Lessons from the Senators Kennedy
Caroline Kennedy's New York Senate candidacy is reportedly underway, and it will be rough. When Robert Kennedy finally decided to make a go at the same seat in August 1964, he predicted to his wife Ethel that he'd start out ahead, fall behind in October and then come back to win -- which is exactly what happened. It looks like the same bumpy road is ahead for his niece, with a much less certain outcome.
Questions about inexperience and nepotism are circulating, which shouldn't come as a surprise: no Kennedy has ever gone for his or her first elected office without such talk. A few wilted but most withstood the early criticisms, and the bright side is that these concerns fade with astounding speed once the race moves on to real issues.
The difference in this situation is that Ms. Kennedy would be a Senator before she is a candidate, so instead of proving herself in a campaign, she has to do it as a freshman legislator. Of course, there are hundreds of examples to look to, but the natural comparisons she can expect are to the Senators Kennedy she aspires to follow: John, Ted and Robert. It's a mixed bag of aspects to both emulate and avoid.
Her father's career there was unremarkable, but that was just the nature of the Senate at the time: it did not suffer freshman gladly. The perfect example comes from early in his first term, when he wandered to the front of chamber to chat up Arizona's Carl Hayden, by then one of the longest serving members in history (and still is today). The curious freshman asked Hayden what had changed about the Senate since his arrival during the Coolidge administration. Hayden replied with a dose of wryness, "New members did not speak in those days." John Kennedy's greatest accomplishment during his Senate career happened in fundraising dinners around the country, where he built up a network to launch his presidential campaign.
Ted Kennedy most readily took to the club politics of the Senate when he arrived in November 1962. Professing to be in it for the long haul, he went through the motions: waiting 16 months before delivering his maiden speech, attending the prayer breakfasts and, legend has it, going whiskey for whiskey with Mississippi's James O. Eastland at 10:30 in the morning (though allegedly alternating sips with dumping it into a wastebasket whenever Mr. Chairman wasn't looking). He got the subcommittee assignment he wanted from Eastland without even having to ask. Everyone seemed to like him.
Respect him? Not so much. It was clear he was not a mover in the White House. He was the president's 30 year-old kid brother, once expelled from Harvard for cheating, who often stumbled over his words. It wasn't hard for his colleagues to think of him as a dunce, if a charming one at that. But surviving a plane crash in June of 1964 changed him. In lieu of surgery to repair his broken back, he spent the rest of that year strapped to a hospital bed far from the Washington social scene. He devoted this newly found time to reeducating himself on the important issues of the day. Intellectual friends sent readings and came to tutor him, and by the time he limped back into the Senate in January, he was a new man, soon leading the first of his many major legislative battles.
The takeaway lesson for Caroline from Uncle Ted is that charm alone does not make a good Senator. Nor does proximity to the president, no matter how much you've done for him. Adam Clymer, Ted's excellent biographer, writes about Ben Bradlee seeing President Kennedy "roaring with laughter" as the young Senator appealed to him for help on a legislative issue. "Tough shit," was the President's reply to his long list of local grievances.
Robert Kennedy came to the Senate having been closer to the presidency than anyone. Yet the "Assistant President," as some called him, avoided national politics... as long as he could anyway. He began highly focused on the issues of his adopted state, New York, with special care toward the Republican-leaning areas. He took a fact-finding tour of upstate cities and towns within a month of his election, and was on the Senate floor within four weeks of his swearing in to secure increased federal aid for the Southern Tier counties. He lobbied the Veterans Administration to prevent the shuttering of some hospitals. Such early (and successful) initiative was uncommon for a new member in those days, and rankled his colleagues. But by then it was 1965. Robert's defiance of protocol was a harbinger of the times to come, and his effort on local issues paid off great political dividends.
How he did with New York's Democratic power brokers was a different story. Though his election to the Senate broke a ten-year Democratic losing streak for the significant statewide offices, he floundered in the intra-party struggles. He didn't have a major victory until June 1966, and even then it was short-lived. Caroline Kennedy would do well to focus on serving her constituents, but staying out of local turf wars.
But the most important way Ms. Kennedy should emulate her family in the Senate is by making specific policy statements and putting out white papers on every issue, big and small. When Robert Kennedy's Senate candidacy was suffering, he put aides to work on dairy farm price supports and maritime issues. Ted Kennedy would go to small towns and answer every last question to prove he was not a lightweight.
No matter how well Caroline Kennedy does in her first few years, she will repeatedly hear how she's just a name, how she's more interested in serving herself than the people of New York, or how she's not living up to the Kennedys who came before her. What she should remember is that it's all been said before about those very same people.
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This is our caste system in a nutshell.
Caroline Kennedy is not as bad as the worst possible senator, so she's good enough. This is because she's from a wealthy, well-connected, famous family. Not becoming an embarrassment to her father's name is all she needs to do be held in high esteem.
A commoner who runs for office is considered grasping, corrupt, and vain unless proven otherwise. Why else would such a person run for office? To be respected, such a person must be without flaw or error for his or her entire life.
If the Senate can survive Rick Santorum, it can certainly survive Caroline, if appointed.hgb
No doubt. But the point to me is that Caroline Kennedy has paid no dues! Not unlike Sarah Palin. Not on the national stage. Not in any substantive manner. She's never really had a real job. No, Fran Drescher isn't qualified either. They're both just names. I'm as qualified as either of them. Maybe more so. Now if it was RFK Jr, I'd be on board. But, sorry, as charming as she is, it doesn't seem right or fair and I was hoping for more from the new Dems in charge.
hellooo Do you know the qualifications of al those 535 members of congress? How many just got there because they wetre Reps ina rep. district or they had more money? How qualified was Sonny Bono and his wife who gets re elected again and again? Have you ever heard let alone see her make a speech on C span! There are many Senators, who never ran for anything before. DR Friost, Thompson of TN, Carper of TN, Corizine, Letenberg, etc etc.
