Awesome compilation. Intense hearing. Senator Kerry was extremely impressive in his calm and focused questioning.  Fox was visibly squirming. Just goes to show the character of the Bush ilk. Fox wasn’t just a donor to the Swift Liars, he was deeply invested in Bush and connected to his circle of cronyism, deceit and smear.

Lower and lower: nominations for important international relations positions being sold to lying, unqualified cowards.

Agree GV, Fox must not be confirmed

Here is a link to an op-ed piece in The Lone Star Iconoclast, The Long War of John Kerry, praising Senator Kerry. (http://www.lonestaricon.com/absolutenm/anmviewer.asp?a=1174&z=113). You know why it’s interesting? It is the hometown newspaper of George W. Bush. And it endorsed Kerry in 2004! Since then, it has continually published articles praising Kerry. If only the national media displayed such courage and some appetite for truth. Excellent article. Must read.

Senator Kerry...you are a class act! 

As a major contributor to the smear campaign against you in 2004 by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, Mr. Fox was completely undeserving of any respect whatsoever from you.

Yet you demonstrated the great civility expected of true leaders in a democracy such as ours.  You talked of truth, you talked of right and wrong, and you talked of the duty of a citizen to act responsibly based on knowledge.

The sad thing is...guys like Fox probably would never have comprehended that. They’re incapable.

Excellent job, sir!

If the dems vote to confirm this man in my judgement they are putting their seal of approval on the swift boat attacks against the senator and are once again backstabbing John Kerry.

Glad to hear some on the web aren’t twisting the knives in the senator’s back as they often do.

Senator Kerry you need to put a hold on this nomination.

I’m glad you finally got to nail one of these liars to the wall for what they did.

Although I’m not suprised holy Joe Lieberman shook the man’s hand why did other dems except Obama gave him praise which seems to be the case from what I’ve read.

The reason Bush nominated the man was to try and rub more salt in the wound.  Bush isn’t playing with a full deck folks. 

Senator, once again you showed what a real president acts like.

It’s good of Bob Geiger to have put up the transcript of Senator Kerry’s question and answer session with James Fox. As usual, many right-wing pundits and especially bloggers are spitting their usual venom at Mr. Kerry for what portray as his unethically and unpatriotically trying to tear down the nomination of a good and fair man because he’s such a sore loser from ‘04 (and so on, and so forth, yadda yadda yadda.)

And it’s obvious from their bogus accusations that practically none of them had watched the video or read the transcript for themselves before launching their screeds based only on the sparse content of the original AP story.

Reading the transcript of the full session between Mr. Kerry and Sam Fox—or, much better yet, watching the video stream of it, since it’s the timing, tone, and body language of both men’s questions and answers is a major part of understanding just what was and what was not going on in that room at the time—easily proves the point that this was no selfish smear attack on Mr. Kerry’s part.

Fox had every opportunity to prove himself qualified for his proposed ambassadorship position. But he did not. He kept proving by his own statements that he had very little knowledge of Belgium and its culture, its place in the E.U., its role in the anti-terrorism struggle, or its crucial position in the international monetary system.

It was clear from his halting, confused answers that Fox had not bothered to do his homework before this important nomination hearing, and he seemed to be quite surprised that anybody would ask him more than just a few shallow fluff questions before waltzing him off to Brussels with a warm hug and a pat on the back.

It was only after extended questioning on the facts on the ground in Europe and on what Fox qualifications thought he might bring to his role were he to be named ambassador to Belgium that Mr. Kerry then eased into Fox’s thoughts on what he referred to as “the politics of personal destruction.”

Again, he gave Fox every opportunity to give a few simple, clear answers to questions of fact regarding his generous financial support of the SBVT accusations even after they had been thoroughly debunked by the mainstream media. Again, Fox failed to do so. He waffled, he wobbled, he obfuscated, he dissembled, and he did everything possible to avoid having to explain his actions in 2004.

In the course of clumsily evading the issues, Fox clearly demonstrated that he has neither the integrity, the character, or the personality to hold a high-visibility overseas diplomatic post. At no time did Mr. Kerry lash out at Fox or try to take revenge for the earlier personal attacks on him by the SBVT smears; instead, he remained calm, soft-spoken, careful in his choice of words but firm in his intention to have facts in evidence entered into the record.

Mr. Kerry’s approach was not personal, but professional.  His demeanor was that of the career prosecutor that he’d been at the start of his long career in public service, and he pursued the truth as resolutely as he did when he was investigating B.C.C.I. and its role in financing the Iran/Contra affair during the Reagan years.

The reaction of the other senators and guests in the committee room during Mr. Kerry’s questioning is quite clear in the video—they were respectful of his actions and they shared his concerns about the credibility of Fox as a representative of the U.S. government abroad.

This was not a sore loser trying to lash out and take revenge over a good man who was being unfairly pilloried for sins he didn’t commit, despite what the spinmasters on the right are claiming. This was nothing more, and nothing less, than Senator Kerry executing his responsibilities as a member of the SFRC in asking Fox to prove his worthiness to be confirmed to an ambassadorial position. That Fox utterly failed to do so is his own fault, not Mr. Kerry’s

AMEN, Otter !

It is important people like Fox are held accountable.  That is what we need accountability.

Dishonestly in politics that the SBVT and Fox supports hurts our Country’s democracy.  (They were recently fined too)

The Fox cannot get a free pass by saying the ends justified the means or that I am just going along supporting my side. 

Thanks Sen Kerry for continuing to lead by example and showing strong character.

It was a pleasure watching Sen. Kerry’s questioning: calm, thorough, authoritative, and devastating. Class act.