Last night, I had the privilege of interviewing Jim Beatty, the man who’s attempting to unseat John Kerry, who served in Vietnam. I’d done some research on Mr. Beatty prior to the interview. His national/homeland security resume is quite impressive, having served in the Delta Forces, as a FBI Special Agent and with the CIA. In addition to that, Mr. Beatty owns a business that called TotalSecurity.US, which he started in 1992.

According to his campaign bio page, here are some of his accomplishments:

In transportation, www.TotalSecurity.US has written the Anti-terrorism Action Plans for both the American Trucking Associations and the American Bus Association. Further consulting support has been given to 25 major US cities and the FMCSA, FTA, WMATA, MBTA and MASSPORT.

On a Global scale Mr. Beatty and www.TotalSecurity.US worked on major international meetings and special events like the Rose Bowl and Rose Parade, Superbowl, Asian Development Bank, BIOTECH and 4 Olympics.

In other words, his resume suggests that he’ll be more than able to hold his own on these issues with Sen. Kerry.

I’d be doing Mr. Beatty a disservice, though, if I left the impression that he’s a one issue candidate. He isn’t. The first question I asked was intentionally a softball. What I asked was why he’d be a better senator than Sen. Kerry. His response was measured but to the point. He said that he’d “protect Massachusetts’ families, protect our country & protect Massachusetts’ jobs.”

He said that he’d protect Massachusetts’ families and Massachusetts jobs by not raising their taxes. He said that Massachusetts’ families already have too much of an financial burden, that they don’t need a higher tax burden.

Mr. Beatty said that he’d favor an aggressive pro-drilling energy plan. Mr. Beatty also agrees with Sen. McCain that we need to build nuclear power plants.

Mr. Beatty said that he’d give our law enforcement and intelligence agencies all the tools they need to protect us from future terrorist attacks.

The next thing caught me off guard but it makes perfect sense. He said it’s in our interest to build nuclear power plants overseas. That way, we know that they aren’t being used for nuclear weapons. We’d also make a nice profit, too.

He stressed the fact that he’d made numerous decisions in his various security-related jobs, something Sen. Kerry wasn’t required to do in his time in the Senate. His running a company certainly gave him lots of additional executive experience.

The last question I asked was about the threat Iran poses. He called it significant and that we can’t let the mullahs get nuclear weapons. He said that the best way to do that would be to appeal to pro-democracy factions inside the country. According to Mr. Beatty, this is a highly viable option as people there don’t like the oppressive nature of the mullahs.

I’d like to thank Jeff Beatty for granting me this interview. I found him to be a man of sound judgment, someone who is certainly grounded in national security matters at a time when those credentials are important in the Senate.

Finally, we hear each election cycle about a challenger who has a shot at unexpectedly knocking off an incumbent. Rarely does the incumbent get defeated. This isn’t one of those times. Jeff Beatty is very competitive in the polls right now. Here’s a question from a Zogby International poll:

Jeff Beatty recently entered politics. He is 54 years old and is a national security consultant/small business owner. He made 200+ nat’l security ‘appearances on TV. He is a US Army Combat-wounded veteran and former FBI Agent/former CIA Counter-terrorism Officer. Has a home in MA, and opposed the recent Immigration Reform Bill. Who would you vote for, John Kerry or Jeff Beatty?

Kerry 48%, Beatty 45%

I’ve talked with a couple friends living in Massachusetts. They said that Massachusetts think poorly of Kerry’s constituent service record, adding that Kerry isn’t well liked within his own party.

Based on that information, I’d consider this a prime opportunity for the Republicans.

Technorati Tags: Jeff Beatty, John Kerry, Drilling, Energy Policy, Taxes, Small Business, Iran, National Security, Polling, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog