On the day before millions of Iraqis defied snipers, bombs, and mortars to vote for their new government, Senator Edward Kennedy tossed an anchor into the brackish bay and dragged out the lifeless, waterlogged analogy of Viet Nam. How disappointed Senator Kennedy must be that Iraqis showed up to vote in higher numbers than his Boston electrical workers. How it must pain him that millions of these new voters defied death, while so many of his own voters would not defy snow. For our Massachusetts senators, every war will always be Viet Nam, and personal dishonor will always be projected onto us all.

There is, of course, a deep well of political funding in making one's self a national figure with a national consistuency, in this case, by appealing to a tiny, monied, self-loathing minority that is forever embittered by its oppressive ease and uselessness. A small percentage of a great nation's population can write enough checks to keep a political dowager on his throne long after his age has passed.

Even as Iraqis wondered (and still do) whether our nation has the spine to back up its declared commitments to their victory over fascism, even as our soldiers fight in deadly combat against a group that calls itself "Al-Qaeda in Iraq," one United States senator did his utmost to submerge them--and us--in his own defeatism. Thus, for the sake of the survival of peace and freedom in our world, I appeal to the voters of Massachusetts:

Forty years ago, the Kennedy family ruled us from your distant land. We thought in those early days that they sought victory for our nation's cause. We thought their skill, courage, looks, and impeccable taste were enough. We thought that their election would bring a new day of equality and prosperity. They lost their national purpose in Vietnam. They abandoned the truth in the deep, muddy quagmire of the coastal tidewaters near Martha's Vineyard. They failed their ideals and sought comfort in strong drink, gluttony, and indiscriminate wenching. Their words could no longer be trusted. In the name of a misguided belief in a world where tyranny could be pacified and paid to desist--however briefly--from murder, we continued their tenure of office too long. We failed to comprehend the events around us. We did not understand that their very presence was defeating the very goals we set out to achieve. We cannot allow that history to repeat itself in Iraq. We must learn from our mistakes. We must recognize what a large and growing number of Americans now believe. Ted Kennedy's cause has become a war against the survival of our nation, a campaign to release the bonds around the wrists of those who would murder our children in their beds and make bus bombings and pandemics at shopping malls a daily feature of our lives. We have reached the point that Senator Kennedy's prolonged political inheritance is no longer productive for either Iraq or the United States. Senator Kennedy's tenure has become part of the problem, not part of the solution, and we must seek a way to withdraw that tenure with all possible dispatch. It is time for Senator Kennedy to come home.