Colleen O’Connor, San Diego News Network, penned a fun article: King Obama v. Queen Clinton — Check or Checkmate? Her thesis is that the patient “Queen” is slowly but surely vanquishing the foes who betrayed her for Obama last year. I have another theory. Political operatives who backed Obama, turning their backs on the more qualified Clinton, are winding up under Obama’s big bus because they were not motivated by his qualifications, but a quest for power and influence they thought they would have in his new “kingdom.” One by one, they are finding out that their loyalty is not reciprocated by the master they chose to serve. As my father used to say “lies have short legs.”

O’Connor’s need to speculate proves two things, Hillary’s actions and career are endlessly fascinating and as in the primary, Obama was far more exciting when contrasted with her. When it was down to Obama and McCain, pundits complained of boredom. This harkens back to John King of CNN saying that reporters did not vet Obama because they were “obsessed with Hillary.” Guess they never heard of multitasking. That very obsession still fuels all manner of speculation about palace intrigue, true or not. O’Connor posits:

The Queen has the greatest maneuverability of all the chess pieces. She can be the most lethal. The King, by contrast, is often barricaded behind a wall of defenders, with little room to escape-save in a bold and risky fashion. The King is dying. Long live the Queen.

Quietly, and under almost everyone’s radar, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been vanquishing her foes, while President Barack Obama has been multiplying his.

Furthermore, she has been paying off her debts, while Obama has been multiplying his (and the country’s) I.O.U.s.

Obama is down in the polls. Clinton is up. He is losing his liberal base and taking heat on health care, the wars, broken promises, gate crashers, the bailouts, and a grand design that leaves his base behind.

As New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wrote Sunday, “The Obama White House is morphing into the Bush White House with frightening speed. Its transparency is already fogged up.”

No one can say we didn’t warn them. O’Connor recites the litany of failed foes, i.e. Obama backers who have seen their popularity slip, legal troubles ensue, lose lucrative posts and otherwise have an awful time capitalizing on their betrayal of the “Queen.” Let’s not forget the disappearance of Howard Dean and Tom Daschle. She also discusses AG Martha Coakley as another potential victory for Hillary:

If Clinton supporter and Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley wins that will make the ninth score that Clinton has settled. And it will have happened in the state that the Kennedy family once ruled.

And so this prediction came to pass as Martha Coakley won the Dem Primary for Teddy Kennedy’s senate seat. Bill Clinton’s last minute endorsement and his 500,000 robocalls were nice touches. And instead of Caroline Kennedy getting Hillary’s Senate seat … “the Governor of New York appointed Kirstin Gillibrand — a Clinton, not an Obama ally — and it is no secret that the Clintons made it happen.”

Many have tried to write Hillary Clinton’s political obituary. Even after she was appointed Secretary of State, the press pointed to special envoys Holbrooke and Mitchell as signs that Hillary was being “marginalized” not remembering she had campaigned on appointing them herself.

The King’s chess move, thought to be “brilliant,” underestimated the patience of the Queen.

The more likely truth is that these envoys were warming up her seat, functioning as a buffer zone while she was hunkering down, figuring out the terrain and her colleagues, just as she did when she first became the junior senator of New York. The work horse did not feel the need to show off before having accomplished something.

Obama’s lifelong habit of being cautious, voting “present” and splitting everything down the middle, may not get him re-elected.

If as the Clintons might already sense, that Obama is in trouble, his biggest threat remains Clinton.

O’Connor lists the disgraced philanderer John Edwards, Bill Richardson, now in “political purgatory,” John Kerry, coveting the SoS spot and being left in the cold, Chris Dodd, with approval ratings “on life support” “…saddled with financial scandals galore-involving all those marquee companies that all Americans have come to hate-Countrywide Financial, AIG-as well as sweetheart real estate deals, with convicted inside-traders; the very people and firms Dodd was supposed to regulate.”

Joe Biden is a particular under bus dweller, his wife lately mentioning he would have preferred the spot Hillary now occupies.

He is on the losing side of the debate over sending additional troops to Afghanistan. … Unflattering pieces about his gaffes and his “standing in the Administration” have begun to circulate in the liberal press — like in a recent column by Sam Stein of The Huffington Post.

Add to this his less than competent role on overseeing the stimulus package and detailing its success (with exaggerated numbers and made up Congressional Districts) and you see where his “standing” is headed. The latest poll showed Biden’s approval rating lower than Dick Cheney’s in the same period!

But offering political cover and spin is the price Biden paid for pushing a candidate who even he noted was not yet ready for the job. Here is the sweetest payback according to O’Connor:

However, the most stealth-like, damaging, and perhaps satisfactory capture, came from the inelegant dismissal of former Clinton White House counsel, turned Obama-supporter and Clinton basher, Greg Craig.

Craig, who turned on Clinton during the primaries, did so in a rather nasty, but effective email arguing that she failed the test as commander-in-chief, that her claims of involvement in foreign affairs were bogus, and that she “never answered the phone either to make a decision on any pressing national security issue-not at 3 a.m. or at any other time of day.”

Currently, Craig is out of the White House-dismissed in a manner that brought howls, from the liberal activists, and have accelerated the disbelief, doubt, and defections among the Obama “believers”.

As Elizabeth Drew wrote in Politico, the firing was “the shabbiest episode of his presidency.”

Craig did damage Clinton as he was a deeply respected operative in Washington. I cannot imagine Mr. Craig saw that payback coming. Even huge Obama allies were mortified at this episode. But it was his own President who threw him under the bus, not Hillary. O’Connor even mentions Sen. Max Baucus…

Baucus has admitted — after repeatedly denying — that he was intimately involved with his state director, when he nominated her for the position of U.S. Attorney from Montana on “her merits.”

Currently under possible ethics violation for the nomination — not the lying, or the tryst, as both parties were separated at the time — Baucus’ political capital has eroded. He, too, competes with Tiger Woods for late night comedy jibes. Baucus’ year is ending badly.

It is fine to magically attribute these “paybacks” to the “Queen” but these guys are just being themselves – they don’t need anyone to show their true nature. They are doing a fine job all by themselves. The press doesn’t have its Hillary-obsession to buffer these guys from the spotlight any longer. In fact, the press tries everything it can to cover her as little as humanly possible. She has won huge awards and accolades this year, barely any of which have received more than a cursory mention.

On other fronts, it was reported many Norwegians were incensed that President Obama collected his Nobel Prize and snubbed them by not attending certain traditional events including lunch with King Harald of Norway. This is but another example of what happens when you become a notch on the bedpost. King Harald is just one of many on the list. I wonder how happy the Nobel committee is that they offered the prize to Obama now, particularly since his acceptance of the peace prize came hard on the heels of authorizing an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, however late his action was taken.

To top it all off, the members of the press corps are sad that the Obamas have done away with the traditional receiving line at many of the WH parties, so reporters will not be able to greet and pose with the President. Politico reports:

…for the White House to do away with the formal line is no small matter to those who work this beat every day: many guests feel it’s the main reason to attend, no matter who’s in office.

“It’s always been a big deal,” said [Dee Dee] Myers, who served as press secretary to former President Bill Clinton. “It’s exhausting [for the president] but it’s the one time when reporters feel like they’re treated like human beings and not just some guy behind the rope line. It’s the one time they can actually say hello.”

“Under the Bush administration, invites went out before Thanksgiving, reporters said. “I’m wondering if they just don’t have their act together on the social stuff,” one print reporter said…

“This year’s process seems so screwed up. It’s one big horrible mess,” said one veteran White House reporter. “The White House knows who covers the beat and they also know who should be attending. A lot of people have their feelings hurt.”

Hurt feelings? Hardly on top of anyone’s list of concerns, yet the press corps has also been hoist by their own petard, sensing the ingratitude of the White House after these guys functioned as the President’s own personal PR firm lo these many months.

In contrast, however, O’Connor points out that it was a “good year for the queen”, Hillary:

• The last minute save of the Turkish-Armenian accords opening the borders between these two longtime enemies.

• Bill Clinton’s dramatic feel-good rescue of the two female reporters held hostage in North Korea

• Clinton being named No. 4 of the 25 “smartest people” of the decade by the political blog The Daily Beast: “If anyone has a more intellectually rigorous resume for the decade, we have yet to see it.” High praise.

• A flattering article about Clinton in the December issue of Vogue magazine, complete with photos by the legendary Annie Liebowitz.

• Clinton’s approval rating in the high 60-percentile while Obama’s flirts under 50.

• The near “irrelevance” of those special envoys Mitchell and Holbrooke. They have been sidelined or mired in diplomatic quicksand.

• The success in adoption of her preferred Afghan strategy — and in securing NATO troop support over the expected 5,000 offered. (Something Clinton lectured Obama about in a primary debate: never get on the plane unless the deal has already been done.)

I think the crème is rising to the top. But while O’Connor’s article is entertaining, I don’t see vengeance here, unless stepping up and doing one’s job can be seen as vengeful. I suppose one could make an argument that by continuing to work diligently and faithfully, Hillary is “plotting” to show up her boss. I think one of the few adults in the room has better things to do. But I can’t say I’m not enjoying watching the dominoes fall – all those who badmouthed her are now finding themselves on the receiving end of a big dose of their own medicine.

The list is growing.

The pick? Caroline Kennedy.

