Posted on 08/31/2004 6:22:45 PM PDT by crushelits
In anticipation of the unsealing of John Kerry’s divorce and child custody papers, we decided to re-post our “Deadbeat Dad” story. If this is what we have gleaned from the available public record, just wait until the court documents are opened …
When John Kerry got his first marriage annulled, he told reporters annulment was “one of this special Catholic things.” “75 percent of all annulments in the world take place in the United States,” he joked. “I guess that figure drops to 50 percent if you take out all Massachusetts politicians.”
His first wife, Julia Thorne wasn’t amused. She said the annulment of the 14-year marriage to Kerry was “devoid of any sense of humanity of what it means to me and the children.”
This is the same wonderful man she had to sue for child support. And still the press is silent. Read on…
On the campaign trail the Kerry's look like a devil-may-care, happy-go-lucky brood. But like many upper crust families, the Kerry's too have a dark history; one swirling in a shadowy fog of divorce, depression, thoughts of suicide, and perhaps even deadbeat parenting.
It all started in 1971 when Julia Thorne met a young Yale grad and Navy boy named John Kerry. We have covered this early part of the story in some detail before.
What is clear is that Thorne suffered from severe depression. She was also so lonely during her life with the ambitious Kerry, she contemplated suicide more than once. But, thank God, Miz Thorne found help through the healing touch of therapy. Away from John Kerry she found balance and happiness.
But that's also where the story gets weird. You see, John Kerry became a bit of a drifter in those post-Julia Thorne days. He fancied himself a bit of a playboy and dated numerous B-list actresses.
And, according to the Boston Globe, found himself is some financial trouble:
He took out a $473,000 loan to purchase a home in Washington, thinking his daughters would be staying with him for periods of time. It was "a huge mistake," he says, as he found himself returning to Boston most weekends to maintain his ties to his children and the state. He sold the D.C. home and bought a Boston condo but "lost his shirt" when he sold it a few years later, as he told the Globe in 1996. "He was broke," [Kerry comrade] Blum says.
At the time, Kerry had to hit the speaking circuit to collect honoraria (a practice that is now illegal for members of Congress) in order "to meet child-support payments, campaign debts, and tuition costs." He collected over $120,000 from such entities as Big Oil and Big Tobacco.
He must not have done a good job of making those child support payments, though. Shortly thereafter Julia Thorne filed a lawsuit against John Kerry to get more child support from him. The story was covered only briefly in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on June 10th, 1995:
Sen. John Kerry's ex-wife is suing him for higher support payments, saying his income is up substantially. The lawsuit was filed April 6, seven weeks before the Massachusetts Democrat married Teresa Heinz, the widow of Sen. John Heinz III of Pennsylvania. She controls a fortune estimated at $675 million.
Both Kerry and his former wife, Julia Thorne, said the lawsuit has nothing to do with his remarrying May 26. They divorced in 1988.
The story raised some troubling questions. Like, did John Kerry ever miss any of his child support payments during his cash-strapped, Hollywood-lovin' days? And just how little was he paying Thorne for child support? Thorne is the heiress to a $300 million Wall Street fortune, which leads us to believe it was more a matter of principle than of money. Nonetheless, we think voters are entitled to answers.
During the primary, John Kerry said, "The highest office in the land requires the highest level of openness for the American people.... As president, openness will be the hallmark of my administration, not some talking point."
We ask for nothing less before we consider whether or not to put a potential deadbeat dad in the White House.
LOL!!!
That would be great!
I think Kerry is a complete dork and jerk, but on other issues. If, as I've heard, his first wife was extremely wealthy (rather than obscenely wealthy, like Teresa), she should take a big hand financially in their children's support. There's plenty of other issues that he deserves to be put down on--but I'm afraid this isn't one of them.
Not counting his Senate record, not counting his VVAW escapades, and not counting his likely lies about his service, I'd say the issue with the wife is the way he dumped her and hypocritically used his influence to get the Church to "annul" the marriage. How do you annul a marriage with two kids? There are other problems than a technical interpretation of money and support.
> During the primary, John Kerry said, "The highest office
> in the land requires the highest level of openness for
> the American people.... As president, openness will be
> the hallmark of my administration, not some talking point."
I'd suggest using this to pound on the SF-180 issue, and
not on child support (or whether or not he effectively
made one child illegitimate, which he did by seeking
an annulment rather than a divorce).
The precident has been set with the Ryan case. Lawyers need to get to work on this...
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