I've been an agnostic on the whole Caroline Kennedy thing in that I really didn't have a reason to care one way or the other about her candidacy for Hillary Clinton's Senate seat. But I am somewhat amused at the idea that mean bloggers somehow mind-controlled David Paterson into picking Kirsten Gillibrand. Mind control wasn't the cause; the upcoming 2010 census is more likely the cause.
Follow me over the jump and I'll explain. Mind the gap!
Here's the deal:
Gillibrand's district, what is currently the 20th Congressional District of New York, has had a rather eventful history. Its constituent counties have, regardless of which district they've been in, generally been fairly conservative historically, which means that Democrats besides Gillibrand might have a tough time defending that seat in the coming years.
Hillary Clinton's vacating her own Senate seat provides a rather neat solution for Gillibrand's and the NYS Democrats' problem: Appoint KG out of her Congressional seat, and then eliminate the seat. Since New York is all but certain to lose a Congressional seat in the wake of the 2010 census, the 20th is the one most likely to be zapped by Paterson and the Democratically-controlled state legislature.
That's a reason a good deal more persuasive than mean bloggers.