The Caroline Kennedy Smear

In the aftermath of the Hillary Clinton replacement soap opera, there is a footnote to the misadventure of JFK's daughter in seeking the seat--the price of getting involved with political pygmies in the desire to continue a family tradition of public service.

The New York Times, which played a part in discrediting Caroline Kennedy as not ready for prime time, has gone back (with one of the same reporters) to untangle the final scenes of her withdrawal and the efforts of a governor's minions to smear her on his behalf.

It is not a pretty picture.

"A review of public comments and interviews with more than a dozen people involved in the process," says the Times, "make clear that Gov. David A. Paterson’s administration released confidential information about Ms. Kennedy and misled reporters about its significance as part of an orchestrated effort to discredit her after she withdrew...

"One of the administration’s central claims to reporters was that Ms. Kennedy had, in the words of a person close to the governor, 'a definite tax issue' and 'a nanny problem' that 'she didn’t want to become public.'

"But that story was inaccurate. The governor and his aides now acknowledge that those issues--a tax lien of a few hundred dollars in 1994, and a lapsed visa for a foreign nanny who worked for Ms. Kennedy during the late 1980s-- had been resolved years earlier and were never considered disqualifying during the vetting process."

In the era of Blagojevich et al, the New York governor's attempt to throw an idealistic Kennedy under his reelection campaign bus may be small potatoes, but it only underscores what may have been Caroline Kennedy's real reason for withdrawing--disgust.

Kennedy, Burris and Identity Politics

The withdrawal of JFK's daughter as a replacement for Hillary Clinton leads to questions about gender and race in national politics in what we all celebrated as the Age of Obama this week.

In Illinois, the future felon Rod Blagojevich appoints Roland Burris amid calls to retain the President's seat for an African-American and now, with Caroline Kennedy gone, New York's governor speaks publicly and privately about "the importance of selecting a woman to replace Mrs. Clinton."

With the critical questions facing the Senate, when and how did substantive qualifications fall behind demographics in making choices for such high office?

Blagojevich was trying to save his skin in the face of impeachment and/or indictment. Now David Paterson, an accidental governor who came to office less than a year ago when Eliot Spitzer resigned in a sexual scandal, seems to be calculating his chances for election in 2010.

Elective politics can be messy, but calculated, self-interested appointments to represent two of the largest states in the Union are clearly worse.

Roland Burris will be a caretaker choice for the next two years, and Governor Paterson would be well-advised to do the same for New York, albeit for more honorable reasons.

At the risk of being repetitive, there is an appointee who could bring wisdom and experience to the Senate until voters make their choice in 2010. His name is Mario Cuomo, and it would reflect well on New York's governor if he could rise above identity politics and name him to Hillary Clinton's seat.

Caretaker for Clinton's Seat

If Gov. David Paterson wants to resolve his dilemma over replacing Hillary Clinton by naming a caretaker and letting the public decide in 2010, the perfect choice is at hand--a wise, experienced, respected politician who knows New York State better than any other: Mario Cuomo.

At 76, the former governor would be junior to a platoon of octogenarians in the Senate, not to mention 91-year-old Robert Byrd of West Virginia, and in the Obama Administration's struggle during a time of national stress, would be a powerful ally in pursuing legislative solutions.

The idea of a caretaker choice was broached during the New York Times ill-fated interview with Caroline Kennedy yesterday:

"At one point, she said that it might have been preferable to seek the seat in an election, noting that 'it would give me a chance to explain exactly what I’m doing, why I would want to do this, and, you know, to get people to know me better and to understand exactly what my plans would be, how hard I would work.'

"But she would not say whether she thought Mr. Paterson should appoint a caretaker candidate to fill out Mrs. Clinton’s term, which would allow Ms. Kennedy and others interested in the seat an equal and unfettered chance to campaign for it in 2010."

The "others" would include Mario Cuomo's son Andrew, who is now New York's Attorney General and a possible opponent for the gubernatorial nomination against Gov. Paterson that year.

In the complex political geometry of two years from now, Paterson could show voters now that he has the best interests of the state at heart by selecting the most articulate advocate for their interests during a crisis and letting the issue of political families' heirs wait until then.

Not in the Kennedy Political Handbook

In the hard times ahead, New York will need a senator who is a politician, not a symbol, and as Caroline Kennedy edges into public life in a bid to succeed Hillary Clinton, it's becoming clearer that temperamentally she may not be the ideal choice for the position.

Now she has managed to alienate political reporters who write that "in an extensive sit-down discussion Saturday morning with The New York Times, she still seemed less like a candidate than an idea of one: forceful but vague, largely undefined and seemingly determined to remain that way."

The largely negative tone of the Times piece can be traced to her evasiveness on almost every issue and, sadly, an exchange when asked to describe the moment she decided to seek the Senate seat:

"Ms. Kennedy seemed irritated by the question and said she couldn’t recall.

“'Have you guys ever thought about writing for, like, a woman’s magazine or something?' she asked the reporters. 'I thought you were the crack political team.'”

Insulting journalists from the state's most powerful paper for asking a legitimate question is not in the JFK political handbook, but the would-be senator managed to make it even worse in her exit from the interview:

"As things wrapped up, a reporter tried to pose another question, but she interrupted him.

“'I think we’re done,' she said."

If she keeps acting that way, so will Caroline Kennedy's campaign for the Senate seat.

Second Thoughts for Caroline Kennedy

Just when things were going well on her upstate tour comes the word that Harry Reid has been lobbying Gov. David Paterson to name Caroline Kennedy to Hillary Clinton's Senate seat.

Being backed a Majority Leader who can't get anything done is yet another obstacle for JFK's daughter, following the news that Al Sharpton is supporting her.

The usually publicity-shy Sharpton has sent the media an unsolicited statement announcing she had called him about the position and, with double-negative grandeur, he felt "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."

Sharpton also disclosed he has "invited Ms. Kennedy to dine with me at Sylvia's this week in Harlem and reminded her that I took Sen. Obama there during his campaign so it's a good luck stop since he did all right."

If consorting with the likes of Reid and Sharpton is not enough to give Caroline Kennedy pause, Gail Collins asks "how much of her life does she really want to spend at fund-raisers for people she suspects will be indicted before they have a chance to cash the checks? How does she feel about admiring butter sculptures at state fairs?"

As if all this were not enough for second thoughts, has she really thought about what it would be like to have Chuck Schumer for a mentor yakking at her for hours at a time?

In her father's immortal words, how much is too much to "ask what you can do for your country."

Kennedy, Cuomo or None of the Above

New York's Governor David Patterson, himself a second-generation politician, is faced with a hard dynastic decision now that Caroline Kennedy has made it clear that she wants Hillary Clinton's Senate seat.

In the Empire State, unlike those where money talks and talks, political bloodlines matter in the choice between a former president's daughter and a former governor's son, Andrew Cuomo, to replace a former First Lady.

To complicate it even more, Cuomo is divorced from Caroline Kennedy's cousin Kerry, whose brother, Robert Kennedy Jr. only recently took himself out of contention for the Clinton seat.

In political experience, Cuomo is a quarter of a century ahead, starting in his father Mario's administration in the 1980s and going on to serve as chairman of New York City's Homeless Commission, then in Bill Clinton's cabinet as HUD Secretary and now as New York State Attorney General.

But Caroline Kennedy is a serious, intelligent public figure-by-birth whose close ties to the new President could be an advantage for residents of the state even without experience in the rough-and-tumble.

Gov. Patterson, who inherited the job after Eliot Spitzer's downfall, should, of all people, know that character counts in public life. Making the choice will be a test of his own, and he may just surprise everyone by picking None of the Above.