Home > Jay Bookman > Archives > 2008 > December > 15 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USCaroline Kennedy wants to be a senator
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“ALBANY — Caroline Kennedy, the deeply private daughter of America’s most storied political dynasty, will seek the United States Senate seat in New York being vacated by Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Ms. Kennedy ended weeks of silence with a series of rapid-fire phone calls to the state’s leading political figures, including Gov. David A. Paterson, in which she emphatically and enthusiastically declared herself interested in the seat, according to several people who received the calls.
The governor, who has sole authority to fill the Senate vacancy, insisted that he had not yet chosen a successor to Mrs. Clinton and said that Monday’s conversation with Ms. Kennedy was the first he had had with her since an initial discussion almost two weeks ago.
But several people who have counseled the governor on the pending vacancy said that Ms. Kennedy has emerged as a clear front-runner, if she proves able to withstand the intense scrutiny and criticism that her decision to seek the seat is likely to provoke.
Still, some have questioned whether Ms. Kennedy is qualified for the job.”
Services »
Comments
By Chad Harris
December 15, 2008 11:06 PM | Link to this
Caroline Kennedy is as qualified to do neurosurgery as she is to be Senator. There are an infinit mumber of people qualified in NY to be Senator and she is not one of them. It would be an egregious and reprehensible appointment and I’m predicting it won’t happen.
By phil
December 15, 2008 11:18 PM | Link to this
Glad Chad has all the answers, what, in your view are the qualifications for Senator and why does Ms Kennedy not qualify.
By The Corporal
December 15, 2008 11:32 PM | Link to this
And I would like to play firstbase for the Braves.
I really am (liberal or conservative) getting a little tired of the privileged/family name people thinking they are supposed to automatically run this Republic.
By Chad Harris
December 15, 2008 11:43 PM | Link to this
The only people who say I have all the answers are people like yourself who make posts about me rather than discuss the issue(s). I notice you posted nothing you can site that are her qualifications except that you have a knee jerk reflex along the lines that as one blogger noted:
She’s JFK’s daughter.
She asked Uncle Teddy if she could get into the family business. Uncle Teddy, staring his own mortality in the eye, wants to make sure that the name “Kennedy” remains a household word forever.
Caroline Kennedy’s qualifications to be Senator as you listed them are:
1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) Got the pony from daddy when she was little. Wants Senate for Christmas now.
I’m pretty sure I listed all of the ones you worked hard to offer. Miss any?
1) During the last eight years Kennedy has not advanced one single view or lifted a well manicured finger to use her her name legacy capital to help the Democrats.
2)As NY has drifted into a horrendous financial crisis, she has offered not one idea as to how to remedy the “take the money and run” bailout plan.
3) There are no enforcable pay limits as Rachel Madow pointed out tonight on executive bonuses in the bailed out firms.
4) She has shown no ability to campaign in the special election she would have to win in 2010 or the generalshe’d have to win in 2012. In fact, her hiding has displayed just the opposite.
5) I believe it is essential for any candidate for the Senate to have extensive campaign experience whether they have historically or not. It is important in NY.
6) I don’t have a clue what her views on issues are because she has expressed not one.
7) The last thing this country needs in the Senate is more entitlement. It is already oozing with it.
8) She was titular head of the VP vetting committee. No one has evidence of anything substantive she did there.
9)There are no African Americans in the Senate but many well qualified to be there including Paterson.
10) If Kennedy wants to run for the Senate in 2012, she has plenty of time to study the issues, and begin whistle stops to position herself to run and show she’s able to get out and relate to the voters.
11) The only think I have seen Kennedy do besides write a couple of rather desultory and pedestrian books (I’ve read them and have them here now) is be a child during Camelot. That hardly qualifies to be Senator from New York.
13) Even the reprehensible Judge Jeannine Piro (at least she’s judge on a tv show now where she yells at African Americans who are poorly educated and don’t realize that Pirro while an ADA in White Plains watched her husband spend 10X as much as his and her job brought in and acted as if she didn’t have a clue about her husband’s illegal finances. ADAs by defniition follow and root out money on a daily basis.
Were Pirro to run again against Kennedy, she could probably mop the floor with her as reprehensible a woman as Pirro is.
Pirro also discussed wiretapping her husband illegally with Bernie Kerick who is probably on the procession of Republican buses to prison soon.
By Chad Harris
December 15, 2008 11:51 PM | Link to this
I could not agree more with the coroporal on this issue. Entitlement is systemically part of the bloodstream of a high proportion of people in the Senate and that’s not to be confused with a healthy ego structure.
We have a right to expect much much better and more knowledgable people than a rich elite woman who has done very little to spend time with and empathize with the bell shaped curve of America in the US Senate. I want a well educated African American to be appointed to the Senate from New York who has served in some governmental job and run for one or more already. I don’t care how much of a fraction of their inherited wealth Kennedy has given to charity.
