Which "Man of the People" Had More Palaces/Servants, Saddam or Kerry?

4/28/04 | Tacis

[Tacis]

Help settle a bar bet! A colleague claims that Sen. Kerry has today, more palaces than Saddam Hussein had when he was dictator of Iraq.

He went on to qualify his bet by saying that he included those palaces that Kerry would claim weren't his but, "belonged to the family," or "belonged to the wife or one of her interests" and that he also included all of Kerry's "secret" palaces such as those private apartments in Paris, Rio and Tokyo that his wife has but aren't widely known. He's not talking about oppulance and he concedes that Saddams were probably more expensive to furnish.

A side bet is that Saddam, in total, had more household staff than the Kerrys/Heinzes. Most of Saddam's household servants were Iraqis from the area of Takrit. Most of the Kerry's servants are foreign nationals, Europeans and Philipinos and some of them are here legally (or, in whatever palace they work in whatever country).

[Tacis]

So, what do you think? Assuming that Kerry would honestly answer the question (I know, I know!), how many palatial residences do Kerry and his current wife and her interests actually control? Is that more than Saddam and his family control before last year (and would still control had we asked the UN to work their magic)? Which "man of the people," "little man," as of March 1, 2003, had the most personal household servants?