I am curious about how many times this administration plans to insult the Roman Catholic Church:

Vatican blocks Caroline Kennedy appointment as US ambassador

The Vatican has blocked the appointment of Caroline Kennedy as US ambassador, according to reports.

Vatican sources told Il Giornale that their support for abortion disqualified Ms Kennedy and other Roman Catholics President Barack Obama had been seeking to appoint.

You would think that after the Vatican made it so clear that Kmiec was unacceptable that he never even made it on the list the White House would take the hint and find a pro-life Democratic Catholic for the job; apparently not. You would also think that this language was clear:

Read More →

Money quote from this devastating article concerning the New York Senate appointment fiasco:

. . . One Democratic political consultant, who requested anonymity to candidly assess the governor’s performance, said Mr. Paterson had inadvertently pulled off something staggering: alienating three of the most powerful political families in state and national politics at the same time.

“He’s managed to anger, in one fell swoop, the Kennedys, the Cuomos and the Clintons,” the consultant said, arguing that Ms. Kennedy’s family would be furious at the governor over the leaks against her, Mr. Cuomo at being passed over for the job, and Mrs. Clinton at the governor’s willingness to consider Ms. Kennedy in the first place after she endorsed Barack Obama in the presidential race last year.

“That’s a pretty good trifecta,” the consultant added. (Mr. Cuomo and Mrs. Clinton, it should be said, issued press releases on Friday effusively praising Ms. Gillibrand.)

Is there any doubt that the Governor will be the gift that keeps on giving for the New York State GOP?

For those who don’t feel like risking the SAN/Intelligence loss that can come from reading one of Dowd’s columns, let me summarize: I like Blagojevich more than I like Paterson, because Blagojevich is clearly insane - do you hear that, Illinois voters? Insane - and Paterson did my friend Marquise Caroline Kennedy-Schlossberg wrong by not picking her right away.  That let the awful, awful Clintons destroy the chances for the best choice for the NY Senate, and never mind all those Republicans out there who were revving their chainsaws and grinning evilly.  I hope that they primary that gun-loving, bailout hating Gillibrand - and that they primary that adulterous, drug-using governor, too!  That’ll show ‘em.

OK, I may have added a little subtext there, but really: the title is “Whose Governor is wackier?” and everything (via Hot Air Headlines).  That tells you something right there.

Read More →

Link:

Instantly opening a rift among New York Democrats, Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand - a little-known, pro-gun Democrat from a rural Republican district - won appointment Friday to the Senate seat left vacant by Hillary Rodham Clinton. Gov. David Paterson announced his choice a day after presumed front-runner Caroline Kennedy - a woman with considerably more star power but less experience - mysteriously dropped out of contention in an embarrassing turn of events that touched off sniping between the governor and the Kennedy camp.

Gillibrand, at 42, will be the youngest member of the Senate and one of 17 women in the chamber. The second-term congresswoman will assume the seat once held by Kennedy’s uncle Robert F. Kennedy as well as by Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

“For many in New York state, this is the first time you’ve heard my name and you don’t know much about me,” said Gillibrand (pronounced JILL-ih-brand). “Over the next two years, you will get to know me. And, more importantly, I will get to know you.”

Before the governor even took the podium to introduce Gillibrand, anti-gun crusader Rep. Carolyn McCarthy said she would challenge Gillibrand in the Democratic primary next year, or find someone who would. Gillibrand has a 100 percent voting record with the National Rifle Association.

McCarthy, a Long Island Democrat who ran for Congress after her husband was shot to death and her son wounded in the 1993 Long Island Rail Road massacre, said someone with such a record should not be the next senator from New York.

“The majority of New Yorkers believe in trying to reduce gun violence,” she said.

Her complaint was echoed by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-independent who has been one of the nation’s most vocal gun control advocates. In a statement, the mayor noted his “strong disagreement with one area of her record as a member of Congress: illegal guns.”

Read More →