EMBARRASSMENT

Posted at 7:33 a.m. ET

Readers have probably noticed that we've emphasized the Caroline Kennedy story, and for good reason:  Her appointment to the U.S. Senate by Governor David Paterson would be a national, even an international story.  She would immediately, voluntarily or not, be part of the presidential sweepstakes.  And she has three children approaching office-holding age. 

There is also the issue of propriety, of appearance.  The national press is still treating this as a bit of a feature story.  However, Judith Warner in The New York Times has written a fine piece articulating what many here in New York feel.  I never thought I'd be quoting Judith Warner, but give credit where it's due:

Caroline Kennedy is, by all accounts, a smart, decent and very capable woman. There is no reason why she shouldn’t enter politics and why she couldn’t have a good shot at winning an election.

That doesn’t mean she should be handed Hillary Clinton’s soon-to-be-vacated United States Senate seat.

Running for office and getting a high-class government handout are two very different things.

That's the point.  Even Hillary Clinton, no queen of propriety, ran for the Senate when she came to New York, in her last year as first lady.  It was widely calculated that, had the GOP put up a credible candidate, she could have been defeated.  The GOP did not put up a strong candidate.

We are living in a moment when all the machinations, the corner-cutting, the inside deals, mutual back-scratching and indifference to the larger world of our nation’s wealthiest and most interconnected have led us straight into the ground. We’ve just elected a president who’s sworn to clean things up. We’re in the middle of a political-appointment fiasco in Illinois.

Thanks for reminding us of Illinois.  We have one Senate-appointment scandal.  We don't need another.

With lawmakers and taxpayers eyeing bonuses and corporate jets with angry incredulity, we’ve arrived, after years of worshipping the very wealthy, at what could be a very positive time of reckoning. This change could go a long way toward restoring people’s faith in the fairness and decency of our leaders and institutions.

In keeping with the times, it would be an appealing act of humility if Caroline Kennedy aimed her first shot at politics a bit lower — say, at the House of Representatives.

Or, she could become an ambassador to a developing nation and try to do some good.

I do think that the next United States senator from New York ought to be someone who has worked for the honor. Clearly, Caroline can’t, for the sake of her political viability — or her likability with people like me — suddenly remake herself into someone who has worked for a living. But at this point, with so many people struggling so arduously just to get by, any effort at all would be appreciated.

Finally...

Caroline doesn’t have to be a fairy-tale princess anymore. She can be her own white knight, vaulting the Kennedys proudly into the 21st century, if only she plays by the rules and waits her turn.

I think that says it very well.  If Governor Paterson appoints her, it just will send a very bad signal at a very sensitive time.  If some hack is appointed in Illinois to fill the Obama seat, that signal will flash with double intensity.  Is this the change we can believe in?

December 19, 2008.