The establishment in the bluest of blue states, Massachusetts, . . .

. . . is so accustomed to referring to the seat being contested in the special election as "Teddy Kennedy's seat" that the supposedly even-handed moderator of the debate, David Gergen, used that construction in questioning Scott Brown. To which Scott Brown replied with the soundbite of the night: "It's not the Kennedys' seat, it's not the Democrats' seat, it's the people's seat."

Slam dunk. Gergen knew he'd been stuffed, and is honest enough to say so.

The American Revolution would never have happened without the radicalism of Massachusetts as its animating force. Over time, their radicalism has morphed from the robust libertarianism of the founders to the effete leftism of the college campus, and ironically the people who led the rebellion against Divine Right of Kings have settled into the habit of ratifying the Divine Right of Kennedys.

It could end on Tuesday. Now that would be another American Revolution.