Name	John Kerry
Nationality	U.S. Citizen
Jr/sr	Senior Senator
Alongside	Scott Brown
State	Massachusetts
Party	Democratic
Term start	January 2, 1985
Preceded	Paul Tsongas
Birth date	December 11, 1943
Birth place	Aurora, Colorado
Occupation	Attorney
Residence	Boston, Massachusetts
Spouse	Julia Thorne (divorced) Teresa Heinz
Children	Alexandra Kerry Vanessa Kerry H. John Heinz IV (stepson) Andre Heinz (stepson) Christopher Heinz (stepson)
Alma mater	Yale University (B.A.) Boston College (J.D.)
Religion	Roman Catholic
Order2	66th Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts
Term start2	January 6, 1983
Term end2	January 2, 1985
Governor2	Michael Dukakis
Predecessor2	Thomas P. O'Neill III
Successor2	Evelyn Murphy (1987)
Order3	Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
Term start3	January 6, 2009
Predecessor3	Joe Biden
Order4	Chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
Term start4	January 4, 2007
Term end4	January 3, 2009
Predecessor4	Olympia Snowe
Successor4	Mary Landrieu
Term start5	June 6, 2001
Term end5	January 3, 2003
Predecessor5	Kit Bond
Successor5	Olympia Snowe
Term start6	January 3
Term end6	January 20, 2001
Predecessor6	Kit Bond
Successor6	Kit Bond
Order7	Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs
Term start7	August 2, 1991
Term end7	January 2, 1993
Signature	John Kerry Signature2.svg
Website	kerry.senate.gov
Allegiance	United States of America
Branch	United States Navy
Serviceyears	1966–1970
Rank	Lieutenant
Commands	PCF-44, PCF-94
Unit	Coastal Squadron 1
Battles	Vietnam War
Awards	Silver Star Bronze Star Purple Heart (3)

John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He became the senior Senator from Massachusetts after the 2009 death of Senator Edward M. Kennedy. He is currently the 10th most senior Senator. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost by 34 electoral votes to President George W. Bush. Senator Kerry is a decorated Vietnam veteran, and was a spokesman for Vietnam Veterans Against the War when he returned home from service. Before entering the Senate, he served as an Assistant District Attorney and Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts under Michael Dukakis, who ran for President in 1988.

Biography

Kerry is the child of Richard Jerry Kerry (1915–2000), a Foreign Service Officer and an attorney for the Bureau of United Nations Affairs, and Rosemary Forbes Kerry (1913–2002), a World War II nurse and member of the wealthy Scottish-American Forbes family. He has three siblings: two sisters, Diana (born in 1947) and Margerie (aka Peggy; born in 1941) and a brother, Cameron (born in 1950), Cameron Kerry was picked to be Barack Obama's general counsel of the Commerce Department.

His immediate family members were reportedly observant Roman Catholics. As a child, Kerry served as an altar boy. Although the extended family enjoyed a great fortune, Kerry's parents themselves were upper-middle class; a wealthy great aunt paid for Kerry to attend elite schools in Europe and New England. Kerry spent his summers at the Forbes family estate in Brittany, and there, he enjoyed a more opulent lifestyle than he had previously known in Massachusetts.

It was discovered in 2003 by genealogist Felix Gundacker, working with The Boston Globe, that Kerry's paternal grandparents, who had been born "Fritz Kohn" and "Ida Löwe" in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, changed their names to "Frederick and Ida Kerry" in 1900 and converted from Judaism to Roman Catholicism in 1901 or 1902. Fritz' elder brother Otto had earlier, in 1887 enjoys surfing and windsurfing, as well as ice hockey, hunting and playing bass guitar. According to an interview he gave to Rolling Stone magazine in 2004, Kerry's favorite album is Abbey Road and he is a fan of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, as well as of Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Buffett. He never liked heavy metal. During his 2004 presidential campaign, Kerry used Bruce Springsteen's "No Surrender" as one of his campaign songs. Later he would adopt U2's "Beautiful Day" as his official campaign song.

Kerry is described by Sports Illustrated, among others, as an "avid cyclist", primarily riding on a road bike. Prior to his Presidential bid, Kerry was known to have participated in several long-distance rides (centuries). Even during his many campaigns, he was reported to have visited bicycle stores both in his home state and elsewhere. His staff requested recumbent stationary bikes for his hotel rooms.

Kerry appeared in a cameo as himself on the April 30, 1992 episode of the hit television sitcom Cheers, in the episode, "Bar Wars VI: This Time It's For Real."

In 2003, Kerry was diagnosed with and successfully treated for prostate cancer.

Family

Kerry was married to Julia Thorne in 1970, and they had two daughters together: Alexandra and Vanessa. Alexandra was born on September 5, 1973, days before Kerry began law school. A graduate of Brown University, she received her M.F.A. in June 2004 from the AFI Conservatory. She is a documentary filmmaker. Vanessa was born on December 31, 1976. She is a graduate of Phillips Academy (like her grandfather) and Yale University, and attended Harvard Medical School and a master's program in health policy at the London School of Economics. Both daughters were active in their father's 2004 Presidential campaign.

In 1982 Thorne, who was suffering from severe depression, asked Kerry for a separation. They were divorced on July 25, 1988, and the marriage was formally annulled in 1997. "After 14 years as a political wife, I associated politics only with anger, fear and loneliness" she wrote in A Change of Heart, her book about depression. Thorne later married Richard Charlesworth, an architect, and moved to Bozeman, Montana, where she became active in local environmental groups such as the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. Thorne supported Kerry's 2004 presidential run. She died of cancer on April 27, 2006.

Kerry and his second wife, Teresa Simões-Ferreira Heinz, the widow of Pennsylvania Senator H. John Heinz III, a Republican, and former United Nations interpreter were introduced to each other by John Heinz at an Earth Day rally in 1990. They did not meet again until after John Heinz's death, at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. They married on May 26, 1995, in Nantucket. John Kerry's stepsons Teresa's three sons from her previous marriage are H. John Heinz IV, André Heinz and Christopher Heinz, who married Alexandra DeRuyter Lewis on February 10, 2007.

The Forbes 400 survey estimated in 2004 that Teresa Heinz Kerry had a net worth of $750 million. However, estimates have frequently varied, ranging from around $165 million to as high as $3.2 billion, according to a study in the Los Angeles Times. Regardless of which figure is correct, Kerry is the wealthiest U.S. Senator. Kerry is wealthy in his own name, and is the beneficiary of at least four trusts inherited from Forbes family members, including his mother, who died in 2002. Forbes magazine (a major business magazine named for an unrelated Forbes family) estimated that if elected, Kerry would have been the third-richest U.S. President in history when adjusted for inflation. This assessment was based on the couple's combined assets, but Kerry and Heinz signed a prenuptial agreement that keeps their assets separate. Kerry's financial disclosure form for 2002 put his personal assets in the range of $409,000 to $1.8 million, with additional assets held jointly by Kerry and his wife in the range of $300,000 to $600,000.

Religious beliefs

A Roman Catholic, Kerry was said to carry a rosary, a prayer book, and a St. Christopher medal (the patron saint of travelers) when he campaigned. However, while Kerry is personally against abortion, he supports a woman's legal right to have one, which puts him at odds with the Catholic Church. Similar tension exists between the Church and several other Catholic national political figures, including Rudy Giuliani, George Pataki, Nancy Pelosi, Tom Ridge, Tom Vilsack (one of his possible vice-presidential choices in the 2004 election), Joe Biden, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Discussing his faith, Kerry said, "I thought of being a priest. I was very religious while at school in Switzerland. I was an altar boy and prayed all the time. I was very centered around the Mass and the church." He also said that the Letters of Paul moved him the most, stating that they taught him to "not feel sorry for myself."

According to Christianity Today, Kerry remarks about his faith: }}

Early years (1943–1966)

Childhood

Kerry was born in Aurora, Colorado at Fitzsimmons Army Hospital on December 11, 1943; his father was a member of the Army Air Corp at the time.

Kerry has said that his first memory is from when he was three years old, of holding his crying mother's hand while they walked through the broken glass and rubble of her childhood home in Saint-Briac, France. This visit came two and a half years after the United States had liberated Saint-Briac from the Nazis on August 14, 1944. The family estate, known as Les Essarts, had been occupied and used as a Nazi headquarters during the war. When the Germans abandoned it, they bombed Les Essarts and burned it down.

The sprawling estate was rebuilt in 1954. Kerry and his parents would often spend the summer holidays there. During these summers, he became good friends with his first cousin Brice Lalonde, a future Socialist and Green Party leader in France, who ran for president of France in 1981.

