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2004 Archives: December
2005 Archives: January
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Alexandra at - Sundance Film Festival
Alexandra Kerry is in Park City, Utah for the 2005 Sundance Film Festival! Pictures from all the evets at the 2005 Sundace Film Festival will be added soon. So check back later for more!
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January 23, 2005

For Kerry, a Strategic Return to the Limelight
WASHINGTON — A new old face popped up in the Capitol last week, just in time for President Bush's second inauguration. John Kerry was back. He had a prominent seat - front but not quite center - at Thursday's inaugural ceremony, where he gamely smiled when the Republican crowd on the National Mall booed his image on the giant television screen. Earlier in the week, he made headlines with his aggressive questioning of Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's nominee for secretary of state, and his announcement that he would vote against her. Like an actress arriving fashionably late for the Academy Awards, Mr. Kerry's return to the Senate - two weeks after the new Congress got underway - seemed intended to make a splash, as well as meet the delicate problem of how to re-enter the same political theater as the president he fought so hard to unseat. The last losing presidential contender to return to a prominent job in Washington was George McGovern, the Democratic senator who lost to Richard Nixon in 1972. Defeated presidents and vice presidents - Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush and Al Gore among them - quietly retreated to private life. Bob Dole, the Republican former senator who lost to President Clinton in 1996, became a pitchman for Viagra and Pepsi. Michael Dukakis, who lost to the first George Bush in 1988, went back to being governor of Massachusetts and wound up a pariah in his own party.

That is a fate Mr. Kerry wants to avoid. So he is reintroducing himself to Americans in a way calculated to keep his political fortunes alive. "In kind of a strange way, I think it was smart to step out on the week that Bush was stepping out," said Steve Jarding, a Democratic strategist. "He is letting people know that he's going to be in Bush's face every step of the way, and if you are John Kerry, that is exactly where you want to be." At a time when the nation remains bitterly divided and Democrats lack a national figurehead, Mr. Kerry's moves suggest that he is trying to set himself up as a kind of shadow president, a leader to the nearly 58 million Americans who voted for him.

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January 23, 2005

It's Pats vs. Steelers on the Kerry couch
Sen. John Kerry and the missus, ketchup heiress Teresa Heinz Kerry, will be rooting on their favorite football teams at home in Boston tonight. The Louisburg Square manse will need a neutral corner as Kerry cheers for the Patriots while his Pittsburgh-bred bride roots for the Steelers. "This will be an epic battle of fans, and John Kerry's sticking with his Patriots,'' said spokesman David Wade. When the Pats-Steelers last met in an AFC Championship tilt, back in 2002, Teresa, who owns her own Terrible Towel, left it on her husband's chair. Which prompted the junior senator to whip out his puffy Pats jacket and wear it to take the dog for a walk. Last year, the Heinz-Kerrys were campaigning in Fargo, N.D., when the Pats took home their second Vince Lombardi Trophy. But as Teresa told us back in 2002, "Football is just like politics. You do your best but sometimes things can happen.'' Let's just hope they keep happening to Teresa's Men of Steel!

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January 23, 2005

Will John Kerry run again? The ball is in Teresa's hands
Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry may want to consider running for president again in 2008. But his wife, local ketchup heiress Teresa Heinz Kerry of Fox Chapel, has made it clear she won't sit still for another campaign. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing," an unidentified Heinz Kerry friend told the Boston Herald. "Teresa will never do it again." Not necessarily, said Jeff Lewis, a Heinz Kerry spokesman. "Teresa Heinz is too smart to say that," he said. "She campaigned her heart out, as did her husband, it was hard work and a great experience and we'll just go from there." According to the Herald, sources say Heinz Kerry went into a deep funk after President George Bush was re-elected -- especially because her husband came so close to victory. "She was angry and hugely disappointed and (ticked) off," the Heinz Kerry friend told the Herald. "She wanted to win so badly."

