Results tagged “carolinekennedy”

Remember when Caroline Kennedy was, you know, thinking about, you know, taking over Hillary Clinton's, you know, Senate seat? Governor Paterson seemed poised to appoint her but then she dropped out quickly and all these rumors about tax problems or issues with a domestic worker popped up...and it turned out the leaks were from Paterson's own staff! Well, nine months later, Paterson won't have to face heat over that, because the state's Ethics Panel doesn't think there's anything to it.

The Marist Institute for Public Opinion polled Americans about what the most annoying word used in conversation is, and "whatever" won out with 47% of the vote. "Anyway" and "you know" (Caroline Kennedy's favorite) came in close, and completely beat out "at the end of the day," which received only 2% of the vote. Whatevs, I tots use it like, all the time when I txt my bffl. LOL! And vote on which word/phrase you think is most annoying:

Rep. Peter King (R-Long Island) was considering challenging Senator Kirsten Gillibrand next year, but now says he's not running. Why not? He can't compete with Gilly's money... or her blandness, saying that the new junior Senator "generates neither strong support nor opposition," thus making it "virtually impossible" to raise money against her in state that has many more registered Democrats than Republicans.

Before Ted Kennedy made his way down to Washington and onto his burial at Arlington National Ceremony, he was bid adieu Friday night by New York's most famous living Kennedy, his niece Caroline. After she and her cousin Robert greeted some of the thousands of visitors at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library, Caroline spoke before the crowd in a tribute to her Uncle Teddy. She described her moment of reflection the night he died saying, "I looked up and there was this one star hanging low in the sky that was just bigger than all the rest and brighter than all the rest. I know it was Jupiter but it was acting a lot like Teddy." Still unable to shake her botched attempt to fill the Senate seat of Hillary Clinton at the beginning of this year, the News introduced her speech by immediately mentioning that her last time in front of the cameras as "a tentative, tongue-tied U.S. Senate hopeful." Yesterday Caroline played a less vocal but still visible trole during the funeral, serving as one of her uncle's pallbearers at his funeral.

Matt Lauer gave it the old college try with Caroline Kennedy today, using her appearance on the Today Show (to plug the Kennedy Profiles in Courage awards) as a chance to solve the ongoing mystery over why she dropped her bid to occupy Hillary Clinton's vacated Senate seat. A Vanity Fair excerpt of the forthcoming book Ted Kennedy: The Dream That Never Died cited an unnamed "family adviser's" assertion that Kennedy's children had intervened and begged her to drop her campaign, telling her "that if she was getting this worked up just getting the job, they didn't want to see what she would be like in the trenches of a political campaign or a fight in Washington."

It wasn't tax problems, it wasn't because Governor Paterson wasn't going to pick her, it wasn't because of the indignity of the process—it was for the children. That's how a new book about Ted Kennedy spins Caroline Kennedy's abrupt withdrawal from her push to win Hillary Clinton's senate seat. A Vanity Fair excerpt from Edward Klein's forthcoming book Ted Kennedy: The Dream That Never Died cites an unidentified family adviser's account of Caroline's oldest daughter (pictured) pleading with her, "Mom, you are above this." And her other children "told her that if she was getting this worked up just getting the job, they didn't want to see what she would be like in the trenches of a political campaign or a fight in Washington." The intervention reportedly "jerked Caroline back to reality," and the family friend insists that "after that conversation, she wouldn't have taken the job if Paterson had come begging on his hands and knees." The book, which examines the internecine power struggles currently roiling the Kennedy clan, also suggests that Caroline was only trying to please her ailing uncle Ted, who was pressing her to become a senator "almost like a last wish."

