John Kerry

When Kerry was a freshman Senator, Lugar's condition for giving Kerry a committee to investigate illegal arming of the Contras was that he needed to get a Republican willing to join him. Helms was a very strong supporter of the Contras, but he was seriously against drugs -like cocaine - coming into the country. It may have been Kerry's military background and the vets who came to Kerry asking for this investigation that persuaded him, but whatever it was, he signed on. Long term, he was not supportive, but without him Kerry would never have had the subpoena power to investigate this.

In addition, in the Clinton years, Helms decided - as chair of SFRC - to bloc Clinton's nominations for ambassador. It was Kerry who worked out a compromise that allowed the majority of them to go forward.

I had never thought of it, but Landrieu did very publicly support him and they had a nice event speaking of the ecological things that needed to be done in Louisiana.

Even in the dysfunctional Senate we now have, there are many Senators, who publicly praised Kerry after he convinced Kharzi to follow his country's election laws and have a run off and after he managed the START treaty confirmation. He and Olympia Snowe had a very friendly, cordial relationship running the Small Business Committee - as he does with Lugar. His relationship with McCain is complex, but it is obviously deep. Senator John Warner clearly liked and admired Kerry - when the Democrats were making life difficult for Kerry when Kerry/Feingold was debated, Warner suggested they debate the bill on the floor of the Senate. They did for most of a half hour. In addition to praising parts of the plan, but saying it was premature, he took the time to put in the Senate record that he approved Kerry's silver star, when he was Secretary of the Navy and it was well earned. Kerry got Warner's office when Warner retired and Warner left him a gift of a " binnacle, a tool sailors use to point out the right direction and light a path forward." http://voices.washingtonpost.com/rawfisher/2008/12/at_end_of_road_john_warner_sti.html After leaving the Senate, Warner appeared before a SFRC hearing on climate change (which Warner was then working on), where the initial greetings showed the warmth of their mutual admiration.

Not to mention, how can you get more bipartisan than saving the life of a member of the opposite party - as Kerry did with Nevada Senator Hecht.

Now, I suspect there are others - McConnell, Cornyn, and DeMint who likely absolutely hate Kerry - and always will.