Caroline, The RED QUEEN

Caroline doesn’t just express interest through the grapevine.. as the customary way of showing you “might” be interested in a date, buying a car or hinting through a friend: ….

“You Hate Surprise Birthday Partys!”

It’s called diplomacy… finesse- having a certain amount of cachet, savoir-faire, selling ice to the Eskimos (no offense Sarah Palin) with an astute understanding of the importance of impeccable social skills…

Can you tell? As much as I loved JFK and RFK… loved what they stood for and what they accomplished in their all too brief lives… no matter what… if they rubbed us the wrong way or said something we weren’t too happy about; at least they would meet the challenge spending time convincing us of their point of view and wouldn’t quit until we got it….. It’s the art of persuasion, personified in a politician who believes and has a vision, a better idea of how to get things done for creating a better quality of life for the world… [sheesh]

Fast forward 50 years later and the jaded remnants of what once was thought of as the vaunted idyllic world of Camelot- our dreams of Camelot are no more.. the beautiful child, Caroline, we watched grow up alongside her younger brother affectionately called…John-John… has raised her hand as if in the persona of the “Red Queen” and demanded she be considered above ALL others for the position of the state of NY Senate seat. Very soon to be dispatched by Governor Paterson’s appointment replacing the vacancy created by Senator Clinton’s “RISE, Hillary, RISE” to the ascendancy of the Secretary of State position!

The sweetness and light has gone out of the little blond headed child who’s love for her father, no one can deny. And been replaced with a silent arrogance of…

I’M CAROLINE KENNEDY – I’m here and I want that…

Oh, well.. honey, read some of your mother’s books. She would be rightly mortified at your behavior indicative of how well or unwell YOU turned out. Yes, we understand the social grooming and political lessons your brother John received from his ever graceful, societal super star, your mother.

I have to ask, where were you when your mom was instructing John in the ways of the world and how he has to earn his own way and prove himself by his own merit? How many times did she reinforce to you, just because you come from a family of privilege doesn’t give you the Right to trample and ride over people when you want something that is an open entitlement to anyone!

Do you realize the damage you’ve done to yourself bursting the public’s perceived bubble of this lovable responsible child grown into this pushy broad with name recognition that isn’t about to accept the word “NO” — If in fact, Gov Paterson, possesses a modicum of sense and sensibility, recognizes New Yorkers need and require a Work Horse NOT a Show Horse to steward one of the most complicated states in the Union through the next of the most financially critical two years?

I didn’t think so…

Go to your room with a knapsack full of books written by your mom… you might take her advise and return a better person for all her insights and experience expressed in a way that may resonate with you in the ways of humanity, the human spirit and politics as an animal you may not yet understand or control.

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Nepotism alive and well.. Kennedy, Cuomo and Biden

Kennedy, Cuomo, Biden – nepotism thriving in American politics.

LINK WASHINGTON — Caroline Kennedy’s apparent interest in Hillary Clinton’s New York Senate seat is just the latest example of that firmly entrenched tradition of American politics – nepotism. Kennedy’s reported behind-the-scenes play for the job, however, is not being greeted with the type of giddy hurrahs that might have been expected upon word that JFK’s daughter, a poignant symbol of the Camelot era, could finally be stepping into the public spotlight after a lifetime spent studiously avoiding it. It appears America might be tiring of nepotism.

“The woman has never run for office in her life,” Jane Hamsher, the woman behind the respected FireDogLake political blog, wrote recently. “She simply picks up the phone and lets it be known that she just might be up for having one of the highest offices in the land handed to her because – well, because why? Because her uncle once held the seat?

Because she’s a Kennedy? Because she took part as a child in the public’s romantic dreams of Camelot? I’m not quite sure.” A New York Times story earlier this week about how Ted Kennedy is lobbying for his 51-year-old niece garnered mostly negative comments. “The economy is tanking and we’re fighting in two wars. This is no time for New York to send someone to the Senate who would never be considered for the position if it were not for her last name,” one reader wrote. Gov. David Paterson has a few weeks to ponder his pick of Clinton’s replacement until the 2010 Senate race.

The former first lady will vacate the seat when she’s confirmed as secretary of state in Barack Obama’s forthcoming administration. The stable of candidates under Paterson’s purview is a veritable advertisement for political nepotism: Kennedy’s cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was in the running at one point, and onetime governor Mario Cuomo’s son, Andrew, currently the attorney general of New York, wants the job. Kennedy would hardly be the first in her extended family to follow in the footsteps of their famous fathers and uncles by entering the political arena.

Her uncle, Robert F. Kennedy, once held the seat she’s apparently coveting. Numerous Kennedy cousins, in fact, have political careers. Most of them, however, have done it the old-fashioned way – they’ve run for office rather than being appointed for what’s essentially a two-year test drive before facing the electorate.

The Kennedys, however, are far from cornering the nepotism market. Jesse Jackson Jr. is an Illinois congressman, and has been the leading candidate to fill Obama’s empty Senate seat.

That was in question Tuesday, however, upon word that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich had been arrested in Chicago on corruption charges stemming from the selection of Obama’s successor – something that could have ramifications for whomever the governor was allegedly pushing for. In Delaware, there’s speculation that Beau Biden, son of vice-president-elect Joe Biden, is plotting to make a run for the Senate in 2010.

Biden, Delaware’s attorney general, was rumoured to be ready to replace his father after Obama won the election, but took his name out of the running to serve in Iraq. And yet the appointment of Ted Kaufmann, a long-time Joe Biden aide, reportedly angered local Democrats who viewed it as an attempt to orchestrate Biden’s election in 2010.

“Beau has made it clear from the moment he entered public life, that any office he sought, he would earn on his own,” Joe Biden said in response to the criticism. “If he chooses to run for the Senate in the future, he will have to run and win on his own. He wouldn’t have it any other way.”