dynasty

Breaking news from the Northeast--where we are expecting a foot of shovel ready global warming.

There's been a speed bump on the way to the Caroline Kennedy coronation.

Evidently she doesn't bother to vote in a lot of local elections.

  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081219/ap_on_el_se/kennedy_voting

NEW YORK – Caroline Kennedy, who wants to fill Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's seat, has not voted in a number of elections, including one race for the very job she is seeking.

The Democrat registered at her current address on Manhattan's Upper East Side in 1988. According to Board of Elections records, she missed several Democratic mayoral primaries in 1989, 1993, 1997 and 2005.

She also skipped the 1994 general election, when Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan was running for re-election. It is the same seat she hopes to take over if Clinton is confirmed as secretary of state in the new administration.

So let's see, the Koch-Dinkins race didn't catch her fancy. The other races might be explained away as snooozers, but that one?

And evidently Mario Cuomo's fight for his political life in 1994 wasn;t enough to motivate Sweet Caroline to amble down the block to her polling place. I'm sure his son Andrew will be quite appreciative of this attentiveness to the state's management. Mario Cuomo, George Pataki, ahhh, whoever.. and wasn't there some big issue that year?... the "Contract with America"?...naw, why bother

This of course is on the heels of her trip upstate this week, where she appeared to be far more eager to be in Bordeaux than in Buffalo.   If the goal was to assauge the fear of upstate voters that they were not going to be neglected by a star struck downstate celebrity, well, it failed.

I'm not one of these hard-wired Kennedy family bashers; I actually have a bit of a warm spot in my Irish heart for them for having roguish charm.  But there are plenty of public servants in NY state in both parties who've paid their dues and would sweat blood to get and hold a U.S. Senate seat. it's not like politics is just entertainment for NY State these days post 9/11 and Bear Stearns.

RFK and Hillary Clinton at least went out and won an election for the seat.  Now, the political lifestyle of the rich and famous is to petition the Governor just to hand you a seat. In these troubled times, we are to presume we can count on your vote in the Senate when we couldn't count on you to vote in elections.