December 26, 2008 — Today, NY Senatorial bidder, Caroline Kennedy, has stated in an AP interview that she knows she’ll have to work twice as hard in her job if appointed by Governor David Paterson, himself an appointee. Kennedy wants Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat, which will be vacated when Clinton becomes Secretary of State after approval by Congress, which is when Paterson will “decide.” Kennedy might be listening to the escalating buzz in the State that she’s butting in line. (Hmm, sound familiar?) Others in the queue include: New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, State Senator Liz Krueger, and US Representative Carolyn Maloney.
Let me qualify: I really don’t want to compound the woman bashing thing, because I’m ashamed and disgusted about how women treated other women in this election cycle, and how many women and outspoken feminists abandoned Hillary. Hmmm, like Caroline Kennedy, for example. I’m also a firm believer in and product of lifelong learning, and have had many careers. After all, I learned to blog at 60, didn’t I?! I also am a stand for factoring in people’s life experience, temperament, judgment, accomplishments in other fields, communication skills, and integrity, not just their diplomas or what is on paper.
I’ll definitely grant you that growing up in any household breeds some familiarity with the ins and outs and language of any kind of work, business, hobby, or way of doing things. For example, my dad was an orthopedic surgeon. When I was a little kid, I’d see photos of layers of tissue cut open, pinned back, as my dad referenced his medical books, sitting in his club chair after dinner. I’d go on hospital rounds with him, and as a teen, had summer jobs in his private practice’s office.
I didn’t become a doctor. I like to say “I’m not really a blood ‘n guts person.” I took the path of body-mind healing—whereas quite a few of my family and friends were inspired to become docs because of my dad. I was married for fourteen years to an auto mechanic. I’ve seen engines being rebuilt, and know much more about cars than most Jewish American Princess Baby Boomers. I can recognize different cars by the sound of their start up motors and and engines.
Actually, lately I’ve been reconsidering my career choices. and have decided that I want to be a surgeon. In fact, I’m going for the on-the-job training program. So, if I work twice as hard, will you let me operate on your broken leg? No wait, I think I’ll be a mechanic. Can I rebuild your engine? I think I can, I think I can. After all, reality TV, and this past year, have taught me that anybody can do just about anything they want to, and I mean that in every way. But I digress . . .
I’m curious: What did your parents do, or what was the family business that wasn’t your career path? What if you made a promise to work twice as hard? Would you be qualified to pick it up on the spot just by doing so? Or . . . what work do you or your partner do? Could someone pick it up instantly by working twice as hard? Do tell.
[cross-posted from Lady Boomer NYC]
Filed under: Democratic Party, Politics | Tagged: Caroline Kennedy AP interview, NY Senate seat
Doesn’t Carolyn know anything? Women ALWAYS have to work twice as hard. BFD.
Or wait — she means it’ll be twice as hard for her, ’cause she has no experience, let alone training.
Princess Carolyn, get an apprenticeship.
Happy Boxing Day to all Confluencians!
PumainSeattle — I guess it will be an apprenticeship if she’s appointed! What’s Boxing Day?
I think her new interest in elective office is because she will soon be an empty-nester.
Why couldn’t she just become a real estate agent like so many women of privilege of a certain age who find themselves in need of a hobby or a vocation and don’t necessarily want a real career?
Caroline should get the voting thing down before stepping into a position that requires someone to work twice as hard.
I have no problem with criticizing a woman when she deserves it. Ask me how I feel about Nancy Pelosi or Donna Brazile and I can demonstrate?
Ok, again … what’s the difference between Caroline Kennedy going for the New York Senate Seat and Hillary? Besides Caroline is actually from New York, and doesn’t have a sitting President to campaign for her?
My dad was a telecommunications engineer. As a kid I used to go to mountain tops with him to check out the communication towers/systems he designed. He did one on the North Slope of Alaska back in the day and didn’t take me! {pout}
Me, I’m an artist. Have been since I was a wee tot. I did take engineering drafting for a semester before going off to art school. Thought it was close enough to art and I could make a living. I could no longer step into engineering today (even if I worked twice as hard!) than anyone in my family could step into my profession today. Everyone in my family has a creative streak, but there is no way in I would ever want to put myself through training them to do all the various projects I do for people. I value my sanity (or what there is of it!) too much. What I do is second nature to me, and a part of that is experience. Yes, I was born with a gift, but the gift wouldn’t keep my afloat without the experience. It’s why people hire me. I’m good at what I do and I can prove it
CK needs to get some experience in the field before she moves to the top of the field here. I don’t care how long her family members have been working in politics, she hasn’t been. This is no different than my sister calling my clients and saying they should hire her based on my resume. OY! Not a pretty image!
I have to run out, but sincerely hope some of you will consider answering the questions I posed in the last para of the piece. I thought it might be pretty humorous to see what you come up with. When I return, I look forward to seeing if I’ve gotten any takers. Top ‘o the afternoon to ya! LBNYC
My dad had a phd in Botany. I know nothing about flowers. My mom was a homekeeper and I do pretty well at that.
