The Flog of War

John Kerry is now reduced to lashing out at the most unstoppable force of nature in American politics: the frank and open deliberations of the American people. Thus, he is calling for censorship of his critics, and dismissing all challenges to his implausible Vietnam (and Cambodia) claims as beyond-the-pale-of-discussion "lies."

These are the convulsions of being confronted with a reality that serenely refuses to bend to one's will.

To escape from his abysmal national security record in the Senate, Kerry attempted to become a hawk on the basis of his brief--first repudiated, and then later embraced--military service 35 years ago. But, like Icarus failing to heed his father's advice, Kerry over-reached, and his wax wings are now melting.

Nature will always, in the end, have her way. But the Left--unable to comprehend any limits on its own whims--must learn this lesson again and again. Mark Steyn gives a typically hilarious example:

Consider Sir Elton John, taking tea on the balcony of his Italian hotel suite a few years back: The poor man became irked by the wafting breeze and wound up screaming at the room service waiter, ''Can't you do something about this f---in' wind?''

''She's lost it,'' sighed a member of his entourage. ''She's finally lost it.''

This hubris plagues modern liberalism, but it is not altogether new. The historian Herodotus recounts that during his attempted invasion of Greece, the Persian king Xerxes constructed a bridge across the Hellespont. Before his army could cross, the bridge was destroyed in a storm. Xerxes, unable to cope with this intransigence toward his desires, had the sea whipped.

To no avail. Xerxes crossed the straits, but his massive army was ultimately repulsed, after a heroic stand by the Spartans at Thermopylea gave the Greeks time to assemble their forces.

Kerry may flay the Swift Boat Veterans, but he is about to meet the gathering armies. The Republican convention begins next week.