Bloodthirsty Liberal

Aw, shoot, it doesn’t sound like Caroline K. Mitschlag is gonna get the gig:

Caroline Kennedy’s lack of elected office experience “does not help her” in her quest to represent New York in the U. S. Senate, Gov. David A. Paterson told The Buffalo News on Thursday.

“The notion that I have to take Caroline is not coming from me,” Paterson said in an interview in his Capitol office. He said “gossip” has become a “greater force right now than my decision” and suggested the media have become too consumed with just one big-named candidate.

“What I would say is that, to the media it’s Caroline and the others. To me, there are 10 to 15 good candidates,” said the governor, who will appoint the successor to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton after she is confirmed later this month as U. S. secretary of state.

To be fair to Mrs. Blitzkrieg, the, uh, “election” of Al Franken has lowered the bar considerably on who has the experience to be a US senator. If there is a God in Heaven, Franken will suffer millennia of Agriculture subcommittee meetings on irrigation and crop rotation.

Caroline K. Schadenfreude is running into more than a little opposition to her ascendancy to the throne:

Even as Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo insisted he was staying out of the competition for New York’s soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat, a top Cuomo aide urged labor leaders and upstate officials to refrain from embracing Caroline Kennedy for the job, according to several people with direct knowledge of the conversations.

Two of the people, including a prominent upstate Democratic operative, said the Cuomo aide, Joseph Percoco, had suggested the upstate officials give Ms. Kennedy a cold reception and had questioned her credentials.

“He said, ‘Don’t you think it should be someone who understands upstate? Don’t you think it should be someone with experience? Shouldn’t it be somebody who knows New York better?’ ” said the operative, who spoke anonymously out of fear of antagonizing the attorney general. “They’ve been trying to feed people.”

When the Schnitzelbanks (nee Kennedy) go to war with the Medicis, they had better bring their food tasters with them.

Caroline Bouvier Kennedy hasn’t been known by that name for more than two decades, yet now all of a sudden she’s playing touch football on the Great Lawn in Central Park, driving under the influence, sleeping around, and all other familiar behaviors exhibited by her birth family.

If I’m Edwin Schlongboing, I’m insulted.

Maureen Dowd’s espousal of the candidacy of Caroline K. Schlaussbergenhopfensteiner can only be described as tepid at best:

Ask not, you know, what your country can, like, do for you. Ask what you, um, can, you know, do for your country.

After a lifetime of shying away from the public spotlight, Caroline Kennedy asked herself what she could do for her country.

…

Joe Kennedy, the wily patriarch of the clan, had pioneered the use of Hollywood glamour in pursuit of Washington power. With his glossy pop-culture political magazine, George, John reversed that equation, using his stature as an American political prince to persuade Salma Hayek to pose on the cover of his magazine.

I wrote a column once saying that it seemed like a frivolous use of his time. I thought he should run for office and employ his special clout to make life better for Americans. He died before he had the chance.

So I found it bizarre that when Caroline offered to use her magic capital — and friendship with Barack Obama — to help take care of New York in this time of economic distress, she was blasted by a howl of “How dare she?”

People are suddenly awfully choosy about who gets to go to the former home of Jesse Helms, Strom Thurmond and Robert Torricelli.

Caroline K. Schickelgruber may not be Daniel Webster, Dowd seems to argue, but she’s a hell of a lot better than Robert Byrd. Well, okay, I’ll buy that. Who isn’t?

But “magic capital”? “Special clout”? Are we speaking about the same people? What has this generation of Kennedys done but kill themselves (John-John, Michael) and others (John Jr.’s wife and sister-in-law) in spectacular ways? Don’t tell me about their service in Congress, because that’s been only more destructive, leaving poor Joe Kennedy as a shill for that tinpot tamale, Hugo Chavez.

Maybe the Kennedy gene pool was once well-stocked, but it is now a shallow, stagnant mud puddle.

Is this a joke?

Caroline Kennedy, who began seeking Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat in earnest today, placed a call this afternoon to Rev. Al Sharpton, and Sharpton promptly put out his statement, vouching for her credentials:

I received a call this afternoon from Caroline Kennedy who expressed to me her interest in the United States Senate seat open in New York with the choice of Senator Clinton becoming Secretary of State. We discussed briefly our mutual work on education reform and our concern that the nation move in the right direction in education and other areas.

I told her that while I do have discussions from time to time with Governor Paterson on a variety of important issues, we have not had any meaningful discussions about her or any other potential candidate to date. Further, I told Ms. Kennedy that I will respect whatever choice Governor Paterson makes for New York’s next Senator.

Since the possibility of Ms. Kennedy’s candidacy for the Senate has, understandably, already generated a fair degree of debate and discussion, I feel compelled to state that I unequivocally disagree with those that say she is not qualified and could not bring needed leadership to this state and country. My knowledge of her in the area of education and on behalf of children generally, the fact that she has written several books, and her other civic involvement more than qualifies her to be Senator. Ms. Kennedy is an accomplished author on Constitutional Law, the Bill of Rights, and political courage. She is also a lawyer.

Elected office is not the only area of public service that establishes leadership in this country. We just elected a community organizer as President of the United States.

Finally, I also invited Ms. Kennedy to dine with me at Sylvia’s this week in Harlem and reminded her that I took Senator Obama there during his campaign so it’s a good luck stop since he did all right.

It’s very funny but I think it might be real.

- Aggie