Tracy Flick in the senate may not be that bad

I, like most people, know almost nothing about the newly appointed senator from the state of New York, Kirsten Gillibrand.  But I know that Maureen Dowd doesn’t like her, so she immediately goes up a notch or two with me:

So now we have an N.R.A. handmaiden in Bobby Kennedy’s old seat? Kirsten Gillibrand, a k a Tracy Flick, accepting the honor with her Republican pal Al D’Amato beside her on stage? Gross.

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Paterson could have acted a month ago, or even a week ago. There was no reason not to, certainly not his claim that he had to wait for Hillary, ad nauseam, to exit to State. Colorado’s governor named Michael Bennet senator two and a half weeks before Ken Salazar resigned his seat for the Interior Department.

Then the Democrats would have had another Kennedy in the Senate representing New York — Bobby’s niece and a smart, policy-oriented, civic-minded woman to whom the president feels deeply indebted in an era when every state has its hand out.

Instead they have Gillibrand, who voted against the Wall Street — as in New York — bailout bill. And who introduced a bill to balance the federal budget annually, which suggests she would oppose the $825 billion in deficit spending that President Obama proposes to rescue the country, not least New York.

Paterson’s five weeks of dithering let the jealous vindictiveness of the Clintons and friends — still fuming over Caroline’s endorsement of Obama and Teddy’s blocking Hillary from a leading health care role in the Senate — poison the air. With his usual sense of entitlement and aggrievement, Bill Clinton of Arkansas did not want Caroline Kennedy of New York to have the seat that Hillary Clinton of Illinois held.

Paterson wasn’t thinking of New York, only of how an upstate ally who was a woman would bolster his own chances for re-election. We can only hope that an avenging Andrew Cuomo takes him out in a primary.

The 42-year-old Gillibrand, who has been in the House for only two years, is known as opportunistic and sharp- elbowed. Tracy Flick is her nickname among colleagues in the New York delegation, many of whom were M.I.A. at her Albany announcement.

Fellow Democrats were warning Harry Reid on Friday that he was going to have his hands full with the new senator because she’s “a pain.”

Chuck Schumer embraced Gillibrand because at long last he can be the best-known senator from New York, something that would have been impossible with Kennedy.

Dowd’s piece is so nonsensical, it’s hard to know where to start.  Just a few highlights:

Breaking the mold of a conventional politician with Caroline Kennedy . . . good.  Breaking the mold of a conventional politician with Kirsten Gillibrand . . . bad!

A senator with two years of experience in the house . . . bad.  A senator with political muscle in her family name but no experience at all in politics or policy-making . . . good!  (And, a president with two years national experience before beginning his campaign, great!)

And it’s nice to see Dowd admit publicly that the business of Washington is really, apparently, doing whatever is best for New York.  I’ll remember that the next time I hear her bitch about some politician doing his best for another state instead of what’s best for the country.

And what was wrong with Tracy Flick?  She was spunky, hard-working, motivated, cheerful, positive and she slept with her teacher.  Sounds like just the kind of unconventional politician Dowd is usually pining for.