A 'Kerry moment' comes and goes
By TIM BARNICLE
December 14, 2011
I've watched John Kerry's Senate career from the inside and outside for 30 years, and I'm struck that a once unlikely Senate figure seems to have come full circle.

I'd served in government for two decades when Kerry came to the Senate. I'd worked for and with giants of the Senate including my mentor, Sen. Hubert Humphrey, who felt at home in the give-and-take of a very different Washington. Kerry, by contrast, came to Washington as an independent, impatient former prosecutor with no legislative background. By personality and design, he walked to the beat of his own drummer — sometimes maddeningly so.

After his election, he confounded many of us by turning down a seat on the powerful Appropriations Committee. Why? It was the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he explained, where he felt his experience as a Vietnam veteran could best contribute to public policy. He was right; and now, as chairman of that committee, his leadership is nearly universally respected.
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I'm retired now on Cape Cod, and as I watch Kerry, I notice that while some things have changed in him, all the ingredients of his current manifestation were there from the beginning.

Kerry's hair is gray, his face is creased with the lines of life and lessons learned. He is now 10th in seniority overall and the sixth most senior Democrat. Sen. Kennedy has passed, other Senate veterans like Vice President Biden were promoted, and Kerry's other impatient liberal buddies, like Gary Hart and Bill Bradley, have moved on. Kerry is now one of the "old bulls." He's listened to by his caucus in a way we never imagined, and his counsel is heeded. He is even very close to a majority leader.