John Kerry

Latest Articles

A Statesman Too Late?

John Kerry heads to work on the debt ‘super committee’ with his usual earnestness and high hopes — despite the circus that surrounds him
The congressional debt "super committee" has begun its work, and already there are signs that its task is hopeless.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | September 21, 2011

Pingree advocates for raped veterans, gets results

Clearing red tape
The Department of Veterans' Affairs is taking steps to ensure that military sexual-assault and rape survivors have less of a hard time getting the benefits they deserve, according to US Representative Chellie Pingree, who represents Southern Maine in Washington, DC.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | July 13, 2011

Romney rides again

To win the GOP nomination, Mitt will need to do things differently this time. Here's how.
Mitt Romney has been running for president more or less nonstop for the past seven years — and still hasn't figured out how to do it.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | April 14, 2011

Give Malalai Joya a visa

Plus, Obama's Libyan War
In a display of mendacity worthy of the days when the late Senator Joseph McCarthy stifled free speech from coast to coast, the United States Department of State has denied a visa to Afghanistan's most internationally recognized activist, Malalai Joya.
By EDITORIAL | March 25, 2011

By | January 01, 0001

Year in Greenview

Going green
While eco-friendly initiatives gained some local traction this year, the national environmental picture was relatively bleak in 2010 — and stands to get even more depressing next year.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | December 22, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

Gay Tea Party Witch Sex: Three tales of erotic political fiction

Hot, throbbing election special: Palin/O'Donnell, Kerry/Brown, and Stewart/Cooper/Maddow
Three toe-curling yarns of bipartisan/bicurious boning, starring some of our favorite hacks (and some of our favorite pundits).
By PHOENIX EDITORIAL STAFF | November 01, 2010

Burn Baby Burn

John Kerry, Scott Brown, and the death of climate-change legislation
Last Thursday afternoon, moments after I posted on Facebook about the death of the climate-change bill, I got a message from a surprised and disappointed Laura Everett.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | July 28, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

Worse than Afghanistan

Mainstream media flunks again
At almost the same moment that Rolling Stone was reordering the political landscape with its devastating profile of the now-resigned Afghanistan commander General Stanley McChrystal, a smaller, lesser-known political monthly, The American Conservative (TAC), was publishing a blockbuster that by all rights should have had an even bigger impact.
By PETER KADZIS | June 30, 2010

You call this winning?

Afghanistan complications multiply. Plus, Congress is heading for a weak wrap-up.
President Barack Obama scored.
By EDITORIAL | June 30, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

Scott Brown slashing jobs, not adding them

Mass Underemployment Dept.
When he campaigned to retain existing and deliver new employment opportunities for commonwealth residents, Senator Scott Brown was apparently making no promises to urban teens.
By CHRIS FARAONE | April 28, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

Boston teen in Haiti stranded without a country

Lost
Jenny Ulysee was inside her stepmother's hair salon in Mariani, Haiti, when the January 12 earthquake caused a nearby building to buckle and collapse onto the roof of her family's business.
By CHRIS FARAONE | January 27, 2010

Tea-bagger Brown triumphs

Obama must rally independents
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley may be a good person and a dedicated public servant, but thanks to her gut-wrenching loss to tea-bagging Republican Scott Brown in the race for the US Senate seat held by the late Ted Kennedy, Coakley is now — quite rightly — a figure of local scorn and national derision.
By EDITORIAL | January 20, 2010

Aftershock

More than 1500 miles from the epicenter of the Haitian quake, its effects rippled through Boston's teeming Haitian community
From the second that the Richter scale registered at 7.0 in Haiti, a desperate grief rippled through Hyde Park, Dorchester, and other corners of this region, which is home to the third-largest Haitian population in America.
By CHRIS FARAONE | January 20, 2010

Coakley for Senate

She has the talent and gumption to tackle the future
When Massachusetts voters go to the polls on Tuesday to elect a successor to the late Senator Edward Kennedy, they face a choice that is as clear as the difference between black and white.
By EDITORIAL | January 19, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

Chaos Theory

2010 might be the year Massachusetts politics undergoes an unprecedented reshuffling.
In less than two weeks, when Massachusetts voters elect Martha Coakley to the US Senate — let's not pretend that Republican state senator Scott Brown has any chance of pulling off the monumental upset — they will trigger a massive domino effect that has the state's political class buzzing with anticipation.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | January 08, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

Menino, again

Plus: Latino gains, same-sex defeat, and a buzz for pot
At a time when Americans are racked by anxiety about the uncertain future of a weak economy, Boston voters handily returned Boston Mayor Thomas Menino to an unprecedented fifth term.
By EDITORIAL | November 04, 2009

Halloween Weekend Overdose

34 Sugar-Fueled Hours of Halloween
Halloween is in six days and you still have no idea what party you're going to. You simultaneously feel as though you have everything to do and nothing to do. You haven't even got a costume anymore, because your lazy stoner friend stole your zombie Billy Mays schtick .
By MADDY MYERS AND ASHLEY RIGAZIO | October 28, 2009

For city council

Boston At-Large: Connolly, Murphy, Pressley, Arroyo
When Boston City Councilors Michael Flaherty and Sam Yoon declared their candidacies for mayor many months ago, the duo opened up what is normally a very narrow field for at-large Council candidates.
By EDITORIAL | October 21, 2009

Khazei, Like a Fox?

Insiders don’t think Alan Khazei has a chance in the US Senate race. But progressive activists could make him an underdog with bite.
If there is to be a candidate in the Massachusetts US Senate race who inspires the sort of grassroots, progressive following that propelled Governor Deval Patrick into office three years ago — an insurgent candidacy, if you will — it figures to be idealistic public-service advocate Alan Khazei, co-founder of City Year and founder of Be the Change, Inc.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | October 16, 2009

The politics of baseball in Boston

It's the Red Sox, stupid
You don’t need a fancy political-science degree to predict voter turnout in Boston city elections. All you need is a Red Sox postseason schedule (when applicable).
By CHRIS FARAONE | October 14, 2009

Disclosure: not a dirty word

Menino's shame and Kerry's blunder. Plus, Olympic follies.
The City Hall e-mail scandal that has scored headlines in recent weeks exemplifies Mayor Thomas Menino's antagonistic — almost contemptuous — attitude toward public accountability.
By EDITORIAL | September 30, 2009