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January 23, 2005

Kerry seeking role in spotlight
Sen. John Kerry searched for his new place in the political landscape as his rival took the oath of office for a second term as president. Mr. Kerry emerged after a brief hibernation from the rough-and-tumble of politics to fire broadsides at Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and to cast a vote that anchors the leftward lean of his Democratic Party. The Massachusetts senator's prominent perch at the inauguration Thursday, just to the left of President Bush, underscores the difficulty of returning in the glare of Republican domination of Washington. "It was very awkward," a Democratic aide said of the seat Mr. Kerry was assigned at the front edge of the inaugural balcony. "They wanted to embarrass him." Mr. Kerry privately expressed discomfort about the location of his seat. He speculated that Republicans wanted to position him so television cameras could easily capture his reaction to Mr. Bush's speech.
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January 23, 2005

Kerry seeking role in spotlight
Sen. John Kerry searched for his new place in the political landscape as his rival took the oath of office for a second term as president. Mr. Kerry emerged after a brief hibernation from the rough-and-tumble of politics to fire broadsides at Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and to cast a vote that anchors the leftward lean of his Democratic Party. The Massachusetts senator's prominent perch at the inauguration Thursday, just to the left of President Bush, underscores the difficulty of returning in the glare of Republican domination of Washington. "It was very awkward," a Democratic aide said of the seat Mr. Kerry was assigned at the front edge of the inaugural balcony. "They wanted to embarrass him." Mr. Kerry privately expressed discomfort about the location of his seat. He speculated that Republicans wanted to position him so television cameras could easily capture his reaction to Mr. Bush's speech.

Seats were assigned by the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, dominated by Republicans. The panel is chaired by Sen. Trent Lott, Mississippi Republican, and co-chaired by Sen. Christopher Dodd, Connecticut Democrat. A committee spokesman did not return a call Friday. Mr. Kerry arrived at his seat early and, despite scattered boos from Republicans in the crowd, smiled and waved. At one point, Mr. Kerry even joked with Republican parents with children in tow about wanting to "convert all these kids for the future." On Tuesday, Mr. Kerry made his first high-profile foray into the political fray since losing November's election when he sharply questioned Miss Rice. On Wednesday, he renewed his criticism and cast one of the two Judiciary Committee votes against her nomination. Mr. Kerry scolded Miss Rice for saying the insurgency in Iraq was some sort of unforeseen consequence after Saddam Hussein's army "melted away in the countryside."

"Well, that wasn't unforeseen," Mr. Kerry said. "It's exactly what they did in '91. And we in fact encouraged them to do it because we leafleted and broadcast and told them that if they disbanded, we would pay them and they would not suffer any consequences for putting down their arms and going home and getting out of uniform." Mr. Kerry then seemed to place some blame for the insurgency at the feet of Miss Rice and Mr. Bush."So, we told them to do that," he continued. "But we didn't pay them. We went back on that promise. And they got angry and organized." Mr. Kerry sent a letter to supporters explaining his stand against Miss Rice, along with Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, in the 16-2 committee vote. "Dr. Rice is a principal architect, implementer and defender of a series of administration policies that have not made our country as secure as we should be and have alienated much-needed allies in our common cause of winning the war against terrorism," Mr. Kerry wrote. "Regrettably, I did not see in Dr. Rice's testimony before our committee any acknowledgment of the need to change course or of a new vision for America's role in the world."
    

Mr. Kerry renewed his demand that the president fire Mr. Rumsfeld. "It's a question of competence," he said. "Poor planning at the Pentagon is letting American soldiers down." Mr. Kerry's strident re-emergence did not go unnoticed. The liberal New Republic magazine castigated Mr. Kerry for "idiocy" for harboring "sour grapes" over his election loss and for his handling of the Rice hearing, and continued: "At the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's January 18 hearing on Condoleezza Rice's appointment as secretary of state, John Kerry, still exhibiting the dark sulk he has been wearing since November 2 (as if the election's outcome, as in 2000, were really in dispute), addressed the nominee by repeating the confusing tropes about Iraq that helped lose him his big place in history." Mr. Kerry is confident of a mandate from his voters, a spokesman insisted. "John Kerry's returned to the Senate to be a voice for the 57 million Americans who voted for a new direction on November 2nd," David Wade said. "Anyone who knows John Kerry understands he's a fighter, and he's fighting with all his energy for the issues that have been his passion for decades, and he won't allow anyone in Washington to retreat from the promise of health care or a foreign policy that makes America safe. I don't envy the Tom DeLay Republicans who stand in his way."

