KERRY CLAN'S OWN WATERGATE
DEMOCRATIC presidential front-runner John Kerry and Richard M. Nixon have something in common - Sen. Kerry's political history is scarred by its own version of Watergate.
During Kerry's 1972 bid for Congress, his younger brother, Cameron Kerry, was arrested for "breaking into . . . the headquarters of a Kerry opponent," the New York Times reported on Sept. 19 of that year. Kerry's headquarters were in the same building in Lowell, Mass.
Cameron Kerry and another campaign worker pleaded not guilty to charges of "breaking and entering with the intent to commit grand larceny."
John Kerry characterized the break-in as a preemptive strike and told the Times the two men "entered the building after receiving an anonymous telephone threat . . . that the telephone lines at his [own] headquarters were to be sabotaged."
Cameron, now a partner in a Boston-based law firm, has been a key supporter of all of his brother's campaigns.
According to the Center for Public Integrity, Kerry-the-younger's law firm "has been the biggest financial backer of the Massachusetts Democrat's two decades-long political career in elected office, with its employees contributing nearly $187,000 to various Kerry races, including his current presidential campaign."
Meanwhile, State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer might want to rethink his support for Kerry, considering the records being circulated by Howard Dean's campaign.
Spitzer, who endorsed Kerry earlier this week for the nomination, has crusaded against financial shenanigans on Wall Street. And some of his investigations have targeted the same firms that made big contributions to the Kerry campaign.
Citigroup, which gave Kerry $71,500, paid $400 million in penalties as part of a settlement with regulators. Goldman Sachs, which gave Kerry $62,600, and Morgan Stanley, which gave him $40,000, were party to a $1.4 billion settlement with Spitzer over charges that their analysts gave investors bad advice to win investment banking business. FleetBoston Financial, which gave $32,050, suspended a trader last April when the New York Stock Exchange launched a probe.
One Democrat wonders: "Did Spitzer know the connections between Kerry and the financial companies he investigates?"