Just because some one has name like hers, shoudnt disqualify, atleast she knows what politics and govt are all about. Her last name is Schossberg!
Most junior Senators don't have any experience coming into government. They tend to come from outside Washington with successful careers. Some come through state level political office, but not all of them.
Junior Senator is an entry level job!
Being appointed to a senate seat without prior experience is not unheard of. Some women have been appointed those seats when their husbands died in office. These women went on to be successful senators. Everybody has to start somewhere and George Bush had no experience other than being the offspring of politicians, when he got into politics. Sometimes the character of the person has as much to do with, if not more, the sucess that person will have.
I know it smacks of nepotism and entitlement, but I think Caroline Kennedys should get the senate seat. Her family has done a lot for this country in terms of sacrifice and public service. She has the intellect to handle the job and I think she'll do well. Let us not kid ourselves into believing we live in a system where people get their po
If it HAS to be a Kennedy (and I'm not saying it should be), inexperience is her best asset. Try naming anyone else in the Kennedy stable who doesn't have baggage.
Nepotism?! I did not know that Mr Paterson the Gov. of NY or Hillary were related to Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg!
Caroline is not doing this for personal gain, she doesn't need the money, she already has a much higher social standing than a Senator. The point is that she is obviously doing this out of wanting to do public service, she has always stayed away from the cameras, is has been said she is shy. There are people saying she doesn't have the experience to be a Senator, I disagree. Being a Senator is more about having morals, good judgement, and the ability to get people to come together on issues. This isn't rocket science or brain surgery where you actually have to study for the occupation. People have come from all walks of life and became Senators, in fact there are doctors, lawyers, ball players, actors, astronauts, etc. In fact the people who were not in politics before becoming a Senator is not a short list, and they have also been very successful at the job. So this "qualified" is just a smokescreen for the real issue, they just don't like her, or don't want her, esp the Clinton supporters because she came out for Obama.
The Clintonistas are afraid of Kennedy for only one reason. If Kennedy becomes a popular senator from New York, she will someone who could seriously challenge Hillary's run for the presidency in 2016. In fact, Clintonwould be faced with a very similar situation all over again. A very popular, relatively inexperienced upstart, except this time, with the entire Kennedy dynastic tradition would *attached* to the challenger! It would be a slaughter, and Clinton knows it. She can't compete with Caroline.
Clinton is running for President. Kennedy is a threat. She wants Kennedy out of the picture.
Gee, whatever happened to being an INTERN?
As far as I am aware, no other Kennedy got APPOINTED on their maiden cruise.
I'd be interested in a comparison of how other APPOINTEES fared in their first election.
The author's point of her being questioned because it's her first elected office is not true,
she's looking to be appointed. No annoying peon voters to deal with. Once you have the advantage of
two years experience it will be almost impossible to compete with her. That's why you're starting to hear rumblings of Chelsea Clinton being interested. No appointments, special elections only I'm sick
of the annointed class.
Whoever takes the post will be appointed; there's nothing special about Caroline Kennedy in that regard. People seem to be ignoring the fact that it's Paterson who makes the appointment; Kennedy can't appoint herself. And he will only appoint her if he thinks that would be good for NY, the country, and the Dem party.
Now that Caroline has thrown her hat publically into the arena, following well-publicized conversations with Governor Paterson, he will have no choice but to appoint her. She knows that and all the Kennedys advising her know that. Paterson cannot risk alienating the whole Kennedy clan. That would be the end of his political aspirations forever.
The point is NOT that Caroline is unqualified - the point is that when a person like a Kennedy has such a lopsided advantage, or a person has so much money and elite connections (Obama), they eliminate the possibility of someone even gettiong their foor in the door who might be more qualified, and who has a point of view which is even more valuable than Ivy League law school graduates.
Obama had more money and elite connections than Clinton?
Really sad. It is true life is tough, But the people of New York eventually will elect their Senator.The Gov. will appoint who ever he feels is the best ,taking into consideartion, his future plans as well as the chances of the Senator holding on to the seat, for as long as New Yorkers want.
Carolyn is the right girl for this job.. She will be one of the few that doesnt have a felony in congress and thats a good thing..
"no Kennedy has ever gone for his or her first elected office without such talk"
Exactly the point. She won't have been "elected"...to anything...ever. It'll just be based on name recognition.
She seems nice and all, but so what? I'm nice. Appoint me!
"To the evil of monarchy we have added that of hereditary succession; and as the first is a degradation and lessening of ourselves, so the second, claimed as a matter of right, is an insult and imposition on posterity.
"For all men being originally equals, no one by birth could have a right to set up his own family in perpetual preference to all others for ever, and tho' himself might deserve some decent degree of honours of his contemporaries, yet his descendants might be far too unworthy to inherit them."
-- Thomas Paine, Common Sense.
It's an appointment, not a hereditary succession. The way people are writing, you would think her name was Caroline Clinton.
No, I'm certain that her royal name has nothing to do with her being taken seriously as a candidate for this post.
Why don't we just dissolve the Senate and form a House of Lords?
-- MrJM
That because it's true.
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