The NY Times reports that three watchdog groups are urging the NY State ethics panel to investigate leaks that came as Caroline Kennedy's Senate bid unraveled. Per a letter, the groups say "the commission needs to determine whether the Paterson administration violated state laws by leaking confidential information about Ms. Kennedy as part of a political strategy aimed at deflecting blame for her withdrawal." After Kennedy decided not to seek Hillary Clinton's vacated Senate seat, sources from Governor Paterson's office offered a myriad of reasons why Paterson never going to choose her anyway; one told the Post that "the governor 'had no intention' of picking Caroline Kennedy for New York's vacant senate seat - because she was 'mired' in an issue over taxes, her nanny and possibly her marriage." Paterson even admitted the leaks were from his staff, but claimed not to know who made them. The watchdog groups think a probe would help "[clear] the executive chamber from a lingering ethical taint or [vindicate] the public’s interest by restoring integrity to the appointment process.”

    

Last night was the the 84th annual Inner Circle charity dinner, featuring a musical sendup of local politicians and reporters at the Hilton. The showstopper of the night was Mayor Bloomberg, joined by the cast of The Little Mermaid, performing "Terms of Endurement," about his dilemma around his wish for a third term.

Governor Paterson is hoping that he has discovered the necessary glue required to put his tattered administration back together again with the announcement that his former right hand man, Charles O'Byrne, will return to his team in a volunteer role in preparation for the 2010 campaign. Just a few days ago Paterson had called the return of his former chief of staff "a fascinating idea." O'Byrne had resigned in the fall following revelations that he had failed to pay taxes for several years because he claimed that he was too depressed to do so.

       

Last night, Caroline Kennedy made her first public appearance since stepping out of the Senate seat hunt last month. She was attending the opening of designer Giorgio Armani's new Emporio Armani flagship store. The evening was also a celebration of Armani's $1 million donation to the Fund for Public Schools (Kennedy is the co-chair).

Recently engaged Fred Armisen's impression of Governor Paterson seems to to have really touched a nerve in the zeitgeist. Today the Times was going after the slapstick portrayal saying it was put on by "comedy writers with frat-boy sensibilities " and was a "level of humor might fairly be described as sophomoric were that not an insult to sophomores." Despite this week's sendup focusing on satirizing the governor's penchant for one-liners, the Times echoes some of the same criticisms lobbed SNL's way in December when the sketch was dubbed so offensive by many that even the governor went out of his way to criticize the show's treatment of the disabled. But Armisen has nothing on BBC host Jeremy Clarkson who many across the pond want fired for calling British Prime Minister Gordon Brown "a one-eyed idiot." (He's blind in one eye.) Meanwhile a Newsday blog puts forth a conspiracy theory that a show as big as SNL going after a local figure as Paterson could be revenge for Lorne Michael's friend, Caroline Kennedy.

The hits keep coming towards Governor David Paterson, for how he handled appointing a replacement to Hillary Clinton's Senate seat. Specifically, how his aides spun the crumbling of Caroline Kennedy's Senate bid fast and furious through quotes to the press.

Daily Intel reports that spies spotted former Senate aspirant Caroline Kennedy and Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels (and their spouses, plus other people) having dinner at Morandi last night: "Lorne and Caroline were intensely in conversation, to the exclusion of the rest of the table...Near the end of the meal, an affogato was passed to Caroline. They left at around 11. Lorne Michaels paid the check." Daily Intel suspects/hopes an SNL appearance is in short order and so do we: Fred Armisen can play Governor Paterson again and Abby Elliot or Casey Wilson can be Kirsten Gillibrand!

On Tuesday, the Post described Governor Paterson's anonymous aide who had leaked rumors about Caroline Kennedy's withdrawal from the Senate consideration as someone who is "about as close to him during the day as his wife is at night." That might not have sat so well with the first lady as yesterday Michelle Paige Paterson sent out an email to friends decrying the downstate papers' "horrid treatment of David." Mrs. Paterson emailed friends telling them that "the new media has gotten out of control" and pleaded with them to write letters to the editor (which, of course, she provided a template for). The Post also notes that the first lady was reprimanded by her employer, EmblemHeath, for sending out the email on her company account (did they tattle on her?!). The Post used news of the email as an opportunity to publish their Pinocchio Paterson Photoshop job for the third day in a row. Not surprisingly, new poll numbers show Paterson's approval numbers are down after the week of flogging he's received in the press.

