Senator’s thinly veiled threat of congressional action to ensure fans see New England football game is emblematic of what’s wrong with America’s government today.

Could this be directed at Sen. Kerry?

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) has decided to step forward to handle one of the great crises of our time.

No, not the War on Terror, concerns about global warming, or increasing access to good health care.

No, not that. Sen. Kerry wants to make sure that people around the country get to see his local football team.

Last Thursday Kerry "stepped into the dispute involving the NFL Network and the big cable operators who are balking at carrying it, writing a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Kyle McSlarrow, president and CEO of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association," according to the Chicago Tribune. The story continues:

Kerry is concerned many fans, especially those in Massachusetts, might not be able to see the Dec. 29 game between New England and the New York Giants, which will air on the NFL Network.

If the Patriots are going for an undefeated season, the uproar will be even more intense than it was for last week’s Dallas-Green Bay game.

"Unfortunately, this disagreement has led to the use of what could potentially be an historic football game as leverage in a negotiation," Kerry said in the letter.

This isn’t the first time Kerry has stepped in to defend our "right to cable TV," as the arresting officer in Policy Academy put it. The Tribune story reports that Kerry held a Senate hearing to consider the dire national crisis of the Major Leage Baseball subscription package being available only on DirecTV satellite television. After the hearings, MLB agreed to sell a similar package to cable systems.

I have a much simpler solution to the problem at hand, and one that would be much less expensive than having the federal government step in to decide cable programming lineups (which is blatantly unconstitutional anyway, not that Kerry cares about the Constitution).

Here it is: all of those who really, really want to see the games that are shown exclusively on NFL Network should switch to DirecTV or some other system that carries the channel.

As it happens, I pay $12 a month to get a package of sports channels that includes the NFL Network, and I don’t mind a bit. I get my money’s worth.

If some cable providers don’t care to include the NFL Network in their lineup, and some cable subscribers don’t care to make a change, that’s their own doggone business. If one game or a whole bunch of games over the course of the season, plus the rest of NFL Network’s programs, are not important enough to get these people and companies to change, then obviously it’s not important enough to require government action.

But that’s never stopped the statists’ insatiable appetite for government control, has it?