Send In the Celebrities
By GAIL COLLINS
NYT
Caroline Kennedy wants Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat. And New York is taking her seriously. We are talking about this matter a lot when we aren’t otherwise engaged in attempting to string up rogue investment advisers.
A free United States Senate seat is a very fine thing, especially since Gov. David Paterson does not seem to be expecting a holiday envelope from the lucky winner, unlike some governors we could mention. However, Paterson does want someone who could come up with around $50 million for a statewide campaign in 2010, and Kennedy has been supersuccessful at raising money for New York City’s public schools and other good causes. Although it’s important to note that asking for money to buy books for poor children is not quite the same thing as asking for money to buy 60-second TV commercials about how great you are.
It is a tribute to the raging mediocrity of New York politics that while many people have expressed reservations about giving the Senate job to an untested, hitherto publicity-shy political novice, their protests often wind up with: “Why pick Caroline Kennedy when we could have — um ...”
In New York, two kinds of homegrown politicians tend to rise to the top of the heap. The smart, hard-working ones have sharp elbows and impossible egos. (I’m remembering Ed Koch on a long-ago visit to Berlin, waving at the East German guards at the checkpoint and yelling: “I’m here! It’s me! It’s me!”) The charming, easy-going ones tend to have the I.Q. of a cucumber.
(More here.)
NYT
Caroline Kennedy wants Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat. And New York is taking her seriously. We are talking about this matter a lot when we aren’t otherwise engaged in attempting to string up rogue investment advisers.
A free United States Senate seat is a very fine thing, especially since Gov. David Paterson does not seem to be expecting a holiday envelope from the lucky winner, unlike some governors we could mention. However, Paterson does want someone who could come up with around $50 million for a statewide campaign in 2010, and Kennedy has been supersuccessful at raising money for New York City’s public schools and other good causes. Although it’s important to note that asking for money to buy books for poor children is not quite the same thing as asking for money to buy 60-second TV commercials about how great you are.
It is a tribute to the raging mediocrity of New York politics that while many people have expressed reservations about giving the Senate job to an untested, hitherto publicity-shy political novice, their protests often wind up with: “Why pick Caroline Kennedy when we could have — um ...”
In New York, two kinds of homegrown politicians tend to rise to the top of the heap. The smart, hard-working ones have sharp elbows and impossible egos. (I’m remembering Ed Koch on a long-ago visit to Berlin, waving at the East German guards at the checkpoint and yelling: “I’m here! It’s me! It’s me!”) The charming, easy-going ones tend to have the I.Q. of a cucumber.
(More here.)
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