Text 74, 103 rader
Skriven 2004-07-28 08:18:42 av John Hull (1:379/1.99)
Ärende: Is Dukakis a Jonah for Kerry?
=====================================
After the photo flap at NASA, and subsequent smelling of blood in the water by
the press, it looks as if Kerry is afraid that Dukakis might be a Jonah for his
campaign.  



ELECTION 2004
Query on Dukakis evokes DNC anger
Ex-nominee, Massachusetts governor, Kerry colleague sidelined

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Posted: July 28, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Les Kinsolving
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com 

BOSTON – A media question about the conspicuous absence at the Democratic
National Convention of 1988 presidential nominee and former Massachusetts
governor Michael Dukakis – for whom John Kerry served as lieutenant governor –
drew an angry response from a senior campaign adviser, reflecting the party's
apparent sensitivity to the issue. 

Talk-radio hosts were barred from having a daily question period at the
convention after this reporter asked what Kerry campaign officials considered
an impertinent question. 

"You just got us into trouble!" exclaimed the Democratic National Committee's
director of radio communications Candy Stroud. 

Stroud said she had just asked Peggy Wilhide, director of communications for
the convention, "about having a daily question period for talk radio hosts and
she said 'with guys like you – no questions!'" 

The exchange – which was never designated as off-the-record – took place at the
Democratic Convention Talk Radio Welcome Breakfast on Sunday morning, attended
by 75 of the 150 talk radio hosts broadcasting from the convention. 

After Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe addressed the
talk-radio breakfast briefly, and left quickly without taking any questions,
Tad Devine, the Kerry campaign's senior adviser, spoke and then recognized this
reporter for the following question: 

"What place on this convention's program of principal speakers is being given
to the 1988 Democratic presidential nominee and repeatedly elected governor of
Massachusetts for whom John Kerry was lieutenant governor?" 

Devine, with hesitation – and absolutely no specifics – replied: 

"Governor Dukakis will be here and active. He is loyal to Kerry." 

After a brief follow-up question, Devine thanked the reporters for attending
the breakfast and was gone. 

One talk-show host who sat at this reporter's table is the former attorney
general of Rhode Island, a former nun and parochial school teacher of Devine,
Arlene Violet of WHJJ Providence. 

Violet described the question about the treatment of Dukakis as the "best
question in the house – I wish I had thought of it." Boston Herald columnist
and syndicated talk show host Howie Carr added: "That’s a completely legitimate
question." 

As the Washington Post noted in a feature Sunday, "For Kerry, an association
with Dukakis could be damaging politically." 

Dukakis has been scheduled to speak at several small events, including
receptions for state delegations, but he will not be onstage during the event's
official program, despite the presence of failed party nominees former Vice
President Al Gore and former President Jimmy Carter, who lost his bid for
re-election. 

The Post said Kerry, who served as Dukakis's lieutenant governor from 1982 to
1984, "is already battling the 'Massachusetts liberal' tag Republicans hung on
the former governor in 1988." 

Dukakis was relegated to the Democratic sidelines after losing to then-Vice
President George H.W. Bush after leading in August by a double-digit margin. 

"He presents a challenge for the Kerry campaign: how to involve a man that the
candidate and many of his senior aides admire and once worked under, without
opening Kerry up to unflattering comparisons," the Post said. 

Rob Gray, who was a spokesman for Dukakis's gubernatorial successor, Republican
William F. Weld, told the Associated Press Dukakis's "race was an embarrassment
for the party." 

"The first rule for the Democrats is to avoid a picture of John Kerry and Mike
Dukakis together at all costs," Gray said.

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Les Kinsolving is WorldNetDaily's White House correspondent and a talk-show
host for WCBM in Baltimore. His show can be heard on the Internet at
www.wcbm.com 8-10 p.m. Eastern each weekday. 

John 

America:  First, Last, and Always!
Go to www.madgorilla.us for all your Domain Name Services at the lowest rates.

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