Some Democrats Want Bill Clinton Appointed To Hillary’s Senate Seat
And suddenly, Caroline Kennedy doesn’t seem so bad.
The former president is among several boldface names being touted as possible “caretakers” for New York’s Senate seat—people who would serve until the 2010 elections but wouldn’t be interested in running to keep the job.
As the process of picking Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s replacement gets messier, the option may become increasingly attractive to Gov. David Paterson, who has sole authority to name a successor.
A big name like Bill Clinton or Democratic former Gov. Mario Cuomo could have an immediate impact for New York in the Senate while letting the large field of hopefuls duke it out in 2010, according to three Democratic Party advisers in New York and Washington who are close to the discussion with Paterson’s inner circle on this issue.
Two others in the party confirmed that Paterson is still considering the caretaker option. The advisers spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to comment.
“You could find a very senior person who could serve New York well” on an interim basis, said Gerald Benjamin, a political scientist and dean at the State University of New York at New Paltz. “Then you can say to Caroline Kennedy, `You know, you’d make a good senator. Run for it.’ And you can tell everyone else that it’s a level playing field.”
Sounds suspiciously like a cop out to me. A way to overlook the terribly unqualified Caroline Kennedy (she’d never win an actual election, I don’t think) without having to actually tell her that she’s not qualified for the job. Something that wouldn’t sit well with her powerful and rich family.
