Kerry's campaign is saying that he will not give up his Senate seat even if he wins the nomination. Here's the thing: according to some, if he resigned the seat in early summer, the Republican Governor of Massachusetts would appoint someone who'd have to run this November to keep the seat. If he were to keep the seat and win the Presidency, Romney can appoint a Republican to serve through 2006.

Under Massachusetts law and the constitution, if a vacancy occurs Romney would appoint an interim senator, who would serve until the next state election in 2006. There would then be an election to fill the final two years of Kerry's term, which ends in 2008. And in 2008 there would be an election for a full six-year term.

So the tradeoff for Kerry seems to be:

• resign now and hope that in November a Democrat would defeat the Republican appointed by the Governor or
• keep the seat and know that if you win there will be an additional Republican in the Senate for at least the first two years of your Presidency.

Surely the first option is preferable. And surely the thought he might lose the election is not going through Senator Kerry's head as part of the calculation. Surely he believes in his campaign and in the American people strongly enough to take a stand and show that he's actually taking a measure of personal risk to get Bush out of the White House. Surely Senator War Hero would demonstrate some faith in his campaign and put himself on the line. Surely he would. Surely.

Oh. I guess not.