While his father was stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Oslo, Norway, Kerry was sent to Massachusetts to attend boarding school. In 1957, he attended the Fessenden School in West Newton, a village in Newton, Massachusetts. The Fessenden School is the oldest all-boys independent junior boarding school in the country. There he met and became friends with Richard Pershing, grandson of First World War U.S. Gen. John Joseph Pershing. Former Massachusetts senator Ted Kennedy also attended the Fessenden School, although several years prior to Kerry.

The following year, he enrolled at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, and graduated from there in 1962. Kerry learned skills in public speaking and began developing interest in politics. In his free time, he enjoyed ice hockey and lacrosse, which he played on teams captained by classmate Robert S. Mueller III, the current director of the FBI. Kerry also played bass guitar for the prep school's band The Electras, which produced an album in 1961. Only five hundred copies were made—one was auctioned on eBay in 2004 for $2,551.

In 1959, Kerry founded the John Winant Society at St. Paul's to debate the issues of the day; the Society still exists there. In November 1960, Kerry gave his first political speech, in favor of John F. Kennedy's election to the White House.

In 1962, Kerry was a volunteer for Ted Kennedy's first Senatorial campaign. The summer after his graduation from St. Paul's, he dated Janet Jennings Auchincloss, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy's half-sister. Auchincloss invited Kerry to visit her family's estate, Hammersmith Farm, in Rhode Island where Kerry met President John F. Kennedy for the first time.

According to Kerry, when he told the president he was about to enter Yale University, Kennedy grimaced, because he had gone to rival Harvard University. Kerry later recalled, "He smiled at me, laughed and said: 'Oh, don't worry about it. You know I'm a Yale man too now.'" According to Kerry "The President uttered that famous comment about how he had the best of two worlds now: a Harvard education and Yale degree", in reference to the honorary degree he had received from Yale a few months earlier. Later that day, a White House photographer snapped a photo of Kerry sailing with Kennedy and his family in Narragansett Bay.

Yale University

In 1962, Kerry entered Yale University, majoring in political science. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1966. Kerry played on the soccer, hockey, lacrosse and fencing teams; in addition, he took flying lessons. His involvement with the Political Union gave him an opportunity to be involved with important issues of the day, such as the civil rights movement and Kennedy's New Frontier program. He was also a member of the secretive Skull and Bones Society. He also traveled to Switzerland through AIESEC Yale.

Under the guidance of the speaking coach and history professor Rollin Osterweis, Kerry won many debates against other college students from across the nation. In March 1965, as the Vietnam War escalated, he won the Ten Eyck prize as the best orator in the junior class for a speech that was critical of U.S. foreign policy. In the speech he said, "It is the spectre of Western imperialism that causes more fear among Africans and Asians than communism and thus, it is self-defeating."

Kerry, viewed as a capable speaker, was chosen to give the class oration at graduation. His speech was a broad criticism of American foreign policy, including the Vietnam War, in which he would soon participate.

Military service (1966–1970)

Duty on the USS Gridley

On February 18, 1966, Kerry enlisted in the Naval Reserve. He began his active duty military service on August 19, 1966. After completing sixteen weeks of Officer Candidate School at the U.S. Naval Training Center in Newport, Rhode Island, Kerry received his officer's commission on December 16, 1966. During the 2004 election, Kerry posted his military records at his website, and permitted reporters to inspect his medical records. In 2005, Kerry released his military and medical records to the representatives of three news organizations, but has not authorized full public access to those records.

Kerry's first tour of duty was as an ensign on the guided missile frigate in 1968. The executive officer of the Gridley described the deployment as: "We deployed from San Diego to the Vietnam theatre in early 1968 after only a six-month turnaround, and spent most of a four month deployment on rescue station in the Gulf of Tonkin, standing by to pick up downed aviators."

During his tour on the Gridley, Kerry requested duty in Vietnam, listing as his first preference a position as the commander of a Fast Patrol Craft (PCF), also known as a "Swift boat." These boats have aluminum hulls and have little or no armor, but are heavily armed and rely on speed. "I didn't really want to get involved in the war", Kerry said in a book of Vietnam reminiscences published in 1986. "When I signed up for the swift boats, they had very little to do with the war. They were engaged in coastal patrolling and that's what I thought I was going to be doing." However, his second choice of billet was on a river patrol boat, or "PBR", which at the time was serving a more dangerous duty on the rivers of Vietnam.

On January 22, 1969, Kerry and several other officers had a meeting in Saigon with Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, the commander of U.S. Naval forces in Vietnam, and U.S. Army General Creighton Abrams, the overall commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam. Kerry and the other officers reported that the "free-fire zone" policy was alienating the Vietnamese and that the Swift boats' actions were not accomplishing their ostensible goal of interdicting Viet Cong supply lines. According to his biographer, Douglas Brinkley, Kerry and the other visiting officers felt their concerns were dismissed with what amounted to a pep talk (Tour of Duty, pp. 254–261).

Military honors

During the night of December 2, 1968 and early morning of December 3, 1968, Kerry was in charge of a small boat operating near a peninsula north of Cam Ranh Bay together with a Swift boat (PCF-60). According to Kerry and the two crewmen who accompanied him that night, Patrick Runyon and William Zaladonis, they surprised a group of men unloading sampans at a river crossing, who began running and failed to obey an order to stop. As the men fled, Kerry and his crew opened fire on the sampans and destroyed them, then rapidly left. During this encounter, Kerry received a shrapnel wound in the left arm above the elbow. It was for this injury that Kerry received his first Purple Heart.

Kerry received his second Purple Heart for a wound received in action on the Bo De River on February 20, 1969. The plan had been for the Swift boats to be accompanied by support helicopters. On the way up the Bo De, however, the helicopters were attacked. They returned to their base to refuel and were unable to return to the mission for several hours.

As the Swift boats reached the Cua Lon River, Kerry's boat was hit by a RPG round, and a piece of shrapnel hit Kerry's left leg, wounding him. Thereafter, they had no more trouble, and reached the Gulf of Thailand safely. Kerry still has shrapnel in his left thigh because the doctors tending to him decided to remove the damaged tissue and close the wound with sutures rather than make a wide opening to remove the shrapnel. Kerry received his second Purple Heart for this injury, but like several others wounded earlier that day, he did not lose any time off from duty.

Eight days later, on February 28, 1969, came the events for which Kerry was awarded his Silver Star. On this occasion, Kerry was in tactical command of his Swift boat and two others in an eight boat formation. Their mission on the Duong Keo river included bringing a demolition team and dozens of South Vietnamese Marines to destroy enemy sampans, structures and bunkers as described in the story The Death Of PCF 43. Running into an ambush, Kerry "directed the boats to turn to the beach and charge the Viet Cong positions" and he "expertly directed" his boat's fire and coordinated the deployment of the South Vietnamese troops, according to the original medal citation (signed by Admiral Zumwalt). Going a short distance farther, Kerry's boat was the target of an RPG round; as the boat beached at the site, a VC with a rocket launcher jumped and ran from a spider hole. While the boat's gunner opened fire, wounding the VC on the leg, and while the other boats approached and offered cover fire, Kerry jumped from the boat and chased the VC and killed him, capturing a loaded rocket launcher.

On March 13, 1969, five Swift boats were returning to base together on the Bay Hap river from their missions that day, after a firefight earlier in the day (during which time Kerry received a slight shrapnel wound in the buttocks from blowing up a rice bunker), and debarking some but not all of the passengers at a small village. They approached a fishing weir (a series of poles across the river for hanging nets), so that one group of boats went around left, hugging the shore, and a group with Kerry's 94 boat went around right along the shoreline. A mine was detonated directly beneath the lead boat, PCF-3, as it crossed the weir to the left, lifting PCF-3 completely into the air.

James Rassmann, a Green Beret advisor who was aboard PCF-94, was knocked overboard when, according to witnesses and the documentation of the event, a mine or rocket exploded close to the boat. According to the documentation for the event, Kerry's arm was injured when he was thrown against a bulkhead during the explosion. PCF 94 returned to the scene and Kerry rescued Rassmann from the water. Kerry received the Bronze Star for his actions during this incident; he also received his third Purple Heart.

After the crew of PCF-3 had been rescued, and the most seriously wounded sailors evacuated by two of the PCFs, PCF 94 and another boat remained behind and helped salvage the stricken boat together with a damage-control party that had been immediately dispatched to the scene.

