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karynnj

(60,077 posts)
2. I agree that Brown might have gained points on the politics here
Thu Jul 19, 2012, 10:21 PM
Jul 2012

but if you turned the roles around - and had a young Kerry positioning himself as being instrumental when he almost certainly wasn't, he would have been pounded by the media. As it is, he still has in recent months had people - even some Democrats - repeating the "Live Shot" smear - I saw it on Blue Mass Group. (This might be unfair to Brown as it was one of the ministers who gave Brown the credit - though the assessment of the Kerry aides that Brown's role was minimal is likely to be very accurate.)

Here, I think that Brown did a good thing in calling the family. It appears the difference is that where Kerry and his staff worked the weekend with the state department, Kerry personally did not speak to the family until he could tell them they were released - and he set up the satellite phone call. I would imagine that Kerry's staff was updating the son who contacted them on what was being done. Not to mention, there are no quotes from the family itself. It is possible that the Senator called them at some point. The point of the reverend's comment was that it was Brown who called them with the good news. (Could it be Vennocci who is blowing this up?)

Note that in your last quoted paragraph, that rather than answer the question of what Brown PERSONALLY did, the spokesperson ignored the question and referred to all involved.

What is interesting is that the Boston Herald story on the release actually has up front the satellite call that they credit Kerry with arranging and later in the article mention both Brown and Kerry called the son. http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?&articleid=1061146209&format=&page=1&listingType=Loc#articleFull

Another source mentioned the state department was updating the mother (who was also on the trip) every few hours.

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