THE MOBILE REGISTER is calling for Ted Kennedy to resign from the Senate, because of his comments over the war:

In calling for Sen. Kennedy’s resignation, we hasten to note, the Register editorial board applies the same standards it applied to Mississippi Republican Trent Lott, then Senate majority leader. In the wake of Sen. Lott’s racially inflammatory remarks related to the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, the Register editorialized that “the cause of an honest moral reckoning demands that he step down.”

In the wake of this latest entry on Sen. Kennedy’s record, the same moral reckoning, long overdue, should apply to the senior senator from Massachusetts.

Republicans were ashamed of Lott’s remarks, which they saw as a betrayal of their party’s principles. I’m not so sure that the Democrats feel the same way about Kennedy’s.

UPDATE: Randy Paul emails that he thinks this is unfair: “What Kennedy said was stupid, but it has no bearing on what the rest of us believe, just as what James Inhofe and Rush Limbaugh said has no bearing on what the rest of conservatives believe.”

I don’t see Kennedy as being as marginal as Inhofe, and he’s not an entertainer like Limbaugh — you don’t see me making a big deal of Randi Rhodes’ calls for Bush to be shot. Kennedy’s probably the single best-known Democrat out there, and if the Democrats are disassociating themselves from these remarks they’re doing it pretty quietly. It’s nice to see Randy doing so, though.

However, he also seems to think that associating people with the views of Ted Kennedy is “McCarthyism.” I thought McCarthyism consisted of associating people with the views of communists. I’m not sure I’d put Kennedy quite that far beyond the pale.

MORE: Oops, my mistake: Paul’s email was originally occasioned by another post, not this one, though I don’t think it affects my point.