CAROLINE IN D.City

The abject questioning by New York Democrats concerning Caroline Kennedy's credentials to serve as junior senator in their state lies in any number of areas ranging from laughable to pathetic. It is laughable because Caroline Kennedy probably garnered more experience about navigating through the politics of Washington, DC sitting around the dinner table at the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport than most other DC politicians in their first terms - or perhaps their entire life. It is pathetic because many of her detractors were Hillary for President supporters who also supported the carpet-bagging Mrs. Clinton's 2000 Senate run, the totality of her political experience amounting to "talking with her husband about everything."

And somewhere between laughable and pathetic is the hypocrisy of the New York Democrats who, in the past, were encouraging Caroline's brother, the late John F. Kennedy Jr., to run for the Senate, sans previous political experience. Also, somewhere between laughable and pathetic is the audacity of those politically elected Democrats feeling slighted because they feel their service to New York does not deserve to be overlooked for consideration although they were willing to cede that very position to accomodate the aforementioned Mrs. Clinton who became a New Yorker via an opportunistic endeavor - whereas Caroline Kennedy became a New Yorker as the result of a national tragedy, and stayed. And while raising her daughters, Mrs. Kennedy has quietly and without fanfare spent considerable parts of her adult life aiding the State of New York and advancing American ideals.

Those elected officials who berate her possible ascension to the US Senate would be wise to reflect on how we often arrive at these dilemmas. The former Lt. Governor of New York will make the gubernatorial decision because his predecessor resigned under allegations of illegality. A New York Congressman/DC committee chairman is shrouded in billowing clouds of ethical misconduct, and the Illinois Lt. Governor may eventually choose the successor to the senate seat vacated by the 2008 President-elect after the arrest of the sitting Illinois Governor. And on the subject of Illinois, it would behoove us to remember that Caroline Kennedy would have merely been the unassuming daughter of a Massachusetts senator had not Chicago Mayor Richard Daley strategically placed voting booths throughout Illinois cemeteries in 1960.

It is no accident that many voters in America are screaming "term limits" a lot louder than they are crying for "elected experience." Voters are growing tired of having elected experience declare criminality, dishonesty and ethically challenged behavior paraded before them as merely 'inappropriate.'

Caroline Kennedy and her years long commitment to New York would provide a fresh, clean and honest perspective as the US Senator from New York. And we can be sure that it would be decades before she becomes as corrupt and unethical as Ted Stevens, Charles Rangel, William Jefferson, Spiro Agnew, Rod Blagojevich, (insert corrupt official's name here).....