I ended up as a gynecologist but worked my ass off in school to get to this point. Loved your surgery analogy.
Let the other Carolyn win!
nycstray, and scrubs 57: Oh, I was writing when you were both posting. Great stories! and scrubs — LOL! “This [analogy's] for you!”
Someone as inexperienced and unvetted as Caroline Kennedy should have to earn the votes to take office. Politics is a unique type of profession where I have seen people with little political experience do a great job if they have the passion and intellect to work for the people they represent. However, they usually start off in local politics and work their way up, gaining experience along the way. There are some people, as in every profession, who have a leg up because of family name and connections. I don’t expect Caroline to start off running for city council. But if she wants her first experience in politics to be Senator of New York, she should have to run for office. There are many other people in NY who have worked from the bottom up and deserve to be appointed because they have already won votes and have a proven track record that they are capable of doing a good job in the Senate. If you aren’t experienced then you should have to run whether you are Jane Doe or Caroline Kennedy. I’ve always had respect for the Kennedy family but all of that is gone after this year. Caroline and Ted are really shooting themselves in the foot and ruining the Kennedy legacy of the 60s so many of us both young and old have revered and admired until now.
My parents owned a dairy farm until my Mom got tired of my dad beating the cows and tooks her four kids and left. She cooked in a restaurant and went to night school until she get enough education to get a job as a bookkeeper.
I am the first in my family to earn a degree. I have an M.S. in Water Resourced Engineering. So, no I did not follow in any family business, except that I regulate irrigation wells. I did learn my work ethics and determination from my mom who worked her butt off raising four kids alone and making sure we all graduated from high school. Not that easy when you work two jobs just to keep food on the table.
I rode race horses to pay for college and trained horses as a side job for years after that. After college I worked for a oil refinery as a chemist. for almost 15 years. It took me that long to get the M.S.
My oldest son works on oil rigs, now. My second son works as a cowboy on a ranch. My daughter is in college majoring in engineering. My youngest is in high school. So, I guess my kids are kind of following in my footsteps.
Hey CWaltz at 4:21
How do you feel about Nancy Pelosi or Donna Brazile?
(heh heh heh)
Holding lower-level political office isn’t the only way to acquire the experience and qualifications to be a Senator.
OTOH, CK doesn’t seem to have pursued any of the usual alternative routes.
Reagan, Ventura and Schwarzenegger were all actors before becoming governors, but they were elected, not appointed.
As for the “family business” question, lets just say it inspired me to seek an alternative career, and that was a 1x the level of hard work.
Is there any evidence that Caroline Kennedy was a community organizer. Because that’s the one thing I really look for in a political candidate. I really need to see that community organizer thing on her resume and then if maybe Barney that purple kids entertainer or maybe Cameron Diaz or Oprah likes her. That would do it for me. I need that community organizer thing and then someone, you know, kind of in the entertainment field to vouch for a candidate. Then I’m cool. I just don’t want to be a low information voter, you know? So I need those two things to happen and then I’d be cool with it.
Boxing Day — Sorry, was out for a bit.
Boxing Day, was called that because the lord and lady of the manor would go about the day after Christmas dispensing gifts (packed in boxes, natch) to “their” people who worked the land.
From Wikipedia below:
“Boxing Day is a public holiday in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Hong Kong and countries in the Commonwealth of Nations with a mainly Christian population. In South Africa, this public holiday is now known as the Day of Goodwill. It is based on the tradition of giving gifts to the less fortunate members of society.”
Boxing Day dates back to past centuries when it was the custom for the wealthy to give gifts to employees or to people in a lower social class, most especially to household servants and other service personnel. The name has numerous folk etymologies[3].
As with Christmas itself, some elements of Boxing Day are also likely related to, and ultimately derived from, the ancient Roman Saturnalia, which also had elements of gift giving and social role reversal.”
I’m a nurse practitioner (NP). I diagnose, prescribe, and order lab tests, scans, physical therapy. No way in h*ll could someone step in and do it by the seat of their pants without maiming or killing some patients. That’s way they make you pass an exam, get licensed, and get continuing ed.
In my first career life, I was an ad/marketing copywriter. Loved to write my entire life, but you do need to actually practice writing. And to practice re-writing. And re-writing again.
How some people think Princess Caroline can be an effective Senator right away (because it’s in her genes, one inane columnist said!) I have no f-ing idea. Oh, yeah, ’cause Barak did it?
TheyreAllCrooks, on December 26th, 2008 at 4:25 pm Said:
Ok, again … what’s the difference between Caroline Kennedy going for the New York Senate Seat and Hillary?
Do we have to go through this AGAIN? Please do some homework before posting here–but we know you don’t want something as pesky as actual FACTS to get in the way. Hillary Clinton had THIRTY YEARS of substaintial experience in multiple fields: health care, women’s/children’s/human rights, economic development, and education. She had traveled to over 80 countries, and pioneered massive health care reform, leading to the SCHIP program that has provided health care to over 5 million children. And that’s just for starters…she also campaigned extensively, for years, for Democrats, raised and donated money, and voted regularly.