Controversy

As the presidential campaign of 2004 developed, approximately 200 Vietnam veterans (none of whom had served with Kerry) formed the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT), subsequently renamed Swift Vets and POWs for Truth, which held press conferences, ran ads and endorsed a book questioning Kerry's service record and his military awards.

Return from Vietnam

After Kerry's third qualifying wound, he was entitled per Navy regulations to re-assignment away from combat duties. Navy records show that Kerry's preferred choice for re-assignment was as an aide in Boston, New York or Washington, D.C.

On March 26, 1969, after a final patrol the night before, Kerry was transferred to Cam Ranh Bay to await his orders. He was there for five or six days and left Vietnam in early April. On April 11, 1969, he reported to the Brooklyn-based Atlantic Military Sea Transportation Service, where he would remain on active duty for the following year as a personal aide to an officer, Rear Admiral Walter Schlech. On January 1, 1970 Kerry was temporarily promoted to full Lieutenant. Kerry had agreed to an extension of his active duty obligation from December 1969 to August 1970 in order to perform Swift Boat duty, but in January, 1970, he requested early discharge in order to run for Congress the following fall. He was discharged from active duty on March 1, 1970.

John Kerry was on active duty in the United States Navy from August 1966 until January 1970. He continued to serve in the Naval Reserve until February 1978. Kerry lost at least five friends in the war including Yale classmate Richard Pershing, who was killed in action on February 17, 1968.

Anti-war activism (1970–1971)

After returning to the United States, Kerry joined the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW). Then numbering about 20,000, VVAW was considered by some (including the administration of President Richard Nixon) to be an effective, if controversial, component of the antiwar movement.

On April 22, 1971, Kerry became the first Vietnam veteran to testify before Congress about the war, when he appeared before a Senate committee hearing on proposals relating to ending the war. He was still a member of the United States Navy Reserve, holding the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade. Wearing green fatigues and service ribbons, he spoke for nearly two hours with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in what has been named the Fulbright Hearing, after the Chairman of the proceedings, Senator J.W. Fulbright. Kerry began with , in which he presented the conclusions of the Winter Soldier Investigation, and then went on to address larger policy issues.

The day after this testimony, Kerry participated in a demonstration with thousands of other veterans in which he and other veterans threw their medals and ribbons over a fence erected at the front steps of the United States Capitol building to dramatize their opposition to the war. Jack Smith, a Marine, read a statement explaining why the veterans were returning their military awards to the government. For more than two hours, almost 1000 angry veterans tossed their medals, ribbons, hats, jackets, and military papers over the fence. Each veteran gave his or her name, hometown, branch of service and a statement. As Kerry threw his decorations over the fence, his statement was: "I'm not doing this for any violent reasons, but for peace and justice, and to try and make this country wake up once and for all." The documentary film Sir! No Sir! includes archival footage of Kerry at the demonstration: he is one of several young men seen throwing things over the fence.

Media appearances

Because Kerry was a decorated veteran who took a stand against the government's official position, he was frequently interviewed by broadcast and print media. He was able to use these occasions to bring the themes of his Senate testimony to a wider audience.

For example, Kerry appeared more than once on The Dick Cavett Show on ABC television. On one Cavett program (June 30, 1971), in debating John O'Neill, Kerry argued that some of the policies instituted by the U.S. military leaders in Vietnam, such as free-fire zones and burning noncombatants' houses, were contrary to the laws of war. In the Washington Star newspaper (June 6, 1971), he recounted how he and other Swift boat officers had become disillusioned by the contrast between what the leaders told them and what they saw: "That's when I realized I could never remain silent about the realities of the war in Vietnam."

On NBC's Meet The Press in 1971, Kerry was asked whether he had personally committed atrocities in Vietnam. He responded:

Operation POW

Kerry's prominence also made him a frequent leader and spokesman at antiwar events around the country in 1971. One of particular note was Operation POW, organized by the VVAW in Massachusetts. The protest got its name from the group's concern that Americans were prisoners of the Vietnam War, as well as to honor American POWs held captive by North Vietnam.

The event sought to tie antiwar activism to patriotic themes. Over the Memorial Day weekend, veterans and other participants marched from Concord to a rally on Boston Common. The plan was to invoke the spirit of the American Revolution and Paul Revere by spending successive nights at the sites of the Battle of Lexington and Concord and the Battle of Bunker Hill, culminating in a Memorial Day rally with a public reading of the Declaration of Independence.

The second night of the march, May 29, 1971, was the occasion for Kerry's only arrest, when the participants tried to camp on the village green in Lexington. At 2:30 a.m. on May 30, 1971, local and state police awoke and arrested 441 demonstrators, including Kerry, for trespassing. All were given the Miranda Warning and were hauled away on school buses to spend the night at the Lexington Public Works Garage. Kerry and the other protesters later paid a $5 fine, and were released. The mass arrests caused a community backlash and ended up giving positive coverage to the VVAW.

Despite his role in Operation POW and other VVAW events, Kerry eventually quit the organization over leadership differences. Kerry has been criticized regarding VVAW—see John Kerry VVAW controversy for more details.

Early political career (1972–1985)

1972 campaign

In February 1972, after Kerry previously passed on an opportunity to run in another district, his wife, Julia bought a house in Worcester. Residence there would have required Kerry to run for Congress against an incumbent Democrat, Harold D. Donohue. Instead however, the couple rented an apartment in Lowell. The incumbent in that district, F. Bradford Morse, was a Republican who was thought to be retiring.

Counting Kerry, the Democratic primary race in 1972 had 10 candidates. One of these was State Representative Anthony R. DiFruscia of Lawrence. Both Kerry's and DiFuscia's campaign HQs were in the same building. On the eve of the September primary, Kerry's younger brother Cameron and campaign field director Thomas J. Vallely, both then 22 years old, were found by police in the basement of this building, where the telephone lines were located. They were arrested and charged with "breaking and entering with the intent to commit grand larceny", but the case was dismissed about a year later. At the time of the incident, DiFruscia alleged that they were trying to disrupt his get-out-the vote efforts. Vallely and Cameron Kerry maintained that they were only checking their own telephone lines because they had received an anonymous call warning that the Kerry lines would be cut.

Although Kerry's campaign was hurt by the election-day report of the arrest, he still won the primary, narrowly beating state Representative Paul J. Sheehy. DiFruscia placed third. Kerry lost in Lawrence and Lowell, his chief opponents' bases, but placed first in 18 of the district's 22 towns.

In the general election, Kerry was initially favored to defeat the Republican candidate, former state Representative Paul W. Cronin, and an independent, Roger P. Durkin. A major obstacle, however, was the district's leading newspaper, the conservative leaning Sun. The paper editorialized against him. It also ran critical news stories about his out-of-state contributions and his "carpetbagging", because he had moved into the district only in April. Subsequently released "Watergate" Oval Office tape recordings of the Nixon White House showed that defeating Kerry's candidacy had attracted the personal attention of President Nixon.

The final blow came when, four days before the election, Durkin withdrew in favor of Cronin. Cronin won the election, becoming the only Republican to be elected to Congress that November in a district carried by Democratic Presidential nominee George McGovern.

District Attorney tenure

After Kerry's 1972 defeat, he and his wife bought a house in Lowell. He spent some time working as a fundraiser for the Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE), an international humanitarian organization. In September 1973, he entered Boston College Law School. In July 1974, while attending law school, Kerry was named executive director of Mass Action, a Massachusetts advocacy association.

He received his Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Boston College in 1976. While in law school he had been a student prosecutor in the office of the District Attorney of Middlesex County, John J. Droney. After passing the bar exam and being admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1976, he went to work in that office as a full-time prosecutor.

In January 1977, Droney promoted him to First Assistant District Attorney. In that position, Kerry had dual roles. First, he tried cases, winning convictions in a high-profile rape case and a murder. Second, he played a role in administering the office of the district attorney by initiating the creation of special white-collar and organized crime units, creating programs to address the problems of rape and other crime victims and of witnesses, and managing trial calendars to reflect case priorities. It was in this role in 1978 that Kerry announced an investigation into possible criminal charges against then Senator Edward Brooke, regarding "misstatements" in his first divorce trial.

Lieutenant Governor tenure

In 1979, Kerry resigned from the District Attorney's office to set up a private law firm with another former prosecutor. And, although his private law practice was a success, Kerry was still interested in public office. He re-entered electoral politics by running for Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts and won a narrow victory in the 1982 Democratic primary. The ticket, with Michael Dukakis as the gubernatorial candidate, won the general election without difficulty.

