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Dear John, Don't Go: An Open Letter To Sen. Kerry

To: U.S. Sen. John Kerry
From: Angry Massachusetts Voters

What’s this about you becoming Secretary of State? It’s in all the newspapers, on the radio, TV and all over the Web.

Okay, we understand why you’re interested in the job.

Your father was a diplomat and he got to travel to cities with very good food.

You’ll get your very own Boeing 757. Though it’s not quite as fancy as Air Force One (the plane you really wanted), you don’t have to take your shoes off before you get on.

And yes, it means you won’t have to go to Fitchburg or Fall River or to any more funerals (unless they’re really big ones and Joe Biden is too busy to go).

It would mean you would no longer have to make small talk with Tom Menino or the Democratic town chair in, say, West Tisbury.

No more sitting on the Senate subway trapped between Saxby Chambliss and Marco Rubio.

We get it. There are perks. More than a few, it appears.

But what about us? What about the 1,959,843 Massachusetts voters that supported you in 2008 and thought you had signed a six year contract with us? It’s only been four years and you’re out the door?

Every time you asked us for our votes we gave them to you — even that time back in 1982 when you ran for lieutenant governor. We took you back after you tried unsuccessfully to beat George W. Bush in 2004; 66 percent of us voted for you even though you picked that creepy John Edwards to be your running mate.

Do you know what your fulltime move to Foggy Bottom will mean for us? We’ll have to put up with another special election, which will no doubt bestir a gaggle of restless congressmen and several overbearing rich guys who looked in the mirror one day and saw a U.S. Senator.

We have painful recent memories of the race for that other Senate seat — of stabbing the mute button every other minute to block the unrelenting ads for Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren.

We can’t go through it again — not so soon.

While you’re up on Capitol Hill getting ready for your love-in... ahem, I mean confirmation hearing, we’ll have to watch obscure channels like BBC America to duck all the incoming campaign ads.

And don’t get us started on the money pitches. Our email boxes were full of oh-so-friendly letters like the ones asking us for just $5 so Elizabeth could match all that Wall Street money for Brown. Who wants the hassle of sending those checks again for — say — Mike Capuano or whoever the Democrats put up.

People who know you best say you’re really a nice guy, better than that stiff Brahmin you play on TV.

Tell President Obama you made a deal with us, not with him.

This program aired on December 18, 2012. The audio for this program is not available.

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