The Week

Barbara Boxer now is the foremost representative of a powerful home-state interest group: the Sour Grapes Growers of California.

Ted Kennedy, at the National Press Club, presented what he thought should be the Democratic response to President Bush’s re-election. He wants us to withdraw from Iraq, and to stop “bullying” other countries “to salute us.” He thinks we “should invest in mass transit.” Social Security, he says, faces no financial problems-the only threat to it is President Bush. Everyone but Senator Kennedy thinks that Medicare is going broke; he wants it expanded. He thinks the government should recognize same-sex marriages. His answer to abortion is increased funding for social programs. “Republican Congresses and administrations have consciously chosen negative policies that diminish the American dream.” So this is how Senator Kennedy wants to spend his waning years: as liberalism’s last Bourbon king.

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Barbara Boxer now is the foremost representative of a powerful home-state interest group: the Sour Grapes Growers of California.

Ted Kennedy, at the National Press Club, presented what he thought should be the Democratic response to President Bush’s re-election. He wants us to withdraw from Iraq, and to stop “bullying” other countries “to salute us.” He thinks we “should invest in mass transit.” Social Security, he says, faces no financial problems-the only threat to it is President Bush. Everyone but Senator Kennedy thinks that Medicare is going broke; he wants it expanded. He thinks the government should recognize same-sex marriages. His answer to abortion is increased funding for social programs. “Republican Congresses and administrations have consciously chosen negative policies that diminish the American dream.” So this is how Senator Kennedy wants to spend his waning years: as liberalism’s last Bourbon king.