The position of Lieutenant Governor carried few inherent responsibilities. Dukakis, however, delegated additional matters to Kerry. In particular, Kerry's interest in environmental protection led him to become heavily involved in the issue of acid rain. His work contributed to a National Governors Association resolution in 1984 that was a precursor to the 1990 amendments to the federal Clean Air Act.

During his campaign, Kerry had argued that nuclear evacuation planning was "a sham intended to deceive Americans into believing they could survive a nuclear war".

Election for U.S. Senate

The junior U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, Paul Tsongas, announced in 1984 that he would be stepping down for health reasons. Kerry decided to run for the seat. As in his 1982 race for Lieutenant Governor, he did not receive the endorsement of the party regulars at the state Democratic convention. Again as in 1982, however, he prevailed in a close primary. In his campaign, he promised to mix liberalism with tight budget controls. As the Democratic candidate, he was elected to the Senate despite a nationwide landslide for the re-election of Republican president Ronald Reagan, for whom Massachusetts voted by a narrow margin. In his acceptance speech, Kerry asserted that his win meant that the people of Massachusetts "emphatically reject the politics of selfishness and the notion that women must be treated as second-class citizens." Kerry was sworn in as a U.S. Senator in January 1985.

U.S. Senate tenure (1985–present)

Iran-Contra hearings

On April 18, 1985, a few months after taking his Senate seat, Kerry and Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa traveled to Nicaragua and met the country's president, Daniel Ortega. Though Ortega was democratically elected, the trip was criticized because Ortega and his leftist Sandinista government had strong ties to Cuba and the USSR. The Sandinista government was opposed by the right-wing CIA-backed rebels known as the Contras. While in Nicaragua, Kerry and Harkin talked to people on both sides of the conflict. Through the senators, Ortega offered a cease-fire agreement in exchange for the US dropping support of the Contras. The offer was denounced by the Reagan administration as a "propaganda initiative" designed to influence a House vote on a $14 million Contra aid package, but Kerry said "I am willing ... to take the risk in the effort to put to test the good faith of the Sandinistas." The House voted down the Contra aid, but Ortega flew to Moscow to accept a $200 million loan the next day, which in part prompted the House to pass a larger $27 million aid package six weeks later.

In April 1986, Kerry and Senator Christopher Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut, proposed that hearings be conducted by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee regarding charges of Contra involvement in cocaine and marijuana trafficking. Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, the Republican chairman of the committee, agreed to conduct the hearings.

Meanwhile, Kerry's staff began their own investigations and, on October 14, issued a report that exposed illegal activities on the part of Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, who had set up a private network involving the National Security Council and the CIA to deliver military equipment to right-wing Nicaraguan rebels (Contras). In effect, North and certain members of the President's administration were accused by Kerry's report of illegally funding and supplying armed militants without the authorization of Congress. Kerry's staff investigation, based on a year-long inquiry and interviews with fifty unnamed sources, is said to raise "serious questions about whether the United States has abided by the law in its handling of the contras over the past three years."

The Kerry Committee report found that "the Contra drug links included ... payments to drug traffickers by the U.S. State Department of funds authorized by the Congress for humanitarian assistance to the Contras, in some cases after the traffickers had been indicted by federal law enforcement agencies on drug charges, in others while traffickers were under active investigation by these same agencies." The US State Department paid over $806,000 to known drug traffickers to carry humanitarian assistance to the Contras. Kerry's findings provoked little reaction in the media and official Washington.

The Kerry report was a precursor to the Iran-Contra affair. On May 4, 1989, North was convicted of charges relating to the Iran/Contra controversy, including three felonies. On September 16, 1991, however, North's convictions were overturned on appeal.

George H.W. Bush administration

On November 15, 1988, at a businessmen's breakfast in East Lynn, Massachusetts, Kerry made a joke about then-President-elect George H.W. Bush and his running mate, saying "if Bush is shot, the Secret Service has orders to shoot Dan Quayle." He apologized the following day.

During their investigation of Noriega, Kerry's staff found reason to believe that the Pakistan-based Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) had facilitated Noriega's drug trafficking and money laundering. This led to a separate inquiry into BCCI, and as a result, banking regulators shut down BCCI in 1991. In December 1992, Kerry and Senator Hank Brown, a Republican from Colorado, released The BCCI Affair, a report on the BCCI scandal. The report showed that the bank was crooked and was working with terrorists, including Abu Nidal. It blasted the Department of Justice, the Department of the Treasury, the Customs Service, the Federal Reserve Bank, as well as influential lobbyists and the CIA.

Kerry was criticized by some Democrats for having pursued his own party members, including former Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford, although Republicans said he should have pressed against some Democrats even harder. The BCCI scandal was later turned over to the Manhattan District Attorney's office.

Precursors to presidential bid

In 1996, Kerry faced a difficult re-election fight against Governor William Weld, a popular Republican incumbent who had been re-elected in 1994 with 71% of the vote. The race was covered nationwide as one of the most closely watched Senate races that year. Kerry and Weld held several debates and negotiated a campaign spending cap of $6.9 million at Kerry's Beacon Hill mansion. Both candidates spent more than the cap, with each camp accusing the other of being first to break the agreement. There is no evidence that this led to Kerry's win in a very close race but it is more than possible that this contributed to his victory. During the campaign, Kerry spoke briefly at the 1996 Democratic National Convention. Senator Kerry won re-election with 53 percent to Weld's 45 percent.

In the 2000 presidential election, Kerry again found himself close to being chosen as the vice presidential running mate.

A release from the presidential campaign of presumptive Democratic nominee Al Gore listed Kerry on the short list to be selected as the vice-presidential nominee, along with North Carolina Senator John Edwards, Indiana Senator Evan Bayh, Missouri Congressman Richard Gephardt, New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen and Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman. Gore eventually selected Lieberman as the nominee, but Kerry continued to campaign on behalf of the Gore-Lieberman campaign through Election Day.

Voting record

Overall

Most analyses place Kerry's voting record on the left within the Senate Democratic caucus. During the 2004 presidential election he was portrayed as a staunch liberal by conservative special interest groups and the Bush campaign, who often noted that in 2003 Kerry was rated the National Journal's top Senate liberal. However, that rating was based only upon voting on legislation within that past year. In fact, in terms of career voting records, the National Journal found that Kerry is the 11th most liberal member of the Senate. Most analyses find that Kerry is at least slightly more liberal than the typical Democratic Senator. Kerry has stated that he opposes privatizing Social Security, supports abortion rights for adult women and minors, supports civil unions for same-sex couples, opposes capital punishment except for terrorists, supports most gun control laws, and is generally a supporter of trade agreements. Kerry supported the North American Free Trade Agreement and Most Favored Nation status for China, but opposed the Central American Free Trade Agreement.

In July 1997 Kerry joined his Senate colleagues in voting against ratification of the Kyoto Treaty on global warming without greenhouse gas emissions limits on nations deemed developing, including India and China. Since then, Kerry has attacked President Bush, charging him with opposition to international efforts to combat global warming.

On October 1, 2008, Kerry voted for S. Amdt. 5685 to H.R. 1424, also known as the "bailout bill."

Iraq

In 1991, during the debate before the Gulf War, Kerry initially opposed the immediate use of military force to expel Iraqi soldiers from Kuwait. The United Nations had imposed sanctions on Iraq, and Kerry argued that the sanctions then in place should be given more time to work.

On December 14, 2001, 3 months after the attacks of 9/11, Kerry said on Larry King Live that "I think we clearly have to keep the pressure on terrorism globally. This doesn't end with Afghanistan by any imagination. And I think the president has made that clear. I think we have made that clear. Terrorism is a global menace. It's a scourge. And it is absolutely vital that we continue against, for instance, Saddam Hussein."

More recently, Kerry said on October 9, 2002; "I will be voting to give the President of the United States the authority to use force, if necessary, to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security." Bush relied on that resolution in ordering the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Kerry also gave a January 23, 2003 speech to Georgetown University saying "Without question, we need to disarm Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal, murderous dictator; leading an oppressive regime he presents a particularly grievous threat because he is so consistently prone to miscalculation. So the threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real." Kerry did, however, warn that the administration should exhaust its diplomatic avenues before launching war: "Mr. President, do not rush to war, take the time to build the coalition, because it's not winning the war that's hard, it's winning the peace that's hard."

After the invasion of Iraq, when no weapons of mass destruction were found, Kerry strongly criticized Bush, contending that he had misled the country: "When the President of the United States looks at you and tells you something, there should be some trust."

