John Kerry, Neocon

John Kerry, who lost the 2004 presidential election and despite having been and early and outspoken supporter of Barack Obama was passed over for any of the plum jobs in the new Democratic administration, has taken to the op-ed pages of the New York Times to write about Iran. Not surprisingly, he approves of President Obama’s decision to position the United States a passive observer of the ongoing tumult in Iran. Kerry laments the “clamor from neoconservatives urging President Obama to denounce the voting as a sham and insert ourselves directly in Iran’s unrest.” Kerry chides John McCain, whom he sought as a runningmate in 2004, for urging the president to place himself squarely on the side of the protesters. Those who offer such advice, Kerry suggests with something of a verbal pat on the head, are merely responding “emotionally.” As if to underscore the condescension, Kerry’s piece runs under the headline: “With Iran, Think Before You Speak.” Was Kerry thinking on Monday? At a speech before the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, Kerry, perhaps responding emotionally, did precisely what the dreaded neoconservatives have been clamoring for from President Obama: He directly questioned the results of the sham election. “I share the concern of many in Iran and around the world that the results of Iran’s presidential election appear not to reflect the will of the Iranian people,” he said in his prepared remarks. And later, in a question-and-answer session with former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw, Kerry went further, calling the results “hard to defend,” pointing out with skepticism that the regime claims to have carried “Mousavi’s hometown,” and flatly saying of Ahmadinejad’s winning margin, “I don’t buy it.”