Kerry Blackout: Couldn't Recall Where He Lived for 20 Months

Facing a tough re-election battle and questions about his personal finances, Sen. John Kerry told the Boston Globe in 1996 that he couldn't remember where he lived for nearly two years in the 1980s, only to admit later that wealthy contributors had put him up in the Boston area.

Less than a month before his election face-off with Massachusetts Gov. William Weld, the Globe reported that during an interview, Kerry "at first insisted that he did not recall where he lived when he returned to Boston [from Washington, D.C.] for regular visits over a 20-month period in 1987 and 1988."

"Only later did he acknowledge that he used [Edward W.] Callan's condominium on Beacon Street in the Back Bay for eight or nine months during that time," the paper said.

Kerry and his top political adviser, Ronald Rosenblith, offered what the Globe described as "contradictory and sometimes erroneous information" about Kerry's housing arrangements, in a bid to hide the identities of Callan and two other Boston-area developers who had put Kerry up and helped him out financially.

The Democratic presidential candidate insisted at the time that he had no obligation to report the largesse of his friends as gifts on his Senate disclosure forms, which require members to list gifts valued at $250 or more, the Globe said.

Kerry also insisted that he did not violate Senate rules that bar taking gifts of more than $100 from anyone with a "direct interest" in legislation.

Instead, the Massachusetts Democrat insisted, he was merely accepting the kind of "hospitality" permitted under Senate rules.

Kerry's decision to accept the hospitality of wealthy friends wasn't limited to his living arrangements.

While he was lieutenant governor in 1983 and 1984, Kerry leased several cars from Boston-area Buick dealer Bob Brest - but failed to make a single payment for 16 months.

When a reporter inquired about the sweetheart deal, Kerry launched a cover-up, hastily issuing a flurry of back payments to make the arrangement look more legitimate.

Kerry later explained the accumulation of late payments as "a series of billing mishaps," the Globe said.

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