Kerry had spoken before the war about the sorts of weapons many believed Saddam Hussein had. On the Senate floor on October 9, 2002, he said that "According to the CIA's report, all U.S. intelligence experts agree that Iraq is seeking nuclear weapons. There is little question that Saddam Hussein wants to develop nuclear weapons."

Leadership

During his Senate career, Kerry has sponsored or cosponsored dozens of bills. Some of his notable bills have addressed small business concerns, education, terrorism, veterans' and Vietnam War POW/MIA issues, marine resource protection and other topics. Of those bills with his sponsorship, as of December 2004, 11 have been signed into law.

Kerry chaired the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs from 1991 to 1993. The committee's report, which Kerry endorsed, stated there was "no compelling evidence that proves that any American remains alive in captivity in Southeast Asia." In 1994 the Senate passed a resolution, sponsored by Kerry and fellow Vietnam veteran John McCain, that called for an end to the existing trade embargo against Vietnam; it was intended to pave the way for normalization. In 1995, President Bill Clinton normalized diplomatic relations with the country of Vietnam. His long-time senior Senate staff includes Chief of Staff David "Mac" McKean and Legislative Director George Abar.

Kerry was the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee from 1987 to 1989. He was reelected to the Senate in 1990, 1996 (after winning re-election against the then-Governor of Massachusetts Republican William Weld), 2002, and 2008. In January 2009, Kerry replaced Joe Biden as the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In a subsequent appearance on ABC's This Week, Kerry refused to respond to Shrum's allegation, calling it a "ridiculous waste of time."

On November 3, 2004, Kerry conceded the race. Kerry won 59.03 million votes, or 48.3 percent of the popular vote; Bush won 62.04 million votes, or 50.7 percent of the popular vote. Kerry carried states with a total of 252 electoral votes. One Kerry elector voted for Kerry's running mate, Edwards, so in the final tally Kerry had 251 electoral votes to Bush's 286. Although, as in the previous election, there were disputes about the voting, no state was as close as Florida had been in 2000 (see 2004 United States presidential election controversy and irregularities).

Post-presidential election activities

2008 presidential election

Immediately after the 2004 election, some Democrats mentioned Kerry as a possible contender for the 2008 Democratic nomination. His brother had said such a campaign was "conceivable", and Kerry himself reportedly said at a farewell party for his 2004 campaign staff, "There's always another four years."

Kerry established a separate political action committee, Keeping America's Promise, that raised money and channeled contributions to Democratic candidates in state and federal races. Through Keeping America's Promise in 2005, Kerry raised over $5.5 million for other Democrats up and down the ballot. Through his campaign account and his political action committee, the Kerry campaign operation generated more than $10 million for various party committees and 179 candidates for the US House, Senate, state and local offices in 42 states focusing on the midterm elections during the 2006 election cycle. "Cumulatively, John Kerry has done as much if not more than any other individual senator", Hassan Nemazee, the national finance chairman of the DSCC said.

in Denver, Colorado.]] On January 10, 2008, Kerry endorsed Illinois Senator Barack Obama for President. He was mentioned as a possible Vice Presidential candidate for Senator Obama, although fellow Senator Joe Biden was eventually chosen. After Biden's acceptance of the vice presidential nomination, speculation arose that John Kerry would be a candidate for Secretary of State in the Obama administration. However, Senator Hillary Clinton was offered the position.

Controversial comments

On October 30, 2006, Kerry was a headline speaker at a campaign rally being held for Democratic California gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides at Pasadena City College in Pasadena, California. Speaking to an audience composed mainly of college students, Kerry said, "You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

The day after the remarks were made public, leaders from both sides of the political spectrum, including Republicans President George W. Bush, Senator John McCain and then-Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, said that Kerry's comments were insulting to American military forces fighting in Iraq. Democratic Representative Harold Ford, Jr. called on Kerry to apologize and Pennsylvania Senate candidate Bob Casey, Jr. canceled an appearance with Kerry.

Kerry initially stated: "Let me make it crystal clear, as crystal clear as I know how. I apologize to no one for my criticism of the president and of his broken policy." Kerry also responded to criticism from George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

Kerry said that he had intended the remark as a jab at President Bush, and described the remarks as a "botched joke", having inadvertently left out the key word "us" (which would have been, "If you don't, you get us stuck in Iraq"), as well as leaving the phrase "just ask President Bush" off of the end of the sentence. In Kerry's prepared remarks, which he released during the ensuing media frenzy, the corresponding line was "... you end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq. Just ask President Bush." He also claimed that from the context of the speech which, prior to the "stuck in Iraq" line, made several specific references to Bush and elements of his biography, that Kerry was referring to President Bush and not American troops in general.

After two days of media coverage, citing a desire not to be a diversion, Kerry apologized to those who took offense at what he called the misinterpretation of his comment.

Climate change

Kerry said in Bali an administration run by the Democrats would mean the difference between night and day on policies to fight global warming and the Democrats would, unlike Bush, back mandatory emissions targets and pass a bill to create a cap-and-trade system for carbon dioxide emissions.

GI Bill support

Kerry has teamed up with Congressman Peter T. King to help sponsor a new GI Bill to help give incentives for military personnel.

Ted Kennedy funeral

Kerry served as an honorary pallbearer for the late former Senator Ted Kennedy.

Yacht moored in Rhode Island

According to the Boston Herald, dated July 23, 2010, Kerry commissioned construction on a new $7 million dollar yacht (A Friendship 75) in New Zealand and moored it in Portsmouth, Rhode Island where the Friendship yacht company is based. The article claimed this allowed him to avoid paying Massachusetts taxes on the property including approximately $437,500 in sales tax and an annual excise tax of about $70,000. However, on July 27, 2010, Kerry stated he had yet to take legal possession of the boat, had not intended to avoid the taxes, and that when he took possession, he would pay the taxes whether he owed them or not.

Electoral history

See also

Daily Kos, Kerry is an occasional contributor to this political community blog

University of Florida Taser incident

References

Further reading

Brinkley, Douglas, Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War, William Morrow & Company, 2004. ISBN 0-06-056523-3

Kerry, John and Vietnam Veterans Against the War, The New Soldier, MacMillan Publishing Company, 1971. ISBN 0-02-073610-X

Kerry, John, The New War: The Web of Crime That Threatens America's Security, Simon & Schuster, 1997. ISBN 0-684-81815-9

Kerry, John, A Call to Service: My Vision for a Better America, Viking Press, 2003. ISBN 0-670-03260-3

Kerry, John and Teresa Heinz Kerry, This Moment on Earth: Today's New Environmentalists and Their Vision for the Future, PublicAffairs, 2007. ISBN 978-1-586-48431-6

Kranish, Michael, Brian C. Mooney, and Nina J. Easton. John F. Kerry: The Complete Biography by The Boston Globe Reporters Who Know Him Best, PublicAffairs, 2004. ISBN 1-58648-273-4

McMahon, Kevin, David Rankin, Donald W. Beachler and John Kenneth White. Winning the White House, 2004, Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. ISBN 1-4039-6881-0

O'Neill, John E. & Corsi, Jerome R. Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry, Regnery Publishing, 2004. ISBN 0-89526-017-4

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External links

Official

JohnKerry.com—John Kerry's political web site

Kerry's military records—from JohnKerry.com via the Internet Archive

John Kerry for Senate-Official 2008 senatorial re-election campaign website

John Kerry's Online Office—Official senatorial site

Campaign for Our Country—PAC led by Kerry

Media

Gibbs, Nancy and Waller, Douglas, What Kind of President Would Kerry Be?, Time, February 9, 2004

Schanberg, Sydney H., When John Kerry's Courage Went M.I.A., The Village Voice, February 17, 2004

Klein, Joe, "The Long War of John Kerry: Can a Massachusetts Brahmin become President?", The New Yorker, December 2, 2002.

Kranish, Michael, John Kerry: Candidate in the making, The Boston Globe, June 15, 2003

The New Soldier, John Kerry's book at FreeKerryBook.org

Profile: John Kerry, BBC News

Frontline: the choice 2004—Thorough two-hour special comparing Kerry and Bush

Black Political Task Force endorses John Kerry, 1984 on the WGBH series

Ten O'clock News

Researcher Alleges Potential Plagiarism in 11 Passages of Kerry's Writings

John Kerry's complete 1971 statement before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from National Review

Selections from John Kerry's 1971 statement before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee

This Land! Popular viral video featuring John Kerry, 2004.

Healthlink

Kerry Interview on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos

Obama rally with John Kerry and Others MP3 on February 2, 2008 in Sacramento, CA

Information

About.com: Genealogy - Ancestry of John Forbes Kerry

—April 1971.

