CBS' Schieffer advances baseless suggestion of Clinton retribution against Caroline Kennedy
SUMMARY: CBS' Bob Schieffer baselessly suggested that Hillary Clinton may "try to block" Caroline Kennedy's possible appointment to replace her as U.S. senator from New York, adding that there is "[n]o love lost with the Kennedy family after they endorsed [President-elect Barack] Obama early on." But Clinton has reportedly "told her supporters not to involve her in their efforts to stop Caroline Kennedy's path to the U.S. Senate" and that their comments critical of Kennedy "weren't appreciated."
On the December 21 edition of CBS' Face the Nation, host Bob Schieffer asked of Caroline Kennedy's possible appointment to replace Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton as U.S. senator from New York,: "[W]hat about Hillary Clinton? Will she try to block this?" He then asserted that there is "[n]o love lost with the Kennedy family after they endorsed [President-elect Barack] Obama early on." However, Schieffer provided no evidence for his suggestion that Clinton may "try to block" a Kennedy appointment. He also failed to note a December 16 Politico report, noted on CBS News' Political Hotsheet blog, that Clinton "has told her supporters not to involve her in their efforts to stop Caroline Kennedy's path to the U.S. Senate, a person familiar with replacement discussions said."
In the December 16 Politico blog post, senior political writer Ben Smith reported that three Clinton supporters who have publicly criticized Kennedy's potential appointment " 'were told that their comments weren't appreciated, and that if they have a candidate they prefer that is motivating their comments and actions, they need to make that crystal clear so that nobody thinks we're behind it,' said a person close to the replacement talks."
From the December 21 edition of CBS' Face the Nation:
SCHIEFFER: We're almost out of time here -- but what about Hillary Clinton? Will she try to block this? No love lost with the Kennedy family after they endorsed Obama early on.
DOMINIC CARTER (NY1 anchor): She has told her people to back off. She is moving ahead in terms of becoming secretary of state. And you know, of all the criticism we've heard of Caroline Kennedy, we've been there before in terms of hearing the same exact thing about Hillary Clinton, Bob. And Happy Holidays to you.
SCHIEFFER: All right. Thank you very much, Dominic. And we'll be back in just a moment.
I hope she does block Kennedy. What has Caroline done besides be a Kennedy? No more Kenney's, no more Bush's, no more Clinton's. This nepotism should have died with old-Europe.
The same things (or worse) were said about Ted Kennedy when he ran for the Senate after John won the Presidency and Robert was appointed as Attorney General. Ted turned out to be a great Senator for Massachusettes. He also had no experience as a politician or legislator before his election. I think Caroline will do fine. The main question as I see it is can she win election to the seat in the special election in 2010 and then the regular election in 2012.
Well, she's been a lawyer for years. That used to be a valuable background for legistlators.
"Whoa Bob...don't you think Pres.Obama has more to worry about with Hillary Clintion" said Charlie McCarthy sitting on Bob Schieffer's lap.
This is called "cooking the news". If the woman is not qualified, she's not qualified, period. I don't think that the same tactics Bush used to place people in important positions will be used, here. At least, I hope not. Complete nincompoops like Roberto Gonzales and Harriet Miers (sp?) would not even be put up for consideration. All of this "I hate the Kennedies" and "I hate the Clintons" stuff is just the usual garbage from warmed-over neo-cons. What would McCain do? Appoint Michael Brown?
Sorry, folks. I got off-topic there for a bit. The gripe was that Shape-Schieffer was inflating a possible anti-Caroline vendetta by Hillary. That's what I meant by "cooking the news". There is a awful lot of bad blood to go around and that is to be expected. Wether anyone is petty enough to act on it is another matter. After all, New Orleans was given the finger by Bush for our support of Kerry.
I thought Scheffer was going to retire.
Yeah, and he has a part-time gig at Fox.