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January 21, 2005

On his rival's big day, Kerry keeps low profile on the observation deck

WASHINGTON -- It was not John F. Kerry's day, not his win, not the moment he had hoped for -- to lay his hand on the Bible and pledge to uphold the Constitution of the United States as its 44th president.

If Kerry, a prominent observer at the inauguration, seated up front -- and slightly left of center -- on the Capitol's west side, was feeling wistful, he hid it well. He applauded politely when President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney took their oaths and playfully nudged the cowboy hat sported by his colleague seated in front of him, Democratic Senator Max Baucus of Montana. A few jeered when Kerry took his place on the Capitol stage, but the senator ignored them, instead chatting amiably to a group of Mississippi high school girls, many of whom wore ''Luv Ya Dubya" stickers, seated on the level beneath him.

In a navy blue coat and light blue scarf, the senator stood just steps away from the reelected president, singing along to ''America the Beautiful" and bowing his head during the opening and closing prayers.

Kerry declined interviews on a day that belonged to the GOP president, but released a statement saying he hoped the two major parties could work together. ''Democracy means working together for the good of our country; it also means keeping faith with your ideals," Kerry said. ''There has been a lot of talk over the past four years about uniting Americans. I hope now there will be a real effort to make true bipartisanship a priority."

Some of Kerry's Democratic colleagues were less conciliatory, suggesting they were not confident their voices would be welcomed in Bush's second term. ''When the inauguration bands stop playing and Congress comes back into session, we Democrats will be on guard and ready to fight against the Republicans' extreme policies once again," Senator Charles Schumer, Democrat of New York and incoming chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said in a fund-raising letter to supporters.

Representative Steny H. Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland and the House minority whip, said Bush must demonstrate by his actions that he is ready to be bipartisan. ''That is a challenge that he failed to meet in his first term, and I am hopeful that he will see the wisdom of embracing it in the second," Hoyer said.

Kerry stayed out of the rhetorical fray yesterday, although he has made it clear since his return to Congress that he will continue to question the Bush administration. Already, Kerry cast one of just two votes in the Foreign Relations Committee against the nomination of Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state.

Kerry's last hours before the swearing-in, whether by accident or by design, reflected a transition from presidential candidate to incumbent senator. On Wednesday night, the one-year anniversary of Kerry's comeback win in the Iowa caucuses, the senator attended a dinner party at the home of his close friend Jim Johnson, then drove to Capitol Hill to surprise some young Iowa campaign staffers who had gathered at the Hawk and Dove, a local bar, to commemorate the win that propelled Kerry's presidential candidacy forward.

At breakfast, downing his favorite morning meal of eggs, bacon, and whole-wheat toast, Kerry teased his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, about the NFL game this weekend that will pit her Pittsburgh Steelers against his New England Patriots. En route to the Capitol for the ceremony, Kerry called his friend and former swift boat crewmate, Del Sandusky, to wish him a happy birthday. Kerry's younger daughter, Vanessa, called from London to wish her father well.

At the office, Kerry forged ahead with the day-to-day business of being Massachusetts' junior senator, working with staff on a children's health bill he plans to offer on Monday, the first day senators can introduce legislation. In the Capitol Rotunda, Kerry posed for pictures with several people there who asked for them. Then he headed outside to watch the inaugural ceremony with his wife. Last night, Kerry planned a large dinner with friends and family, including Senator Edward M. Kennedy and Victoria Reggie Kennedy

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January 21, 2005

Defeated Kerry Sits in Cold, Applauds Bush
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) of Massachusetts, who had hoped to replace George W. Bush as president on Thursday, instead sat in the cold and clapped as the Republican began a second four-year term. Iowa Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin (news, bio, voting record) patted Kerry on the back shortly before the inauguration Kerry had hoped would be his. As Bush delivered his inaugural address, Kerry, about 30 feet away on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, joined other lawmakers and the crowd in repeated applause. Kerry looked relaxed, at times wistful. He frequently smiled, able to hide any disappointment over what might have been.

