MA Beckons to Kerry

Come Home, John
By Boston Herald editorial staff

Mata Musing

Or as I prefer to say it... "GO home and STAY home, John!"

After he returns from the Middle East in January, maybe John Kerry [related, bio] could visit, say, Brockton, or Fall River or Springfield.

Spending the last several months in the company of the Hollywood elite is pretty heady stuff, we know. But by our calendar, Kerry still represents Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate until at least 2008.

We're not surprised or dismayed that Kerry is continuing his longtime emphasis on foreign affairs. But he ought to tread carefully during his planned Middle East trip. Certainly, playingBush critic-in-chief on Iraqi soil as that country readies its first democratic elections is way out of bounds.

Kerry has never been good about balancing his foreign affairs wanderlust with the expenditure of shoe leather here at home, either. But it would be wise if Kerry started making the rounds - visiting local chambers of commerce, for example, as he settles back into the day job.

That's just where we found Sen. Ted Kennedy last month, at chamber meetings doing the day job which isn't all glamour to be sure. And if anyone has political capital aplenty to let up on stoking the homefires, it's Kennedy.

Yet he never has.

And there's a lesson in that for Kerry, who has a once in a career opportunity to reshape a rather anemic legacy after nearly two decades in the Senate. He ought not waste it.