Kerry in Massachusetts yesterday morning - (Western and Central Mass)

Sen. Kerry laments divisions
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
By MARY ELLEN LOWNEY
mlowney@repub.com

SPRINGFIELD - U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry lavished praise on small business owners and took a few swipes at the Republican-dominated federal administration at a stop here yesterday.

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"Right now, I'm focused on helping people get elected in 2006. We want to turn this thing around," he said, referring to the Republican majority in both houses of Congress. "I also want to measure the level of support of the people who supported me two years ago. I'm listening."


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Both during and after his speech, Kerry lamented the partisanship that has made Washington a more rancorous place than he has ever seen over his 21 years in the U.S. Senate.

"I have never seen a more dysfunctional Washington, D.C., than we have now. We are all sick of the partisanship. We've got to get rid of it."

Kerry said the administration has botched the energy situation with its long-standing priorities.

"Gas prices? The government should have done something by now. You have to start moving towards energy independence, but that hasn't happened. We've had a government policy that has favored oil, oil, oil," he said.

He also criticized the administration's handling of the situation in Iraq, saying he was headed to Washington to try to amend a war funding bill to include a withdrawal date for U.S. troops.


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Kerry lauds MLK Center startups

Senator hears small-business concerns

By Lisa Eckelbecker TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
leckelbecker@telegram.com
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WORCESTER— In the twisting hallways and renovated offices of the Martin Luther King Jr. Business Empowerment Center, U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., yesterday poked through a bicycle repair shop and asked Vietnamese immigrants working with electronics about their hometowns.

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“It used to be in places like Worcester — especially places like Worcester — (that kids) coming out of high school would go to work at a big plant like Norton, and that was your life,” Mr. Kerry said after he had finished his tour of the sprawling center and settled into its Café de Jour for a meeting with entrepreneurs.

But now, “the question for a lot of us is, ‘What are people going to work at? How are we going to build our economy?’ ” he said.

The MLK Center, founded 12 years ago, is a business incubator and center for the region’s entrepreneurs. Robert L. Thomas, the MLK center’s president and chief executive, said Mr. Kerry’s visit represented an opportunity to highlight the center’s services to small-business people of all races and ethnicities and gave the center a chance to lobby for money.
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During his tour, Mr. Kerry spoke with University of Massachusetts Extension Service workers about childhood nutrition education programs, examined the MLK center’s library and chatted about bicycling with Gray N. Harrison, director of the Worcester Earn-a-Bike program, which allows youngsters to work on and obtain free bicycles.

“This is a great idea, a great concept,” Mr. Kerry said as he stood amid piles of bicycle parts.

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During his meeting with entrepreneurs, Mr. Kerry criticized the Bush administration’s funding cuts to the National Institutes of Health, which awards money to scientists and small businesses for research, and the Small Business Administration.

The administration’s push for tax cuts and the concurrent cuts to important programs, said Mr. Kerry, who ran unsuccessfully for president against George W. Bush in 2004, “are absolutely backward. They’re bad for the country.”

In a separate meeting with reporters, Mr. Kerry continued his criticism of the Bush administration, including its policies regarding the war in Iraq. But he said it was too early for him to decide whether he would make another run for president.

“I don’t know the answer to this, but I’m going to make this decision based on my gut,” Mr. Kerry said.