In their endless struggle to please and appease special interests and large voter blocs, most of the 535 members of Congress have succeeded mainly in diminishing themselves. Their fundamental obligation to order the nation's finances has given way to the politician's primal instinct: inflict no pain; ruffle no feathers; get re-elected.
How, then, to explain Bob Kerrey? The junior Senator from Nebraska, whose personal valor was certified for all time when he lost a leg in Vietnam, is equally fearless wading through political minefields. Opposing a Senate resolution supporting George Bush's gulf policy, adopted 97-3, Kerrey declared, "No American should die...