Jack & Jill Politics

From CNN.com:

Sources: Congresswoman to replace Clinton in Senate

NEW YORK (CNN) — New York Gov. David Paterson has chosen Democratic Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand to succeed Hillary Clinton as U.S. Senator from New York, multiple Democratic sources told CNN Friday.

Gillibrand, 42, represents New York’s traditionally Republican 20th district.

She is a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of congressional Democrats who hold more conservative views than their liberal Democratic counterparts.

She is an outspoken advocate for gun rights, and she supports an extension of the Bush tax cuts. She has been endorsed by the National Rifle Association.

She also has a 100 percent rating from the American Civil Liberties Union.

Paterson must appoint a replacement for Clinton, who was sworn in as President Obama’s secretary of state Wednesday. A special election will be held in 2010 for the remaining two years of Clinton’s term. Paterson will formally announce his decision at a noon press conference in Albany, New York.

The final decision was made around 2 a.m. It came down to Gillibrand and Randi Weingarten, the dark horse candidate who is president of the United Federation of Teachers.

Among the considerations Paterson used in selecting Gillibrand were that she is a woman and she is from upstate New York, sources said. Both those factors could help Paterson when he runs for election as governor next year.

Read rest of story at link above.

Well, there are folks that don’t agree with Paterson’s decision.

From Al Giordano over at The Field:

Now that Caroline Kennedy has removed her name from consideration, tomorrow’s noon ET announcement by New York Governor David Paterson as to his pick for US Senate can be seen as a train wreck about to happen.

Speculation swirls around US Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand – a “moderate” Democrat who opposed Comprehensive Immigration Reform among other issues that separate her from the Empire State’s more liberal delegation – who was pushed by US Senator Chuck Schumer (D-Wall Street).

Each and every “Netroots progressive” that railed against a possible Kennedy pick owns this one, and their protestations to the contrary – I’ve been discussing it with some today – come off as cowardly. They took a progressive voice, painted a villain’s mustache on her image, called her “princess” (I’m lookin; at you, Hamsher) and worse, laced it with healthy doses of misogyny, and now that they may get a “Blue Dog” conservative Democrat instead they refuse to accept responsibility for their actions and words.

………………………………..

Nope, it don’t work that way.

You broke it. You own it.

You argued for Paterson to pick a full-time politician from the mediocre farm team, and it appears that’s exactly what you’re gonna get.

This adventure in unintended consequences will become bigger than life for years to come on the blogosphere. Anytime the self-proclaimed “progressives” go off trying to eat their own (which for some, is daily), the rallying cry will be sounded: “Remember Caroline Kennedy!”

Our own NMP had this to say:

Let’s talk about Governor Patterson. You know he’s fucked himself right?! It’s one thing not to pick Carolyn Kennedy, but he’s made a terrible mistake in trashing JFK”s daughter–and Teddy’s beloved niece and now an Obama close friend and a new friend of Reverend Al. I don’t know what the hell he was thinking! True enough Carolyn is shy, reserved and retiscent, but that’s how she was raised and quite frankly I don’t know too many people who wouldn’t be if their lasting memory of their father, the President, is of him getting his head blown off with never ending speculation that our government may have been behind it. For the first time in her life, she attempted to come out of that bubble, and Patterson should have never allowed her to effectively campaign for the position while all of the other “candidates” were allowed to remain out of public sight. He came off as indecisive and just down right silly. President Obama told him he wanted Carolyn as did Harry Reid and Al Sharpton and a bunch of Black elected officials. He should have made a decision then.

He might as well announce now that he has no plans of seeking an elected term as Governor b/c Cuomo is going to eat his ass up in the primary. The only way Cuomo doesn’t run for the Governor’s seat is if the Democratic Party recruits him to save the NY Senate Seat. Gillebrand (or however you spell her name) is not going to be able to defeat King in a general election, so they’ll need a strong Democrat to beat her in the primary and defeat Representative King in the general.

Giuliani is definitely running for Governor, and it would have been tough for Patterson to beat him under any circumstances, but especially not without the support of the Party, President Obama and the Black Community via Al Sharpton.

So, did Paterson make a bad choice with Gillibrand?

I do think any attempts to ‘ smear’ Caroline Kennedy are dumb. Very dumb. Also, not picking someone who is RELIABLE to vote for The President’s agenda consistently is unwise too. I just don’t think Paterson’s going to get the benefits from this – politically- that he thinks he will.