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January 21, 2005

Kerry, Democrats on hand for inaugural, but gird for battle
WASHINGTON -- Sen. John Kerry, who had hoped to be center stage Thursday, watched somberly from a seat far across the platform as President Bush took the oath of office, but he sounded a note of defiance as he looked ahead to the next four years. "Democracy means working together for the good of our country; it also means keeping faith with your ideals, never retreating from core convictions even as you work to find common ground," the four-term Massachusetts Democrat said in a statement. "We have strong differences and we argue and fight with all our hearts and energy, and our system endures because we Americans expect nothing less," said Kerry, who narrowly lost his bid for the White House.

On a day of celebration for Republicans, Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., took aim at the president and his party during a "counterinaugural ball" hosted by the liberal Americans for Democratic Action. "I don't deny President Bush his right to an inauguration," said McDermott, who is the group's president. "But you can't have it both ways. A costly war in Iraq and a party to excess at home seem to me to be just like drinking and driving. They don't mix." From Kerry, a bit of a shrug was the response when he was, as Bush took the oath of office, how he was doing. The senator and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, chatted with others on the inaugural platform, and he later attended the congressional luncheon. Rather than attend inaugural balls in the evening, Kerry gathered close family and friends at his Georgetown home for dinner. While civility was the public demeanor at the inauguration, many Democrats made it clear that once the president's big day was over, the battle will begin anew.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said he is hoping that the partisan rancor and squabbling of the past four years will give way to a more cooperative tone. "I am optimistic and confident today can be a new beginning, but it can only be a new beginning if that tone will carry forward," he said. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., used the inaugural as a fund-raising tool. Schumer, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, told supporters in a fund-raising e-mail that "when the inauguration bands stop playing and Congress comes back into session, we Democrats will be on guard and ready to fight against the Republicans' extreme policies once again." Pelosi said, "Personally, I don't feel much like celebrating. So I'm going to mark the occasion by pledging to do everything in my power to fight the extremist Republican's destructive agenda." In a similar e-mail to Democratic supporters, she sought donations to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, to "tell President Bush that party time is over."

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January 21, 2005

A Stoical Kerry on Bush's Day
It was just as John F. Kerry must have dreamed it would be: There he stood on the Capitol dais on a sunny Inauguration Day, looking presidential in blue scarf and overcoat, as the Marine Band played "Hail to the Chief" before the swearing-in. But wait! Something was terribly wrong. Kerry's seat assignment was in the seventh row. And every time they flashed his picture on the Jumbotron, the crowd -- full of wealthy Republicans -- jeered. It's no fun being the runner-up on Inauguration Day. To add to the poignancy for Kerry, it was a year and a day since his surprise victory in the Iowa caucus propelled him to the Democratic nomination and, almost, the presidency. And yet, Kerry seemed to embrace the role of loser with ironic amusement. The senator from Massachusetts took a seat up front, where he was sure to be seen on television playing the part of Good Sport. When the color guard approached, he clutched his breast as if suffering a bout of arrhythmia. When the national anthem played, he sang as if he were Denyce Graves. When President Bush spoke, he clapped politely -- and gazed over the Mall with a faraway look.

But Kerry betrayed little of the pain that was so evident when Al Gore stood on the same platform in defeat four years ago. For Gore, it was the beginning of his disappearance from public life and his conversion into a chunky, bearded professor. For Kerry, this is a week of reemergence. Before the inauguration, he fired off two e-mails to his supporters, one highlighting his vote Wednesday against Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state and one demanding Donald H. Rumsfeld's resignation as defense secretary.