Vatican sources told Il Giornale that their support for abortion disqualified Ms Kennedy and other Roman Catholics President Barack Obama had been seeking to appoint.

“Other Roman Catholics President Barack Obama had been seeking to appoint.” Huh. That’s a rebuff, if ever I’ve heard one. It certainly suggests ANY choice he might make in this area will be unacceptable to the Vatican. Kind of “Dude, we don’t like your people.”

The Italian paper said that the Vatican strongly disapproved of Mr Obama’s support for abortion and stem cell research.

So, why does the Vatican decide to do this now? And to such a high profile would-be ambassador? Kennedy would certainly have brought attention to Vatican positions and issues of importance to Catholics in general. The daughter of the first Catholic president would seem to be a nice choice.

But apparently not. Interesting. When was the last time the Vatican made a move like this?

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Catch more stories at Memeorandum.com.

It’s that time of year. If you are one of the lucky Americans still working in an office atmosphere, you probably have been inundated with bracket contests tied to the NCAA Tournament. I love the tournament and watch those games religiously, but here at No Quarter we deal with more serious fare and not everyone is a sports fan. So on Tuesday night’s edition of the Nocturnal Warrior Show on No Quarter Radio, we created a tournament of our own. You can listen to the show here (I highly recommend it; it was one of our better efforts.)

We revealed a field of 64 participants vying for the No Quarter Trophy. Our National Champion will be the person you pick as the Biggest Ass on the American Political Landscape.

We’ve broken the field in four brackets seeded 1 through 16 and have determined the matchups accordingly. All you have to do is tell us who you think is the winner of each matchup.

This will be a round by round affair. You can list your winners in the comment sections here or e-mail them to me at nocturnalwarriorshow@gmail.com. First-round winners will be announced on next Tuesday night’s Nocturnal Warrior Show. Feel free to submit all of your logic for making your picks.

So without further ado, here are the matchups.

White House Bracket
1st Seed Barack Obama vs. 16th Seed Bill Clinton
8th Seed Joe Biden vs. 9th Seed Robert Gibbs
5th Seed George W. Bush vs. 12th Seed Lawrence Summers
4th Seed Timothy Geithner vs. 13th Seed Susan Rice
6th Seed Rahm Emanuel vs. 11th Seed Jimmy Carter
3rd Seed Dick Cheney vs. 14th Seed Colin Powell
7th Seed David Axelrod vs. 10th Seed Eric Holder
2nd Seed Michelle Obama vs. 15th Seed Condoleeza Rice

Capitol Hill Bracket
1st Seed Nancy Pelosi vs. 16th Seed Christopher Dodd
8th Seed Charles Rangel vs. 9th Seed Mitch McConnel
5th Seed Chuck Schumer vs. 12th Seed Claire McCaskill
4th Seed John Boehner vs. 13th Seed Norm Coleman
6th Seed Edward Kennedy vs. 11th Seed Rolan Burris
3rd Seed Barney Frank vs. 14th Seed Eric Cantor
7th Seed Joe Lieberman vs. 10th Seed John Kerry
2nd Seed Harry Reid vs. 15th Seed Larry Craig

Media Bracket
1st Seed Keith Olbermann vs. 16th Seed Katie Couric
8th Seed William Kristol vs. 9th Seed Dick Morris
5th Seed Ann Coulter vs. 12th Laura Ingraham
4th Seed Rachael Maddow vs. 13th Seed Markos Moulitsos
6th Seed David Shuster vs. 11th Seed Ariana Huffington
3rd Seed Maureen Dowd vs. 14th Seed Rush Limbaugh
7th Seed Joe Klein vs. 10th Seed David Broder
2nd Seed Andrew Sullivan vs. 15th Jamal Simmons

At Large Bracket
1st Seed Chris Matthews vs. 16th Eliott Spitzer
8th Seed Rod Blagoevich vs. 9th Seed William Ayers
5th Seed Caroline Kennedy vs. 12th Seed John Edwards
4th Seed Donna Brazile vs. 13th Jeremiah Wright
6th Seed Bill Richardson vs. 11th Seed Michael Steele
3rd Seed Tom Daschle vs. 14th Seed Bobby Jindal
7th Seed Howard Dean vs. 10th Seed Alan Greenspan
2nd Seed Oprah Winfrey vs. 15th Seed Tim Kaine

There, you have it.. Just post up or e-mail us your first round picks and we will pare the field down. Have fun with this!!!

Going through my paper this morning there was a podium picture of those who came to Albany to support Governor Paterson and his choice Rep. soon to be Senator Gillibrand. Front and center in the front row is former Senator Alfonse D’Amato from the other side of the aisle.

Also present was the County Executive from upstate Monroe County Maggie Brooks who is also a Republican. Not often you see two Republicans attend the announcement of the appointment of a new Senator from the other party.

Also with the new Senator’s rating from the NRA, a 100% rating, Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, a Democrat from Long Island, is not happy with the choice, and “snubbed” the announcement as my paper Newsday put it and has vowed to run in a primary against Senator Gillibrand if nobody else does. For those of you who do not remember or do now know, Congresswoman McCarthy’s husband was among 6 killed and her son was among 19 injured on a Long Island Railroad Train when Colin Ferguson took out a gun and starting shooting for no reason in 1993. She was elected to congress on a strong anti-gun and gun control platform.

So job one is to get everyone familiar with the Senator who when all the paperwork is filed in Washington will be sworn in as the junior Senator from New York sometime Sunday. Her first meeting/appearance is with Rev. Al Sharpton at his weekly rally at headquarters in Harlem. Now for someone from upstate, you don’t get more downstate than that. She said the economy was her first priority and she did take some questions about her gun control issues. I am sure there are many more downstate appearances and “get to know you’s” scheduled in the coming weeks and months. After all, once she takes the office she immediately has a seat to protect and a race to run.

Funny though, I have not seen anything on what will happen to her seat in NY’s 20th CD. Are Governor Paterson and the state party going to concede that seat back to the Republicans in what was a major upset just 4 years ago when the now Senator won that seat from an entrenched Republican incumbent in a conservative leaning county.

This choice is obviously to bolster the governor with upstate voters for his pending election in 2010 the next state wide election when he, the entire state leadership and both US Senators (Senator Gillibrand in a special election to serve out the final 2 years of Hillary’s term and Chuck Schumer for his full term) will be up. But here downstate she is not only not only not well known or known at all but does not seem all that popular. It appears there are major splits in the NY Democratic party over this. Another against the pick was Kennedy supporter Mayor Mike Bloomberg a registered Republican who has plenty of money and influence to help elect the newly minted Senator or an opponent of his choosing. Mayor Bloomberg said in a story in the Washington Post this morning, “She has actively opposed the efforts of New York City, and cities around the state and nation, to enact common-sense measures that keep illegal guns out of the hands of criminals,” he said in a statement. “For instance, she has voted to keep critical data needed to track illegal gun traffickers from law enforcement, has voted to tie the hands of the ATF, and has also voted to protect dealers who sell guns illegally.” You can read the whole Post story here.And as you can see it is not the gun control people who have problems with the new Senator’s voting record.

Now I know many out there in the NQ readership and radio audience are looking at this appointment as the governor appointing a woman to finish out Hillary’s term. And there is something to that. However I am not sure how I feel about this appointment. I am looking at it on the issues, not on gender. I don’t care if a candidate is a man or a woman, black, white, red, blue or green. I care what they have to say and what they do. It is one of the reasons I supported Hillary Clinton in her runs for Senate and in the primary. In this case I am not happy with my new Senator’s stance with the NRA. You see I have had gun violence touch my life. I don’t want to get in to details but years ago a co-worker was gunned down and murdered in an incident that garnered some national attention due to the sensational nature of the case. So yes, gun control is an issue in my life and something I happen to agree with Congresswoman McCarthy with. So as far as my opinion of this appointment to be honest I don’t know. I am going to have to do my homework on it and see how I feel. And if there is a primary contest I am going to really have to do my due diligence.

I guess this is as good a place as any to plug my NQ Radio show, “No Topic Taboo…Everything Else with Jay” which will be in it’s usual slot, Wednesday night at 9PM Eastern…you know the rest depending on where you live.Now to be perfectly honest I was not sure what the topic of this week’s show was going to be but I guess this qualifies. As always everything is on the table, in addition to the new Senator from NY we can discuss the upcoming Super Bowl in Tampa, the first 8 days of the new administration, oh and here’s something. I got my hands on the Nielsen ratings of the top 58 markets for last week’s coronation I mean inauguration. You might be a little shocked to see who was #1 and where a certain mid-west city landed in the list.

I am really interested what you out in NQ-land feel about this. And you can let me know. You can leave comments here and I may print them out and read them on my show, you can email me at my show email address, ntteewithjay@me.com, or you can call me on show night at 347-677-0792. It’s going to be open line night, you will be my guest so I really can’t do this week’s show without you.

So that’s all I have to say. What about you?

According to the NY Times:

Representative Kirsten E. Gillibrand, a little-known 42-year-old upstate congresswoman selected to succeed Hillary Rodham Clinton in the United States Senate, said Friday afternoon that she would focus on passing legislation that would provide financial relief and create jobs for New Yorkers.