Caroline? Part-time work for the Dept. of Education–very part-time apparently (a few hours, a few days a week, for 2 years). She has been on various Boards, and raised money for artistic and historical causes.
Let’s do an Obot test: can you tell the difference between these two people? Then again, you elected a president with less experience than anyone else, so I guess not.
L.B.,
Stepping briefly out of lurkerdom to make a couple of corrections with regard to your original post.
It’s *David* Paterson, and he wasn’t an appointee. He was elected Lt. Gov. on the Spitzer ticket.
PumainSeattle:
I thought “Boxing Day” was when we put our gifts back in their boxes and returned them to the store.
myiq — ah, yes, that’s the modern US version!
And here’s yet more evidence that Caroline is nothing more than a legacy pick–another money raising showboat for the Dem Party. She not only neglected to vote half the time, she apparently didn’t donate any of her $100 million for city or state races either…
Caroline Kennedy’s supporters say she could raise tons of money as a senator, but when it comes to writing checks to New York Democrats, she’s been largely AWOL.
This decade, other than a $1,000 donation to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the Camelot heiress has not financially supported any Democrat seeking city or state office in New York, records reveal.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/12/25/2008-12-25_lack_of_donations_to_city_state_dems_may.html
Roz in NJ/NYC — Thanks for the “David” correction, of course! (will edit) It must have been that Christmakah champagne I imbibed last night! Yes, it’s true, Paterson was elected to Lt. Gov, but he automatically was promoted to Gov, without being elected to the position, after Spitzer’s peccadillos.
In the seventies the CETA program strove to employ people on the basis of aptitude rather than credential. If you look at the DOL definitions of jobs you will find each has an applied skill set.
Therefore, many jobs where employers required degrees and certifications are actually lazy shorthand for the employer to avoid real interviews. While some employers have resisted the flow back to tradition, by inserting the phrase “equivalent experience” in job advertisements, most have not.
This is not to suggest that doctors should be uncertified. However, it is the certifications that are proof of ability, not education.
A person with most of the required skill sets is assumed qualified. If they have all of the skill sets then they are probably over qualified and will get bored. HRC was probably overqualified for her senate position as a junior senator.
In truth my anger over a potential Kennedy appointment is not whether she can do a senate job. It’s that she will not do HRC’s Job. It’s that this was an obvious ploy to garner again what the old man Ambassador always wanted.
To fix this is to look that the actual skill sets required and determine whether CK has most but not all of them. CK may have them, as transferred from other jobs using the same sets. I don’t know.
I don’t want to put myself in the position of saying “any woman but that one”. I’m not a New Yorker. I don’t know the particulars. However, if she is wrong for the job I want to hear why, and beyond that I want to the the whys of the who that are better. Somebody better be telling me soon.
In the business world we complain that women never ask for what they want. Can we condemn her for asking? Can we really think she only wants the job because someone told her to take it?
How do her advocacy points align with HRC’s?
Frankly, I don’t get the Kennedy mystique at all.
Joe Kennedy was an absolute pig. Teddy left a woman to drown, had to have his ass dragged to help protect title IX, has that little matter of the Willie Smith rape he had very questionable behavior in. His demeanor seems so bloated by alcohol that it appears you could put him in a glass of soda and have an instant 7 +7.
So, I don’t get the Kennedy thing. Take away her last name, and Caroline seems to have little to recommend her. Put on her last name, and I’m still unmoved.
TheyreAllCrooks, on December 26th, 2008 at 4:25 pm Said:
Ok, again … what’s the difference between Caroline Kennedy going for the New York Senate Seat and Hillary? Besides Caroline is actually from New York, and doesn’t have a sitting President to campaign for her?
Hmmmm…..let’s see , campaigning among ,and then actully getting elected ?? oh and 35 years of social advocacy? Frankly at this point Princess Caroline is an embarrassment even for those shilling for her . On her upstate tour, Princess could not stand 2 minutes of questions from a fawning press . Even Barry does better than that.
does anyone else feel that there is nothing but contempt by the Kennedy’s toward the American people and the Senate?
You do not have to have experience or knowledge or the desire to learn to be a Senator per teddy and caroline just have the right name.
Does this mean all congressmen should take a pay cut? According to the kennedy’s they are there just to take up space.
Is this why so many bills get passed that were not read or completely understood before passing?
Why would you think that a senator is supposed to represent and work for the people of their state and the country as a whole? What were you thinking?
WOMEN WITH BRAINS AND EXPERIENCE,MEN WHO SUPPORT THEM AND COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY ALWAYS
PUMAS,BUBBAS, AND THOSE PEOPLE RULE
angelasmith: it’s just like Obama…it’s all about the $$$$$$$$$. It costs $70 million to become a NY Senator, and the Party has become greedy pigs over principle. They were willing to betray one of their most loyal advocates for a pretty boy marketing product. Ironically, he didn’t use much of his money for downticket Dems. I really feel that Patterson is going to do the right thing, and choose someone else. I live in Upstate NY, and I just can’t see him facing those voters in his next race if he chooses CK. There are A LOT of pragmatic, conservative voters throughout the state. The buzz is all coming from the NYC area & Bloomberg’s operation. Sheldon Silver, state party power broker, also stated in a radio interview this week that she is “Bloomberg’s pet,” and implied that he is interested in the Governor’s job, and Patterson would be wise to question CK’s loyalty.
fif, on December 26th, 2008 at 5:48 pm ……. I really feel that Patterson is going to do the right thing, and choose someone else…..
