BostonHerald: Kennedy and Kerry battle GOP agenda

Kennedy is banging Bush left and right now, on education, the economy, health care, civil rights. He's rallying his party with high-profile events. Kennedy's annual speech on the state of the union as he sees it is set for Jan. 21. And he and Senate minority leader Tom Daschle will hold a forum on civil rights on Friday, just days before Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Kerry is spoiling for a battle, too; in fact he needs a few fights to emerge in the public eye as the strongest Democrat to take on the president next year. Last week, he bitingly said Bush ``doesn't understand'' the needs of the working class and is giving way too much tax relief to the rich.

In a speech in Cleveland last month, Kerry pointedly noted that during Democratic President Bill Clinton's time, the country achieved ``the greatest growth ever, the lowest unemployment, the lowest inflation, the most jobs created'' and a budget surplus. Now, under Bush's tax plans, ``We have deficits as far as the eye can see,'' he said.

Kennedy seems to thrive as much or more in the minority as in the majority in the Senate. After 40 years in the Senate, he knows when to filibuster blisteringly and when to cut deals or work together for legislation with sympathetic Republicans.

Massachusetts and California are the hotbeds of Democrat activity now. They are organizing guerilla action for the nation while in most other states there is guerilla state organizing to fight the rise of the right. From BuzzFlash.