Last week, on The Today Show, John McCain was asked: Assuming the surge is working, do you have a better estimate of when our troops can come home? The presumptive Republican presidential nominee responded, “No, but that’s not too important. What’s important is the casualties in Iraq.”

Last week, only one senator failed to vote on a bill that would prevent pay cuts for doctors who take care of 44 million Medicare patients—older Americans, those with disabilities and military families. The lone senator was not Sen. Edward Kennedy, who took a break from his cancer treatments to make the important vote in the...