By RW-(the original)
December 15, 2008 11:53 PM | Link to this
Good lord Jay B! What have you got against Ms. Kennedy to give her the Republican picture treatment? I realize she’s a little homely, but your “news”paper is bound to have a folder of glamor shots they’ve approved for your usage.
By Tom
December 16, 2008 12:45 AM | Link to this
Ms. Kennedy is as qualified as at least 50% of all Senators.
Little RW vomits forth again. Another Repug hero. If Ms. Kennedy is “homely,” what in God’s name must you be??
Doubt that any of you dregs are aware of a huge medical study published 5 years ago that established the fact the 78% of American men range from “homely” to “ugly.” (sic). But then I’ve always known that & have been thankful to have been blessed as one of the “beautiful people.” It’s made life easier. And I’m not filled w hatred, bitterness, jealousy, et al. Those are Repug traits. Do you see the connection?? I thought not.
By Chad Harris
December 16, 2008 12:49 AM | Link to this
No one has a clue what Mrs. Kennedy’s views on any important issue are, because she has never expressed them, and has not lifted a finger to make them known in so much as an interview.
By Dale Gribble's GOP
December 16, 2008 2:13 AM | Link to this
Corporal,
You bat right or left?
By Mrs.Godzilla
December 16, 2008 4:55 AM | Link to this
Y’all may be right about Ms. Kennedy.
George W. Bush had the same level of experience she does when he became Governor of Texas, and we see how well that worked out.
Of course, she never ran a company like Arbusto, Spectrum 7 Energy Group or Harken Energy…..
By My Two Cents
December 16, 2008 5:04 AM | Link to this
We need new people with different ideas in Washington but it seems we get more of the same old politics. Uncle Teddy will certainly give her a crash course.
By GodHatesTrash
December 16, 2008 6:08 AM | Link to this
She’s waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more qualified than any senator Georgia has had since Sam Nunn.
By AJC/DNC Management
December 16, 2008 6:11 AM | Link to this
Incestuous.
ew
By GodHatesTrash
December 16, 2008 6:21 AM | Link to this
The opinions of Georgians aren’t going to hold much sway with the Governor of New York.
Which is good!
By GodHatesTrash
December 16, 2008 6:37 AM | Link to this
I remember Caroline’s sixth birthday, when they put her father in the ground.
That six-year old girl exhibited more grace, class, and courage that morning than Saxby Chickenhawk Chambliss has exhibited in his entire worthless life.
By kc
December 16, 2008 6:47 AM | Link to this
Wow - such invective! Let’s all take a step back and look at the reality of this situation. This is an appointment to fill out the remainder of the term. Granted, that does give the appointee incumbent status, but she would face an election soon. If New Yorkers don’t like her, she’s gone.
By Joey
December 16, 2008 6:52 AM | Link to this
We will not know anything about her until after she serves a few years, because the “Journalist” in our News Media will not require her to answer any tough questions.
I trust Governor Paterson to make the right choice. If that in Kennedy, fine.
By Bud Wiser
December 16, 2008 7:05 AM | Link to this
Caroline (my daddy was an assassinated President and my little brother saluted him at the funeral and that picture is everywhere, and those are two of my qualifications) Kennedy appointed as a Senator shows the absolute stupidity and “who really gives a crap about qualifications” attitude that Democrats display on a daily basis.
BTW, a nice list from previous writers about her ‘qualifications’, but here are a few more:
1) her brother launched a magazine, was once named the ‘sexiest man alive’ and also died prematurely in a plane crash where he was the pilot
2) her mommy was once married to one of the richest men in the world
3) one of her uncles was assassinated while running for the Presidency
4) another uncle is still a senator, living proof that a drunk and a murderer can achieve any office in life with the right connections and the money to back it up
5) same uncle above has a brain tumor, which is worth some more sympathy points
6) there has been a lot of tragedy in my family’s lives … I’m still looking for that special one for me that I can call mine and mine alone
7) she is entitled to it, after all, she is a Kennedy
8) maybe this will once and for all dispel the rumors that she is gay
Why not appoint her to an ambassadorship position? You libs all claim that the rest of the world hates us (when in fact it probably is your own sense of paranoia and self worthlessness you feel), but maybe Kennedy could give them a real reason to do just that?
By AJC/DNC Management
December 16, 2008 7:19 AM | Link to this
By Tom December 16, 2008 12:45 AM Little RW vomits forth again. Another Repug hero. If Ms. Kennedy is “homely,” what in God’s name must you be??
She looks like Bobby Kennedy on a bad hair day.
Just another dog faced liberal woman with anger lines etched into her face.
They all look the same to me.