At a news conference at which Gov. David A. Paterson announced her appointment, Ms. Gillibrand, who is considered a centrist and is known for her bold political moves, also expressed support for investing in high-tech industries, health care, transportation infrastructure and small businesses, and said she would call for tax cuts for middle-class families and lower property taxes. … (continued below)

Ms. Gillibrand said she aspired to follow in the footsteps of Mrs. Clinton. While she acknowledged that many state residents did not know her name, she pledged to “bring upstate and downstate together, to work on behalf of all New Yorkers.”

“I can look someone in the eye and hear their concern, and hear their priority, and then do something about it,” said Ms. Gillibrand, who is to take office on Sunday.

…Paterson said that he was “95 percent” sure on Monday that he wanted to select Ms. Gillibrand, and that by Tuesday he had grown more confident of his decision.

He said he saw in Ms. Gillibrand a “new kind of leadership.” While downstaters have been known for being condescending to upstaters in the past, he said, “they will never condescend to Kirsten Gillibrand.” Mr. Paterson said he was particularly impressed with Ms. Gillibrand’s command of financial issues, saying, “She can talk you A to Z about agriculture, and A to ZZ about Wall Street.”

Why, she sounds positively Hillary-esque! Just what the doctor ordered.

(Photo: August 2006, New York Times)

The governor, however, did acknowledge the sometimes confusing nature of the selection process, which lasted weeks, and apologized, saying he was merely trying to be transparent.

“In retrospect, I wish I had not shown all of you the wrestling match” of the decision-making process, he said.

No kidding, Governor. With the confusion, and frankly, irritation, of Caroline Kennedy’s name being so heavily bandied about for this post, we can see why he feels that way. This whole drawn out mess was not very well handled. Some very powerful forces pushing for Caroline Kennedy to get this appointment, and some irate New Yorkers pushing back, didn’t make the situation any easier.

I have nothing against Ms. Kennedy-Schlossberg, but just did not feel she was qualified for the job. The last thing any of us needs right now is anyone else unqualified to assume a position of great responsibility.

And then there’s this nice bit:

Charles E. Schumer, the senior senator from New York, said it was important to have a senator from upstate New York, calling Ms. Gillibrand “one of the most aggressive and effective young members of the House.” He said Mrs. Clinton had also expressed support for Ms. Gillibrand.

I understand she is also a staunch Hillary supporter. Only fitting under the circumstances for someone competent, who also had Hillary’s back, to get her seat — if you’ll pardon the turn of phrase.

Ms. Gillibrand is largely unknown to New Yorkers statewide, but is considered an up-and-coming and forceful lawmaker in her district and has gained considerable attention from Democratic leaders in Washington.

I am going to leave out the rest of the rigmarole that surrounded the drama of Caroline Kennedy possibly getting this seat. Of course, the NY Times attributes a selfish motivation of Governor Paterson in making this appointment:

Ms. Gillibrand’s selection was a careful political calculation by the governor, who will run for his second term as governor in 2010, when Ms. Gillibrand will also be on the ballot. The choice reflects Mr. Paterson’s thinking that his selection should be someone who can help him attract voters in key demographics — in Ms. Gillibrand’s case upstate New Yorkers and women.

Ms. Gillibrand, lives just outside of Albany, with her husband, Jonathan Gillibrand, a financial consultant, and their sons, Theodore, who is 5, and Henry, who is 6 months old. Ms. Gillibrand, who had never held public office, won her seat in 2006 against great odds, defeating a four-term Republican incumbent in a race that turned intense and nasty in its final days.

She proved to be a formidable candidate, raising millions of dollars and assembling a campaign organization that aggressively exploited the personal and political baggage of her opponent, Representative John E. Sweeney, who frequently found himself on the defensive.

This next NY Times piece Gillibrand Is a Centrist With a Tenacious Style fills in a little more detail I think you’ll find interesting – and mostly heartening:

[Ms. Gillibrand] has married a relentless political and fund-raising style to a centrist brand of politics.

Ms. Gillibrand (pronounced JILL-uh-brand), a 42-year-old lawyer and mother of two young children, had never held political office before defeating a four-term incumbent in a vastly Republican district in 2006. Her district extends from the flatlands of the Hudson Valley to the mountainous North Country.

She comes from a politically connected family; her father is a prominent state lobbyist who once had close ties to former Gov. George E. Pataki, a Republican, and her grandmother was prominent in the formidable Albany Democratic machine. Ms. Gillibrand worked as an intern for a Republican senator, Alfonse M. D’Amato, and clerked for a federal judge appointed by President Ronald Reagan.

Her politics, perhaps reflecting her conservative district, cannot be easily charted along a left-right axis. She earned a high rating from the National Rifle Association and opposed efforts to extend state drivers’ licenses to illegal immigrants. At the same time, she favors abortion rights, voted to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq and to extend middle-class tax cuts, and she has opposed privatizing Social Security. She raises large sums of money from Wall Street, but voted against the first bailout bill last fall; that vote angered some Democratic leaders in Congress.

Alan Van Capelle, the executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda, a gay rights group, said that he spoke by phone with Representative Gillibrand on Thursday night and that she spoke in favor of same-sex marriage. This would make her the first United States senator from New York to endorse gay marriage; Charles E. Schumer, the state’s senior senator, opposes it.

Gutsy. It looks as though she’s made of some tough stuff and might be a rising star in Washington. We shall see. I am just happy to be able to report that, in my view, a qualified person got a job, rather than someone being coddled or pampered into the seat.

I have seen enough of that treatment to last a lifetime.

Congratulations, Senator Gillibrand.

Caption: **FILE**In this Oct. 26, 2006 file photo, former President Bill Clinton holds up the hand of Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democratic lawyer who is running against three-term Rep. John Sweeney, R-N.Y., at a rally in Albany, N.Y. Gillibrand emerged as a leading contender Thursday night Jan. 22, 2009, as New York Gov. David Paterson closed in on a decision to fill the state’s vacant Senate seat, according to party officials monitoring events in the wake of Caroline Kennedy’s abrupt withdrawal from consideration. (AP Photo/Jim McKnight, File)

Whether you are a traditionalist and prefer the Neil Diamond version, or a late night bar patron who goes for a rousing Jimmy Buffet sing-a-long, it’s a good day to break out this seventies classic. Speaking of Neil Diamond, the Jazz Singer was on cable the other day and I have to wonder if Sir Laurence Olivier rolls over in his grave every time that piece of crap is shown. But, I digress. Here’s is why we are singing this morning.

“I informed Governor Paterson today that for personal reasons I am withdrawing my name from consideration for the United States Senate,”

Caroline Kennedy’s people issued that one sentence statement late last night after a bizarre evening of revelations and denials.

The New York papers started reporting on the withdrawal early Wednesday night and the reports were quickly followed by denials from members of the Kennedy camp. Finally, all speculation was put to rest with the one sentence withdrawal using the shopworn but always effective excuse of “personal reasons.”

The New York Post claims the withdrawal came after Kennedy learned she would not be Governor Paterson’s selection to fill the seat once held by her slain uncle Robert F. Kennedy. On the other hand, if you read the New York Daily News they will tell you that she was still the pick as late as 24 hours ago.

Knowing New York state politics as I do, I still think that if Caroline really wanted to follow through and take this seat she would have been the pick. David Paterson is not in a position to put himself at odds with Caroline’s principal sponsors President Obama and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

As it is, he is going to face a bruising election battle (I can’t say re-elected since he was not elected governor in the first place) in two years and he will need cash and support from Obama Democrats and Bloomberg to stay on the sidelines.

So why did she drop out? What are those personal reasons? We can only guess. But, Uncle Teddy’s health isn’t it. He was already dying when she made the decision to pursue the seat. That may sound crass, but it’s true (and I’ve already subjected you to Neil Diamond.) I think it comes down to matters of privacy and who she really is.

Caroline got the bug about public service while on the trail stumping for President Obama. She was met everywhere she appeared by adoring throngs of “hopium stoned” Obama groupies who cheered, hugged and enveloped her in an intoxicating blanket of Obama love. They cried when they told her how “The One” was carrying on the legacy of her father. It had to be a great feeling. Why wouldn’t she want more?

The media shielded Obama from harsh study, so why wouldn’t it be the same for her? She could go to Capitol Hill, work for the people and feel the love. It sounds pretty appealing. The problem was Caroline forgot about one thing. New Yorkers are a tough crowd, even for those they like. You need thick skin and sharp elbows to swim in those cold, shark infested political waters. While many Kennedys are built that way she isn’t and New York is still Clinton Country. Hill and Bill supporters aren’t particularly fond of the Kennedys these days and they were leading a charge that had her public opinion polls slipping daily.

While Paterson would have probably picked her in the end, just knowing he really didn’t want to had to hurt her. The jabs from the media and You Tube crowd over her brutal interviews had to sting even more. Re-opening old family wounds from her cousin’s unseemly divorce from Andrew Cuomo just made it worse. Then she learned that the private questionnaire she filled out for Governor Paterson with very personal Schlossberg financial information could be made public. For the Kennedy who at public events (before Obama) usually chose to sit in the back corner, it was all too much. She really didn’t want it after all.

It’s not that she was unqualified (as so many have claimed). Caroline Kennedy is probably as accomplished as many already serving in the Senate. Many have come to the Senate with no prior public service, even from celebrity backgrounds (Senator Bill Bradley, for example) and have served well. But, they were elected.

