Lol. The article doesn't do the recordings I've heard justice - the reporters were very, very agitated. A local TV reporter even called into Rush Limbaugh today to talk about it... which I heard while driving to the post office during my lunch break.
"It's a process so I just hope everybody understands this is not a campaign, but I have lived a life committed to public service, wrote a book on the constitution, the importance of independent participation, raised my family committed to education in New York City," Kennedy said.
Well, that's it! Sign her up! She wrote a book and raised kids, you know! You know when I'm mad when I capitalize every other word for emphasis -
No, Princess Caroline, it IS a campaign, which is something YOU need to understand. You have to inspire confidence in the millions of New Yorkers who think your life of privilege, and our state politicians' collective unending greed for campaign fundraising, may just get you a seat you have NO BUSINESS sitting in. I promise you and everyone else reading this that if Governor Paterson selects you, I'll fight tooth and nail to see you put out on your ass in a year. I'll even take the somewhat extreme step of registering as a Democrat and voting against you in the primary. I'll put up campaign signs for your opponents, Republican or Democrat. I'll convince everyone I know that having you in the US Senate is an insult to upstate, to the working class people of New York, to the people who have been IGNORED by people like yourself, with the obvious difference being that these people who earned their stripes who are also candidates weren't appointed but elected.
My grandmother, who voted for your father, will not vote for you. I'll beg my father to not vote for you. By the way, what kind of job are you going to do in a year when you have so little time to actually get elected? Do you simply want to get your foot in the back door, flip New York the bird and get an unearned incumbency? Why is it that you feel the need to shove yourself down New York's throat? Why are you under the mistaken impression, as many American coastal elites do, that New York needs you? The truth is we don't need you - you need the Senate seat to fulfill some kind of instinctual need for power flowing through the same DNA that Ed Koch thinks make you qualified. "Think of the DNA!" - Ed Koch, you Benedict Arnold and supposed man of the people. We need someone who is actually in touch with our problems and has earned their stripes, not some effete caviar eater like yourself, Caroline. Go to hell - you got what you deserved when you came here, and your attempt at a first impression validated numerous fears and presumptions millions of New Yorkers have of you.
Let me ask - now that she's been here, does anybody know the purpose of the visit, which I dubbed the "Slummin' It Tour?" At City Hall last night, you'd think an actual US Senator was visiting - they closed off the circle and adjacent sidestreets, then ultimately allowed nobody to park. It appears to me that she came here simply to be visible, wave her regal hand like the Queen of England, accept accolades, be presumptive, then get back in the waiting car and drive back to her private jet so she can go home and take a shower.
At least Hillary kissed us before she fucked us. If David Paterson selects Princess Caroline I'll never forgive him either, and he's a Demo that had a vote from me etched in stone.
UPDATE - Which may or may not enrage you.
Upstate? Caroline gives us the finger. Harlem? Let's have a press op in front of a tourist trap soul food spot! (A word of advice - borrow Hill's True Blue Yankees Fan ball cap)
I'm not a fan of her running either. Especially after reading this...
"She also was asked to explain why she failed to vote in a number of elections since registering in New York City in 1988, including in 1994 when Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan was up for re-election for the seat she hopes to take over.
"I was really surprised and dismayed by my voting record," she said. "I'm glad it's been brought to my attention."
I don't think she will be appointed because it would be very unpopular.
there should be a special election, and the term should only be 2 years, because a lot of voters don't show up to a special election. But the appointments are undemocratic, I totally agree. And you're right about the incumbent advantage, that's the worst downfall of the appointment issue.
Sounds like Manhattan's Sarah Palin. Encore.
I was under the impression she was here to meet with electeds, political insiders, and anyone else with some influence on Gov. Patty, not the people of WNY. Which is great. She has no political experience but already she is acting like the entrenched hacks representing us.
In the last few days, I have seen a growing consensus that she stands a very good shot at being selected. Considering the state of our budget and the ever growing tax burden low and middle income people are being made to bear I might want someone with actual policy experience. Writing a book, working for schools, and raising a privileged family is great and all, but we need someone with real experience. Now is not the time to gamble with celebrity.
I guarantee you she considers this step #1 to a bid for the White House.
I thought it unlikely to happen, but I agree with you wholeheartedly (hell must have frozen over). The one thing funnier than the reports was the Today show calling our mayor, "Bob Brown." She would have been much better off to be a little less regal, talk to reporters, converse with some people insteading of coming here to say she came here. Worst part of this process is that I think upstate is going to get screwed regardless. If not her, Andy Cuomo has been mentioned a lot and I think he believes Buffalo is a little north of Yonkers. Brown is just Tony Masiello in a better suit. I don't think Higgins can raise the green for the 2010 campaign.
We gonna wind up with somebody who has a Manhattan address already.