They created an award in the name of their former Dean of the Law College, Drinan - and Kerry was the first person given it. Drinan was a Jesuit Priest who was a Congressman. They first met in 1970 when Kerry was first out of the Navy and looking into to running for Congress. He found out that the anti war candidates had agreed to have an informal election between themselves to select who would run against the incumbent who favored the war. Drinan started with a major lead and at the end it was just him vs Kerry. Kerry conceded and immediately joined his campaign along with his closest friends.
They remained friends until Drinan's death a few years after 2004. He was one of Kerry's advisers in 2004. He taught at Georgetown University. A niece who had him as a teacher around that time said he was an incredible teacher.
That group has attacked liberal Catholics for years - and as noted, the Cardinal, who very likely knows Kerry well, ignored their call that he not come. I doubt Kerry is easily phased by people protesting him -- I doubt they had much support.
The subpoena for tomorrow was lifted by Issa when it was clear Kerry had a commitment to be in Mexico. He then got mad at the State Department and set it for May 29. (It is actually just a publicity stunt to call Kerry. His goal is likely to posture and continue to defame the State Department - without asking many questions and demanding yes/no answers to questions that need more. The problem for him is there is a MAJOR gravitas gap and he is on the low end. Unfortunately for him, Kerry has one of the coolest tempers in the world and he will look like a jerk if Kerry responds (as he will) politely speaking of honoring the process.
If he REALLY thought something was wrong in providing the documents, he likely would have started by calling in the people who actually do the pull and the redactions. He would ask them what their directions were and who issued them. If he then found a way to have a problem with the procedures, he would call in the people who gave the directions and then try to work up the line. Kerry's own involvement is likely limited to assigning someone the responsibility to assign and monitor the tasks done by the people who do this. _ I would guess lawyers as I know in companies the lawyers lead the effort when they they get a subpoena.
The problem is that there was NOTHING on the talking points that was hidden. Every other document said pretty consistent things.
Like you, I hate the disrespect Kerry gets from some here. However, he is really not impacted by these immature Putin/Snowden/Paul fans. At this point, he really really is out of politics. These two invitations were honors and likely both very close to his heart. His response at Yale seemed very friendly and I assume that BC was even more so. (First of all, for many of the undergraduates, he was their Senator for their entire life until he became SoS. We visited BC and another Jesuit college on the Thursday/Friday of the week of the election in 2004 with a daughter looking at colleges. In both MA colleges, some kids were crying or near tears and the explanation was they were tremendously invested in the election.)
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