Why Caroline Kennedy?
I don’t have anything against Caroline Kennedy. By all accounts she’s bright, hard-working, a good education-related fundraiser, and knowledgeable about Constitutional law. And if she ran to represent New York in the U.S. Senate, I (a New York City resident) might very well vote for her.
Nonetheless, I share Ron Kuby’s antipathy towards legacy appointments. And like Kuby, I wonder why so few liberals and progressives are speaking out against New York Governor David Paterson’s potential Caroline Kennedy appointment.
I believe that a U.S. Senate appointment should go to someone who has more demonstrably earned it and whose positions on a wide array of topics important to New Yorkers are better known. And that brings me to my latest limerick:
There once was a Kennedy daughter
Whose dad was a victim of slaughter.
She sought an appointment —
A Senate anointment,
And few but Ron Kuby, Esq. fought her.
Tags: David Paterson, Dynasty Appointments, Kennedy, Kuby, Legacy Appointments, New York, U.S. Senate
Clever lim –
I read Kennedy’s book, The Right to Privacy, many years ago. She writes very well, or else her coauthor Ellen Alderman does. That said, I’m not a New York resident, so I don’t have a dog in this race.
I’m torn on the issue of dynasties and whether it is wrong for her to ask for such a high position without having held elective office before. She wouldn’t be the first (or the second, or the 27th) to be appointed because of her clan, nor is the Kennedy family the first or only American political dynasty. (Can you spell “Bush,” children?) And I think one has to consider what she brings to the party: a name that no one ever forgets.
NY has an embarrassment of riches in the political department; you are very fortunate that whether Kennedy or someone else becomes senator, you will be well-represented in the U.S. Senate.
Great limerick, by the way!
Thanks Tumblewords. And thanks Steve for your thoughtful comment and compliment!
Here’s something I worry about: To succeed in NY politics you have to be very tough and scrappy. Perhaps Kennedy has those qualities, but I’ve never seen that side of her.
Rhyme and reason suit you, Bayside.
I find it almost obscene that Caroline Kennedy would be picked the next NY Senator. Are we so tribal that it must be a Kennedy? Give me a break. She is hardly qualified. Why not chose someone who has been in the trenches for years and how is qualified and who has EARNED IT!
I like how you always manage to capture history in your limericks!
Thanks, The Heretik and Linda!
And Ames “almost obscene” might be a stretch, but I otherwise agree with you.
Our dynasties, like the Kennedys and Cuomos understand noblesse oblige, our dynasties (unlike the repugs) believe in government and in its mission to “promote the general welfare for ourselves and our posterity”
Our dynasties don’t call the constitution that piece of paper
Our dynasties STILL have to convince the VOTER they deserve the appointment in a short year from now…
She is qualified, her pedigree might get her in, but only the VOTERS
can decide her ultimate fate…
Hello, Caroline Kennedy’s name is Caroline Schlossberg , not Kennedy. What is all the mystique about the Kennedy’s. Please give the senate seat to someone is far more qualified than Caroline. Although I respect her for her writing etc.. she should not be considered for the NY senate seat There are far too many people to think of before her.