An appointment from the Governor is something else. That person needs to be the most qualified to serve all the people of the state and should have a public record worthy of such a rare opportunity and Caroline did not.

Her withdrawal is a stinging rebuke for President Obama. Her appointment was going to be his opening to break the Clinton hold on New York State Democrats. Bill and Hillary have been loyal soldiers for the party in the state. They’ve personally donated to numerous campaigns for Congressmen, State Senators, Assemblymen and County Executives etc. More importantly, both have headlined at countless breakfasts, brunches, cocktail parties and dinners allowing the hosts to raise thousands of dollars off the Clinton name.

The Obama camp does not like seeing so many powerful leaders beholden to the Clintons. Caroline was going to be the new star, injecting tons of Kennedy cash and star power to the New York game while Hillary is forced to temper her activities in accordance with the protocol of being Secretary of State. With one sentence from Caroline, that plan is toast.

Now the likelihood is that whoever Paterson picks will not be a loyal Obama solider. Andrew Cuomo is his own man, part of a rich New York legacy and Clinton supporter to boot. Carolyn Maloney is her own woman.

Yup, good times never seem so good.

I’m opening the live chat room @ 15 to 20 minutes before the show starts, so come on over and join in the chat! So get there early, and log in to our LIVE CHAT ROOM.

I’d like to thank Grace Slick & Jefferson Starship for the inspiration for this post.

By the time the sun goes down on the East Coast of these United States today, it will be over. The oaths will have been taken, the speeches will have been made, the bands will have marched and the coronation of His Royal Majesty Barack I …ooops, I mean the Inauguration of the 44th President Barack Obama will be just about finished, except for the balls that night. Now lucky me, I have to work that day so I will miss all of the fawning and bowing done by the main stream media. But many of you will be home, with your TV’s, radios and computers on and we know how you feel about PEBO. So starting at 7:30 tonight, the floor is yours. Welcome to the “Inauguration Tomato Tossing (Escape the MSM’s all-Obama-all-day-long)” hosted by yours truly Jay from “No Topic Taboo…Everything Else with Jay.”

By the time evening comes, everyone round here will be sick of it all so we will open the radio and open the phones for your vent, rant, rave or whatever. You are welcome to call in with questions and comments any time during the show. Dial in to (347) 677-0792 and turn down your computer volume since you can listen to the show for the brief time you’re on hold.

I hope to have some of our NQ writers and other radio hosts join me (hint, hint, this is an open invite) and I have a verbal commitment from LD who will talk about the economy and what lies ahead for the new administration.

But everything is on the table. The events of the day, check. Caroline and the NY Senate seat. Sure. Want to go off politics all together because you are sick of it, why not? It’s going to be your show, I’m just the guy with his hands on the steering wheel. But we can’t do it without your calls or your emails. You can email your comments to me at my show email: ntteewithjay@me.com.

Oh and near the end expect a visit from my friend, The Nocturnal Warrior who will give us a preview of his show that airs at its regular 9PM Tuesday slot. Think of me as the pre-game show for The Warrior, and I plan on joining him on his show…if my voice holds out. I have my regular show to do in my regular Wednesday night slot.

So be there Tuesday, January 20th, 7:30 p.m Eastern Time, a day that no mater what side of the coin you look at will live in history. And then stick around for The Warrior.

I’m not sure what part of Do. Not. Want. people in the NY Times and the Governor’s mansion do not understand. New Yorkers do not like this Kennedy trick one bit.

Here’s the message:

New York State voters have cooled on Caroline Kennedy and more voters now prefer State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo 31 – 24 percentfor Hillary Clinton’s U.S. Senate seat, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney gets 6 percent, with 5 percent for U.S. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, 2 percent for U.S. Rep. Steve Israel, 18 percent for someone else and 14 percent undecided.

Here’s the rest of the message:

New York State voters say 48 – 37 percent that Kennedy is not qualified to be a U.S. Senator and 40 – 37 percent that she would not be a good Senator. Democrats say 47 – 35 percent that she is qualified, while Republicans say 65 – 24 percent that she is not qualified. Independent voters say 51 – 34 percent that she is not qualified.

Still, voters say 38 – 33 percent that Gov. David Paterson will appoint Ms. Kennedy to the U.S. Senate.

In other words, New Yorkers are not in a good mood about this whole skanky deal and they aren’t letting up about it either. They know they are being railroaded and Teddy Kennedy’s tantrums mean nothing to them. New York is not Massachusetts. Dave, tell Teddy nobody in New York cares that he wants his name embedded in politics forever. They do not care to be bamboozled. This is starting to smell like Pay To Play and it’s not even being done in secret.

Upstate New Yorkers are particularly angered. Of course that’s probably the place Caroline will “volunteer” to dump all those terrorism suspects when Obama closes down that other place. She’ll call it “job creation” for prisons. Don’t think New Yorkers haven’t thought of that either. They know the disdain with which she treated them and they know that they will never see her again if she forces herself into the Senator’s chair.

Caroline didn’t even know there was a place above Manhattan until she decided she would scrap her useless resume and become New York’s junior Senator because she has a certain last name. But the only people who are buying into this insult are politicians who got phone calls and Democrats who would vote for anything with a (D) after its name.

Cuomo leads Kennedy 31 – 20 percent among upstate voters and 36 – 22 percent in the suburbs, while Kennedy gets 31 percent of New York City voters to Cuomo’s 29 percent, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds. Men back Cuomo 32 – 23 percent while women back him 31 – 25 percent.

This is not good, Dave. She’s only up by two points in New York City, for goodness sakes. What do you need, a telephone poll on your head to get it?

6844 people were polled, Dave. So it’s pretty safe to say Quinnipiac has it right.

You know damned well that the Kennedys can pour millions into her election and yours, Barack Obama can go to Upstate New York, part the Mohawk River and pass out fishes — and they still won’t forget what’s going on here right now. You know that Upstate New York Democrats have nooooooo problem voting Republican. Monarchies make them itch.

Worse yet, you are setting the Republicans up for running that morally bankrupt exploitative thief Rudy Giuliani against her. Or you.

Is this what you really want?

Caroline. Caroline. Caroline. Please stop embarrassing yourself and pissing New York off. New York has a lot of work to do. And Teddy, not that you won’t burn in hell anyways (See “Mary Jo”), but you should have a special room there for ruining Caroline’s image after all these years.

************************************************************

UPDATE: Due to accusation of not supporting “women” for positions. Here is my response to that:

Politics is run exactly like Corporate America. They put a token female in a slot now and then so that they can show everybody that she can’t do the job. They downplay competent women so that they won’t be embarrassed by their skill. Falling for this is the very worst thing you can do.

Caroline is holding HERSELF to a different standard. She is behaving above everybody else because her name is Kennedy. She should have known better, although I think this is all Teddy’s doing, that shit. Caroline KNOWs she is not qualified and instead of providing a little humility to the mix, she showed up in upper New York with a stick in her butt. How exactly does this attitude help promote women? She is not qualified and putting an unqualified attitude-riddled woman in this slot does NOT help women.

The fact is, there are several VERY good women in NY who are qualified for this slot. They are getting railroaded by a Monarchy. Now THAT makes me angry. When we support this kind of behavior, we set women back even further.

Furthermore, NY is in a financial shambles, businesses drive right by, and this only serves to make people more angry. This isn’t about a woman, this is about a Monarch trying to shove his last name down the throats of a state that is in dire need of somebody who can replace a hardworking, roll- up- your- sleeves policy wonk named Hillary Clinton. Caroline Kennedy is nothing more than a token woman. And if I have learned one thing in Corporate America it’s that token women ruin it for everyone else.

And finally, the very competent Maloney would have one damned good shot at this if the Monarchy weren’t scewing HER. Ditto for Gillibrand. If you want to be angry, be angry about that. It’s the same old tune all over again.

Here is what women are losing thanks to Ted Kennedy:

http://www.gillibrand.house.gov/

http://maloney.house.gov/

Perhaps you have now heard that a 1996 questionnaire for Barack Obama has mysteriously reappeared AFTER he was elected (which of course he could not have done without the DNC’s new take on voting, i.e., it doesn’t really matter for whom you cast your vote – they will give it to whomever they damn well please). Yes, it is a questionnaire that Obama filled out, and signed himself (though he’ll probably blame it on some staffer pretty soon here) in which he says he SUPPORTS same-sex marriage!

Say, WHAAA??? Yes, indeedy! Ben Smith of Politico.com has this article, “Obama Backed Same Sex Marriage in 1996“:

A document has emerged suggesting that Obama had taken more public, liberal stands in the past than had been revealed in the digging of reporters and opposition researchers over two years of campaigning, the latest of several pointing to a rightward shift as he moved into national politics.

In a 1996 questionnaire filled out for a Chicago gay and lesbian newspaper, then called Outlines, Obama came out clearly in favor of same-sex marriage, which he has opposed on the public record throughout his short career in national politics.

“I favor legalizing same-sex marriages,and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages,” Obama wrote in the typed, signed, statement.

There was no use of “civil unions,” and “no compromise whatsoever,” the Windy City Times story today notes.

On another questionnaire the same year, Obama said he would support a resolution in support of same-sex marriage.

The editor of the Windy City Times, a successor of Outlines, Tracy Baim, said she hadn’t deliberately held onto the news until after Obama’s election. Baim, who had been the editor of Outlines at the time, said that just before the election, she ran across the old Outline story saying Obama backed same-sex marriage, but only dug his forgotten questionnaire out of an old box this week, having assumed that she’d lost it.

Obama now says he opposes same-sex marriage, though he backs giving gays and lesbians a parallel package of marriage-like rights, and opposes a federal ban on same-sex marriage.

Here is a copy of the document:

Okay, now why does ANYONE believe Obama on ANYTHING he says? He changes like the wind. You never know which way he will turn.

Oh – and did you notice his response on #10? He has dialed down that rhetoric a bit now, too. Here is but one take on his position. A quick search will provide many more.

Next on the list is Obama’s choice of dining companions last night. Marc Ambinder has a report in this article, Obama Dines With Conservative Opinion Leaders“:

It’s true.

He motorcaded to a house in Maryland this evening, and if the press pool report is accurate, he is breaking bread with William Kristol and David Brooks. (If Brooks and Kristol seem to be unusually briefed about Obama’s thinking, you’ll know why.)

CBS News’s Dan Raviv tells the pool that the house, on Grafton Street in Chevy Chase, belongs to George Will. (Unless he’s moved.)

Tomorrow, I hear Obama has another private meeting with non-Republican opinion columnists.

Ellen Moran, the incoming White House communications director, set these meetings up.

Again — establishment opinion matters to the Obama communications team.

Oh, I just can’t wait to see what’s next with Mr. Slippery. But I won’t have to wait for long, thanks to Comcast. Oh, yes — Comcast has decided to run an All-Obama-All-The-Time Channel. No, I am NOT making this up. Seriously — it’s for real.

I know I have said before that some Obama supporters (oh, all right – many) are just delusional, not accepting the reality of who this man is and for what he stands (if you can figure it out, that is – except we do know he is at least anti-gay, so there’s that). But this has morphed into flat out insanity. I honestly thought we had reached the zenith of nut-job-iness (yes, that’s a technical term!) with the Bush supporters, but Obama’s supporters are making them look like the most well-balanced, intelligent, grounded folks around. Except for those of us in the reality-based community, that is.

This is just crazy. Crazy!! Can you IMAGINE what all of these exact same people would have said if Comcast has an All-Bush channel?? You know that everyone would be screaming BLOODY murder about that! But now, our nation has collectively crossed the line, and this has become acceptable. Holy crap.

There are two bright lights in the news this week, though. One is that Caroline Kennedy is being edged out in her Camelot quest for Senator Clinton’s Empire State seat. Yes, the people of NY, you know, the ones who really SHOULD have a say in all of this since it is their representation at state, are backing Andrew Cuomo. Assuming their governor is paying attention, it will be nice to see that at least one person doesn’t sell out to the highest bidder and actually listens to their constituents (oh, you know about what I am talking – all of those senators and representatives who didn’t give a WHIT who their constituents wanted for the Democratic nominee – I know, I know, not that it would have mattered since the DNC didn’t care, either, but still…It would have been, um, nice if SOMEONE had a backbone. Maybe Paterson does!).

And the other bright light – well, bittersweet, really – is seeing Senator Clinton display her brilliance and command of the issues during her confirmation hearing (if only C-Span would STOP tossing it from channel to channel to online back to channel).

Watching her, though, is just a reminder of who we SHOULD Have had, this brilliant woman who knows policy. Who makes it CLEAR where she stands, e.g., with women and girls who are being abused as she did yesterday, when she said this:

“They want to maintain an attitude,” she charged, “that keeps women unhealthy, unfed, uneducated, and this is something that results all too often in violence against these young women.” (NYTimes Live Blog)

“This is not culture, this is not custom, this is criminal,” she said.

She’s got that right.

And to all of those women who supported Mr. Misogynist, you blew it. BLEW it. He is not the one who will ensure that women’s rights are human rights. Hillary Clinton will. Obama is a perpetrator of sexism. Clinton is on the side of equality. But I digress.

Back to the hearings: She has a mastery of issues and policies that should be the envy of Obama. Yes, she looks tired. Unlike Bush, I mean, Obama, she has not had a vacation (Obama has had two since the DNC gave him the nomination, in case you are keeping score – TWO). Clinton has continued her tireless work. So, yes, she looks pretty tired, but she can still talk circles around Mr. “Uh, Um, Uh, Well, Look.”

Bittersweet, indeed. Watching Senator Clinton talk is just an ugly reminder of how the DNC and Obama screwed the majority of Democrats in this country. Seeing her is a reminder of who we COULD have had, who we really needed to get us out of this mess we are in. Because Mr. First Term Senator With No Record On Which To Stand is not going to be the one to fix it.

The one saving grace is the comfort of knowing Secretary of State Clinton will be handling some major issues facing us, at home and abroad. (I still cannot get over the way Obama LIED about her extensive Foreign Policy experience, with his minions buying it. No sooner had the last state reported, for all intents and purposes, he announces Clinton for this very important foreign policy post, citing her experience!! Oh, but the Obots will excuse that, too, just like every other damn thing they refuse to acknowledge.)

So that’s the quick round-up. Feel free to add other goings-on of the day!

Ms. Dowd begins in her usual snide fashion:

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.

Her soft-spoken answer — to follow her father and two uncles and serve in the Senate — got her ripped to shreds in the, you know, press.

I know about “you knows.” I use that verbal crutch myself, a bad habit that develops from shyness and reticence about public speaking.

Wow. That’s so nice of you, Mo, to first make fun of Caroline Kennedy’s crutch of saying ‘you know’ 120 times in one interview – only then to excuse it. This ignores the fact that Ms. Kennedy’s “you knows” may cover the fact that she doesn’t have very much that is pertinent to say otherwise. Mo then continues fawning:

I always thought that Caroline and her brother, John, had special magic capital in America because of their heartbreaking roles in the Kennedy House of Atreus.

… 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?”

How dare she indeed. Let me inquire of Ms. Dowd: how does Caroline’s “friendship” with Barack Obama or her magical Kennedy name enable her to magically help the beleaguered State of New York?

Is Ms. Dowd implying that if a Senator is not a ‘friend’ of Barack Obama, his or her state’s needs will be ignored? Surely, Hillary Clinton has done an amazing job for her constituents and earned their respect, despite the fact that the Bushes and Clintons are like oil and water. For one thing, Senator Clinton fought for and got better care for first responders after 9/11 when President Bush ignored their needs. She did it without the ‘magical friendship’ Ms. Dowd insists is so important. Furthermore, many in NY Congress as well as local representatives refused to abandon Hillary for Obama during the primary, though they were under great pressure to do so. They stuck with her for one reason: they each made clear, when they needed Hillary, she always showed up for their districts. Yet, Ms. Mo still treats Senator Clinton like a carpetbagger. How is it that Caroline is magically equipped, simply by virtue of the Kennedy name to rescue New York? Dowd then states:

Although Americans still have enough British in their genes to be drawn to dynasties, W. has no doubt soured the country on scions. And the camps of the other two New York dynasties — the Clintons (still bitter about Caroline’s endorsement of Obama) and the Cuomos (who’d like that Senate seat for Andrew) — have certainly done their best to undermine Caroline.

Who has undermined her? Ms. Kennedy has done a fine job of doing that for herself. And why shouldn’t NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo want the seat – he is also far more accomplished? What about Congresswoman Carol Maloney – probably Hillary’s pick? Why should the far more qualified woman once again be overlooked? Why do we seem hell bent for leather to promote “American Idol” in this country? What has happened to the American dream of working for and earning what you want in life? And why do we assume the Clintons are bitter about Caroline’s Obama endorsement? And what does that have to do with the fact that Congresswoman Maloney is more deserving and more qualified for this appointment in her sleep than Caroline Kennedy?

Sounds like Ms. Dowd is the one who is bitter. The Clintons are husband and wife. No dynasty there that I can see, but Mo still pulls out the same old, tired narrative of ‘no dynasties’ that Obama used so effectively when trumpeting his excuse for CHANGE. Um, except when the dynasty is “Kennedy” – then the sky’s the limit. Heaven forefend we have someone who has some idea what the hell they are doing. But since we just elected a President who hasn’t a clue, perhaps Ms. Dowd feels we should keep the trend going. Ms. Dowd refers to Caroline Kennedy as offering the Senate “an infusion of class, intelligence and guts.” Guts? Um, you know, yeah, err, aah, you know aaaaaaand….yeah.

“People complain that the 51-year-old Harvard and Columbia Law School grad and author is not a glib, professional pol who knows how to artfully market herself, and is someone who hasn’t spent her life glad-handing, backstabbing and logrolling. I say, thank God.”

Oh, Mo! You’re kidding me, right? And your beloved “Obambi” hasn’t spent his career glad-handing, backstabbing and logrolling??! Certainly, P.E. Obama hasn’t any idea how to “artfully market” himself, does he?

The press whines that she doesn’t have a pat answer about why she wants the job. I’ve interviewed a score of men running for president; not one had a good answer for why he wanted it.

Gee, does that include P.E. Obama – the one you touted this entire election season while excoriating the far more qualified, eloquent (sans teleprompter) and caring Hillary Clinton at every opportunity? I believe when Obama was asked the first thing he would do as President, he said he would “put his feet up behind the desk.” Awe inspiring.

Ms. Dowd then tells us Caroline’s relatively inarticulate and inexperienced manner is no worry, since she “knows Caroline Kennedy.”…

“She’s smart, cultivated, serious and unpretentious. The Senate, shamefully sparse on profiles in courage during Dick Cheney’s reign of terror, would be lucky to get her.

Anyhow, it isn’t how you say it. It’s what you say. Hillary Clinton is a great talker, but she never stood up in the Senate to lead a crusade against any Republican horror show, from Terri Schiavo to the Bush administration’s dishonest push to war.”

I see, but Barack Obama stood up to …???? Who exactly? What crusade did the inspiring speaker, Mr. Hopey-Changey lead? Who did Joe Biden stand up to? Or Kerry? Or any of them? Furthermore, P.E. Obama supposedly made an anti-war speech in 2002 and then when elected to the Senate in 2005, spent the rest of his time voting in lock step with his party and rubberstamping everything that President Bush wanted. Senator Clinton, gave her vote for the IWR in 2002 very reluctantly, as her speech on the Senate floor shows. The very next day she, along with Senator Robert Byrd, set about restricting George Bush further in terms of what powers this IWR would grant him.

Again, Hillary is being judged by a ridiculous double standard. Dowd actually has the nerve to criticize her for not being the lone Senator to stand up against Bush and his cadre but the man Dowd affectionately named “Obambi,” who never stood up to anyone, or for anything, gets a pass. Does she even realize or care how contradictory this nonsense is?

And if we are going to talk about Terry Schiavo – didn’t Obama vote to keep her alive?

What the hell is Mo Dowd going on about here? She seems to conveniently forget that very man she spent the last year fawning over is just as vapid and chameleon-like as they come. Moral courage? How about political expediency? That is the only term our President-to-be understands.

I find Dowd’s closing words most hilarious:

Sitting in the Senate gallery on Tuesday as senators were sworn in by Dick Cheney, I saw plenty of lawmakers who had benefited from family.

It isn’t what your name is. It’s what you do with it.

So dynasties are OK as long as you are a Kennedy. But Hillary Clinton, who Dowd predictably finds time to trash once again, had far more accomplishments on her own that Caroline Kennedy ever had, only got to her Senate seat and a run for the nomination because of her husband? I see. Ms. Dowd sounds more like Chris Matthews every day. Jealous much? Hillary Clinton has done a great deal with her name but her detractors still are determined to pretend her accomplishments are non-existent, probably to make Caroline look better by comparison. Sorry. Not working.

What exactly has Caroline Kennedy done that entitles her to jump to the head of the line in front of Carol Maloney and Andrew Cuomo?

It is far more likely that Ms. Dowd chooses to champion Caroline because she is sweet and non-threatening – no brilliance detected. Hillary surely is a far more intimidating character. I have nothing against Caroline Kennedy personally. The question in re Caroline Kennedy isn’t what’s wrong with her – it’s what’s right with her for this particular job? Out of nowhere, she crooks her finger to get a Senate seat and it should be granted her?

The rather clueless Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post also chimed in…

“Caroline has always been part of my consciousness: the lucky little girl with a pony and an impossibly handsome father. What a fitting coda … to have the little princess grow up to be a senator.”

So in order to have a “storybook ending,” let’s put a totally unqualified Kennedy in the seat. Marcus enjoyed giving Mr. Obama a storybook ending as well. For those who don’t remember, Marcus is also one who saw fit to trash Hillary Clinton endlessly.

So a qualified woman is to be vilified and held to impossible standards – but one with no qualifications for the job is to be nursed along at every turn? What kind of a message are we sending with this behavior? When we send a woman up who is unqualified and she falters, she makes it twice as hard for the truly qualified female candidate to be sent up the next time.

The bottom line is this: When we lower the bar to suit an unqualified woman, or a minority of either sex, you are making it that much more difficult for a qualified person in the same category. Unqualified men seem to get by with little consequences, however.

Ms. Dowd may excuse Ms. Kennedy’s ‘verbal crutch,’ but that does not excuse her lack of deserving or qualifications otherwise. It also doesn’t excuse the fact that women like Ms. Dowd and Ms. Marcus seem incapable of celebrating a truly qualified and capable woman like Hillary Clinton over a truly unqualified, dissembling man.

Rather, I want to share with you the backbone, the intestinal fortitude, with which some of NY’s politicians are made. You may recall that not everyone in NY was happy with the whole Kennedy Schlossberg push for Clinton’s Senate seat. Specifically, the Assembly Speaker, Sheldon Silver, was opposed to her appointment. I know I should not be surprised by this, but in this NY Post article, “Silver Now Takes Shine To Caroline,” we learn WHY he has made this 180 turn. Ready for this? Here it is:

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who last week sharply questioned whether Caroline Kennedy should be appointed to the US Senate, said yesterday he’s rethinking his views because he believes Gov. Paterson may soon pick her.

The emphasis is mine. I am practically speechless. Silver wasn’t, though:

“I have determined there’s a good possibility she will be the appointee of the governor,” Silver, the state’s second most powerful Democrat, told The Post.

“If she is the appointee of the governor, I will certainly be supportive of her. I will work for her and will work strenuously for her election.”

Let’s see – even though he was opposed to her the other day, because he now thinks the governor may pick her, he’s for her. Wow – way to stick to the courage of your convictions there, Silver! Oh, yeah – and he’s willing to work for her re-election, too! Just like that – snap! I am sure his constituents are thrilled that he is such a man of his word.

Here is the recap of the past week on Silver’s position:

Last week, Silver said Kennedy seemed more loyal to Mayor Bloomberg, who has twice defeated Democratic opponents, than she was to Paterson.

He also said he was unhappy with Kennedy’s less than 100 percent commitment to support the Democratic candidate who’ll run against Bloomberg, who was twice elected as a Republican, this year.

Asked if he was now more favorably inclined toward Kennedy then he was last week, Silver responded, “Yes, it’s true.”

The speaker insisted he had no inside information – from the governor or anyone else – that Kennedy would be named to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton, President-elect Barack Obama’s choice to be secretary of state.

But he said he reached the conclusion her appointment was likely because of “public opinion polls, which are not negative, and because the governor, I think, wants to run [in 2010] with a strong candidate, and I’m sure . . . having a well-known woman on the ticket will be helpful.”

Well, one would think. Didn’t help Hillary, but, oh, yeah – that’s because she was cheated, as we all were. But I digress.

Here’s the problem. Silver’s math comprehension:

While a national poll earlier this week showed a majority of Americans view Kennedy as qualified to be senator, a survey of New York voters last week found that 41 percent felt she was not qualified and 40 percent thought she was.

Apparently, he is not clear on PERCENTAGES. A friend who’s a math professor could help him with that. And even though it is a small percentage, it is not that Kennedy Schlossberg is being received with OVERWHELMING support the way, oh, I dunno, CLINTON was. Just sayin’.

But get this explanation for why it should be the exceedingly wealthy, connected Kennedy (and someone remind me why this is not a “pay to play” scheme? Does ANYONE think favors have not been promised for her to get in? Really??):

Meanwhile, Bloomberg’s top political aide, Deputy Mayor Kevin Sheekey – who has been lobbying for Kennedy – played his trump card yesterday. He argued that only Kennedy, an early Obama supporter, would have the clout a cash-strapped New York will need within the next administration.

“I think New York needs someone who can work with the new president. I think New York needs someone who supported the new president. I think New York desperately shouldn’t appoint someone who opposed the new president,” Sheekey said.

I think Sheekey means to say this is the payback for all Kennedy Schlossberg did for Obama during the campaign, like comparing him to her father, though there is absolutely no basis whatsoever for such a comparison. And for her coming out of her private little world to stump all over creation for The One (and no doubt, her uncle’s influence in having the RBC make a mockery of any sense of decency and fair play).

Just seems to me that this is different only in small degrees from what has happened in IL. She is someone Obama wants in there because she won’t EVER buck him (I assume that’s what Sheekey means when he says she’ll “work” with PEBO), and will simply be a yes-woman to him. We all know that would NOT have been Hillary’s role – acquiescing to whatever PEBO wants. The other piece of the equation often left out is the representation of the people of NY. Cuomo would be a much better pick for that, but why quibble. If PEBO wants her in, you know she’ll get it, even though she is unqualified for it. Welcome to New Politics Obama-style, same as Chicago-style. Seems it’s here to stay…

Under the byline, “Say Good Night, Caroline,” what more is there to say?

In the beginning, just three long weeks ago, the idea of Caroline Kennedy being a United States senator had a certain ring to it. The Camelot myth still has shelf life and a merger with the historic Obama presidency provided an intriguing story line.

……..snip……..

Some top Democrats were certain Gov. Paterson, a close-to-the vest electorate of one, would find Kennedy irresistible now and as a running mate in two years. All others were chopped liver next to her sudden star power.

But a strange thing is happening on the way to the coronation. The wheels of the bandwagon are coming off. Fantasy is giving way to inescapable truth.

That truth is that Kennedy is not ready for the job and doesn’t deserve it. Somebody who loves her should tell her.

Her quest is becoming a cringe-inducing experience, as painful to watch as it must be to endure. Because she is the only survivor of that dreamy time nearly 50 years ago, she remains an iconic figure. But in the last few days, her mini-campaign has proved she has little to offer New Yorkers except her name.

