Is Teddy Ready?

Tomorrow night George Cabot Lodge and H. Stuart Hughes will stage a second debate "on the issues," and again Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy will not participate. Kennedy claimed that a previous engagement in Chicopee kept him from participating in the first encounter. Now his headquarters has announced that it "lost" Lodge's invitation to join this second debate.

Kennedy's reluctance to debate can be attributed to several major factors. He may be afraid to argue with Lodge and Hughes in a format which precludes delivery of ghost-written orations or which might catch him in a cross-fire between the Republican and Independent candidates. Or, as as aide declared recently, Kennedy may consider the Hughes candidacy "irrelevant."

None of these reasons is acceptable from a candidate running for the United States Senate. The Senate is more a forum for deliberation and debate than a platform for the delivery of canned speeches. Any candidate who cannot defend his position against two opponents in a series of public debates should not represent Massachusetts before a body of experienced politicians.

Kennedy has labeled the Hughes candidacy "frivolous." This is hardly a decision for him to make. Nearly 150,000 people signed the Hughes nominating petitions, ostensibly because they thought the candidate should be able to participate in the campaign. Lodge agreed to debate with Hughes immediately after the primary, and now WHDH-TV, the CBS station in Boston, has agreed to carry Wednesday's debate. The final authority to decide which Senatorial candidates are serious and which are not does not rest with Ted Kennedy.

Any candidate for high public office has an obligation to debate the issues publicly with his opponents. In the past two years, television has become an accepted means for performing this electoral function. Kennedy's consistent refusal to debate the other major candidates is an affront to the people of Massachusetts and a poor recommendation indeed for election to the Senate.