Showing posts with label Hillary's Senate seat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hillary's Senate seat. Show all posts
Friday, January 23, 2009
Way to Go, Big Dave
The race to the bottom is back. After playing the Caroline Kennedy appointment for all its was worth, NY Governor David Patterson, the “Decider,” is reportedly about to name Kirsten Gillibrand to “Madam Secretary’s” just vacated Senate seat. Gillibrand was a corporate lawyer in New York City from a politically connected family. She was recruited two years ago by, you guessed it, Rahm Emanuel to run for Congress in an up-state, largely rural Republican district. Like so many other Emanuel picks, she is to the right of a party that is far to the right of its base. But Gillibrand was not the only “blue dog Democrat” on Patterson’s list. Evidently, he chose her over the others to placate the “women’s vote.” Shades of the master strategist John McCain, Sarah Palin’s Big Dave. But, in the end, who knows what he was thinking! Maybe it’s not as patronizing as it seems; maybe he just thinks that the way to beat the increasingly repellent Rudy Giuliani in 2010 is to field a co-thinker. Maybe he thinks, not unreasonably, that Gillibrand is a good match with Charles (Schmucky Chucky) Schumer or a worthy successor to Slick Willy’s wife. Remember, though, it could have been Caroline. Maybe someday we’ll learn why it isn’t. Whatever the reasons, be sure that the clownish Patterson is part of the story.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Not Caroline
The real story will no doubt emerge in time. For now, it seems odd, to say the least, that Caroline Kennedy would have withdrawn from consideration for Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat because she is worried about her Uncle Teddy’s health. If anything, that would be a reason to persevere. In any case, it’s a disappointment. Had Kennedy gotten the post, had she done well (as she would have since her uncle would assure that she had a more than capable staff), and had she developed the requisite political skills (which she now conspicuously lacks), she could have gone on to win the seat the traditional way in 2010, and again in 2012, when Hillary Clinton’s term expires. Then she’d have been well placed to run in 2016 to become the first woman President of the United States. How sweet it would be if that Senate seat was indeed the launching pad to the White House – but not for Hillary!
How much sweeter too if, before too long, Hillary’s husband’s machinations lead to her untimely departure from the Secretary of State position for which she is so poorly suited. Bill Clinton will never be brought to justice – for killing nearly a million Iraqis through sanctions, for his crimes against the peace and his support for ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia, for the death from the air that he visited from time to time upon defenseless populations – but a pale semblance of justice would be forthcoming if he and his “entitled” better half are made to depart from the political scene. That would have happened, had only Obama not been so “magnanimous.” But the alleged divinity, the One all those snake oil salesmen (and women) at the National Cathedral yesterday entreated, works in mysterious ways. Until the news of Caroline’s withdrawal broke, it seemed that She just might have something up Her sleeve that would put Obama’s mistake to advantage. Now, alas, it’s clear that that too won’t happen; that notwithstanding the pronouncements of those ecumenical charlatans, Providence is decidedly overrated.
How much sweeter too if, before too long, Hillary’s husband’s machinations lead to her untimely departure from the Secretary of State position for which she is so poorly suited. Bill Clinton will never be brought to justice – for killing nearly a million Iraqis through sanctions, for his crimes against the peace and his support for ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia, for the death from the air that he visited from time to time upon defenseless populations – but a pale semblance of justice would be forthcoming if he and his “entitled” better half are made to depart from the political scene. That would have happened, had only Obama not been so “magnanimous.” But the alleged divinity, the One all those snake oil salesmen (and women) at the National Cathedral yesterday entreated, works in mysterious ways. Until the news of Caroline’s withdrawal broke, it seemed that She just might have something up Her sleeve that would put Obama’s mistake to advantage. Now, alas, it’s clear that that too won’t happen; that notwithstanding the pronouncements of those ecumenical charlatans, Providence is decidedly overrated.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Caroline
How pathetic are those blowhards from both of our quasi-official parties who have been mouthing off in recent days about how unqualified Caroline Kennedy is! How ironic that some of them were, and still are, Hillary supporters; in other words, believers in the “qualifications” of an Official Wife whose undistinguished Senatorial career, essentially a launching pad for her failed Presidential bid, began when she was parachuted into the state of New York!
