Kerry released not two years of returns, but 20. From an April 14, 2004 article by Byron York:

In addition to his 2003 returns, Kerry also released federal tax returns from the years 1999 to 2002 yesterday. There has been some dispute about returns for those years. Kerry has claimed that he had already released the returns — in January of this year, he said, “I released all my tax returns for 20 years. I have never not released my tax returns throughout my political career.” But aside from releasing details from his 2002 taxes — which showed a total income of $144,091 — it is not clear that Kerry has ever made public his returns from 1999 or 2000 or 2001 before now.

Thus far, Mitt Romney has only released one year of returns. Romney’s father, George Romney, released 12 years of returns, stating “one year could be a fluke, perhaps done for show.”

Sen. Kerry: Grover Norquist was 13th member of ‘super committee’

By Eric W. Dolan/Raw Story

Sen. John Kerry on Monday said Republicans prevented the debt “super committee” from reaching a deal in time because of their unwillingness to raise taxes.

The 12-member congressional panel announced Monday that they were unable to create a federal budget to cut U.S. deficits by at least $1.2 trillion over 10 years.

“We Democrats put a $4 trillion dollar plan on the table,” Kerry, one of the members of the committee, said on CNN before the committee announced it had failed.

“We had $1.3 trillion of cuts, and we had $1.3 trillion in revenue. Now, some of that revenue, we’re not asking that to happen tomorrow or the next day, it could happen in a year. This is a ten-year plan and longer. So we have the ability here to do something that’s fair for all Americans.”

“But unfortunately, this thing about the Bush tax cuts and the pledge to Grover Norquist keeps coming up,” Kerry continued. “Grover Norquist has been the 13th member of this committee without being there. I can’t tell you how many times we hear about ‘the pledge, the pledge.’ Well all of us took a pledge to uphold the Constitution and to full and faithfully and well-execute our duties and I think that requires us to try and reach an agreement.”

At least 279 Republican members of the current Congress have signed Norquist’s pledge to never raise taxes. Those who sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge vow to oppose any and all tax increases.

Watch video, courtesy of CNN, below:

Kerry Rips McConnell On START: ‘Just Because You Say It Doesn’t Make It True’

By Max Bergmann

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) confronted Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) immediately after he spoke on ratification of the New START treaty this morning. McConnell’s complaints about the process being rushed were too much for Kerry, who had overseen the treaty’s ratification and has frequently bent over backwards to appeaseRepublican concerns. Kerry ripped McConnell:

I would say to my friend from Kentucky: Just because you say it, doesn’t make it true. Our friends on the other side of the aisle have a habit of repeating things that have been completely refuted by every fact there is. … The facts are that this treaty is not being rushed.

This treaty has been delayed at the request of Republicans. It was delayed 13 times… to have more time to deal with the modernization issue, which the administration has completely, totally, thoroughly dealt with in good faith. I’d like to know where the good faith comes from on the other side. They [the administration] put extra money in, they sat and negotiated, they sent people to Arizona to brief Senator Kyl personally. For weeks we delayed the process of moving forward on this treaty in order accommodate our friends on the other side of the aisle. And now fully accommodated, with their requests entirely met, they come back and say ‘oh its being rushed.’ Well Mr. President today marks our sixth day of debate on the New START treaty. That’s a fact. … I mean is there no shame.

Watch it:

The primary complaint of Senate Republicans in regards to the New START treaty has centered on Senate process. But as Kerry’s remarks indicate these complaints are entirely unfounded. Instead, it was Senate Republicans who constantly advocated delay. In fact, prior to the election, Senate Republicans even suggested that the lame duck period was the appropriate time to have a vote. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) was for alame duck vote on the treaty in August before turning against it.

Yesterday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) complained that the Democrats’ decision to force a vote on DADT repeal and the DREAM Act this weekend had “poisoned” the Senate and that he would now consider voting against START merely some sort of protest.

As Major Garrett, the former Fox Correspondent said this morning, “When you can’t argue substance, you argue procedure.”

Kerry: ‘The only thing Republicans say yes to are Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, tea partiers, and Fox News.’

Campaigning for Massachusetts Democratic Senate candidate Martha Coakley on Friday, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) took a shot the “party of no.” Kerry argued that while Democrats in Congress and the Obama administration focused on governing for the past year, “the Republicans did nothing but say no.” After ticking off a list of items the Republicans have opposed, Kerry concluded:

They made a calculated political decision that they would say no to governance, create anger, and then let the anger fall on those who are struggling to make the choices and these tough decisions. And now, they have the gall to want to receive a bonus for doing it.

Well my friends, the only things the Republicans say yes to are Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, tea partiers, and Fox News.

Watch it: