CASE AGAINST SHRUM #273… I’ve never understood why the Kerry campaign hasn’t made more of the candidate’s record in the Senate of holding tough, thankless, let-the-chips-fall-as-they-may investigations of the rich and powerful. Especially impressive was his pursuit of BCCI, the Arab-owned international bank which turned out to be a massive criminal enterprise that enabled terrorists, including Osama bin Laden, to finance their activities–until it was shut down, largely thanks to Kerry’s relentless efforts. The campaign’s weird refusal to talk about achievements like the BCCI hearings has allowed Bush to paint Kerry as a do-nothing legislator with no record of achievement during 20 years in the Senate.
But now, thanks to Newsweek, we have an explanation for the Kerry campaign’s insane strategy. It seems that Bob Shrum thinks the American people are too stupid to understand what it means that Kerry shut down BCCI. “You can’t talk about that because people think you’re talking about the BBC,” Bob Shrum, Kerry’s top adviser, told one senior staffer. “Why were you investigating British TV?”
Should we string up Shrum after Kerry loses, or beat the rush and do it now?