[In fact, that Presidential bid failed less than appears, inasmuch as the cause of a Clinton Restoration has been taken up by Hillary’s rival, Barack Obama, and inasmuch as, thanks to Obama, Hillary herself has been appointed to the one post, Secretary of State, that she and her husband deem worthy of her – notwithstanding the fact that, again, her qualifications consist mainly in having been an Official Wife.]
In any case, as Caroline’s critics well know, in the House and Senate, how well one does and how effective one is depends, more than anything else, on one’s staff. In that department, Caroline is superbly “qualified” because her doting uncle has the best staff in town, and it’s a sure thing that he and they will instantly assure that she has all she needs, and more. Caroline is therefore in an excellent position to function as a Senator – far better than her critics. She’s also in an excellent position to run in 2010, especially in New York, where, more than in most other jurisdictions, money talks – and the Kennedy name can raise oodles of it. As for suffering fools – “liberal” and not so liberal pundits, self-important political hacks in the Democratic Party, acolytes of New York’s countless interest groups – she has two years to polish her act. In the meantime, she has only to tap into that Kennedyesque combination of noblesse oblige and the common touch that JFK and RFK exuded, and that her Uncle Teddy still does (to far better effect than either of the other two!).
Why care, since Caroline’s politics, as best as it can be discerned, is just a tad better than Hillary’s or, for that matter, New York’s Senior Senator’s, Charles (Schmucky Chucky) Schumer. I care because I want Hillary’s Senate seat to be the launching pad for the first woman President of the United States – but not for Hillary! How deliciously ironic that would be! Now that Obama has taken away the sting of their defeat, it would be the only way those wretched Clintons – the murderers by sanctions of some half-million Iraqis, the state smashers and ethnic cleansers of the former Yugoslavia, the “humanitarian interventionists” eager to wreak havoc at the slightest provocation, the kinder, gentler Reaganite dismemberers of our fragile welfare state, the free-marketeering Wall Street flunkies, the destroyers for a generation of the hope for health care reform – will be brought to a pale semblance of justice.
Having gotten through three generations of the Bush family (with Brother Jeb waiting in the wings), it should be plain to all that our dynastic “democracy” has its shortcomings, especially when our institutions are essentially up for sale. But dynasticism also opens up possibilities that would be otherwise unavailable. Whatever a Senate seat in New York will be going for in two years time, a Senate seat for Caroline Kennedy would be, as the Mastercard ad puts it, “priceless.”
[In fact, that Presidential bid failed less than appears, inasmuch as the cause of a Clinton Restoration has been taken up by Hillary’s rival, Barack Obama, and inasmuch as, thanks to Obama, Hillary herself has been appointed to the one post, Secretary of State, that she and her husband deem worthy of her – notwithstanding the fact that, again, her qualifications consist mainly in having been an Official Wife.]
In any case, as Caroline’s critics well know, in the House and Senate, how well one does and how effective one is depends, more than anything else, on one’s staff. In that department, Caroline is superbly “qualified” because her doting uncle has the best staff in town, and it’s a sure thing that he and they will instantly assure that she has all she needs, and more. Caroline is therefore in an excellent position to function as a Senator – far better than her critics. She’s also in an excellent position to run in 2010, especially in New York, where, more than in most other jurisdictions, money talks – and the Kennedy name can raise oodles of it. As for suffering fools – “liberal” and not so liberal pundits, self-important political hacks in the Democratic Party, acolytes of New York’s countless interest groups – she has two years to polish her act. In the meantime, she has only to tap into that Kennedyesque combination of noblesse oblige and the common touch that JFK and RFK exuded, and that her Uncle Teddy still does (to far better effect than either of the other two!).
Why care, since Caroline’s politics, as best as it can be discerned, is just a tad better than Hillary’s or, for that matter, New York’s Senior Senator’s, Charles (Schmucky Chucky) Schumer. I care because I want Hillary’s Senate seat to be the launching pad for the first woman President of the United States – but not for Hillary! How deliciously ironic that would be! Now that Obama has taken away the sting of their defeat, it would be the only way those wretched Clintons – the murderers by sanctions of some half-million Iraqis, the state smashers and ethnic cleansers of the former Yugoslavia, the “humanitarian interventionists” eager to wreak havoc at the slightest provocation, the kinder, gentler Reaganite dismemberers of our fragile welfare state, the free-marketeering Wall Street flunkies, the destroyers for a generation of the hope for health care reform – will be brought to a pale semblance of justice.