I hope you are right. I think it’s interesting how Patterson says he’ll wait until Hillary is confirmed. He and Hill have each others back in a sense. The longer the “inevitable” doesn’t happen, the more the bloom is off. If Princess has to hang around and say she’ll work really , really hard, it’s already over… I’m hoping .
They’reAllCrooks is a regular tr0ll. Why are its post still up?
But since the post is still up – here’s a difference between Princess Caroline and Hillary Clinton: election. Hillary Clinton ran for office and won an election – twice. Voters of NY voted for her twice to be their Senator. How many votes has Princess Caroline won in her elections? Oh, that’s right! None because she has never run for any office.
If Kennedy wants to run for the seat in 2 years – go right ahead. She can dig up her sainted dead father to campaign for her. But she’s not running for office, she’s looking to be placed into one. Not a big enough difference for you?
I’m curious: What did your parents do, or what was the family business that wasn’t your career path?
*************
My mother always wanted to be an MD, but started to work at age 16, after HS graduation, to help support her family when the Depression began. My father wanted to be an electrical engineer but had to drop out for similar reasons.
I hated school and would have given anything to have dropped out after the 8th grade and become an auto mechanic. I figured that both parents would have killed me, however, so I stuck it out to HS graduation. 16 more years of Higher education and I ended up as a heart surgeon…almost as good as a mechanic.
TheyreAllCrooks, on December 26th, 2008 at 4:25 pm Said:
Ok, again … what’s the difference between Caroline Kennedy going for the New York Senate Seat and Hillary? Besides Caroline is actually from New York, and doesn’t have a sitting President to campaign for her?
Hillary has been working for Democrats since she helped take down Nixon in the Watergate scandal. She’s spent her entire life as an advocate for children. She’s been involved. Caroline reminds me of Oprah. A Democrat? Probably more so than Oprah.
I saw this great short background of some of Hillary’s work at Corrente with some information I didn’t even know about. Here it is:
she did a one year internship at the Children’s Defense Fund, which resulted in her writing “Children Under The Law” – to this day, one of the most cited briefs on the subject. She joined the board of the CDF, not as a well-connected off-spring, but as one of the most brilliant young attorneys of her generation. She served on the panel of Watergate. Once she moved to Arkansas, she opened a legal aid clinic for lower income families dealing with family issues. She was asked to join the board of the Corporation Of Legal Services, which does similar work as her legal aid clinic, and was quickly made chair of the Board. During her time, the Reagan administration sought to cut the budget. Clinton went to DC, and not only prevented the cuts (again, not using a family name either), but actually sold them on expanding the budget. Back home, she discovered that rural Arkansan’s didn’t have access to healthcare because building clinics in isolated areas is not financially viable. She returned to DC, and rounded up money to build healthcare clinics in the countryside. Headstart was, as ever, overbooked, so she developed a home schooling program for parents who couldn”t get their kids into headstart. She took on the teacher’s union – a job no Democrat wants to touch – and succeeded in getting new standards in place for teachers. On and on like that. The microloans, her work as First Lady of US – she was one of the foremost advocates for the administration in both development and execution of policy.
Clinton was constantly, aggressively, looking to create programs that changed the lives of ordinary people in tangible ways. She was familiar with DC in her own right because of the work she had done – not because she was born connected or married right. She was still the one in DC working with the Reagan administration on the budget cuts to the Board Of Legal Services. She was still the one who went to DC to find funding for health care clinics. Her paper on children’s rights is authored by Hillary Rodham – it’s her name that is there.
http://correntewire.com/hillary_vs_caroline
DYB, on December 26th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
and that’s another thing, in 2 years time when Princess has to defend her ill gotten seat, I predict Giuliani will waltz in and perhaps that’s the main idea behind this ? A for real NY Dem like Maloney. Cuomo, or Krueger would have a fighting chance.
Princess?…. not so much. IMO
Downticket, on December 26th, 2008 at 6:03 pm Said:……Clinton was constantly, aggressively, looking to create programs that changed the lives of ordinary people in tangible ways….
Exactly why she was not allowed to be the nominee .
We can’t have that! Heavens no!