With numerous "sources" giving varied rumored reasons for why Caroline Kennedy ceased her Senate bid—taxes, Uncle Ted, a nanny, an affair— many people criticized the leaks; Mayor Bloomberg called them "cheap, dirty politics." While Governor Paterson admitted leaks were coming from his staff and condemned then, he refused to investigate them and claimed he doesn't know who made the leaks. However, Post's Fred Dicker says Paterson is a "liar. The person responsible for the smear was an individual whose identity is well known to the press, whose full-time job is to do the governor's bidding, and who is intelligent enough not to call reporters to damage Kennedy's reputation without approval from the top - and that means Paterson." Driving home the point, the Post Photoshopped Pinocchio's nose (and hat and hair and tie) on the governor. Paterson later said, "I had nothing to do with any negative characterizations of any of the candidates, particularly Caroline Kennedy, who withdrew from the process." Next: The Post Photoshops Paterson's pants on fire?

A Quinnipiac poll puts the blame on Caroline Kennedy for mishandling the Senate bid: The Staten Island Advance reveals, "49% of those polled felt she and her aides were to blame," compared to 15% who thought Governor Paterson messed it up and 12% who believe both Kennedy and Paterson screwed up. NY Magazine's cover story is about Kennedy follies: "The appointment was destined to be a mess—how could it not be? The cast of characters involved in choosing a new junior senator for New York included a lapsed priest, three of the country’s most bare-knuckled political dynasties, and an imperious mayor." (NY Mag writer Chris Smith adds that Kennedy ran up against the Times' city staff which had "grown a pair of balls" after covering Mayor Bloomberg's term limits challenge.) Now Paterson's staff is accused of leaking information about skeletons in Kennedy's closet, which apparently ended her Senate seat hunt; Paterson condemned the leaks, adding, "I don't think there's any public interest that's served by finding out why somebody chose to take a different course in their lives."

When Kirsten Gillibrand gets sworn into the US Senate tomorrow, she will not only be the newest member of the legislative body, she will also be the youngest senator at 42. While she hasn't seemed particularly nervous or uneasy with what many see as a surprising selection from Governor Paterson, she admitted today (on Today) that like most, she "assumed (Caroline Kennedy) would be the senator."

Not surprisingly after two months of buildup and a tumultuous road to get to its finish line, the conclusion of selecting a replacement for Senator Hillary Clinton did not go out with a whimper. Instead, many of the storylines that had manifested themselves culminated this week with Governor Paterson's ultimate selection of Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand.

Two congressional sources are telling WPIX that Governor Paterson will announce tomorrow that he is naming upstate Representative Kirsten Gillibrand as our next Senator. Gillibrand represents a rural district including parts of the Adirondacks, Catskills and Hudson Valley. She has described her own voting record as "one of the most conservative in the state" and is known for being a staunch supporter of gun rights (raising the ire of fellow Dem Carolyn McCarthy) and voting against both versions of the $700 billion bailout.

It sounds like the Camelot clan is about as fond of Caroline as they were of William Kennedy Smith in the early nineties right now. Reports are that those close to Ted Kennedy are furious over Caroline apparently using her uncle's health struggles as an apparent smoke screen to drop out of her bid for Senate. One aide told Time, "It looks horrible. It makes him look like he is at death's door." And someone "close to the family" added insult to injury telling the magazine, "Everything that was special about her got stripped away." The latest report from the Times on why Kennedy withdrew says that the "personal reason" speculated as a motivation today is "problems involving taxes and a household employee." And if his niece crying wolf on his condition wasn't bad enough, Ted Kennedy's wikipedia page was just edited to claim he had died on Tuesday.

Caroline Kennedy's sudden, apparently last-minute decision to abandon her Senate bid is the talk of the Empire State, you know? After varying reports about why she was ditching the chance to be junior Senator—her uncle's failing health, learning that Governor David Paterson wasn't going to choose her— plus one on saying she dropping out, Kennedy did nothing to clear things by only saying in a statement, "I informed Governor Paterson today that for personal reasons I am withdrawing my name from consideration for the United States Senate."

