I’ve said before, and will repeat, that Caroline Kennedy, while not my first choice, is a far better one than anyone who boasts of experience in the NYS Legislature on their CV.
The problem I had with Caroline Kennedy when her name was first brought up is that she was strictly a local figure with no ties, nor sign of any awareness of the issues, outside of NYC. This is not something that makes her bad, or evil, or even excessively privileged. It just meant that I was uncertain how well she’d be able to represent the needs of the whole state, rather than just the needs of NYC.
Since she’s begun her active drive to twist David Paterson’s arm, so he’ll appoint her, however, I’ve become far, far more disgusted with her. She seems unwilling to answer even the simplest of hardball questions: “Why should upstate voters think you’ll be able to represent our interests?” This may be no more than a result of not having much of a clue because it appears that no one was angling for her to have this Senate seat before the word that Hillary was likely to be tapped for SecState, and her interests prior to this had all been local. But the fact that her handlers (If not Caroline herself) have been unwilling to let her acknowledge the question really, really pisses me off.
But she’s still better than anyone who’s got NY Assembly or State Senate experience.
(For those who’d like a list of positive choices I’d like to see, rather than Caroline Kennedy: I’d be happier with either Andrew Cuomo or Kirsten Gillibrand. I’d die laughing if Paterson had the chutzpah to appoint Sheldon Silver to the seat - for all that I am sure that Silver would refuse. Anything would be worth the price to cleanse the Assembly of his presence. Maybe without him ethics rules could be put in place, or the Legislature could become a full-time position, instead of being an $80-100K part time job. (Yes, I know, I’m grasping at straws, and trying to fly with them. When you’re this far up without a parachute you’ll try anything.) )
That is her main qualification. plus, her uncle (Ted) is notgoing to be around much longer, and we need a Kennedy… “le the word go forth from this time and place, that a new generation of morons”.
Face it, what would the enate be without a Kennedy?
I don’t know that she’s all that aware of the issues within NYC, either. It’s pretty obvious from the things she was saying and the way she was talking in the clip earlier that she doesn’t have the vaguest idea what the issues are, what she wants to do them or how to go about it.
And then she’s pretty much refusing to answer any specific questions about anything and then has the gall to challenge the NYT reporters for not asking the types of questions she would expect from the Times’ “crack political team” and suggests instead that they go to work for “women’s magazines”.
A month ago a had a pretty high opinion of Caroline Kennedy. That opinion has pretty much done a 180 now.
Experience in the New York State Senate and Assembly won’t give you any knowledge of how legislative processes work.
But yeah, appointing Shelly Silver would be hysterical. Although, if you want an upstater, Joe Bruno’s out of work now. Patterson could reach across the partisan divide. Besides, if Patterson does pick him, DC’s airport could become the Washington Reagan Bruno National Airport.
Oh thank Og he retired! Although I’m sure Paterson had some idea of the douchbaggery of Bruno and would not have appointed him anyway. Bruno will be back to do his fair share of lobbying when he’s allowed to do so.
Oh and nice dig with the Bruno National Airport comment.
You’re making at least one fallacious assumption. The NYS legislature is broken. All power in the legislature resides in the majority leadership - the Senate Majority Leader or the Assembly Speaker absolutely control what gets to the floor of the chamber to be voted upon. And the fuckers in the legislature keep voting for the same goddamned leadership, year after year.
Objective evidence that the NYS Legislature is FUBAR:
[ul][li]of the past 25 budgets 23 have come in late. At least one was over 100 days late. Most are in the 30-60 day range.[/li][li]Legislative leadership blocks any kind of ethics standards for the Legislators. For example, the Legislators are required, now, to disclose what other sources of income they have, but not how much they make from those positions. Ostensibly, the reasoning for this is that the Legislative positions are only part time. Silver is on record claiming that any attempt to impose further disclosure on Legislators would discourage high quality persons from running for the Legislature. [/li][li]During the current fiscal catastrophe, when the state’s GAO is projecting a $25 Billion deficit over the next three years, the fuckers managed to cut all of $500 million this year. And then when called back after the elections they refused to even fucking discuss cutting anything else. [/li][li]They still charged the taxpayers nearly $80,000 (in aggregate) for them to come to Albany to vote to go home without doing a goddamned thing. [/li][/ul]
I could go on, but my thesis remains that the NYS legislature is FUBAR, and we need a fucking revolution.
