When Cats and Dogs Love Each Other

No one has ever excused me of being left of center however in the past couple of days I have supported a Kennedy (see post on Caroline Kennedy) and now the Washington Post editors are echoing the same sentiment I posted yesterday on the economic stimulus. Here is the link their editoral and a brief snippet of their comments.

"...some in Congress and the new administration apparently see the country's present recession as an opportunity to change the federal government's spending priorities more generally or simply to reward loyal political constituencies. This is understandable, given that the voters endorsed the Democratic Party and its priorities in November. But it's risky to make new, multiyear commitments in the middle of a crisis without debate over competing priorities -- and without paying for them through some means other than borrowing.

Helping hire, equip and pay police, a $4 billion item under the bill, might be a good idea, but writing checks to individual households for the same amount would do more to stimulate the economy. Ditto for $16 billion in Pell Grants for college students, $2.1 billion for Head Start and $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts. All of those ideas may have merit, but why do they belong in an emergency measure aimed to kick-start the economy?"

Washington Post, January 25, 2009

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/24/AR2009012401616.html

I Know J LO and Caroline Kennedy is no J LO

Yesterday, citing personal reasons, Caroline Kennedy informed Gov. David Paterson that she wanted her name withdrawn from consideration to fill Hillary Clinton vacant Senate seat. It’s not often (if ever) that I have empathy for a Kennedy, but in this case I do. I can’t help feeling that the elitist attitudes of Democratic Party and the media (New York Times in particular) did Caroline Kennedy in. Their opinions and actions have demonstrated they do not feel a citizen legislator is worthy of holding office. Shame on them, as they used the same tatics they perfected on Sarah Palin against Ms. Kennedy.

Understand, I would not agree with 99% of what a Senator Caroline Kennedy would advocate in the Senate, but I can say the same thing about any appointee coming from Gov. Patterson. This is not about ideology; it’s about the belief that the experience of being a productive citizen is just as valuable as one has enjoyed the ‘favors’ of office.

Caroline Kennedy has asked for none of the spotlight or the responsibilities her last name carries, none the less she has performed her duties with dignity and grace. Sure she is only famous because of her last name, causing Congressman Gary Ackermann to snipe “I don't know what Caroline Kennedy's qualifications are, except that she has name recognition, but so does J.Lo.”

Ackerman thinks he is being coy but in reality he is showing his ignorance! Part of what separates Caroline Kennedy from celeb-retards like J. LO, is that she has not craved for the headlines by exploiting the over indulgent media with one love affair after another. We don’t see unflattering mug shots of her like we have of Paris Hilton, Lindsey Lohen and half of her Kennedy cousins. She simply goes about her life being a mother of three children, a wife of twenty years, a student of law at Columbia and Harvard, an author of several history and law books and a concern citizen who raised nearly 70 million dollars to improve NYC public schools. I’ll say it again, I do not agree with a whole host of issues that Caroline Kennedy supports but I cannot take away her qualifications that would make her a U.S. Senator from New York.

So why has the possibility of her becoming the next Senator Kennedy caused all this controversy. I don’t think it would surprise anyone that Gary Ackerman has been a staunch supporter of Hillary Clinton. This same support of Hillary Clinton can be said of several members of the NY Times Editorial Board, who just so happened to ask the most insulting questions and then decide to publish the transcripts of Kennedy’s interview with them with every “you know” in the transcription. Deliberately making her look bad. The Clintons may not have ordered this bashing of Caroline Kennedy but her supporters cannot get over the fact that the Kennedy endorsed Obama for President.