fbpx
Politics Foreign Affairs Culture Fellows Program

Poor, Car-o-line (dat, dat, dat)

Regardless of what you think of the idea of appointing Caroline Kennedy-Schlossberg to the U.S. Senate, she did not deserve the humiliating process she went through she went to just to say after all that, she wasn’t willing to be appointed by Gov. David Paterson. Instead, an obscure, upstate Congresswoman gets the nod. That’s all fine […]

Regardless of what you think of the idea of appointing Caroline Kennedy-Schlossberg to the U.S. Senate, she did not deserve the humiliating process she went through she went to just to say after all that, she wasn’t willing to be appointed by Gov. David Paterson. Instead, an obscure, upstate Congresswoman gets the nod. That’s all fine and dandy but it didn’t need to come with innuendo about tax problems, housekeepers, (we’re assuming immigrant housekeepers here, the bane of all upper class existence along with the Social Security taxes and the ICE) marriage status, an invented phony excuse about Uncle Ted’s health, sniping between the governor’s staff and Kennedy hacks and dueling news stories about whether she was still a candidate or not.

Maybe Kennedy-Schlossberg wasn’t ready to be in public service but after going through this cattle call, she’ll probably never entertain such notions again despite having her idealism rekindled by Obama’s candidacy and her children’s reaction to it. It’s too bad.

The American Prospect’s Erza Kline agrees with me 100 percent: “Governors shouldn’t be making appointments to Senate seats. No they shouldn’t if they’re going to act as confused and mendacious as Gov. Paterson did through this whole fiasco (or sell them to the highest bidder like Blago). State legislatures should be making such appointments, which is why I renew my call for the repeal 17th Amendnment.

Yes, true, if state legislatures picked U.S. Senators once again Caroline would have had to suck-up to them, but at least it would have been a formal process and perhaps she would have campaigned for a few of them last fall to help them get elected so they could return the favor. And with so many members of the legislature she could have set out to construct a broad coalition of different and diverse lawmakers. In this case, she and all the other candidates were at the mercy of one man and the way his mind worked, which in Paterson’s case is something I’d never entertain to guess at.

There’s a better way to pick a better Senate. No more governor’s personal pet appointments, no more “seat warmers” and no more onslaught of “you’re another” campaigns. Let the state’s do the job our Founding Fathers and the Constitution wanted them to do. 

Advertisement

Comments

The American Conservative Memberships
Become a Member today for a growing stake in the conservative movement.
Join here!
Join here