John Kerry's Senate hearing testimony to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in 1971 (PDF file).

Voting history for Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts in the 108th Congress

The BCCI Affair, A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, by Senator John Kerry and Senator Hank Brown, December 1992

Political donations made by John Kerry

Snopes.com: "Service Mettle"—Snopes.com on Kerry's Vietnam service medals

Tour of Duty—excerpt from Brinkley's book about Kerry's Vietnam service

Irish Catholic or Czech Jew?—Kerry's long lost Jewish ethnic ancestry

John Kerry's letter to his parents about Richard Pershing's death—1968.

Profile from SourceWatch

Category:1943 births Category:Living people Category:American anti-Vietnam War activists Category:American military personnel of the Vietnam War Category:American people of Jewish descent Category:American Roman Catholic politicians Category:Boston College Law School alumni Category:Cancer survivors Category:Democratic Party (United States) presidential nominees Category:District attorneys Category:Dudley–Winthrop family Category:Forbes family Category:Kerry family Category:Foreign Service brats Category:Lieutenant Governors of Massachusetts Category:Massachusetts Democrats Category:Massachusetts lawyers Category:Recipients of the Bronze Star Medal Category:Recipients of the Purple Heart medal Category:Recipients of the Silver Star Category:People from Aurora, Colorado Category:St. Paul's School (New Hampshire) alumni Category:United States Navy officers Category:United States presidential candidates, 2004 Category:United States Senators from Massachusetts Category:Vietnam War POW/MIA issues Category:Yale University alumni Category:Democratic Party United States Senators

Name	Arlen Specter
Jr/sr	Senior Senator
State	Pennsylvania
Party	Democratic (1951–1965, April 28, 2009–present) Republican (1966 – April 28, 2009)
Term start	January 3, 1981
Term end	January 3, 2011
Preceded	Richard Schweiker
Succeeded	Pat Toomey
Order2	Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
Term start2	January 3, 1995
Term end2	January 3, 1997
Preceded2	Dennis DeConcini
Succeeded2	Richard Shelby
Order3	Chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs
Term start3	January 3, 1997
Term end3	January 3, 2001
Preceded3	Alan Simpson
Succeeded3	Jay Rockefeller
Term start4	January 20
Term end4	June 6, 2001
Preceded4	Jay Rockefeller
Succeeded4	Jay Rockefeller
Term start5	January 3, 2003
Term end5	January 3, 2005
Preceded5	Jay Rockefeller
Succeeded5	Larry Craig
Order6	Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary
Term start6	January 3, 2005
Term end6	January 3, 2007
Preceded6	Orrin Hatch
Succeeded6	Patrick Leahy
Office7	District Attorney of Philadelphia
Term start7	1966
Term end7	1974
Predecessor7	James Crumlish
Successor7	Emmitt Fitzpatrick
Committees	Appropriations, Judiciary, Veterans' Affairs, Special Committee on Aging
Date of birth	February 12, 1930
Place of birth	Wichita, Kansas
Dead	alive
Occupation	Attorney
Residence	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Spouse	Joan Specter
Alma mater	University of Pennsylvania (B.S.)Yale University (J.D.)
Religion	Judaism
Signature	Arlen Specter Signature.svg
Branch	United States Air Force
Serviceyears	1951–1953}}

Arlen Specter (born February 12, 1930) is a former United States Senator from Pennsylvania. Specter is a Democrat, but was a Republican from 1965 until switching to the Democratic Party in 2009. Elected to the Senate in 1980, Specter staked out a spot in the political center.

Specter was born in Wichita, Kansas to a Russian immigrant father and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. He later served with the United States Air Force during the Korean War, graduated from Yale Law School, and opened a law firm with Marvin Katz, who would later become a federal judge. Additionally, Specter served as assistant counsel for the Warren Commission investigating the assassination of John F. Kennedy and helped devise the "single bullet theory." In 1965, Specter was elected District Attorney of Pennsylvania, a position that he would hold until he lost his re-election bid in 1973. In 1980, Specter was elected for the first time to the U.S. Senate for Pennsylvania.

On April 28, 2009, Specter announced that, after 44 years as an elected Republican, he was switching to the Democratic Party,

Early life

Specter was born in Wichita, Kansas, the youngest child of Lillie Shanin (Arlen's son Shanin Specter is named after her), and Harry Specter, who had emigrated from Russia in 1911. The family lived at 940 South Emporia Street in Wichita before moving to Russell, Kansas. He was raised in the Jewish faith in Russell, also the hometown of fellow politician Bob Dole. Specter's father served in the U.S. infantry during World War I, and was badly wounded. During the Great Depression, Specter's father was a fruit peddler, a tailor, and a junkyard owner.

Specter studied first at the University of Oklahoma. He transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, majored in International Relations, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1951. During the Korean War, he served stateside in the United States Air Force as an officer within the Air Force Office of Special Investigations from 1951 to 1953.

Specter graduated from Yale Law School in 1956 and was admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar. That year, he married Joan Levy. They reside in the East Falls section of Philadelphia. They have two sons: Shanin and Steve; and four grandchildren: Silvi, Perri, Lilli, and Hatti.

After graduating from Yale Law School, Specter opened a law practice, Specter & Katz, with the late Marvin Katz, who served as a Federal District Court Judge in Philadelphia until his death in October 2010. Specter became an assistant district attorney under District Attorney James Crumlish, and was a member of the Democratic Party.

Early political career

Warren Commission

At the recommendation of Representative Gerald Ford, he worked for the Warren Commission, investigating the assassination of John F. Kennedy. As an assistant counsel for the commission, he authored or co-authored the "single bullet theory," which suggested the non-fatal wounds to Kennedy and wounds to Texas Governor John Connally were caused by the same bullet. This was a crucial assertion for the Warren Commission, since if the two had been wounded by separate bullets within such a short time frame, that would have demonstrated the presence of a second assassin and therefore a conspiracy.

A further investigation by the House Committee on Assassinations in the late 1970s reaffirmed the single bullet theory, though concluded a conspiracy was likely owing to acoustic evidence. Numerous authors have raised doubts over the plausibility of the theory and have concluded a conspiracy was likely.

Seeks political office

In 1965, Specter ran for district attorney for the city of Philadelphia, on the Republican ticket as a registered Democrat. He handily beat incumbent Jim Crumlish, and subsequently changed his registration to Republican. Although a supporter of capital punishment, as prosecutor he questioned the fairness of the Pennsylvania death penalty statute in 1972.

In 1967, he was the Republican Party standard bearer, together with City Controller candidate, Tom Gola, in the Philadelphia mayoral campaign against the Democratic incumbent James Tate. One of their slogans was, "We need THESE guys to watch THOSE guys." He served two terms as district attorney for the city of Philadelphia, but was defeated in his bid for a third term in 1973.

In 1976, Specter ran in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate and was defeated by John Heinz. In 1978, he was defeated in the primary for Governor of Pennsylvania by Dick Thornburgh. After several years of private practice with the prestigious Philadelphia law firm Dechert, Price & Rhoads, Specter ran for the Senate in 1980, this time, successfully. He assumed office in January 1981.

Hodgkin's disease

On February 16, 2005, Specter announced that he had been diagnosed with an advanced form of Hodgkin's lymphoma, a type of cancer. Despite this, Specter continued working during chemotherapy. He ended treatment on July 22. Senator John Sununu (R-New Hampshire) shaved his head to show solidarity with Specter when he was undergoing chemotherapy and was temporarily bald. On April 15, 2008, he announced his cancer had returned, at a stage "significantly less advanced than his Hodgkin's disease when it was originally diagnosed in 2005." He underwent a second round of chemotherapy, which ended on July 14, 2008.

Senate career

Specter was first elected to the Senate in 1980. He is the longest-serving Senator in Pennsylvania's history; no one else from the state has been elected to five terms in that body. According to polls by Quinnipiac University, Specter has a higher approval rating among Democrats in Pennsylvania than Republicans, 62–55 respectively.

His opposition to Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork in 1987 is seen as an important factor in the nomination's failure. However, he raised the ire of many feminists with his aggressive questioning of Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas hearings in 1991, claiming she had committed "flat-out perjury" in her testimony.

In 1998 and 1999, Specter criticized the Republican Party for the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. Believing that Clinton had not received a fair trial, Specter cited Scots law to render a verdict of "not proven" on Clinton's impeachment. However, his verdict was recorded as "not guilty" in the Senate records.

On October 11, 2002, Arlen Specter voted in favor of H.J.Res.114 authorizing the Iraq War.