"Democracy means working together for the good of our country; it also means keeping faith with your ideals, never retreating from core convictions even as you work to find common ground," Kerry said in a statement his office released yesterday morning. On Monday, he will introduce a plan to provide health coverage to all children, picking a fight with GOP lawmakers and the White House.

If Kerry has political combat on the mind, it wasn't out of place yesterday. The festivities at the Capitol at times resembled a campaign rally more than the solemn inaugural ritual. The big donors -- the "underwriters" who gave $250,000 for the inauguration and the "sponsors" who could afford no more than $100,000 -- sat up front in "Perfect Party" plastic folding chairs. Farther back, demonstrators unfurled an antiwar sign and booed Bush before they were shouted down by supporters who chanted "USA!"

The result was predictably partisan: dueling cheers, from the orchestra seats for former president George H.W. Bush, and from the cheap seats for former president Bill Clinton. The inaugural committee skipped the likes of "America the Beautiful" for Utah Sen. Orrin G. Hatch's ditty, "Heal Our Land," and outgoing attorney general John D. Ashcroft's schmaltzy "Let the Eagle Soar" ("This country's far too young to die/Though she's cried a bit for what we've put her through").

In some ways, Kerry has moved beyond his loss. His Inauguration Day breakfast conversation with his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, an aide said, was about Sunday's football playoff between his New England Patriots and her Pittsburgh Steelers -- at Heinz Field. But the candidate hasn't entirely emerged from the campaign and a topsy-turvy Election Day in which early exit polls showed him winning. The night before the inauguration, he had drinks at the Hawk and Dove on Capitol Hill to remember his Iowa conquest with former campaign staffers.

Nor has the other side forgotten Kerry. When the former candidate emerged on the West Front of the Capitol yesterday morning and his smiling image was broadcast, the crowd booed and groaned. One man could be heard to call out, "Loser!" Kerry took his seat alongside an old friend, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), and quickly got to the task at hand: projecting both equanimity and magnanimity.

He admired Harkin's new Stetson. He playfully knocked a 10-gallon hat that was obstructing his view of the lectern off the head of Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.). When Vice President Cheney entered, he stood and offered a wan smile. When Bush entered, he stood and applauded politely until the last bars of "Hail to the Chief." When Bush took his oath, Kerry forced a tight, crooked smile -- the sort of expression that, on Bush's face, is commonly called a smirk.

As Bush read an address full of the religious imagery that helped to mobilize voters against Kerry -- "the image of the Maker," "the truths of Sinai" -- Kerry listened politely, applauded lightly and shifted in his seat. When demonstrators interrupted Bush, Kerry looked toward the commotion, where one protester had unfurled a banner proclaiming "No More War" and another was loudly booing the president.

The speech over, Bush and Cheney waved to the cheering crowd. Off to the side, Harkin put his arm on Kerry's back and offered some private condolence. Kerry hugged his colleague and then closed his eyes and bowed his head for the closing prayer. Only when the minister mention those "ensnarled in petty partisan politics" did the former nominee indulge in a wry smile.

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January 20, 2005

Kerry, watching from Row 7, sounds a note of defiance
WASHINGTON - It's no fun being the runner-up on inauguration day. To add to the poignancy for Sen. John Kerry, Thursday's inauguration was a year and a day since his surprise victory in the Iowa caucus propelled him to the Democratic nomination and, almost, the presidency. Kerry's seat assignment was in the seventh row as President Bush took the oath of office. And every time they flashed his picture on the Jumbotron, the crowd — full of wealthy Republicans — jeered. But he sounded a note of defiance as he looked ahead to the next four years. "Democracy means ... keeping faith with your ideals, never retreating from core convictions even as you work to find common ground," Kerry said in a statement. Some Kerry campaign staffers simply got out of town. Some booked a cruise. Others, like former campaign communications director Stephanie Cutter, headed to the beach. "I lived through it once. I don't need to live through it again," she said.

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2005 Archives: January