Rare Kerry appearance causes uproar in SenateArriving for vote, he dismisses GOP calls to resignWASHINGTON -- Under fresh attack by Republicans to resign his Senate seat after missing months of votes, John F. Kerry returned to the Senate chambers yesterday to be in position to vote on a bill providing improved health care for veterans -- a move that triggered a partisan battle among his colleagues.
The presumed Democratic presidential nominee also crossed paths with several senators who have been mentioned as possible running mates: He huddled for a few minutes in private with John Edwards of North Carolina, who is now being vetted by the Kerry campaign, and he also chatted briefly on the Senate floor with Joseph Biden of Delaware and exchanged a high-five and a few words with John McCain, the Arizona Republican who has ruled out a bipartisan ticket with Kerry. But it was the unusual spectacle of a fight over veterans' benefits that dominated Kerry's day and injected a burst of campaign politics into routine Senate business over a Pentagon budget bill. Kerry waited seven hours on the Hill yesterday in hopes of voting on a proposal to increase health care spending for veterans by 30 percent, but Republicans used procedural tactics to delay any vote until at least after Kerry had left for a campaign trip to San Francisco last night. On the Senate floor, Democratic minority leader Tom Daschle accused the majority leader, Bill Frist, of saying that Kerry should not be allowed to ''parachute down and have a vote" after so much time away on the campaign trail. Yet yesterday's political maneuvering revolved less around the legislation at hand than each sides' attempts to help or hinder Kerry's political interests. Kerry, who turned his campaign plane around in Denver Monday night and flew to the capital in a rare moment of political spontaneity, waited hours to speak on the issue. On the Senate floor yesterday afternoon, Kerry accused Republicans of playing politics with the needs of veterans by refusing Democrats the ''normal courtesy" of speaking and voting on a legislative proposal put forward by their leader, Daschle. ''Evidently this is not a normal time for those courtesies in the life of the Senate -- I regret that for the Senate, and for the country, and for veterans," Kerry said. The partisan politicking forced Kerry to scuttle a $500,000 fund-raiser in New Mexico last night, but it reaped other rewards for his campaign. By portraying Republicans as silencing him in the Senate, Kerry gained a useful new weapon to fight opponents who are pressuring him to step down for skipping 89 percent of Senate votes so far this year. He also was able to sit for a ''class picture" yesterday afternoon of the full Senate; had he not been there, Kerry aides said, Republican media strategists would have had a photo at their disposal of all but Kerry present on a day when senators were debating veterans' benefits and Pentagon spending. In what Kerry aides said was a coincidence of timing, the senator returned to the Hill just as Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney -- the most prominent advocate of a Kerry resignation -- repeated that call yesterday during an appearance nearby to testify about gay marriage. Kerry aides said that the senator did not return here to rebut Romney's contention that Kerry was shirking his duties. ''There is no group more important to John Kerry's presidential campaign than veterans, and there is no issue more important to veterans than their access to health care," Kerry spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said late Monday night. According to Senate roll call records, Kerry has missed at least three votes this year on veterans' issues, including one on a Democratic proposal that would have allowed up to $2.7 billion in extra spending for veterans' medical programs, though he has regularly supported such funding increases in the past. That vote failed by a sizable margin, and Kerry has said in the past that he would only make a point of returning to Capitol Hill for close votes in which he would make a difference. Asked about Romney's continuing criticism yesterday, Kerry said only, ''Politics," keeping his focus on veterans' needs. ''This is a very important issue, taking care of veterans -- I hope they're not going to delay veterans for political purposes," Kerry told reporters after leaving a lunch with Democratic senators, who gave him two standing ovations and cheered his upbeat assessment of recent polls and his campaign against President Bush. Edwards and Kerry were on the floor for a total of 45 minutes together, but they only spoke together in a private room off the chamber. Aides would not describe the conversation. Asked yesterday if they had spoken, Edwards said, ''You think I'd tell you if I did?" and burst into his loud, trademark cackle as he walked away.
Patrick Healy can be reached at phealy@globe.com. © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
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