US SENATE IS NOT THE HOUSE OF LORDS

With the anticipated vacancy in the U.S. Senate seat currently held by junior US Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, rumors swirl among the political community about just whom Gov. David Patterson may appoint to take Mrs. Clinton's seat in the U.S. Senate.

The perenial need for geographic balance is cited by these commentators, as is the thought among some that a woman should be named to replace a woman who is ceeding the seat to become the 3rd female U.S. Secretary of State. Other considerations are cited too.

Over the past few days since a phone call was reportedly initiated by Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg to NY Governor David Patterson, the rumor mill has bandied about the notion of a gubernatorial appointment of Mrs Kennedy-Schlossberg to the U.S. Senate.

This is the body in which her late father served as a US Senator from Massachusetts, succeeded after a brief appointed successors tenure by her uncle Ted -who still holds that seat decades later. The potential Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg appointment would essentially be to the U.S. Senate seat from New York which her slain uncle Robert Kennedy held until his assassination at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles in 1968, and which was also held by the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan and then Mrs. Clinton.

Caroline Kennedy Schlossbergs' academic credentials and intelligence are without a doubt superior to some now serving in the U.S. Senate; and are similarly superior to some who once represented NY State in the United States Senate. So too are her political credentials and public service DNA.

Her valiant efforts to improve the public education system in the City of New York are heroic, often behind the scenes, and of immense value to the student beneficiaries of all that she has brought to bear through her involvement in the public education arena in New York City.

That said, even in acknowledging my admiration for the aura of Camelot and the unfulfilled dreams which that era foretold for millions, the idea of having Governor Patterson appoint Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg to the US Senate simply because she is interested in that position, her Uncle Ted is lobbying for the appointment, and her cousin Robert F Kennedy Jr noted a few days ago that such a nomination would have countless Kennedy's out in its favor, are, in and of themselves, insufficient reason for the Governor of New York to appoint her.

Despite her ample bona fides and the personal tragedies which she has had to endure over the decades during which her family has rendered innumerable acts of public service of profound benefit to the nation, the appointment of Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg to the U.S. Senate from New York must be made on a much more substantial foundation than simply her desire to serve in such a prominent position without first having to have climbed the electoral ladder.

The United States Senate, one of the coziest 'clubs' in existence and also one of the rumored greatest deliberative bodies in legislative history (discounting the rush to bail-out the Big 3 automakers and Wall Street with expedited hearings notwithstanding)is, in our democracy, ultimately not a mirror image of the British House of Lords where some serve as beneficiaries of a hereditary peerage.


(UPDATE: Ms. Kennedy subsequently withdrew from consideration, & after the inauguration of President Obama, NY Gov. David Patterson selected upstate NY US Rep. Kristine Gillebrand Esq., a staunch supporter of the NRA and the right to bear arms to succeed former US Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as the next junior US Senator from New York.)