Whoa: The NY Times, Post, and Daily News are reporting the same thing—that Caroline Kennedy has ended her six-week quest to take the junior Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton. (However, a source tells the AP that's not true—see the 11:24 p.m. update below.)

He may have dubbed Flight 1549 the "Miracle on the Hudson" but the real miracle would be for Governor Paterson to just tell us his Senate pick now and put us out of our guessing misery. According to the NY Times, Paterson says he'll make his choice by Saturday.

NY1 reports, "While waiting to be interviewed in Washington D.C. by NY1's sister station, Capital News 9, Governor David Paterson was rushed away after aides say he was feeling faint. A spokesman said he was suffering from a bad headache and is now resting at his Washington D.C. hotel." Last May, Paterson was hospitalized after migraines caused by a glaucoma and, last June, he had cataract surgery on his left eye (pictured). Still, it's unclear whether his "bad headache" was prompted by increasing media speculation that he's totally appointing Caroline Kennedy to Hillary Clinton's Senate seat.

While the weekend brought stories of Governor Paterson perhaps changing his mind about who will replace Hillary Clinton as the junior Senator from New York—a Daily News source said, "He was leaning toward one person, but he has shifted to another"—the Post suggests the decision is a done deal... and that Caroline Kennedy will be the victor.

While a new poll came out once again finding that New Yorkers would rather see Andrew Cuomo as their new senator instead of Caroline Kennedy, we're still waiting for the poll that confirms a more obvious fact: that New Yorkers would just rather this process be over already. Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco has announced legislation requiring US Senate vacancies be filled by special election, not gubernatorial appointments. Governor Paterson says that such a vote would take too long. As for when he might make up his mind, Paterson told reporters, "We're about to move into the period of the inauguration, and I don't want to distract from that. Otherwise, I would think that right after the inauguration." Paterson said that he has now interviewed 15 candidates for the position (though no word on if he has come up with a trusty numbering system). Cuomo was not eager to talk about it, but the News revealed that he was one of that group interviewed at Paterson's Manhattan office.

Yesterday afternoon,Caroline Kennedy met with Governor David Paterson to discuss the Senate seat being vacated by Hillary Clinton. The Daily News reports, "Until Saturday, Kennedy had only spoken by phone to Paterson," but no details about their conversation were released. A Paterson spokeswoman said, "The details of those discussions will remain private."

Governor Paterson tried his best to tamp down speculation that political dynasty scion Caroline Kennedy is a sure thing to take Hillary Clinton's Senate seat by telling WOR 71 radio that "she has pluses and minuses." Paterson said, "Caroline Kennedy obviously does have a tremendous relationship with the president, and that certainly is a plus. She does not have much legislative experience, which is a minus."

In what sounds a little like a case of biting the hand that feeds you, one of the Kennedys is saying that maybe Caroline doesn't need so much support from Mayor Bloomberg. A member of the Camelot clan told PolitickerNY, "We love the kind words the mayor has said about her but this is Governor Paterson's decision, and we were concerned that the mayor's vocal support would crowd the governor and damage the effort." The article then makes a convincing case for how Bloomberg's backing of Caroline has been a wise strategic move to both establish himself as the alpha male in New York politics while simultaneously keeping big name Democrats (like Obama) out of the way of his reelection bid. When Bloomberg's Deputy Mayor and Caroline ally Kevin Sheekey last came to bat for Kennedy in the press, he made it clear what made her stand out as a potential choice, "New York needs someone who supported the New President."

A new interview with Sarah Palin just released has us wishing that we were whisked back to the fall where we knew we could count on Tina Fey and SNL to send it up the following Saturday. The interview features Palin given the opportunity to watch the clip of Tina playing her in the VP debate and firing off what some said was the best line of the election year: "Marriage is a sacred institution between two unwilling teenagers." It turns out that Palin had not seen the clip before the interview a few days ago—despite the clip being rerun ad nauseam on cable news and quoted in newspapers everywhere. Her response: "The Mama Grizzly rises up in me hearing things like that."