My take on the Kennedy push is that it’s ordered by Obama so he can
stack the Senate with similar empty suits who will vote yes or no as he
orders. Like with his pick of Emanuel to deal with recalcitrant Dems, he doesn’t want any divergent thinking.
roofinbird> Caroline Kennedy is not entitled to the Senate seat because she has never earned a single vote from a NYer in her life. Because we don’t know where she stands on any issue. This is why we have campaigns (in theory), to find out where candidates stand on issues. We don’t know where Caroline Kennedy stands on any issue. She even refuses to release her financial records (something all NY politicians do) until after she’s appointed to the seat. What a joke! Nobody is beating up on her because she’s a woman. Not even because she’s a Kennedy. There’s one or two Kennedy I would not object to. But Caroline has spent her entire life demanding privacy and saying and doing as little as possible. And suddenly she wants to be handed one of the most powerful political jobs in the state? If she ran for office, she’d lose.
Just saw part of the NY1 interview. She used that ‘bribe line’ about being able to bring notice to NY issues (like Hillary couldn’t or any of our other out spoken pols?). I didn’t throw anything at my TV because it’s new {grin}, but in the interview apparently she uses her jobs as mommy, writer and fundraiser as qualifications again. Too bad she doesn’t at least have some serious activism for the people mixed in. I’ll give her credit since she isn’t trying to twist her Dept of Ed fundraising into activism (afaik).
I’m on moderation. I didn’t use any dirty words!
See this is the problem; is she campaigning to replace HRC or is she campaigning for a senate seat?
Does the seat require 35 years experience?
If she has most of the skill sets but lacks speaking, this might be where she has to grow, but not in other places. I would want to know things like her position on No child Left Behind, health, economics, etc. and how they articulate with HRC’s, as opposed to other potential picks.
To advocate for one of the others I want to know the same.
You say CK didn’t contribute to other Dems. Was she trying to be neutral, or keep her bets close to her chest?
If an obot like Princess has to work it, after she made it clear she wants what she wants, it’s not going too well. With the help of a fawning press, Princess trying to create a sense of it being ” inevitable” and that means it isn’t .
fif,
I too have the feeling that Patterson will do the right thing. I don’t have your insiders view into NY politics– and I appreciate getting to read yours. But I liked the way Patterson ejected the skeletons in his closet when he moved to the Gov position. I think he was smart and wasn’t going to be pushed around by any political backhandedness. Makes me think he’ll do what he thinks is best. And I can’t see him thinking that CK is the best choice.
paperdoll, agree with your comment at 6:06. It seemed to me the minute that it became obvious that Hillary meant what she said and that she was really going to make changes in the lives of Americans and in how our government comported itself, she was doomed to lose.
Obama, by always dodging the hard question (oh, there weren’t many of those, were there?)– but by constantly being evasive and answering only after Hillary had given her position– Obama was always
giving off the “hey, I’m no threat to any status quo” …
once again proving we have a mediocrity as our form of government.
Never in my life did I think that democrats could behave worse than republicans. We are definitely seeing that. Experience does not count anymore. We will have a president with no qualifications..so why should they expect experience from anyone else. All you need is money..acting experience..or be a comic and you are in. What a way to run a country. By the way..my father was a plumber..and I can turn on a faucet..does that count?
Actually, my parents were political activists – they turned it pro at one point in history. I was tone deaf at politics. Until December 15, 2000
What I liked in 2008 – the beginning of a very short list
http://edgeoforever.wordpress.com/2008/12/26/what-i-liked-in-2008-was/
And… HRC was a senior partner at the Rose Law firm for many years. She got up everyday and went to her office and worked for a salary. The simple, wary grace of supporting her family and building a career.
I think Gov. Paterson will choose princess Caroline. I wish it would be Carolyn Maloney. She is fighting human trafficking and we all know how that business targets women. She seems to be a hard worker like Hillary and also has the passion and drive to get things done which I think Caroline Kennedy lacks.
http://maloney.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=364&Itemid=31
Krugman (NYTimes) today on Obama and Caroline:
Never mind Mr. Obama’s current high standing in the polls based on public hopes that he’ll succeed. He needs a solid base of support that will remain even when things aren’t going well.
And I have to say that Democrats are off to a bad start on that front. The attempted coronation of Caroline Kennedy as senator plays right into 40 years of conservative propaganda denouncing “liberal elites.” And surely I wasn’t the only person who winced at reports about the luxurious beach house the Obamas have rented, not because there’s anything wrong with the first family-elect having a nice vacation, but because symbolism matters, and these weren’t the images we should be seeing when millions of Americans are terrified about their finances.
jjk, on December 26th, 2008 at 6:33 pm Said:
And… HRC was a senior partner at the Rose Law firm for many years. She got up everyday and went to her office and worked for a salary. The simple, wary grace of supporting her family and building a career.
*************
That, plus being on a Children’s Hospital board, several corp boards (She is trashed by the CDS’ers for Wal-mart board…but she broke another barrier and I think the total compensation was not much $$), plus all of the other causes and being “First Lady” of the State, etc, etc…
Hillary was the financial support of the family..I think Bill’s highest salary was $35k. And unlike most pols., Bill never profited from being a Gov.
Jmac, on December 26th, 2008 at 6:44 pm Said:
Krugman (NYTimes) today on Obama and Caroline:
Krugman almost always gets it right. He would have been a great Treasure Secretary for Hillary…
ahhh…what could have been.