In a 2002 PoliticsPA Feature story designating politicians with yearbook superlatives, he was named the "Toughest to Work For." In 2003, the Pennsylvania Report, a subscription-based political newsletter, described Specter as one of the "vanishing breed of Republican moderates" and described his political stance as "'Pennsylvania first' middle of-the-road politics" even though he was known as an "avid Republican partisan."

Soon after the 2004 election, Specter stepped into the public spotlight as a result of controversial statements about his views of the future of the Supreme Court. At a press conference, he stated that: Activist groups interpreted his comments as warnings to President George W. Bush about the implications of nominating Supreme Court justices who are opposed to the Roe v. Wade decision. Specter maintained his comments were a prediction, not a warning. He met with many conservative Republican senators, and based on assurances he gave them, he was recommended for the Judiciary Committee's chairmanship in late 2004. He officially assumed that position when the 109th Congress convened on January 4, 2005.

On March 9, 2006, the USA PATRIOT Act was signed into law. It amended the process for interim appointments of U.S. Attorneys, a clause which Specter wrote during his chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The change allowed the Bush Administration to appoint interim U.S. attorneys without term limits, and without confirmation by the Senate. The Bush administration used the law to place at least eight interim attorneys into office in 2006. Specter claims that the changes were added by staff member Brett Tolman. For more information, see dismissal of U.S. Attorneys controversy.

for an episode of Justice Talking on Presidential Signing statements]]

Specter was very critical of Bush's wiretapping of U.S. citizens without warrants. When the story first broke, he called the effort "inappropriate" and "clearly and categorically wrong." He said, he intended to hold hearings into the matter early in 2006, and had Alberto Gonzales appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee to answer for the program (although Specter declined to force Gonzales to testify under oath). On January 15, 2006, Specter mentioned impeachment and criminal prosecution as potential remedies if Bush broke the law, though he downplayed the likelihood of such an outcome.

On April 9, 2006, Specter, speaking on Fox News about the Bush administration's leaking of classified intelligence, said that "The president of the United States owes a specific explanation to the American people".

However, he voted for the 2008 amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which placed federal electronic searches almost entirely within the executive branch.

During the 2007–2008 National Football League season, Specter wrote to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell concerning the destruction of New England Patriots Spygate tapes, wondering if there was a link between the tapes and their Super Bowl victory over the Philadelphia Eagles. On February 1, 2008, Roger Goodell stated that the tapes were destroyed because "they confirmed what I already knew about the issue." Specter would release a follow up statement: }}

Since 2007, Specter has sponsored legislation to fix a longstanding inequity in American law which shuts out a majority of U.S. Armed Forces service members from equal access to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2007, Specter cosponsored the Equal Justice for United States Military Personnel Act of 2007 with Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Russ Feingold (D-Wis.).

In December 2008, Specter was involved in a controversy as a result of telling "Polish jokes" at New York's Rainbow Room while speaking at the annual meeting of the Commonwealth Club.

Specter voted in favor of the Senate's version of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 on February 10, 2009; he was one of only three Republicans to break ranks with the party and support the bill, which was favored by President Barack Obama and was unanimously supported by the Democratic senators. As a result of his support, many in the Republican mainstream have begun to set up ads calling for his removal from office. Specter was instrumental in ensuring that the act allocated an additional $10 billion to the National Institutes of Health over the next two years. Since becoming a Democrat in the Senate, Specter has been denied seniority on Senate committees.

In Oct. 2009 Specter called for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, which he supported in 1996.

In Nov. 2009, Specter introduced a bill to require televising U.S. Supreme Court proceedings, and explained "[t]he Supreme Court makes pronouncements on constitutional and federal law that have direct impacts on the rights of Americans. Those rights would be substantially enhanced by televising the oral arguments of the Court so that the public can see and hear the issues presented."

On May 18, 2010, Specter was defeated by Joe Sestak in Pennsylvania's Democratic Primary election 54% to 46% (Sestak 564,444 votes to Specter's 481,566). His senate career is scheduled to end on January 3, 2011.

Committee assignments

Specter holds the following committee assignments:

Committee on Appropriations

*Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies

*Subcommittee on Defense

*Subcommittee on Homeland Security

*Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies

*Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs

*Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies

Committee on Environment and Public Works

*Subcommittee on Children's Health

*Subcommittee on Superfund, Toxics and Environmental Health

*Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure

Committee on the Judiciary

*Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights

*Subcommittee on the Constitution

*Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs (Chair)

*Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law

Committee on Veterans' Affairs

Special Committee on Aging

Specter was chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence from 1995, when the Republicans gained control of the Senate, until 1997, when he became chairman of the Committee on Veterans Affairs. He chaired that committee until 2001 and again from 2003 to 2005, during the times the Republicans controlled the Senate. He also chaired the Judiciary Committee from 2005 to 2007.

Campaigns

In 1980, Specter became the Republican nominee for Senate when Republican incumbent Richard Schweiker announced his retirement. He faced the former Mayor of Pittsburgh, Peter F. Flaherty. Specter won the election by a 2.5% margin. He was later reelected in 1986, 1992, 1998 and 2004, despite 1992 and 1998 being bad years for Republicans. Specter ran for reelection in 2010, for the first time as a Democrat, but was defeated in the Primary.

1996 presidential bid

On March 31, 1995, Specter announced his candidacy for President of the United States, to challenge the incumbent Bill Clinton. He entered the race claiming his party needed a candidate who did not conform to the stereotypical religious conservative image. He was critical of Patrick J. Buchanan, Pat Robertson and Ralph E. Reed, Jr., saying all three were far too conservative.

His campaign focused on balancing the federal budget, strict crime laws, and establishing relations with North Korea. His candidacy was not expected to succeed in winning the Republican nomination due to the overwhelmingly large number of social conservatives in the Republican Party. He was, however, able to gain support. Although fellow Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum was never overly enthusiastic, he was supportive. Other supportive Republicans were hopeful Specter could trim the party's "far-right fringe." Although his campaign was ultimately unsuccessful at wooing conservatives, it was widely believed he could have had a strong showing among independents. On November 23, 1995, before the start of the primaries, Specter suspended his campaign to endorse Kansas Senator Bob Dole.

2004 campaign

In 2004, Specter faced a challenge in the Republican primary election from conservative Congressman Pat Toomey, whose campaign theme was that Specter was not fiscally conservative enough. The match-up was closely watched nationally, being seen as a symbolic clash between the conservative and moderate wings of the Republican Party. However, most of the state and national Republican establishment, including the state's other senator at the time, Rick Santorum closed ranks behind Specter. Specter was strongly supported by President George W. Bush. Specter narrowly avoided a major upset with 51 percent of the primary vote. Once Specter defeated the challenge from the right, he was able to enjoy great support from independents and some Democrats in his race against Hoeffel. Hoeffel also trailed Specter in name recognition, campaign funds and poll results. Although the two minor candidates were seen as more conservative than Specter, they were only able to take four percent of the vote and Specter was easily reelected.

2010 campaign

Specter was up for re-election to the Senate in 2010, and expressed his plans to run again. On March 18, 2009, Specter said that he was not considering running as an independent. He said, "To eliminate any doubt, I am a Republican, and I am running for reelection in 2010 as a Republican on the Republican ticket." Subsequently Specter's 2004 conservative GOP primary challenger, Pat Toomey, announced he will again run for the Republican nomination in the Republican senatorial primary.

However, on April 28, 2009, Specter stated that "As the Republican Party has moved farther and farther to the right, I have found myself increasingly at odds with the Republican philosophy and more in line with the philosophy of the Democratic Party." He said that he was switching party affiliation and would run as a Democrat in the 2010 election. In the same announcement, Specter also said that he had "surveyed the sentiments of the Republican Party in Pennsylvania and public opinion polls, observed other public opinion polls and have found that the prospects for winning a Republican primary are bleak." Additional polling found that 70 percent of Pennsylvania Republicans disapproved of his recent vote in favor of the Stimulus Bill and that 52 percent of Pennsylvania Republicans disapprove of the job he is doing.

On February 6, 2010, the Pennsylvania Democratic Party overwhelmingly endorsed U.S. Senator Arlen Specter at the Democratic State Committee's annual endorsement convention which was held in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Specter defeated Joe Sestak by winning over 77% of the Pennsylvania Democratic State Committee members vote which far exceeds the 2/3rds threshold needed to claim the endorsement. Sestak, however, went on to win the Democratic primary nomination on May 18.

