Imus Asks Senator Kerry a Lot of Stuff He'd Rather Not Talk About. Tough Luck.

The United States Senate, Imus believes, was once composed of great politicians like Stephen Douglas, Mike Mansfield, and Jacob Javits. Now, individuals like Lindsay Graham, Larry Craig and Chuck Schumer populate its chamber, and Imus wondered how that makes Senator John Kerry feel.

While Kerry obviously believes the Senate is still a “remarkable” place that truly reflects the breadth of this country, the camaraderie that once existed between political parties has all but disappeared, replaced by a level of animus unlike any other. 

“Compromise has been made an evil today,” he said. “In the whole art of legislating—of course you have to compromise, if you have to find 60 votes. It’s very rare that the Senate has one party with more than 60 people. You’ve got to reach across the aisle.”

Kerry blamed the discord not only the politicians, but on consultants and donors that have hijacked the agenda. Though he was roundly criticized earlier this week for saying the electorate doesn’t pay attention to what’s going on, and is too easily influenced by “simple slogans,” Kerry feels that the money is what repels people from politics.

“That’s why they’re angry today,” he said, adding that he believes Americans are tired of political operatives “reducing their lives to these very simplistic, kind of non-factually based sloganeering campaigns that don’t create jobs, and that don’t solve problems, and don’t reduce the deficit, and don’t find the compromise.”

He stood firmly behind his statement, which Imus interpreted as Kerry snapping at him. “Many times you’ve deserved it, but I’ve never snapped at you,” Kerry told Imus. 

The recent Supreme Court decision that allows corporations the same political free speech rights as individuals infuriates Kerry, who said it throws accountability and transparency right out the window. “Unbelievable sums of money are being spent, frankly, in a complete imbalance in this election cycle,” he said. “I think Americans are going to be shocked when the numbers come out in a few weeks.”

Until then, Kerry and his fellow Democrats are trying to defend the legislation they’ve passed and President Obama’s accomplishments, which Kerry called “some of the toughest decisions of any President in 50 or 60 years regarding our economy.”

He reminded Imus that it was George W. Bush—and not Obama—who made the initial request for a financial bailout. “The day that Barack Obama swore in as President, that month we lost 750,000 jobs,” Kerry said. “The President has turned that around.”

Any economist, Kerry insisted, would support claims that the bailout helped avoid an economic depression. To Imus’s point that the country has lost 3 million jobs since the stimulus package passed, Kerry said, “You can’t turn it around over night.” But passing an energy-climate bill, something Congress has been unable to do, might have helped, in Kerry’s view.

“China, and India, Brazil, Mexico, Germany are moving, racing ahead in this sector,” he said. “Two years ago, China produced five percent of the world’s solar panels. Today they produce 60 percent, and if we don’t get in the hunt, they’ll have cornered the market. The United States is just not in this!”

Kerry smartly stayed the hell away from Imus’s question about whether he would have been a better President than Obama, saying only, “I would have tried to do better.” He also rather deftly side-stepped an even more intelligent query, this one regarding the status of his “wiener.”

Undoubtedly shaking his large head, Kerry told his pal Imus, “You ask all the right questions.”

And you, Senator, somehow avoid answering each and every one of them.

-Julie Kanfer