Slice him longitudinally, latitudinally or on the bias, Teddy is still Teddy – the little brother who never grew up, other than in avoirdupois.

Teddy's latest mortification to himself, his lineage, his political party and his native land was his ill-considered speech last week – hailed by the elitist press as statesmanlike – in which he placed a gaggle of foreign Lilliputian satrapies, known as the United Nations, in a superior sovereign position to the United States of America.

The number of graves throughout New England containing coffins of American patriots now spinning in place must be legion.

Whatever Happened to Heritage?

How could anyone bred amid the history of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, from which welled so much of the originating ideology of this unique nation, pull such a bonehead stunt?

What Teddy said amounted to a doctrine, foreign to every president (even Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter) since George Washington, that his own country should not assert its military power without first having beseeched and then received permission from the U.N. Security Council.

That is the same Security Council on which sit such revered defenders of human rights and the rule of law as dictatorial Somalia and the People's Republic of China.

It's a Long Way to Chappaquiddick

Teddy has progressed many a mile from that island bridge off Martha's Vineyard. Now in his 71st year, he has earned by dint of hard work a place of prominence among his Senate colleagues.

He has been put through heartbreaking family tragedies that would leave most men in total shambles. Burying two beloved brothers, one assassinated in the presidency, another very likely en route to it, is a multiple blow no one should have to bear.

He has admirably taken on the headship of the Kennedy clan, being surrogate father and uncle.

Non Sequiturs All

There is much to enjoy about Teddy Kennedy, including his convivial personality and ready wit.

None of that excuses what he did last week to his country, when he qualified himself for whatever medallion Saddam Hussein is currently hanging around the necks of foreigners doing his monkey business for him.

Is Teddy entitled to a voice against the president's plan for going to war with Iraq to save Americans and others from weapons of mass destruction? Of course he is. So is every other American, but that's not the issue Teddy raised.

U.N. First, America Last

There is a Grand Canyon leap from disagreeing with the president over whether to go to war with Iraq to what Teddy was demanding – that the United States must go hat in hand to the United Nations for its permission before it may act in self-defense. Even the U.N. charter itself recognizes member states' right of self-defense. The Teddy Doctrine would nullify that.

Contrast Teddy's vacillation with the advice John Adams of Massachusetts gave to his friend George Washington, who in 1776 asked him if he had authority to march his troops on the British occupying Boston (Teddy's home town, by the way) and to defend New York (now considered Teddy's secondary base of support).

In his enthralling biography "John Adams," historian David McCullough writes that Washington, as commander of the pathetic little revolutionary army, was concerned that he might be overreaching the authority conferred upon him by the Continental Congress.

What If Adams Had Waffled?

McCullough quotes Adams, the driving force behind the Constitution who went on to become the second president of this new nation, as writing back to the general:

"Your commission constitutes you commander of all the forces … and you are vested with full power and authority to act as you shall think for the good and welfare of the service."

Can you imagine John Adams admonishing George Washington first to obtain permission from something called the United Nations?

What Would Jack and Bobby Have Done?

If anyone feels 1776 to 2002 is too extravagant a passage of time, let Teddy contemplate his brothers John and Robert in the loneliness of the Oval Office during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, agonizing over the possibility of thermonuclear destruction.

There is no way that president and that attorney general would have pleaded with the United Nations to let the United States instruct Nikita Khrushchev to pull his Soviet nuclear missiles the hell off Fidel Castro's captive island pronto … or else.

Wonder what those two Kennedys must be thinking today of little brother.

One thing's for sure. Edward M. Kennedy is in no danger of qualifying for John F. Kennedy's "Profiles in Courage."

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:

DNC

Saddam Hussein/Iraq

Editor's note:
Liberals’ attacks on America - in their own words!