I said the exact same thing about the O’s vacation: great image to be projecting as the global economy tanks. Working out every day, strutting his vanity, and tone deaf to average “gun toting Americans, clinging to their guns and religion” once again. When does he actually ACT in concert with his words?
Can anyone here please inform me of any long term job Caroline has ever held besides author? Hillary Is 44’s latest post lists Caroline’s *lack of* accomplishments. Guess she thought she could breeze her way right into the Senate like everything else in her life.
From Hillary is 44:
Not much is known about what she would fight for. Not much is known about what she has done.
During the two years Caroline Kennedy worked as a fundraiser and goodwill ambassador for New York City’s schools chancellor, Joel Klein, co-workers would frequently drift by her workspace for a glimpse of the department’s most famous $1-a-year employee.
As often as not, they were greeted by an empty chair. [snip]
A passionate commitment to public education is one of Kennedy’s three main selling points in her bid to win appointment to Hillary Rodham Clinton’s soon-to-be-vacated Senate seat, along with her platinum pedigree and a reputation for above-the-fray rectitude.
Yet because she has taken so few public positions, her education record – or what passes for it – has become just about the only public policy issue on which the 51-year-old political rookie can be judged.
The problem is, she hardly left a vapor trail.
Caroline Kennedy “sat out the epic legal battle to secure billions in state funding for low-income students” and hardly left a vapor trail. How can she be expected to fight for New Yorkers? If Obama and the Dimocrats want to hurt New York with their policies the Caroline history is that she would be their shill – not a fighter for the people of New York State.
After spending a few hours a day for two years Caroline Kennedy had a book to sell so she went on a book tour.
When she left, The New York Times wrote: “For months after she started, even some high-level education officials said they were not quite sure what she did. In an interview about eight months into her tenure, she would not say how often she worked at the department headquarters or how many hours she spent on the job, saying only, ‘I put in as much time as I can.’”
Like Obama’s “community organizing”, Caroline Kennedy was given credit for the work of others.
When Klein, speaking to the Times, credited Kennedy with securing $51 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for small schools, Wayne Barrett of the Village Voice tracked down officials who claimed the grant was actually set up by Klein deputy Michele Cahill.
Tom Vander Ark, former education director for the Gates Foundation, told Barrett that Kennedy “didn’t have anything to do” with obtaining the $51 million.
If opinions differ on Kennedy’s role as an administrator, her positions on several major education issues have proven even harder to nail down.
Maybe if Caroline Kennedy voted more often she would be up to date on the issues when it mattered to the people of New York. The gaps in voting (1989, 1993, 1994, 1997, 2002, 2005) remind us of “present” Obama and his excuses and chicanery (not to mention the “mistaken” votes).
Governor David Paterson must make a serious Senate, not social calendar, appointment. There are other, actually qualified and vetted, candidates.
http://www.hillaryis44.org/?p=823
Can anyone here please inform me of any long term job Caroline has ever held besides author? Hillary Is 44’s latest post lists Caroline’s *lack of* accomplishments. Guess she thought she could breeze her way right into the Senate like everything else in her life.
From Hillary is 44:
http://www.hillaryis44.org/?p=823
After spending a few hours a day for two years Caroline Kennedy had a book to sell so she went on a book tour.
When she left, The New York Times wrote: “For months after she started, even some high-level education officials said they were not quite sure what she did. In an interview about eight months into her tenure, she would not say how often she worked at the department headquarters or how many hours she spent on the job, saying only, ‘I put in as much time as I can.’”
Like Obama’s “community organizing”, Caroline Kennedy was given credit for the work of others.
You don’t have to take my other comment out of moderation. The quotes I took from Hillary is 44 were too long so I cut it down. But I highly recommend that everyone read that website.
Speechless
This is the headline on Yahoo:
Kennedy says 9/11, Obama led her to public service
I don’t remember her speaking out against the war. She certainly wasn’t beside me as I marched against it.
And the reasons she gave for supporting O: her kids liked him (agghhhhhhhh) and people told her he sounded like her father and gave them hope.
Where was she all these years??? Was she writing to the NYTimes? No. Was she speaking out? No. She was waiting for The One.
My natural father was a bulldozer operator. During the time he was in my life my mother was primarily a full time mother. She was a secretary when they met and did a brief stint as a cocktail waitress(father got her fired, was not happy with wife wearing a cocktail leotard). After my father was out of the picture my mother worked as a clerk at Juvenile court. Presently she is a property clerk at a county jail in Florida. Two of my siblings are sheriffs deputies. My brother in law is a state police officer.
My spouse works for Norfolk Southern. His father worked for Morfolk Southern, although he worked as a company official in accounting. My husband’s grandfather worked for Norfolk Southern as an engineer(and initially got my father in law the job at Norfolk Southern as a janitor).
I have had no desire to walk in my parent’s footsteps growing up. As a matter of fact I went out of my way to not to. I went in the military initially to ensure I could care for myself if need be When I hit e3 I surpassed my father. I presently am a full time parent and the home caretaker. I won’t promise to work twice as hard because I already work incredibly hard and have done so because it is a labor of love.