Her handlers and family enablers insist she feels no entitlement to the Senate job, yet there is no other possible reason to give it to her. Her name is the sole reason she even dares go for it. Camelot must be Gaelic for chutzpah.

New York can do better.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!!

Now come on Caroline.

You were a really cute little “First Daughter”. Seriously.

I know your father died a horrible senseless death. I have seen some horrible senseless deaths in my own family, so I am with you there. I know you are without parents. So am I. So are plenty of people. But we have to grow up and make our own way, Caroline. Even if our name is “Kennedy”.

New York is in enough shit already, Caroline.

Get thee onto your pony and leave this job to somebody who can do it and actually wants to do it.

Tell Uncle Teddy you are sorry, but he isn’t going to use you to engrave his Monarchy into American government for eternity. It is increasingly clear that he put you up to this. Explain to him that, in the end, he is just a man. Tell him to make some more important, less self-absorbed efforts at his own Peace. Like say, with Mary Jo. Tell him, you are sorry but this isn’t for you. Then people can stop counting how many times you say, “I mean, “Like, you know…”. We are all starting to feel sorry for you, Caroline, and this is not a good position for JFK’s daughter to be in, is it?

Listen, sister: Go to the Met and take in La Boheme tomorrow. The Magic Flute starts Tuesday. Two Knockouts you shouldn’t miss. I would kill for your seats, girl!

Redecorate the penthouse. “Write” another book that consists of other people’s writings. Lend your name to a couple of worthy causes that don’t require you to be articulate. Go do what you really want to do: Help Bloomberg change the Term Limits law. Why, a couple of nice cocktail parties and you will be good to go, sister! You go girl! You go away, girl!

I haven’t heard that many *you knows* since the 80′s, like you know, fer sure.

“You know, I’ve written seven best selling books, you know.”

If you would like to pick up a book, written by Kennedy, you can choose from the following:

Kennedy and Ellen Alderman co-authored two books on civil liberties:

In Our Defense: The Bill of Rights In Action (1990) – The authors use fascinating accounts of real-life controversies to introduce the general reader to the Bill of Rights.

The Right to Privacy (1995) – Coauthors of In Our Defense: The Bill of Rights in Action, Alderman and Kennedy here present a pithy and practical casebook on our shrinking right to privacy.

And Kennedy edited these:

A Patriot’s Handbook – Songs, Poems, Stories, and Speeches Celebrating the Land We Love. Caroline Kennedy shares with readers an assortment of her own favorite American writings.

The Best-Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis – Kennedy compiled the 2001 best-seller devoted to her mother’s memory, The Best-Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

A Family of Poems: My Favorite Poetry for Children – Caroline Kennedy has chosen a rich variety of Kennedy family favorite poems to include in this priceless collection.

Profiles in Courage for Our Time – Caroline Kennedy compiles 14 essays lauding political courage.

A Family Christmas – Kennedy offers a potpourri of her favorite stories, poems, essays, scriptures and songs associated with the holiday season.

Resistance is emerging among Democratic officials against Caroline Kennedy as she pursues Hillary Rodham Clinton’s seat in the United States Senate, with Gov. David A. Paterson bristling over suggestions that her selection is inevitable, according to his advisers, and other leading Democrats concerned that she is too beholden to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

The governor is frustrated and chagrined, the advisers said, because he believes that he extended Ms. Kennedy the chance to demonstrate her qualifications but that her operatives have exploited the opportunity to convey a sense that she is all but appointed already. He views this as an attempt to box him in, the advisers said.

“You have people going around saying, ‘Oh yeah, it’s a done deal,’ ” said one of the advisers, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the selection process and did not want to anger the governor. “The quickest way to not get something you want is to step into somebody’s face.”

I had been wondering how Gov. Paterson was responding to all of the pressure he has been getting to give Kennedy Schlossberg Clinton’s seat. Now I know:

The governor’s frustration follows reports last week that Kevin Sheekey, a top deputy to Mr. Bloomberg who has been advising Ms. Kennedy, had called a labor leader and told him that Ms. Kennedy was going to be senator, “so get on board now,” and that a member of Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s staff was helping Ms. Kennedy reach out to unions.

It was not clear on Tuesday whether the governor’s reaction would seriously damage Ms. Kennedy’s chances to win the appointment or if it merely reflected Mr. Paterson’s desire to regain control of the selection process after Ms. Kennedy’s very public political debut.

But Ms. Kennedy’s ties to Mr. Bloomberg’s political team and her waffling over whether she would support a Democrat in next year’s mayoral race appear to be angering some Democrats. On Tuesday, Sheldon Silver, the Assembly speaker, became the most senior elected official in the state to say that that Mr. Paterson should not select Ms. Kennedy to the Senate seat.

“If I were the governor, I would look and question whether this is the appointment I would want to make, whether her first obligation might be to the mayor of the City of New York rather than the governor who would be appointing her,” Mr. Silver said during an interview on WGDJ, an Albany radio station.

Mr. Silver has long had a testy relationship with Mr. Bloomberg, fueled by battles over mayoral initiatives like congestion pricing.

I think I would be looking long and hard, too. Isn’t the point of a US Senator to represent the people from the state that sent her/him? It seems from Kennedy Schlossberg’s feet dragging on answering questions on, well, EVERYTHING, that maybe she does not have the best interests of New Yorkers in mind. Trying to steamroll her way in without a willingness to divulge any pertinent information, including whether or not she would support a Democratic mayoral candidate seems to be sticking in a few people’s craw.

As you can probably guess, Kennedy Schlossberg’s people have something to say about the appearance of this freight train:

A spokeswoman for Ms. Kennedy declined to comment. Ms. Kennedy’s advisers, speaking anonymously because they did not want to inflame the situation further, rejected any suggestion that they had portrayed her selection as inevitable and insisted that they had been respectful of the governor’s desire for a decorous selection process.

The criticism over her bid has also frustrated those advisers, who feel that Ms. Kennedy has been whiplashed by assertions that she is at once protected and presumptuous.

Both the governor and Ms. Kennedy’s advisers appear to have been thrown, in part, by Ms. Kennedy’s overwhelming personal celebrity.

Oh, dear – how could we have possibly gotten the idea that Kennedy Schlossberg was pushing for this when the poor thing is being whiplashed by all these reports? I mean, she couldn’t have had anything to do with it, could she? Well, maybe if she put down the phone:

Ms. Kennedy made dozens of calls to elected officials and other leaders to build interest in her candidacy, and many of those with whom she spoke call her thoughtful and self-effacing.

But her refusal to say over the weekend whether she would back a Democratic candidate next year, when Mr. Bloomberg will seek re-election as an independent, set off intense reaction among some in the party.

A follow-up statement — in which her spokesman, Stefan Friedman, said that Ms. Kennedy “fully intends to support the Democratic nominee” — did not assuage those concerns.

Moreover, her ties to Mr. Bloomberg’s operatives have aroused suspicions among Democrats and labor officials that she would be beholden to the mayor. Ms. Kennedy hired the consulting firm Knickerbocker S.K.D., which includes Mr. Bloomberg as one of its biggest clients.

Those suspicions appeared to be compounded by a comment Mr. Bloomberg made on Monday defending Ms. Kennedy and suggesting that, though the choice was Mr. Paterson’s, the governor should move quickly to select a replacement for Mrs. Clinton, who is expected to be confirmed next month as secretary of state.

“We didn’t tell him to hurry up on term limits,” said another Paterson adviser, referring to Mr. Bloomberg’s move this fall in which he marshaled votes on the City Council to nullify a city referendum so that he could run for another term.

Oh, boy – seems like a whole lot more is going on in the Empire State than originally met the eye:

In a conference call on Tuesday, Mr. Paterson, who was traveling, declined to address Mr. Silver’s or Mr. Bloomberg’s comments. But he reiterated that he had made no selection and would not do so until Mrs. Clinton was confirmed.

“What I’m trying to keep away from is lobbying, coercion and distracting information,” he said. He added later: “I don’t feel rushed by any of this process. I have said from the very beginning what I thought the right way to do this would be.”

Mr. Silver also praised several other potential appointees to the Senate seat, including Andrew M. Cuomo, the attorney general. Should Mr. Paterson pick Mr. Cuomo, the Legislature would be responsible for choosing his successor, and Mr. Silver would have by far the most influence over that choice.

A spokesman for Mr. Silver declined to say whether the speaker had consulted with Mr. Paterson before speaking publicly about Ms. Kennedy.

Even some of Ms. Kennedy’s potential rivals for the seat expressed some sympathy for her quandary.

“Any true Democrat loves Caroline Kennedy,” said Thomas R. Suozzi, the Nassau County executive, who has said he is also interested in the Senate appointment. “I think the way that her handlers and strategists are pushing her and trying to box in the governor is damaging the reputation of someone that we all care about.”

Oh, yes, poor unqualified, inexperienced, secretive Caroline – what difficult spot for her to not get exactly what she wants without having any publicity. Must be hard to be her to be asked questions, and for people to want ANSWERS to those questions before she can be considered for a US Senate seat…Poor little thing. Ahem.

And here’s a question: if she and/or her handlers were NOT trying to give the impression that this is a done deal, why is it we hear about few other potential replacements for Clinton? Nope – it’s been pretty much Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg all along, except for a mention here or there of Andrew Cuomo, which, of course, means they have to mention how he was married to Caroline’s cousin. So that’s it, then, just those two?? Um, no. There are more, of course. But somehow, someway, all the focus has just been on CAROLINE. Can’t imagine how that happened. Ahem.

