On American royalty

I don't have anything against Caroline Kennedy. She's an educated woman and has done fine work in the field of education reform, and I don't doubt she'd be a smarter Senator than, say, James "Global Warming is a Global Hoax" Inhofe. And it's hard to deny that the Kennedy name doesn't carry with it some inherent power. As newly-libera(l)ted columnist Kathleen Parker points out,

The question for detractors isn't so much whether she's qualified, smart enough or even experienced enough. Respectively, "no," "yes," and "it may not matter" are reasonable responses. Among her qualifications is an ability to raise money and broker deals on the weight of her name. That such power is endowed by birthright doesn't diminish its political value

I don't disagree. But the salient point is, with Caroline as the new Kennedy standard-bearer, will she add to or subtract from that powerful name? "Bush" used to be one of the most powerful names in conservative politics, until Dubya came along and drove his family name into the ground. The fact that he was son of a president and grandson of the legendary Prescott Bush was supposed to be enough for us, as if political shrewdness is a dominant Y-linked gene.

Again, I have nothing against Caroline Kennedy. If she wants to run for Hillary's Senate seat, more power to her, and I don't doubt that her last name alone will be worth a few votes. Such is the power of name recognition in American politics (see also: Clinton, Biden, Udall, Schwarzennegger, and coming soon: Obama). But to simply appoint an untested scion of an important political family, one who has *zero* legislative experience, is to invite disaster in any number of ways.

For one thing, she's going about this process all wrong. Instead of appealing to her desired constituency, she's taking her requests straight to the top, even pressing controversial political figures for their endorsement, while dodging honest questions from reporters ala Sarah Palin. It even turns out that she's not particularly personally invested in the democratic process, having failed to vote in a number of elections recently.

The reality is that political dynasties will always be a part of American politics, but that doesn't mean we should roll over and accept it. For my part, I think NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo (himself a member of a minor political dynasty) would be a far shrewder pick. For one thing, his issue profile isn't embarrassingly slim. But he's also been tested by the voters in New York state, has his own political power base, and while he is not a legislator per se, he has had occasion to work with the NY statehouse and presumably understands how deals are made. Also, in a shrewd political calculation, for Gov. Paterson to appoint him would remove the leading potential primary challenger to Paterson himself when he's next up for re-election.

Hopefully, Governor Paterson won't be blinded by Caroline's star power (okay, a poor metaphor to use in this case). But I'm not holding my breath.