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I guess President Bush must think Defense Secretary Robert Gates is an appeaser of terrorists. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, too. And U.S. Ambassador to Baghdad Ryan Crocker.

What else is one to conclude from the president's remarks last week at the Israeli Knesset in Jerusalem? He proclaimed: "Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them... ." After a reference to Nazi tanks rolling into Poland, the president continued: "We have an obligation to call this what it is -- the false comfort of appeasement."

No doubt Bush's jab was aimed at Sen. Barack Obama, who has called for unconditional talks with Tehran. Yet Bush's own team seems as interested in broad talks with Iran as the senator from Illinois.

Last week Gates told the American Academy of Diplomacy, "We need to figure out a way to develop some leverage with respect to the Iranians and then sit down and talk with them."

In January, Rice -- speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland -- said that if Tehran would halt its uranium enrichment program, she'd meet her Iranian counterpart "anyplace, anytime, anywhere to talk about anything." And Crocker, on instructions from Washington, has held three meetings with Iran's ambassador to Baghdad.

Not since the day almost 45 years ago, when word reached Washington, D.C., that his brother John had been cut down in Dallas, has there been news about an individual that struck so deep a blow to so many in this capital. The medical bulletin from Massachusetts General Hospital about Sen. Ted Kennedy was at once a personal tragedy and a political cataclysm.

In his 46 years in the Senate, Kennedy has probably touched more people, in more cherished ways, than any other public figure. And his illness threatens to alter, for the worse, the prospects of every other politician -- starting with Barack Obama and John McCain.

Like countless others, I have witnessed over the years the kindnesses Kennedy lavished on colleagues and friends -- and even casual acquaintances. It was decades ago when another senator told me that, in complete privacy, Kennedy was sitting for hours with Sen. Philip Hart of Michigan, who had an illness that made him irascible and difficult to manage. Somehow, Kennedy calmed him.

In his more-than-busy life, Kennedy has always seemed to be able to find time for personal touches -- and to perform them without seeming to realize how much they meant to the recipients. Their affection and gratitude were all but overwhelming on Tuesday.

But after the first shock at the news began to wear off, the sense kept growing that this was truly a landmark event in the nation's politics and government.