For that matter, there is no provision within the state Constitution to replace the Lt. Governor. With David Paterson stepping for Eliot Spitzer, we’d best hope he doesn’t die. When the idea of calling a Constitutional Convention to fix this error in the Constitution was brought up, it was squashed by the Legislature: It would also be an opportunity to add some kind of end-run around those lousy, worthless parasites in Albany. And they know it.
If you really want, I could dig up a few Pit threads I’ve started about the useless fuckers in Albany.
The New York State Legislature makes the Marketing Board of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation look competent, and should take precedence in any lines to the wall over them.
Seriously, the first thing each Legislative body does is vote on body leadership, which comes down to a straight party line vote. The Assembly gives all power to the Speaker, Sheldon Silver; and the Senate gives all power to the Senate Majority Leader, Jim Skelos currently, but after this election that could change. It depends on some homophobic downstate Senators choosing whether they’ll vote with, or against the Democratic party line. Either way, the house leader then rewards or punishes people based on his perception of their loyalty.
The only bills that get to the floor of either chamber are those with the approval of the house leader. And because of the rules the fuckers keep voting in, they can’t change it. Of course, if one tries to change things, and doesn’t succeed, Silver or Skelos (or Bruno before him) would punish the legislator involved, and screw their district. So they wouldn’t be likely to be sent back to Albany after the next election.
So, while Captain Carrot’s answer is flip, I can’t argue with it.
So you have a crappy legislature in New York state. We have a hopelessly inept state goverrnment here too at the moment. But I don’t see how any of the points you’ve made about the legislature’s ineptitude would serve to prevent a member from gaining experience of how the process works - or doesn’t work. Even experience of a badly working system is valuable. It helps you understand what needs to be changed/improved.
They cannot, however, prove any reason for me to support them for any more responsibilities. To invoke the Peter Principle - you stop promoting someone once they’ve reached their level of incompetence. If they can’t fix Albany, why should I assume that they’d do any better with greater responsibilities?
ETA: Yes, I’m aware that my attitude is purely punative. After 25 years with nothing else working, I don’t know what else an individual voter can do, other than to make clear that until Albany becomes more responsive, no one involved with the Legislature should be able to use a position there for any higher office.
I would make an exception for someone like Joseph Robach (although I wouldn’t want him as my Senator).
It’s also important to remember that the leaders effectively determine the members’ salaries, as well as their access to resources like campaign money, phone systems and staff.
Joe Robach is one of the few in the Legislature that I don’t actively despise. When the D&C’s editorial page came out with their state race endorsements, I found their reasoning was paralleling my own: They liked him, and were impressed by the efforts he’d made in the State Senate to try to get ethics reforms started, but- until the electorate starts holding the whole of the Senate and Assembly responsible for the actions of the leadership, it’s not going to change. On a personal level, I certainly like Joe Robach more than I did his challenger.
In the end I voted against him, while holding my nose, because I feel, strongly, that there were enough promises by the Democrats that they’d try to fix things in the Senate, if they got the majority there, that it had to be tried. No matter how unlikely I thought such change would be.
Now, with the Gang of Four (or is it three?) who knows what’s going to happen when the new Legislature is seated?
I agree with you about the reasons for why change is so hard for the people in the legislature to actually effect - the ways for the leadership to punish members are myriad.
There’s a more detailed article now saying that she called Gov. Paterson today and withdrew. She is said to have withdrawn in order to cope with Sen. Kennedy’s illness and that she is planning to make a statement tonight.
Which makes absolutely no sense. Ted was diagnosed with cancer months before she made her intentions known. I’m guessing it was the infamous, cringe-inducing interview she gave to the NYTimes. You know?