By AJC/DNC Management
December 16, 2008 7:24 AM | Link to this
Heretofore Helen Thomas and Adam Clymer had posed the greatest threats to Bush. But how could he have anticipated this burst of media bias? An administration famous for requiring passengers to take off shoes before boarding planes will now have to ask reporters to do the same before asking questions.-Nuemayr, AmSpec
By Joey
December 16, 2008 7:37 AM | Link to this
godhatestrash (6:37 a.m.): You did not finish your statement.
The 6-year-old Caroline show more grace and courage than Chambliss, Reid, Pelosi, Frank, Dodd, Teddy, Kerry, Rangel, Graham, and on, and on.
By GOP is gone
December 16, 2008 8:05 AM | Link to this
Just what were Ronald Reagan’s and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s qualifications prior to starting their political careers?
One might argue they had integrity and that is enough. I would make the same argument with Caroline Kennedy
By Shawny
December 16, 2008 8:29 AM | Link to this
no more Kennedys, no more Clintons, no more Bushes, ……
I am pretty good with an open shot, but probably not good enough to play 2 guard for the Hawks.
By The Corporal
December 16, 2008 9:05 AM | Link to this
To GOP is gone
So you make our points. Let her start her political career as Ronnie and Arnold did at a lower level and actually run for office to get votes.
Dale Gribble’s GOP
Right but I can’t throw anymore due to rotator cuff surgery…….. :o(
By Road Scholar
December 16, 2008 9:11 AM | Link to this
Corporal: I hear the NY Yankees are giving the Iraqi “sole man” a tryout! Maybe you should contact them?
For the rest, why are you so upset. The selection will represent NY; you don’t have a vote there, do you?
Word is that the selection is desired to represent upstate NY since most of their politicians in state and Federal positions have come from NY city. The “up state” wants a voice.
What are her credentials (and stay away from the guilt by association ones already listed)? College degrees? Licenses? Community groups? What has she done with her time besides raise her children? (Remember the love for the soccer mom was that she had a family and raised her children?) Has any of her children become pregnant out of wedlock? (Admittedly that was a cheap one, but it does represent character and impact on her children.)
By The Corporal
December 16, 2008 9:35 AM | Link to this
To Road Scholar
I would have given a week’s pay to see President Bush catch that second shoe and throw it back to nail that knucklehead right between the eyes.
However, from the news I have read, that shoe thrower is having a problem this morning trying to tie his shoes with his broken arm (not to meantion his other injuries).
You play the game you take the pain.
Now, let’s be careful since we are off topic. We may get tossed by Jay.
By Road Scholar
December 16, 2008 9:49 AM | Link to this
Corporal: Sorry about the shoulder. Getting old is he!!.
Here is a link to discuss her history and qualifications:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/16/nyregion/16qualifications.html?ref=politics
Hope this sheds some light for those fixated only on name recognition.
By Mrs. Godzilla
December 16, 2008 9:58 AM | Link to this
maybe God has opened a door for her to plow through…..
By Tommy L. Jenkins
December 16, 2008 10:02 AM | Link to this
Paterson could take a call from the Illinois’ Governor’s Playbook and name himself as Senator.
By Goldie
December 16, 2008 10:32 AM | Link to this
I’m still wondering how Hillary seemed to have enough “qualifications” in 2000 to run for US Senate? Was it because Hillary lived in the White House a few years longer than Caroline did???
By The Corporal
December 16, 2008 11:15 AM | Link to this
And to think there were those who wanted to crown George Washington king!
Tories live!
By GodHatesTrash
December 16, 2008 11:17 AM | Link to this
2016 matchup - Caroline Kennedy vs. Sarah “Moonbeam McSwine” Palin.
Kennedy, the epitome of class. Palin, all the class of a crackhead on the South Orange Blossom Trail.
North v. South all over again!
By sunshine and thunder
December 16, 2008 11:20 AM | Link to this
Lack of qualification didn’t keep Obama out of the White House. What’s the big deal? Caroline Kennedy wants to represent New York. Nobody cares about New York.
By The Corporal
December 16, 2008 11:33 AM | Link to this
Here’s the obvious bottom line that no one has picked up on:
Now that she has seen how close Hillary and even Palin got, she wants to be crowned President someday.
She just doesn’t want to work for it.
By BruinFan
December 16, 2008 9:11 PM | Link to this
In reading the NY Times article, it appears as though she has the qualifications of the dreaded (at least by Republicans) title of “community organizer”. I mean, who could get elected having that on their resume?….oh, yeah, THAT guy.
By Hillary
December 16, 2008 10:17 PM | Link to this
Let her do it. Kennedy’s don’t have a very long shelf life, Uncle Ted “The Swimmer” is the exception, not the rule.
By Bud Wiser
December 17, 2008 6:25 AM | Link to this
Oh, I forgot to mention that perhaps Caroline Kennedy’s most tantalizing ‘qualification’ to be senator is that he has a long list of dead relatives that were uppity politicians as well. The living ones are drunks, murderers and drug addicts and she isn’t ready to acknowledge that quite yet.