Bottom line, glad to hear that Gov. Paterson is a little frustrated at the pressure, and that other Democrats might be taking another look. Kennedy name or no, it helps to have some experience. Especially since the PEBO doesn’t have any…

That’s the number of questions Caroline Kennedy has answered in her pursuit to secure Hillary Clinton’s seat, according to THIS article in the NY Times. Want to guess how many interviews she has granted in this pursuit? Zero. How about answers to questions regarding her finances? Zero. Yes, Caroline Kennedy is using the Barack Obama School of campaigning – give up NO information whatsoever. None. According to the article:

If she were applying to be, say, an undersecretary of education in Barack Obama’s new administration, Caroline Kennedy would have to fill out a 63-item confidential questionnaire disclosing potentially embarrassing text messages and diary entries, the immigration status of her household staff, even copies of every résumé she used in the last 10 years.

If she were running for election to the Senate, Ms. Kennedy would have to file a 10-part, publicly available report disclosing her financial assets, credit card debts, mortgages, book deals and the sources of any payments greater than $5,000 in the last three years.

But Ms. Kennedy, who has asked Gov. David A. Paterson to appoint her to succeed Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton — and who helped oversee the vetting process for Mr. Obama’s possible running mates — is declining to provide a variety of basic data, including companies she has a stake in and whether she has ever been charged with a crime.

Isn’t that just fitting considering Obama’s own levels of secrecy? Once again, it begs the question WHY she wants to be a politician. It would seem she sees it not as a service to the people of New York, but as an honor OWED her. I’d say she’s a bit unclear on the responsibilities of the job. Never mind that this is an appointed position, and there are actually other people out there interested in the position who are FAR more qualified than she, say Andrew Cuomo, for starters (and I, too, would love to have a woman replace a woman in this seat, but women are not interchageable by gender alone. Experience, qualifications, and commitment to public service count, too.).

Jonah Goldberg had an interesting comparison of Gov. Sarah Palin and Caroline Kennedy in this article: Cinderella vs. the Barracuda
A perfect example of the bowel-stewing self-indulgence of elite liberalism:

For people who think there’s no cultural divide in this country, consider the treatment of two women much in the news in 2008.

The first is Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. A woman from very humble roots and with a very blue-collar life story, she worked with her steelworker and professional-fisherman husband to provide a life for their large family. She got involved in the PTA. She became mayor of her small town, then rose, by dint of her dedication and almost naive fearlessness, to the job of governor. In a mainstream, almost romantic sense, it’s almost like she was designed by God for a Hallmark movie of the week.

But, when John McCain picked her to be his running mate, the full fury of the liberal establishment — and sizable swaths of the conservative establishment, some of whom dubbed her a “cancer” on the GOP — came down on her with a vengeance usually reserved for Klansmen and pedophiles. Don’t get me wrong: There were valid criticisms to make. But that is quite a different thing than saying all of the criticism was valid or that the intensity and volume of the criticism was warranted.

No kidding. Americans used to revel in the “pulling oneself up by one’s bootstraps” kind of story. Gov. Palin couldn’t BE a better example of that rise. Well, maybe not quite as good as President Bill Clinton, but still – she clearly has made something of herself through hard work and perseverance. Not that you could tell that by the media’s attacks on her.

And now to potential senator from the Great State of New York:

Then there’s Caroline Bouvier Kennedy, daughter of John F. Kennedy, sister of John Jr., niece of Senators Ted and Robert Kennedy, granddaughter of Ambassador Joseph Kennedy, and the cousin of myriad other Kennedys and Shrivers who’ve burrowed deep into the timber of the house of liberalism. A multimillionaire from birth, Ms. Kennedy has spent most of her life on the charity-benefit and cotillion circuit. A product of the Brearley School in New York and the Concord Academy in Massachusetts before she attended Harvard and Columbia, Kennedy has made the importance of public education her signature cause.

Sweet Caroline (she was the inspiration for the Neil Diamond song) recently made it known that she would like to be appointed to Hillary Clinton’s vacant Senate seat.

One could say without fear of overstating things that the liberal reaction to the inexperienced Caroline has been somewhat more gracious than the reaction to the “inexperienced” Palin. Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post has devoted two columns in as many weeks to this “fairy tale” scenario in which Kennedy, our “tragic national princess,” is finally rewarded — for her years of quiet dignity, selflessly avoiding scandal and the paparazzi — with the Senate seat that once belonged to her uncle Bobby. What’s astounding about the normally sensible Marcus’s case for “the Cinderella Kennedy” (New York magazine’s phrase) is that she doesn’t really make one, at least not on the merits. Marcus doesn’t even bother. It’s all schoolgirl gushing.

Pretty much. While there are very few actual requirements to be Senator, age being one of the few. But, don’t you think that wanting to BE a politician might be helpful?? You know, going among the people, talking to them, shaking their hands, going to meeting after meeting after meeting? Just sayin’. Not that that seems to matter to The NY Times:

The editors of the New York Times, in a more skeptical editorial, summarized her qualifications thusly: “Ms. Kennedy has much going for her. As a public figure, she carries the glamour and poignancy of her family …” The editors then went on to describe what great liberals her dad and uncles were. That’s it.

Wow. Talk about your hard-hitting journalism! Way to GO, NY Times!!! Goldberg continued:

This (is) a perfect example of the bowel-stewing self-indulgence of elite liberalism.

Here’s a news flash: Not everyone truckles with doe-eyed awe at “America’s royal family.” Some of us don’t even like the idea of American royal families. JFK and RFK had their good points, but they don’t deserve the beatification they receive on a daily basis. As a man, Teddy Kennedy is hardly a role model, and as a public servant he’s not much better. I, for one, don’t think denying poor black kids private-school scholarships (aka vouchers) is heroic. Nor do I think his support for alternative energy, except when it might obstruct his Hyannis Port estate’s views with windmills, is admirable.

Simply, the Kennedy clan is no priestly caste, serving as the conscience of the nation, and its progeny do not deserve eternal deference.

You gotta admit – he has a point. Many liberals, myself included, found Ted’s position on windmills to be just a TAD hypocritical, but it is to the more important issue that Mr. Goldberg is addressing: the Kennedys are hardly worthy of beatification with all of the personal, and political, issues in which they have engaged, or been caught, much less be “American royalty.”

Goldberg concludes:

Now, I know the comparison between Palin and Caroline Kennedy is not perfect. Each has strengths where the other has weaknesses, and the jobs of senator and vice president aren’t identical (the former actually has more responsibility, for starters).

But the comparison is nonetheless revealing. Palin’s selection triggered troughs of bile, vomited up from nearly every respectable liberal quarter. A Florida congressman, and Obama surrogate, insinuated that Palin was a “Nazi sympathizer” and anti-Semite (she’s not, but Caroline Kennedy’s grandfather was). Her by-the-bootstraps story was ridiculed by nearly every ex-debutante newsreader and avowed “feminist” in America.

Meanwhile, Caroline, with a resume perfectly suited to being a Kennedy and little else, is a Cinderella who deserves a Senate seat because, well, she just does.

Whatever Palin’s faults, Sarah Barracuda’s America has a lot more going for it than Sweet Caroline’s.

Oh, sure – Caroline Kennedy deserves the seat just because she wants it, at least in HER mind, and the mind of her family. That’s just exactly the kind of people we need in Washington, especially to provide oversight to The One Who Wants To Be King.

On a lighter note, I think Andy Borowitz, the humorist, has the perfect interpretation of Caroline Kennedy wanting something for not much in this piece:

Caroline Kennedy Asks to be Time’s Person of the Year: Places Phone Call to Magazine’s Editor

Caroline Kennedy would like to be considered Time magazine’s Person of the Year for 2009 and has let the magazine’s editor know of her interest in the honor, aides to Ms. Kennedy confirmed today.

While some observers considered Ms. Kennedy’s bid to be premature, especially since 2009 has not officially begun, aides to the New York senatorial aspirant said that it reflected her view that 2009 will be a very big year for her.

“I think Caroline’s calling Time magazine and asking to be put on the cover shows just what a tireless worker she is,” said cousin Kerry Kennedy. “When she really wants something, she’s not afraid to roll up her sleeves and make a phone call.”

Her cousin said that having witnessed Caroline’s work ethic, she has no doubt that she is deserving of Time’s highest honor: “I can’t tell you how many times she’s gotten the wrong number, been put on hold, or had calls dropped altogether.”

In addition to the Person of the Year honors, Kerry Kennedy said that Caroline had also expressed an interest in next year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

“That’s a call she hasn’t made yet,” Ms. Kennedy said. “She has to figure out the time difference in Oslo.”

Ahem. Well, she’s just as qualified for THAT as she is the US Senate.

I could be wrong, but isn’t SHE engaging in a “Pay to Play” scheme? Isn’t that what her uncle, Harry Reid, and all the others are doing by trying to force Gov. Paterson to choose her?? It sure seems to be pretty close to what is happening in IL, except from the other side. They are trying to coerce Gov. Paterson to give her this position for what, payback for all of her service during the election? Probably. Hey, I’m just sayin’. But it seems eerily similar to me. What do YOU say?