I’m sorry if this has already been mentioned but Hillary was named USA Today’s #1 most admired woman. Sarah Palin was #2 and Condoleeza Rice was #3.
Unfortunately, BO was #1 for the men. GW was #2 and John McCain was #3. Bill Clinton fell somewhere else on the list.
GW is the 2nd most admired man and BO is the first? That explains a lot. Where the hell did they get these results from? I know I wasn’t polled.
My Dad owned a small family delicatessen in Brooklyn. I am the world’s best sandwich maker and my potato salad is to die for, but I became a lawyer.
Hi All — I’m back in for a moment. Thank you all for the lively, sober discussion of the topic AND also to everyone who shared about their or their family’s job/career. I find it really interesting — and honora, YUM!!! I’m salivating for one of your sandwiches with some potato salad on the side.
honora, does your family still own a deli? I’d love to try one of your sandwiches and potato salad sometime
my dad was an estate analyst (whatever that means) and my mom was a high school guidance director. my sister is a speech therapist, my brother is a musician, and at age 55 I’m still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. there doesn’t seem to be a family business or even a shared interest in anything. I do have a masters degree in public administration (whatever that is – government? oh please) but that was earned many years ago and was more about wanting to stay in school and not wanting to have to start working.
on the other hand, I am a recent empty nester and my last name is kennedy (honestly), so maybe……I ought to be in the senate! can I use someone’s NY address?
My parents didn’t have careers, they had jobs, each one a little better than the last, but a series of blue collar jobs, nonetheless. Being “upwardly mobile” as all black families were supposed to aspire to be in the sixties onward, we also lived in a series of apartments in “changing neighborhoods,” moving each time the lease was up and the neighborhood had sufficiently changed, seemingly overnight, with the fleeing white families taking their goods and services with them, leaving nice neighborhoods with empty storefronts on main streets. Though my mother eventually retired with 25 years at the phone company, she turned a job into a career. I settled for a career on the fringes of show biz, which means changing jobs every other day or so. Not quite, but almost.
well caroline, you have had let’s see 8 years or better to speak out and seek public service after 9/11. you know dear like run for office. but you never did that. you were too busy “being fabulous”. (new eagles song) so excuse if i get even further irriated at you for being cluless and stupid enough to try and use obama’s gimmick. dang girl, i thought you had at least some smarts but i was wrong.
Anytime I see the word(s) “skill-set” I want to barf. I immediately think “Microsoftie type.” Tech writers who make opaque manuals about bloated inefficient software.
And yeah, I know I’m generalizing and opinionizing.
Since she had her own pony as a child, Caroline may think she has the experience necessary to deal with the pony distribution problems that will arise once people realize that the have indeed been spammed (a lot).
stodgie, when I read what Caroline said I puked in my mouth a little. Isn’t 9/11 every politician’s excuse for anything these days? It reminds me of Michelle Obama’s comment about being proud of her country for the first time. Things like 9/11 or having your husband run for office shouldn’t instill feelings that should’ve been there a long time ago.
You’re right, stodgie. Caroline, with all of her money and connections, waited 8 years after 9/11 to seek public service when a senate seat she doesn’t have to run for conveniently appears. Shouldn’t the daughter of a former president with no apparent career have had the sense to get involved with public service decades ago? Shouldn’t the wife of a senator, who had the privilege of graduating from ivy league schools and has the luxury of vacationing at a million dollar home in Hawaii, been proud of her country before 2008?
This is pure B.S. Caroline wants the Senate seat because it is there and she has the name and connections to take it without campaigning. And she is riding on Obama’s coattails. I hope she’s bullshitting because it would be sad if a backtracking Chicago pol was the one person who led her to public service and not her father or late uncle.
oh Mt Laurel, she does have pony credentials. I had forgotten about that.
Well roofingbird, it’s not the VOTERS who have to explain why they don’t want CK. The way democracy is supposed to work is that it’s the candidate who has to explain to the voters how he/she is qualified. CK cannot pull an Obama and call racist anybody who asks for credentials. BTW, do we actually know where was BO born?
So Caroline had a pony and that is one of her qualifications… Can’t top that? Well Barack lived in Indonesia when he was 10 so he has foreign policy experience. How about that?
Okay, I’ve given Caroline a bit of a break because she lost her father in service to his country. The problem is that a lot of people have lost their parents in service to their country but they’re not expecting to be handed an elective position from one of the most populated states.
She needs to quit playing the princess.
Don’t know if you saw this. It came out a few weeks ago but got quite a bit of play on local right-wing talk radio (which I listen to now in the aftermath of this election).
http://www.nypost.com/seven/12112008/news/regionalnews/caroline_equals_j_lo__dem_143651.htm
Then this appeared in the NY Daily News. Looks like her PR machine didn’t make the sale.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/12/24/2008-12-24_caroline_kennedy_is_no_frontrunner_peeve.html
lady boomer: I’m glad to see you back again! Brilliant, just brilliant. Gosh, I wish I could pay you guys.
