Let The Ego Soar
by digby
So Bob Kerrey is going to campaign for Lieberman. This is not surprising. He was Lieberman before Lieberman was Lieberman — a grandstanding, narcissistic pain in the ass.
Clinton had to twist a lot of Democratic arms and bow and scrape before a lot of inflated Democratic egos, but Kerrey was in a class by himself:
With Vice President Al Gore casting the tie-breaking vote, the Senate gave final Congressional approval tonight to President Clinton’s five-year economic program.
This means that the budget plan, the most important legislative issue of the Clinton Presidency so far, cleared Congress by the narrowest possible margin and awaits only the President’s signature before becoming law. Enactment of the legislation was viewed at the White House as essential to Mr. Clinton’s ultimate success as President.
The outcome was in doubt until Senator Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, the last Senator to announce which way he would vote, declared on the Senate floor at 8:30 P.M. that he would support Mr. Clinton.
At the White House today, Mr. Clinton met for more than an hour with Senator Kerrey in the morning and spent much of the rest of the day on the telephone thanking Democrats who had voted for his plan in the House of Representatives.
After the Senate vote, President Clinton emerged from the White House to greet cheering supporters who had gathered at the front steps.
“This was not easy, but real change is never easy,” he told them. “After 12 long years, we can say to the American people tonight, We have laid a foundation for a renewal of the American dream.”
[…]
George J. Mitchell of Maine, the Democratic leader, declared: “The American people want change. They voted for change last year. And tonight we’re going to deliver change. President Clinton has given us a fair plan. I say it’s fair to give him a chance.”
But Senator Pete V. Domenici of New Mexico, the top Republican on the Budget Committee, said the increased taxes in the program would devastate the economy.
[…]
Mr. Kerrey, the swing vote, played Hamlet all day.
At 6 P.M., White House officials and Senate Democratic leaders said that they believed Mr. Kerrey was on their side but admitted that they did not know for sure. At 7:55, his fellow Nebraskan, Senator J. James Exon, indicated to the Senate in a speech that he did not know how Mr. Kerrey would vote.
When Mr. Kerrey announced his position to the Senate, he said he did not trust the Republicans to improve the economy if he decided to vote with them to kill Mr. Clinton’s plan. Addressing the President, he declared, “I could not and should not cast a vote that brings down your Presidency.”
Mr. Kerrey had called the President at the White House only moments earlier to inform him of his decision. After their meeting this morning, Mr. Clinton called Mr. Kerrey in the Senate cloakroom to urge him once again to support the plan.
“Obviously, the President’s very happy about Senator Kerrey’s vote,” Dee Dee Myers, the White House press secretary, said tonight after the announcement.
[…]
Senator Kerrey was perhaps the most critical of plan among those who voted for it. “My heart aches with the conclusion that I will vote ‘yes’ for a bill which challenges Americans too little,” he said.
[…]
Unlike the House members, many of whom were on the fence when the debate began, all senators but Mr. Kerrey had announced how they would vote before today. It is safe to say that no one’s position was changed by any one else’s speech.
What a pleasure it must have been to deal with him — kind of like dealing with Britney Spears before she’s had her first Dr Pepper.
Kerrey went on to make an ass of himself many times over the next few years. And he and Lieberman (along with the sainted drunk Moynihan) have a long history of being santimonious, self-centered pricks together:
While they were thoughtful and measured, Mr. Lieberman’s remarks were the most pointed of any Democrat thus far, and threatened to undermine an intense drive by the White House and leading Democrats to contain the political fallout from Mr. Clinton’s disclosure two weeks ago that he had had an improper relationship with Ms. Lewinsky.
The Senator’s comments immediately prompted two of Mr. Lieberman’s Democratic colleagues, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York and Senator Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, to break their silence and rise to the Senate floor to praise Mr. Lieberman — and offer more bristling words for the President. And Republicans, including the Senate majority leader, Trent Lott, lauded Mr. Lieberman’s for what Mr. Lott termed his ”moral compass.’
Maybe all these egomaniacs can join the “Unity” party. They’ll be so busy shoving each other away from the mirror they won’t have time to muck things up the way they usually do.
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