They Don't Make Kennedys Like They Used To
By Aaron Goldstein (12/31/08)
Caroline Kennedy wants to be the next Senator from New York.
She awaits that austere body to confirm Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State and then will await word from New York Governor David Paterson to receive what she has asked.
As Steve Kornacki of The New York Observer recently put it:
51-year-old Caroline Kennedy, daughter of J.F.K., has decided she wants to replace Hillary Clinton in the Senate. Her qualifications? Well, let’s just say it’d be hard for someone with the same resume, minus those magic seven letters at the top to get David Paterson, who will choose Mrs. Clinton’s successor, on the phone. But since she is a Kennedy, she may be the front-runner. ( http://www.observer.com/2008/politics/whos-going-lick-kennedy )
Or is she?
As you probably know by now, things didn’t go so well when she spoke to a couple of reporters from The New York Times over the weekend. An unhealthy smattering of ums and a liberal dose of you knows has called that frontrunner status into question. Not to mention her defensiveness when asked at what point she concluded this was the time to seek such high office. When I became aware of Kennedy’s less than sparkling encounter with the media I remembered that this wasn’t the first Kennedy who didn’t live up to their name.
Allow me to set the scene. Boston. May 2001. Democratic Congressman Joe Moakley dies after a year long battle with cancer. Moakley served Massachusetts’ 9th District for nearly thirty years. Before the Democrats lost control of Congress in 1994, Moakley chaired the House Rules Committee. He was enormously popular with both his constituents many of whom live Boston’s large Irish community in South Boston (a.k.a. Southie.) He was equally popular with his colleagues on Capitol Hill. As if that wasn’t enough he was also held in enormously esteem by President Bush. Not only did Bush wish him well in his first State of the Union address but devoted his first Rose Garden signing ceremony naming the then newly built federal courthouse in Boston after Moakley. ( http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/congress/jan-june01/moakley_04-10.html )
There were some big shoes to fill in the 9th District. Enter Max Kennedy.
The son of the late Robert F. Kennedy quickly expressed interest in running for one of the safest Democratic seats in the country by purchasing a home in the district. Kennedy, who was 36 at the time, had no previous political experience. But he did have a history degree from Harvard, then graduated from law school at the University of Virginia and had practiced law as an ADA in Pennsylvania. Kennedy became an environmental activist and would return to Boston where he would help establish the Urban Ecology Institute at Boston College. So he did have some experience in public service.
However, his political debut was a disaster. When Kennedy made his first public speech, in the words of The L.A. Times, “Kennedy stumbled badly. He scratched his head, giggled nervously, lost his place several times and misnamed at least one member of the U.S. Supreme Court.” ( http://articles.latimes.com/2001/jun/12/news/mn-9445 )
It also didn’t help matters when it came to light that he had been charged with assaulting a campus police officer at Harvard University in 1983. If that wasn’t bad enough this incident also involved his cousin Michael Skakel who was at that time awaiting trial for the 1975 murder of Martha Moxley (he would be convicted the following year and was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.)
On June 12, 2001, Max Kennedy announced he would not seek the Democratic Party nomination to fill the vacancy in the 9th District. The vacancy was filled by Massachusetts State Senator Stephen Lynch who still holds this seat.
Shortly after he dropped out of the race R. Emmett Tyrrell, founder and publisher of The American Spectator, offered an interesting take on Kennedy’s decision not to seek the seat. Tyrrell had met Kennedy during his days as University of Virginia law student. Kennedy and several other law students had invited Tyrrell to speak on campus. Kennedy’s open mindedness and values made a strong impression on Tyrrell. He concluded that Kennedy dropped out of the 9th District race not because of one bad speech but rather because he was being made into something he wasn’t by both Ted Kennedy and Al Gore’s people:
I think Max’s instinct was right. He is a really nice guy. He convinced me a decade ago that he was open to other points of view. Had I been around to advise him, I would have said, “Let Kennedy be Kennedy.” And dump those advisors. They are not all that necessary when the candidate has charm and sufficient intellect. ( http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/tyrell072401.asp )
Life went on for Max Kennedy. He has not sought public office but like his cousin Caroline he campaigned vigorously for Barack Obama in 2008. Kennedy is the author of a new book that was released in November titled Danger’s Hour. It is about the Japanese kamikaze attack on the USS Bunker Hill during the Okinawa invasion in May 1945. If Tyrrell is right about Kennedy then Danger’s Hour is probably very good. But would Simon & Schuster have been interested in a book about a nearly forgotten WWII aircraft carrier if the author’s name was Max Smith, Max Jones or for that matter Max Goldstein? It might be an unfair question but that is the double edged sword of being part of a family so famous and at times infamous.
So where does this leave Caroline Kennedy? Will she take a cue from her cousin and abruptly withdraw her name from consideration? Or will she try to redeem herself by landing an interview with Barbara Walters or on 60 Minutes? Of course, even if she hadn’t stumbled all over her words what is there to prevent Governor Paterson from choosing someone like New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo (who was once married to Kerry Kennedy, another cousin of Caroline and Max’s older sister) or actress turned health care activist Fran Drescher or someone else altogether? However, if Caroline Kennedy doesn’t bow out and Governor Paterson doesn’t appoint her the ums and you knows will loom very large.
If that scenario does come to pass life will go on for Caroline Kennedy as it has for Max Kennedy. Granted the scale of setback would be much bigger for the only surviving child of John F. Kennedy. But in time she would go back to what she had done before – writing books, raising money for New York City public schools and serving on non-profit boards of directors. She would also continue to publicly support Barack Obama.
It is possible that what Tyrrell wrote of Max Kennedy could be true of Caroline Kennedy. Perhaps Ted Kennedy’s people and Obama’s people were trying to shape her into something she wasn’t. Consequently, her interview with The New York Times might not have been a fair representation of her abilities and insights. On the other hand, both Caroline Kennedy and Max Kennedy’s talents might be best suited to a vocation other than the rough and tumble world of electoral politics. If this is the case then one could only conclude, for better or for worse, that they don’t make Kennedys like they used to.
Aaron Goldstein
(Printer friendly version) Email: Aaron Goldstein