Btw, I’ve really enjoyed reading everyone’s histories, too. My parents were laborers and I worked my way through college because I wanted a different kind of life. I never wanted to wear a uniform or take orders. I ended up in middle management in law enforcement, wearing a uniform and taking (and giving) orders.
The need for good health insurance can be viewed as limiting or inspiring, I suppose, depending on one’s pov.
The Gov. can appoint whoever the Gov wants to appoint. In the past, the spouse of a deceased representative would be appointed to sit the rest of the term. The qualifications of the spouse have never been questioned.
However, why is this different.? I am bothered by this too and I would be bothered of John Jr was appointed, but I think the public would have accepted it better?
Gee, thanks RD! It feels good to use my blogger muscles again. I, too, wish that blogging was a paid sport — but then I’d probably hate doing it, tee hee — nah, I’d still love it. Actually, you were some of the inspiration for this post: I thought, anyone couldn’t be a cancer scientist just because they worked twice as hard.
Linda C., on December 26th, 2008 at 10:18 pm Said:
The Gov. can appoint whoever the Gov wants to appoint. In the past, the spouse of a deceased representative would be appointed to sit the rest of the term. The qualifications of the spouse have never been questioned.
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That was true for the first woman elected to the Senate. She was appointed following the death of her husband, was elected a year later and was elected to two more full terms.
Caroline Kennedy just succeeded in helping to elect the least experienced candidate for President in the history of the U.S. Why shouldn’t she now think that it is not only possible, but business as usual for another inexperienced completely unqualified person to take on the Senate?
Venus, on December 26th, 2008 at 9:37 pm Said:
Well roofingbird, it’s not the VOTERS who have to explain why they don’t want CK. The way democracy is supposed to work is that it’s the candidate who has to explain to the voters how he/she is qualified. CK cannot pull an Obama and call racist anybody who asks for credentials. BTW, do we actually know where was BO born?
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Venus, unfortunately there will be no voters in this case. Therefore, is seems incumbent on those who care to be loud and articulate on voicing their questions in such a way as to assure that Patterson makes a choice that he can know is right for him.
CK can in fact pull an Obama, if citizens don’t react before the appointment. If you attempt to negate her because she is a Kennedy who was an Obama supporter, I believe you will not prevail.
As SHV says, the Guv can appoint whomever he chooses.
My dad was first a house painter with his dad, shoveled gravel, then became a janitor for US Steel. He worked his way up to Director of Research and Engineering. He had two terms of college or two weeks of Andrew Carnegie, depending on to whom you speak. He was a lifelong inventor and became an international private consultant to steel firms.
My mother was a homemaker. Following expectations, I was raised as an ornament, artist and homemaker. I had some college but did not have a job until I was 22. Oops, 20 – I had one for 2 weeks and quit because the employer yelled at everyone. My first real paid job at 22 was a a cocktail waitress. I became a bartender, then a jobs counselor, then bartender, book clerk and bookstore manager, then chiropractic help, then roofer, then bricklayer, then inspector, then project manager, then consultant. I’m working on whatever the next step is now.
After 35 years of marriage my parents divorced and my mother went back to school and got a RN degree. My father remarried. Near my father’s death, he told me that I was the one always watching him out in his shop, ( I was the older daughter, not the son.) and he had figured I would wind up where I was.
I have wondered what would have happened If he had let me touch the tools and encouraged me to work, instead of dressing to be pleasing.
Still, I can sew if I have to, and cook whatever I want, clean a house, diaper a baby, run a hobby farm, live in the woods, re-roof a building, waterproof a deck, dig a ditch, identify and stop just about any kind of exterior leak, move and maintain a swing stage, grind, clean and seal brickwork, show architects how to improve their work, argue a recalcitrant worker into doing the right thing, act as expert witness, review, document evaluate and write endless reports on the differences 1/32” can make to watertight integrity in aged buildings, take photos from the sides of 100 story buildings on a wind blown platform, and stand toe to toe over getting a job done.
Fascinating, roofiningbird! If you please: what are “a hobby farm” and “a swing stage”?
My hobby farm was a very small old homestead piece in OR where we raised chickens, rabbits, turkeys, hogs, fruit and nuts, vegetables etc, and imagined we would make a little income. We did feed our family pretty well.
A swing stage is a metal platform strung from two cables with motors and attached to the parapet or roof of a building. It is much like a giant swing. Using the motors, it climbs up and down the cables, and thus the building. If you think about it you have seen them – window washers use them, etc.
Roofingbird — thanks! Your hobby farm sounds like it was a sweet situation. I know y’all must have worked hard, though. You have invaluable skills for tough times.
Yes it was, and it would be nice to be back there right now! Instead, this year’s choice is whether to take down the mistletoe ridden maple in the back yard(That still provides a little shade and comfort for the lone hummingbird.), in order to accommodate a 4′x8′ vegetable plot. The other choice is to assume there will be another CA drought and expect water rationing.
And yes LB, actually I was blessed. It’s all worth learning. Whether it’s manners or concrete grinders, you just never know what will come in handy.