The fact that George W Bush borrowed money from BCCI in 1987 but John Kerry launched the investigation in 1988 that eventually brought them down really says about all you need to know about the character of the two men.
This is exactly what caught my eye when I first looked into Kerry’s record back in February — but now there is a new article by David Sirota and Jonathan Baskin in the Washington Monthly which lays the case out very clearly. As the Republicans continue to make Kerry out to be a flip-flopping lame duck it is important to remember that he was behind one of the most important anti-corruption investigations of the past thirty years, and did so against the interests of some pretty big players in his own party. As the authors say,
legislation is only one facet of a senator’s record. As the BCCI investigation shows, Kerry developed a very different record of accomplishment–one often as vital, if not more so, than passage of bills.
And, as David Corn pointed out in March, Kerry’s legislative record isn’t all that bad either.
