Kennedy as Secretary of State?

If John Kerry is elected next month, Ted Kennedy will probably get a top spot in his administration. Some have speculated he would be named as Attorney General. What if he was named Secretary of State?

The Boston Globe published an article quoting extensively Kennedy's views of the situation in Iraq. Here's what you might have to look forward to.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy told a national audience yesterday that the Bush administration's Iraq policy has made America less safe because it has been a diversion from the struggle against Al Qaeda and the occupation has been marked by "blunder after blunder," foreshadowing a new election-season speech he is scheduled to deliver today at George Washington University.

Mind you, the 9/11 Commission's conclusion was that we are "safer, but not yet safe". Yet Kennedy insists we are "less safe".

Kennedy claims Iraq has been "a diversion from the struggle against Al Qaeda", yet an reasonable view of Iraq should conclude that Iraq has drawn the focus of Al Qaeda almost to the exclusion of anything else. Kennedy claims the occupation has been "marked by blunder after blunder". Here Kennedy has a point. There have been misteps in Iraq, and they are not easily explained.

Kennedy stated on Face the Nation

"we have to free ourselves from the lies and distortions about Iraq," the Massachusetts Democrat accused President Bush and top administration officials of misleading the country by talking of progress despite mounting violence by an insurgency that controls an increasing portion of the country. He argued that electing the Democratic presidential nominee, John F. Kerry, would mean a fresh start.

"What we are seeing is that we are lost in the quagmire over there," Kennedy said. "Now, John Kerry has offered a plan to try and change this. This administration has had its chance. And it's blunder after blunder. We need a new direction."

Note here that Kennedy brings up the meme of "lies and distortions" and "misleading the country". This entire thread was birthed by the lies of Joe Wilson. Until then, the Democrats had no success attaching the claim to Bush, who came across as sincere and forthright. Despite the fact that Wilson is thoroughly discredited, this line of attack continues because it resonates and because the old media has abdicated the truth by refusing to discuss Wilson's complete collapse.

In a speech Kennedy has prepared to give next Monday, Kennedy raises the stakes.

In a speech prepared for delivery at George Washington University on Monday, Kennedy said that by shifting attention from Osama bin Laden to Iraq, President George W. Bush had increased the danger of a "nuclear 9/11."

He said it was a good thing Bush was not in charge during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, a nuclear confrontation with Russia when Kennedy's brother was president.

I think this is a last gasp effort to attack Bush's strength on the war on terror. Time will tell if it's effective.

What you won't find in Kennedy's speeches (as in Kerry's) is any sense of what they might do differently. I'm sure, if Kerry is elected, we will finally find out what his plan is. Kennedy will probably have a lot to do with shaping that plan.