links for 2009-01-23

Now that Caroline Kennedy has dropped out, the new frontrunner for Hillary Clinton's senate seat is upstate congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democratic hero for capturing a Republican-majority district in 2006. Camera crews are now posted outside her home in Hudson, New York, and she is reportedly telling Washington colleagues that she believes she will be tapped by Governor David Paterson, who is now in such a rush to announce a pick that he plans to do it either tomorrow or Saturday.

The irony is that Paterson may be swinging from the nation's most prominent Democratic family to one with strong Republican ties.
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Supported by the NRA

Representative Carolyn McCarthy of Long Island, a staunch supporter of gun-control laws, said in an interview Thursday that she would challenge a fellow Democrat, Representative Kirsten E. Gillibrand, if Gov. David A. Paterson names Ms. Gillibrand to the Senate.

PIX NEWS is being told that Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand is the reported choice of Governor David Paterson to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton. Two Congressional sources say members of the New York delegation have been invited to join Governor Paterson for the announcement in Albany at noon tomorrow.

President Barack Obama urged Israel on Thursday to open its borders with Gaza
The plea came in a speech that signalled the new US administration’s shift from Bush-era policy on the Middle East and the world as a whole. In a high-profile address on his second day in office, just hours after he signed an executive order to close the centre at Guantánamo Bay, Mr Obama proclaimed that the US would “actively and aggressively seek a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians” in the wake of this month’s Gaza war
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Good luck with that…..

Stefan Friedman, spokesman for Caroline Kennedy, who is getting chewed up by the New York press today, puts out a response, leaving her reasons for withdrawing unspecified:

Caroline Kennedy withdrew her name for consideration from the United States Senate for personal reasons. Any statements to the contrary are false. The governor set up a fair and deliberative selection process. This kind of mudslinging demeans that process and all those involved.
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2 months in the arena for Caroline.

In a stunning revelation, a source close to Gov. David Paterson insisted this afternoon that the governor "had no intention" of picking Caroline Kennedy for New York's vacant senate seat – because she was "mired" in an issue over taxes, her nanny and possibly her marriage.

Kennedy was "mired in some potentially embarrassing personal issues," the source said, citing tax liabilities and worker compensation liabilities connected to the employment of a nanny.

The source also said the state of her marriage may have presented a problem as well.

"She has a tax problem that came up in the vetting and a potential nanny issue," the source said. "And reporters are starting to look at her marriage more closely," the source continued, refusing to provide any specifics.
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Caroline's campaign lasted less than 2 months.

MSNBC wants to create a new show to fill its 10 p.m. hour. Might Bill Maher be its host?

It's widely known in the cable news world that the third-place network has a longstanding interest in Maher, who now hosts a weekly current-events chat program, Real Time, on HBO. He's an obvious choice, having hosted his own daily talk show, Politically Incorrect, until ABC canceled him in 2002, a few months after the comedian made some poorly-received remarks about the Sept. 11 hijackers.

Though more libertarian than strictly liberal, Maher's politics make him a good fit with MSNBC's audience, which has grown in direct proportion to the network's enthusiasm for the Democratic party. One caveat: Maher would probably be expensive (although Chris Matthews's recent pay cut, from $5 million a year to around $2 million, frees up some cash for that).
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We can only hope

Yesterday, President Barack Obama held the first meeting of his military cabinet. Expectations are huge; among those in attendance was Gen. David Petraeus, the commander in chief of Centcom and the officer who will be responsible for the Obama administration's strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan.

For some insight into what Gen. Petraeus expects from President Obama, I spoke with a friend of his; Col. Peter Mansoor (Ret)., a key adviser who served two tours in Iraq. Mansoor is the author of Baghdad at Sunrise and an architect of the counterinsurgency doctrine that proved successful in Iraq. Mansoor is now a professor of history at Ohio State University.

Here's what we know: Caroline Kennedy's advisers and friends believed she would be appointed to Hillary Clinton's Senate seat later this week, and were working with New York Gov. Paterson and the intermediaries on the roll out.

They fully expected it to come.

But then sometime early yesterday evening, around the time Clinton resigned her Senate seat, Kennedy called New York Gov. Paterson and said she was withdrawing for personal reasons.

Now, that set off another flurry of activity where it appears that some on Paterson's team tried to convince her not to withdraw.

The Associated Press then reported Kennedy was not withdrawing. But then there was another conference call just around midnight, and Kennedy finally, finally withdrew.
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Yeah, right…..