There are very few things these days that can make me smile, but I have to admit, this was my gift for today from the NY Times:
So when it became clear that the Senate seat held by Hillary Rodham Clinton would become open, Mr. Cuomo restrained himself from overt campaigning and retreated to the background. That left the stage to Ms. Kennedy, who has marched out front and become the candidate everyone is talking about — and the favorite for the appointment.
That, friends say, has left Mr. Cuomo feeling outfoxed and frustrated. "It’s driving him crazy," said one confidant of Mr. Cuomo’s, who spoke to the attorney general about the Senate seat this week. "He’s boxed in. He can’t do anything except fume, and he is fuming."
Full article is
here. More over the jump.
I am not a fan of Andrew Cuomo. I do think he has done a good job as Attorney General, but for heaven's sake, he was following Eliot Spitzer in the job, who was down right scary/good at it. I have a long political memory. Back when his father was running for Governor the first time, my aunt was working her heart out for him in Rochester. I was living and working there at the time. My aunt worked for Larry Kirwan, then the Monroe County Democratic Chair. I would go to her office to pick her up for lunch. One time, she was on the phone, saying "Yes, Andrew", "No, Andrew", and holding the phone out in between and rolling her eyes. All I could hear was screaming on the other end. When I even LOOKED like I might laugh, I got one of my aunt's classic looks, the one that struck terror in me as a child. I immediately ran to a corner of the room. That was my introduction to Andrew Cuomo.
My aunt was a political powerhouse in Monroe County, and has always been a hero of mine. She went grey in her 20's, and left it that way. Like everyone else in my family, she ate, drank and slept upstate NY politics. She also raised a marvelous family, had a wonderful husband, and took the time when I was in Rochester, to invite me to dinner, take me to lunch, and impart her wisdom to me. She had a LOT of wisdom, gained from years of political fighting of the best kind. When my Dad died, she and her sister (who moved to Canada to be with her Canadian husband, and is also another one of my heroes) drove to my apartment to pick me up and drive me to Syracuse, my hometown. I miss them both terribly.
But back to Cuomo/Kennedy. There has been a lot of sturm and drang on this site, started by Kos, over whether Caroline Kennedy should be appointed by Paterson. That's okay, it is what we do. We all have opinions, and we are not shy about letting each other know what they are.
But for those of you who do not live in New York, you need to know a few things. New York is really divided, politically, into Upstate and Downstate. I have lived in both places, but I grew up and live now in Syracuse, which is upstate. Upstate hates downstate, and downstate hates upstate, for a myriad of reasons. To elect statewide, you need both, most of the time. That is why Hillary Clinton vacationed up here with Bill while he was in President, not because they loved the view. She courted upstate, and we fell in love and helped her get elected in 2000.
The person who will be appointed needs to run in 2010 and then in 2012. Paterson has to run in 2010. As you all know, Paterson became our Governor by fate. Eliot Spitzer fell from the sky in the dumbest, most arrogant way. Now Paterson needs to get elected on his own. To do that, he needs someone on the ticket with him who can help him.
Now, Cuomo could be a twofer for him. Cuomo is widely rumored to be Paterson's biggest problem in 2010. If he puts Cuomo in the seat, Cuomo is out as his biggest challenger. So the temptation to appoint Cuomo must be awful.
But then there is Kennedy. If he doesn't appoint Kennedy and appoints Cuomo, a lot of us will say (me included) that David Paterson made the appointment with an eye to his own future. How crass, how political.
And, by the way, Paterson, Cuomo AND Kennedy are all what Markos likes to call "political royalty". David Paterson is the son of Basil Paterson, our first African-American Secretary of State under the Carey Administration, and a longtime member of the "Harlem Clubhouse", home to David Dinkins and Charlie Rangel.
Here's the thing, folks. All I have heard is that Caroline Kennedy is a princess, undeserving of appointment because she is a Kennedy. That's an accident of birth. I didn't get to raise my hand in heaven and say "I want to be born into THAT family", and neither did she. Her father was murdered when she was five, and her uncle was murdered when she was ten. Getting to be a Kennedy rather pales when you consider that. By all accounts, she is a smart, thoughtful person. She's a lawyer who has written books on constitutional issues for the general public. She has raised millions for the New York City schools. She has served on numerous boards. And she threw the dice down on Barack Obama when it was NOT politically safe to do so. She listened to her kids, and then started listening to Barack Obama. She got her Uncle Ted involved. Their two-punch endorsement of Obama came at a critical time for him. From the Times article published then:
From the New York Times article then:
Mr. Kennedy had been seriously considering an endorsement for weeks — a break with his traditional practice of staying clear of primaries.
He remained uncertain of his decision as late as the middle of last week. But, according to allies, when he learned that his niece’s endorsement would appear as an Op-Ed piece in The New York Times on Sunday, he decided to bolster that with his own public embrace of the campaign at a joint rally at American University in Washington on Monday, giving Mr. Obama, of Illinois a potentially powerful one-two Kennedy punch.
So she has great political judgment and courage, she is smart and thoughtful, and now she wants to serve New York in the United States Senate.
For those demanding a special election for 2009, please remember that my state is in dire economic straits. Sorry, we can't afford it, plus it's silly. Do you want us to vote for Senate every year? Two elections not enough for you?
So, please do me and everyone else in New York State one favor - think about our politics, our geography, and what is good for US. What is good for us is a smart, thoughtful woman in the Senate who can win two elections, especially if Rudy Guiliani raises his ugly head and decides to make a run at this seat. Now THAT possibility really makes me cringe.