National: John Kerry

Cox's Scott Shepard will become a speechwriter for John Kerry.

The Senate vote on the resolution of disapproval blocking the disbursement of the second tranche (the widespread use of this word is possibly the best legacy of this whole episode) is underway.

It'll require a majority vote in both houses, so if it fails here, next week's scheduled House vote will be largely for show, just to allow Members a chance to grouse. But if it does fail here, you might possibly see some boosted numbers in favor of passage in the House, because it'll be a freebie.

Actually, they're all freebies, since a veto is virtually guaranteed, and an override appears to be out of the question.

John Kerry and Hillary Clinton both wanted - and probably still want - to be president, a reality they joked about when their paths crossed on Tuesday.

As Jason Horowitz noted, Clinton, Barack Obama's soon-to-be confirmed secretary of state, accidentally addressed Kerry, the new chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as "Mr. President" during her confirmation hearing. After Clinton called it a Freudian slip, Kerry replied that "We are both subject to those" - to which Clinton responded, "On this subject especially."

Really, though, the joke is on Kerry - and, for that matter, on many of the other high-profile Democrats who went out on a limb for Obama's presidential campaign - because if there's been one notable trend as Obama as assembled his administration, it's that early loyalty in the campaign hasn't been rewarded, even as open hostility has been.  read more »