John Kerry in his own words

I wanted to post John Kerry's words from Thursday's Foreign Relations Committee meeting because he was, as always, eloquent. And because, no matter how you get your news, if you weren't watching the meeting itself you probably missed this.

I was really struck at the meeting we had before when Senator Voinovich stopped the proceedings, rewrote the script, based on his conscience. I mean, he just sat up and said, I'm uncomfortable with this.

And lo and behold, people were amazed: Washington was amazed. The country was amazed. And I was amazed that everybody was amazed. Because what is going on that a senator doesn't act according to script, acts according to conscience, and everybody is taken aback? I think Senator Chafee said, This is the first time this has happened in the four years I've been here. Well, then, something is wrong with here, not with Senator Voinovich.

And I was struck that he was set upon by certain automatic forces in the country that are then unleashed to vilify him for acting as a senator ought to act.

When I first came here, that's the way almost everybody did. That's the way it worked. And we shouldn't be so amazed that somebody in fact stops and thinks about something and responds according to their conscience.

And that really is the bottom line. When a senator stepping out of line with his party to speak what he sees as the truth creates a furor, the problem is not with that senator. We should email these words to every single Republican senator before Tuesday's "nuclear option" meltdown commences. Some of them are unreachable. (Anyone see Norm Coleman on Bill Maher last night? He has the gravitas of a used car salesman.) But some of them may still have a vestigial conscience.