Having gotten through three generations of the Bush family (with Brother Jeb waiting in the wings), it should be plain to all that our dynastic “democracy” has its shortcomings, especially when our institutions are essentially up for sale. But dynasticism also opens up possibilities that would be otherwise unavailable. Whatever a Senate seat in New York will be going for in two years time, a Senate seat for Caroline Kennedy would be, as the Mastercard ad puts it, “priceless.”
Monday, December 15, 2008
Senator Kennedy
To the dismay of his high-minded liberal admirers, the great Argentinean author, Jorge Luis Borges is said to have admired fascism – for the ironies it conjures up. Our dynastic “democracy” offers similar possibilities. This is why I am so pleased that, according to The New York Times and other sources, Caroline Kennedy has decided to seek Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat. I hope she gets it, and I hope she goes on to become the first woman President of these United States.
Evidently, it’s not yet a done deal, and she has her detractors – including one very silly Democratic Congressman from Queens, Gary Ackerman. It seems he and a few others think Caroline unqualified. But then, what was Hillary Clinton in 2000? Is Ackerman really so sure that it was more educational, in pertinent ways, to live in the White House as Bill Clinton’s official wife than to live there as a toddler? Perhaps, but I’d think that quality time with Uncle Teddy and with her cousins counts for a whole lot more than dinner table talk (or pillow talk, if any) with the non-inhaler-in-chief; enough to cancel out the difference. Otherwise, both women went to Law School. After a year or two in Washington doing the things freshly minted lawyers do, one of them went on to a rather lackluster – and shady – career at Little Rock’s finest law firm. In getting that job, it helped, of course, that she’d gone to Yale. It helped a lot more that she was the Governor’s wife. The other has done serious legal scholarship, edited well-regarded anthologies, and worked for good causes, including some connected with her family. It’s hard to say which one is more qualified on that account. But did I mention that only one of them actually is a New Yorker?
How wonderful it would be if Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat actually is a springboard to the White House – but not for Hillary! And, it that’s what the future brings, what will have made it all possible is Hillary’s sense of entitlement – her Clintonesque conviction that she’s too good to be the junior Senator from New York or indeed anything less than Secretary of State. There’s irony in that as well. The harm she’ll do from her perch at Foggy Bottom remains to be seen. But since Health and Human Services is beneath her too, at least she won’t have a chance, this time around, to set the cause of health care reform back another generation.
So Go Caroline! And Hillary, eat Caroline dust!
Evidently, it’s not yet a done deal, and she has her detractors – including one very silly Democratic Congressman from Queens, Gary Ackerman. It seems he and a few others think Caroline unqualified. But then, what was Hillary Clinton in 2000? Is Ackerman really so sure that it was more educational, in pertinent ways, to live in the White House as Bill Clinton’s official wife than to live there as a toddler? Perhaps, but I’d think that quality time with Uncle Teddy and with her cousins counts for a whole lot more than dinner table talk (or pillow talk, if any) with the non-inhaler-in-chief; enough to cancel out the difference. Otherwise, both women went to Law School. After a year or two in Washington doing the things freshly minted lawyers do, one of them went on to a rather lackluster – and shady – career at Little Rock’s finest law firm. In getting that job, it helped, of course, that she’d gone to Yale. It helped a lot more that she was the Governor’s wife. The other has done serious legal scholarship, edited well-regarded anthologies, and worked for good causes, including some connected with her family. It’s hard to say which one is more qualified on that account. But did I mention that only one of them actually is a New Yorker?
How wonderful it would be if Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat actually is a springboard to the White House – but not for Hillary! And, it that’s what the future brings, what will have made it all possible is Hillary’s sense of entitlement – her Clintonesque conviction that she’s too good to be the junior Senator from New York or indeed anything less than Secretary of State. There’s irony in that as well. The harm she’ll do from her perch at Foggy Bottom remains to be seen. But since Health and Human Services is beneath her too, at least she won’t have a chance, this time around, to set the cause of health care reform back another generation.
So Go Caroline! And Hillary, eat Caroline dust!
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