NYT: Caroline Kennedy to withdraw Senate bid

[Auburn85 438]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28780112/

ALBANY, New York - Caroline Kennedy planned to withdraw from consideration for the Senate seat being vacated by Hillary Clinton, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

Earlier this week, Gov. David Paterson acknowledged he was considering Attorney General Andrew Cuomo for appointment to the seat.

On Wednesday, the Times reported that she called Paterson to express concerns about the health of her uncle, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who was hospitalized Tuesday after a seizure during the inaugural luncheon. She said his health concerns were her top priority. A statement from Kennedy could come as early as Wednesday evening, the Times reported.

Recent polls showed New Yorkers narrowly favor Cuomo over Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy. Cuomo is the son of former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo.

"He has outstanding qualities and is someone I am considering," Paterson told CBS News at an interview during the inauguration of President Barack Obama.

He also noted that he was considering lesser known candidates as well. Obama nominated Clinton to be his secretary of state, and she was confirmed Wednesday.

Paterson has been criticized by good-government groups for a secretive selection process that he defends as essential to making the best choice without regard to traditional campaigning. Paterson and Cuomo were also criticized for refusing to say whether Cuomo was interested in the Senate seat.

Paterson has said their conversations were confidential under attorney-client privilege, a legal view questioned by experts in recent interviews with The Associated Press. Cuomo said he would allow only Paterson to divulge those discussions because it was the governor's process.

Kennedy was an early front-runner when she took a short public tour upstate and sat for press interviews in December. But she faltered while answering some questions and was mocked nationwide for her frequent use of "you know" and "um."

"I was very impressed by her in our conversation. I found her to be very hardworking, very forthright. And she had some faux pas with the media when she first started, as have a number of people who have gone on to be outstanding in their service," Paterson said. "So I am weighing her ability and her acumen and what she might be able to do in New York, more than that, and also, in comparison with some rather stiff competition in New York."

[OldNewby 27]

Dear Governor Paterson:

I don't live in NY, but I can get up there in a hurry. My father was not an ex-President, or is an ex-Governor, but I think I can do the job. Why not me?

Truly with best regards,

OldNewby4507

[DKW 86 8,204]

Dear Governor Paterson:

I don't live in NY, but I can get up there in a hurry. My father was not an ex-President, or is an ex-Governor, but I think I can do the job. Why not me?

Truly with best regards,

OldNewby4507

Its all in the last name. You aint got a prayer.

[Auburn85 438]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/nyregion/23caroline.html

Housekeeper and Taxes Are Said to Derail Kennedy’s Bid

By DANNY HAKIM and NICHOLAS CONFESSORE

Published: January 22, 2009

ALBANY — Problems involving taxes and a household employee surfaced during the vetting of Caroline Kennedy and derailed her candidacy for the Senate, a person close to Gov. David A. Paterson said on Thursday, in an account at odds with Ms. Kennedy’s own description of her reasons for withdrawing.

The account emerged 14 hours after Ms. Kennedy announced that she was taking her name out of contention for the Senate seat vacated by Hillary Rodham Clinton, and as Mr. Paterson, according to two Democrats told of his thinking, was leaning toward selecting Representative Kirsten E. Gillibrand, an upstate lawmaker in her second term in Congress.

Hard feelings toward Ms. Kennedy were clearly building among the governor’s staff on Thursday, after a dramatic evening in which she was reported to be dropping out, then wavering, then ultimately, shortly after midnight on Thursday, issuing a statement ending her candidacy.

The person close to the governor said Mr. Paterson “never had any intention of picking Kennedy” because he had come to consider her unready for the job. The person did not describe the exact nature or seriousness of the tax and household employee issues.

But other Democratic operatives and people who talked to the governor disputed that account, and said that he had all but decided to select Ms. Kennedy as senator, and that his staff was arranging a press conference for late this week.

An aide to Ms. Kennedy said Thursday that while Ms. Kennedy had not been told for certain that she was the choice, there were strong indications that she would be.

During the early afternoon Wednesday, the aide said, Ms. Kennedy became aware of what the aide referred to as a “personal situation” that could prevent her from fulfilling her duties as senator. The personal situation was not related to the seizure that her uncle, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, suffered during an inauguration luncheon on Tuesday, the aide said, declining to be more specific.

Another aide to Ms. Kennedy, while not denying there were issues that emerged during her vetting, said that there was nothing that surfaced that would disqualify her from the appointment, and that the Kennedy camp and the governor’s operation had been discussing how to publicly disclose the issues.Virtually no one in state politics on Thursday was willing to make a bet on the appointment the unpredictable governor might make in the end. And the governor and his aides remained shocked at the recent turn of events and stung by criticism of their handling of the process. They have maintained almost complete silence since Wednesday afternoon.