Personal reputation

Over Specter's long and notable legislative career, numerous sources from within the U.S. Senate reported that they found it difficult to work with him. For example, when Specter was still a Republican, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott needed him to sign off on an appropriations bill. However, Specter refused to sign the document unless Lott flew out to Pennsylvania to attend two fund raisers for him. Lott agreed, but this incident only contributed to reputation which earned Specter the nickname "Snarlin' Arlen.". Similarly, Specter gained a reputation among U.S. Embassy staff for condescending treatment and unreasonable demands such as organizing squash tournaments on his behalf.

Political views

According to the National Journal, Specter voted with Democrats 90% of the time since he switched parties, while as a Republican Specter split his votes between both parties. According to fivethirtyeight.com, between January–March 2009 Specter voted with the Democrats 58% of the time. Following the support of the stimulus package and the entrance of Pat Toomey in the Republican primary, Specter began to vote 16% with Democrats. When switching to become a Democrat, he voted 69% with his new party initially, until Joe Sestak entered the Democratic primary and Specter started to vote 97% of the time.

Abortion

Specter states that he is "personally opposed to abortion", but is "a supporter of a woman's right to choose". He received a 20 percent rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America in 2005 based on certain votes related to the regulation of abortion; in 2008, he received 100 percent

Gay rights

Specter supports LGBT rights. He voted to prohibit job discrimination based on sexual orientation, and was a co-sponsor of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Specter is opposed to same-sex marriage, but is also opposed to a federal ban and supports civil unions. Specter also voted in favor of repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell in the lame-duck session of the 111th Congress.

Gun control

Specter strongly opposes most gun control, voting against the Brady Bill, background checks at gun shows, the ban on assault weapons, and trigger locks for handguns. His work has included numerous articles on the deterring effect the death penalty has on future crimes.

Affirmative action

He supports affirmative action and voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1991, receiving a 76 percent rating from the NAACP in 2008. He was one of only four Republicans to vote against the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act and in recent years has been less enthusiastic about weakening so-called consumer protection laws than many members of his party. In 1995 he was the only Republican to vote to limit tax cuts to individuals with incomes of less than one million dollars. He voted against CAFTA. Specter also supports an increase in the federal minimum wage. He is a leading supporter of the U.S. Public Service Academy.

Illegal immigration

On immigration, Specter supports a "pathway to citizenship" and a "guest worker program" which opponents call amnesty. He introduced Senate bill S. 2611 (the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006) on April 6, 2006, which was passed by the Senate on May 25, 2006 before reaching a stalemate in the House.

Health care reform

Public option

On May 3, 2009 Specter went on Meet the Press and was asked "Would you support health care reform that puts up a government run public plan to compete with a private plan issued by a private insurance company?" Specter said no. Two months later, he changed his position and he now supports it.

Single payer

Specter believes single payer healthcare should not be "taken off the table," according to an interview he had with John King on CNN.

Votes

On health care reform, Specter was a cosponsor of the Healthy Americans Act, a proposal he supported during both the 110th and 111th Congresses. Specter voted for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the healthcare bill passed through the Senate by every Democratic senator, on a party-line vote.

Card check

Specter has received a 61 percent rating from AFL-CIO. He voted for cloture on the Employee Free Choice Act in 2007. In early 2009, Specter announced that he would not be voting for cloture on the same act in the 111th Congress. After Specter switched parties, he changed his position on the issue yet again and wrote a letter to the unions that he supported card check legislation.

Privacy; Computers

Spurred by the 2010 case of Robbins v. Lower Merion School District, in which two high schools admitted to secretly taking 66,000 webcam photos and screenshots of students in their homes on school-issued laptops, Specter held a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs on March 29, 2010. He said: "The issue is one of surreptitious eavesdropping. Unbeknownst to people, their movements and activities were under surveillance." He said that Lower Merion's use of laptop cameras for surveillance convinced him that new federal legislation was needed to regulate electronic privacy.

Specter then introduced legislation in April 2010 to amend the federal Wiretap Act to clarify that it is illegal to capture silent visual images inside another person's home. He said: "This is going to become law. You have a very significant invasion of privacy with these webcams, as more information is coming to light." Speaking on the floor of the Senate, he said:

Many of us expect to be subject to ... video surveillance when we leave our homes and go out each day—at the ATM, at traffic lights, or in stores, for example. What we do not expect is to be under visual surveillance in our homes, in our bedrooms, and, most especially, we do not expect it for our children in our homes.

Other

The Jewish daily newspaper The Forward reported in the wake of the July 2009 organ trafficking scandal in the U.S. involving Rabbi Levy Izhak Rosenbaum of Brooklyn that an Organ Trafficking Prohibition Act of 2009, sponsored by Specter, had yet to be officially introduced in the U.S. The preliminary reports cites Israel as a model of a nation that has enacted a law providing benefits for organ donors.

Specter criticized the federal government's policy on cancer, stating the day after Jack Kemp — the 1996 Republican vice presidential nominee and former congressman — died of cancer, that Kemp would still be alive if the federal government had done a better job funding cancer research.

Electoral history

See also

List of select cases of Hodgkin's Disease

Party switching in the United States

References

External links

*Interactive timeline

Complete transcript, audio and video of Specter's Final Floor Speech in the U.S. Senate at AmericanRhetoric.com

;Articles After Yale, Specter Still a Force, Andrew Mangino, Yale Daily News, September 23, 2005

Tale of injustice, Sarasota Herald Tribune, July 16, 2007

Specter: Reagan’s GOP is Gone by Mark Trumbull, The Christian Science Monitor, May 3, 2009

The Need to Roll Back Presidential Power Grabs, by Arlen Specter, The New York Review of Books, May 14, 2009

The Magic Bullet; Even More Magical Than We Knew, Gary Aguilar and Josiah Thompson, History Matters

;Legislation sponsored or cosponsored The following table links to the Congressional Record hosted by the Library of Congress. All the specifics and actions taken for each individual piece of legislation that Specter either sponsored or cosponsored can be viewed in detail there. "Original bills" and "'Original amendments" indicate instances where Sen. Specter pledged to support the legislation at the time it was initially introduced and entered into the Senate record, rather than later in the legislative process. {| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" style="margin:auto; margin:1em auto 1em auto; background:white; color:black; width:98%;" ! Senator Arlen Specter – U.S. Senate – [D-PA] |- | {|rgin: auto;font-size:90%;border:0px;text-align:left;line-height:150%;" |- !Years Covered !All bills sponsored !All amendments sponsored !All bills cosponsored !All amendments cosponsored !Original bills cosponsored !Original amendments cosponsored |- |1981–82 |42 |38 |188 |48 |95 |44 |- |1983–84 |92 |52 |216 |37 |98 |37 |- |1985–86 |90 |44 |327 |53 |171 |52 |- |1987–88 |44 |49 |260 |32 |151 |31 |- |1989–90 |37 |61 |262 |26 |112 |24 |- |1991–92 |76 |71 |359 |33 |142 |34 |- |1993–94 |33 |52 |178 |24 |66 |20 |- |1995–96 |33 |46 |103 |35 |63 |32 |- |1997–98 |75 |49 |120 |26 |63 |24 |- |1999–00 |54 |31 |168 |24 |89 |24 |- |2001–05 |46 |51 |188 |36 |103 |31 |- |2003–04 |52 |61 |203 |36 |94 |25 |- |2005–06 |85 |50 |179 |24 |96 |13 |- |2007–08 |52 |38 |325 |77 |181 |51 |- |2009–10 |22 |6 |58 |10 |39 |8 |} Note: The numbers for the current session of Congress may no longer reflect the actual numbers as they are still actively in session.

The THOMAS database shows Sen. Arlen Specter has withdrawn his one-time support of legislation by adding his cosponsorship to introduced legislation a total of five times during the time this statistic first started being compiled by them:

One bill in 1991–1992

One amendment in 1991–1992

One bill in 1993–1994

One bill in 1997–1998

One bill in 1999–2000

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Category:1930 births Category:American Jews Category:American military personnel of the Korean War Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent Category:Cancer patients Category:Democratic Party United States Senators Category:Dismissal of United States Attorneys controversy Category:District attorneys Category:Jewish American military personnel Category:Jewish United States Senators Category:Living people Category:Pennsylvania Democrats Category:Pennsylvania lawyers Category:Pennsylvania Republicans Category:People from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Category:People from Wichita, Kansas Category:United States Air Force officers Category:University of Pennsylvania alumni Category:United States presidential candidates, 1996 Category:United States Senators from Pennsylvania Category:Warren Commission Category:Yale Law School alumni