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	Related links Bill Galvin Committee The private Web site of Bill Galvin, secretary of the Commonwealth and possible gubernatorial candidate. William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Galvin’s official state site. James M. Kelly, Boston city councilor The official city site for Jimmy Kelly, District Two city councilor and conservative firebrand.

Free radical

One of the great frustrations of John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign was the candidate’s refusal to take credit for his opposition to the Vietnam War. At the Democratic National Convention, in Boston, Kerry’s military service was celebrated ad nauseam while his anti-war credentials were studiously avoided. And the rest, to use a painfully apt cliché, is history. In rushed the Swift Boat Veterans, filling the vacuum left by Kerry with an assortment of lies and half-truths that were promptly lapped up by voters unable to fathom the concept of a loyal opposition. We’ll never know if Kerry would have gained votes, and if so, how many, by embracing his days as an activist. But expediency aside, simple intellectual honesty — and respect for his anti-war comrades in arms — should have compelled Kerry to act differently.

In his speech Monday at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum in Dorchester, where he was accepting the Kennedy Library Foundation’s 2005 Distinguished American Award, Kerry did what he should have done all along. In his acceptance speech, the junior senator from Massachusetts made several references to the anti-war and civil-rights movements of the late ’60s and early ’70s, any of which would have come in handy during the campaign. "There was an old adage then, which I wish I had talked about more during the course of the campaign," Kerry said at one point. "We used to say, ‘My country right or wrong: when you’re right, keep it right, and when you’re wrong, make it right.’ And ultimately, we created what we are lacking today in American politics, which is accountability." It was one of his biggest applause lines.

A moment later, Kerry was back at it. "What we need to do," the senator said, "is go back to what we did when 20 million people came out on the streets of America — when a river was lit on fire, the Cuyahoga River — when we marched and worked and went street to street and house to house. We have to do what we did in 1970, when 12 congressman were identified as the Dirty Dozen, and seven out of 12 of them lost. Know what happened after that? We passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the [Environmental Protection Agency].... Those laws, and that success, have carried this country."

Bush’s re-election, and the accompanying Republican ascendancy, have prompted much crowing on the right about the death of the ’60s once and for all. It was a time of misplaced rebellion, conservatives say, of moral degeneration and narcissistic self-indulgence. Good riddance. But as Kerry eloquently attested at the Kennedy Library, it was much more than that. If only he’d made that same point six months ago.

Ill communication

Jimmy Kelly could use a good race. The last time the District Two councilor — who represents South Boston, Chinatown, and part of the South End — faced any real opposition was in 1983, when Mike Taylor gave him a decent challenge. Since then, Kelly’s South Boston neighborhood has changed at least as much as any other part of Boston. No longer a refuge for working-class Irish-Americans, Southie has, for better or worse, diversified and gone upscale. Today, Kelly’s compatriots share their hometown with a multitude of Asian immigrants and gay transplants; churches that anchored neighborhoods for decades are being shuttered; and condos are selling for a preposterous half-million dollars a pop. More than any other public figure, Kelly embodies the old, clannish South Boston ethos that still lingers on — and he enjoys a much-deserved reputation as a dogged advocate for his constituents. But Kelly is also a political Cro-Magnon who made his name fighting busing. He periodically rails during City Council meetings against anti-white discrimination, and he failed to heed the valid objections of many constituents when the council weighed the merits of Boston University Medical Center’s new biolab. (If the same facility were slated for construction in South Boston, you can be sure Kelly would have taken a different stand.)

Now, it seems, one brave soul is willing to make Kelly work to keep his job. Susan Passoni, a New York native who lives in the South End, is planning to challenge Kelly in this fall’s council elections — and in recent weeks, she’s been making the rounds among Boston’s liberal political elite to muster support for her candidacy.

Passoni, a former financial analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston, is active in the community: she sits on the board of directors of Building Excellent Schools, a Boston nonprofit, as well as on the board of the South End’s Ellis Street Neighborhood Association. Consequently, she’ll have a ready-made base among the South End’s affluent, liberal voters. She might even be able to pull in some votes in Southie, given the neighborhood’s demographic changes — although the wealthy transplants who might prefer Passoni’s politics will almost certainly vote in much lower numbers than the long-time residents who support Kelly.

There’s just one glitch: Passoni may lack the basic political aptitude necessary to make a credible run. Reached at home last weekend, the candidate — who has an unlisted number — complained that this reporter had "inconvenienced" a number of people in his efforts to track her down. When her characterization was challenged, Passoni ended the conversation.

Why does this matter? To mount a credible campaign against Kelly, Passoni will have to woo the press skillfully. And to do her job well if elected, she’ll need to tolerate constituent calls at all hours of the day and night, on subjects ranging from trampled flower beds to criminal activity. Maybe Passoni, a political novice, doesn’t fully grasp the exigencies of public life. If not, she has a lot to learn — and until she does, Jimmy Kelly can rest easy.

Adam Reilly can be reached at areilly[a]phx.com