Several people who have spoken to the governor said he had decided on Ms. Kennedy some time ago. A Democrat operative with ties to Mr. Paterson said the governor told Ms. Kennedy last week that she was the choice, but that he would use the next few days to do “a little misdirection to keep the suspense up.”

A person close to the governor adamantly denied that assertion.

“The fiasco of the last 24 hours reinforced why the governor never intended to choose her,” the person said.

The aide to Ms. Kennedy said she called the governor around 3 or 4 p.m. on Wednesday to tell him that she would be withdrawing from consideration for the appointment. According to the aide, Mr. Paterson told Ms. Kennedy to take a day to think about it. At no point, the aide said, did the governor tell Ms. Kennedy she was out of consideration.

“He was saying she was a contender, she was involved, and things were going the way they were going,” the aide said. “He did not tell her either way that it was yes or no, but that she was still being considered.”

At that point, the aide said, Ms. Kennedy began consulting with friends and family. Around the same time, news outlets, including The New York Post and The New York Times, began reporting that Ms. Kennedy had withdrawn.

The Paterson administration initially refused to respond to reporters. When they did, Errol Cockfield, a spokesman for Mr. Paterson, said in a very brief interview around 7 p.m. that the governor had called reports that Ms. Kennedy was withdrawing “just the rumor of the day.”

But at the time, according to Ms. Kennedy’s aide, the governor and Ms. Kennedy had already spoken about the possibility of her withdrawing. And a little over an hour later, Mr. Cockfield asked that the statement not be published.

Ms. Kennedy’s own political advisers appeared at times to be unable to reach her on Wednesday night. At one point, Ms. Kennedy was drafting a statement reaffirming her interest in the seat. But the aide said that Ms. Kennedy ultimately concluded that she would go ahead with her plan to withdraw.

Between 10 and 11 p.m., the aide said, Ms. Kennedy called the governor to thank him for giving her time to think it over and definitively withdrew from the race.

In a statement sent by e-mail at 12:03 a.m. Thursday, Ms. Kennedy announced she was withdrawing from the race for personal reasons.

“I informed Governor Paterson today that for personal reasons I am withdrawing my name from consideration for the United States Senate,” the statement said.

The Senate selection, and Ms. Kennedy’s withdrawal, eclipsed all other issues in the capital on Thursday. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg traveled to Albany to address lawmakers about the state budget, but reporters asked him only for his reaction to Ms. Kennedy’s actions. Mr. Bloomberg had supported her candidacy.

“I’ll probably give her a call today and say, my thoughts are with you,” the mayor said. “I wish her all the best and I think she should continue to stay involved in public service. She’s a great New Yorker and her husband is a really nice guy that I like.”

Assemblyman Carl E. Heastie, the chairman of the Democratic Party in the Bronx, met with Ms. Kennedy last Friday and heard her pitch.

“She told me why she thought she’d be the best senator and we talked about politics in general, her family, it was a good meeting,” he said, adding of the latest development, “nothing surprises me in politics."

[OldNewby 27]

Dear Governor Paterson:

I don't live in NY, but I can get up there in a hurry. My father was not an ex-President, or is an ex-Governor, but I think I can do the job. Why not me?

Truly with best regards,

OldNewby4507

Its all in the last name. You aint got a prayer.

Yep, 4507 ain't a dynasty name.

But I was wondering. If chosen, could I skip the NY part and just straight to DC?

[Tigermike 4,240]

"Housekeeper and Taxes Are Said to Derail Kennedy’s Bid"

Damn that seems to be a tradision with the dims doesn't it.

Let the spin begin.

[CCTAU 3,872]

"Housekeeper and Taxes Are Said to Derail Kennedy’s Bid"

Damn that seems to be a tradision with the dims doesn't it.

Let the spin begin.

"NO! NO! NO! Uncle Tiddy is sick. I gotta help him out. I just don't have time to be a senator. <whisper> Besides, by the time Uncle Tiddy buys the farm, I will have ironed out all the other problems and can assume my rightful place on the Kennedy throne."

[DKW 86 8,204]

Hell all she needs is a drug problem and some illicit sex and she could be a honorary member of the Kennedy clan....

Oh wait...My bad!

[arnaldoabru 11]

Hell all she needa is a drug problem and some illicit sex and she could be a honorary member of the Kennedy clan....

Oh wait...My bad!

or a father or uncle that was assasignated

and another uncle killed in WWII

[Auburn85 438]

Taxes are said to have aided in the derailment of her senate bid

in other news Timothy Geithner on his way to being confirmed.

[DKW 86 8,204]

Hell all she needa is a drug problem and some illicit sex and she could be a honorary member of the Kennedy clan....

Oh wait...My bad!

or a father or uncle that was assasignated

and another uncle killed in WWII

And an uncle that killed a totally innnocent girl and yet amazingly enough, never served one day in prison after lying to the police and the whole world about it.