What is all this nonsense about "SOMEBODY'S SENATE SEAT"? The furniture as well as all other material items in the Senate, White House and House of Representatives, BELONGS TO THE CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES. We, the taxpayers, have provided the funds to purchase all of it! Regardless of tenure in any of the various branches of the federal government, the SEATS are not personal property. Those elected to occupy the seats are federal employees of the people of this nation. The ONLY way to get rid of this nonsensical notion of seat ownership is to ALLOW THE VOTERS OF AMERICA TO SELECT NEW TENANTS FOR THOSE VACATED SEATS.
Why Caroline Backed Obama
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Declining invitations to fund-raisers, she and her 17-year-old daughter Tatiana slipped unrecognized into a speech Obama made last April to an African-American audience in New York. Obama didn't realize she had been there until after he left, and he quickly called her to make amends for not saying hello, which was the first time they talked. She saw him speak again at an event on Martha's Vineyard over the summer (when she also saw a Hillary speech) and at a September Obama rally in Manhattan's Washington Square Park, where she stood unobtrusively at the rear of a huge crowd.
Unlike some voters, Caroline wasn't immediately swayed by his oratory. Instead she watched the campaign closely, read Obama's position papers and his memoir, "Dreams From My Father," and talked to Rose, Tatiana and Jack, now 15, whom Obama on Monday described as "my greatest advocates over the last several months." Like Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill and Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, two other prominent supporters, Caroline credits her children with influencing her to take a closer look at Obama.
After Obama's big victory in Iowa, she spoke with the Illinois senator on the phone and pledged her support. Then, last week, Bill Clinton and his daughter Chelsea called her. Unlike Ted Kennedy's heated phone conversation with Clinton (which I learned of in mid-January from sources outside the Kennedy family), Caroline and the former president spoke cordially. But all along Caroline was talking much more frequently to Ted, with whom she is extremely close.
Caroline's cousins don't seem to have influenced her on this. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, former lieutenant governor of Maryland, and her sister Kerry Kennedy, are such strong Hillary supporters that they went to New Hampshire to stump for her. Their brother Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who wouldn't mind getting Clinton's Senate seat should she be elected, is also a supporter, though a less ardent one. The other cousins are divided in their support, with at least one, Stephen Smith, letting Caroline know he is working actively for Obama. Maria Shriver, who is especially close to Caroline, has not yet let her preference be known, though it could prove highly influential in California, where she is a popular first lady. (Shriver's husband, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, endorsed Sen. John McCain.)
The Obama camp at first thought to send Caroline out to announce her support by campaigning with Obama on JFK Boulevard in New Jersey, but she decided instead to offer an op-ed piece to the New York Times, which she wrote on her own late one night, a few days before the Jan. 26 South Carolina primary. Before the article appeared she called Chelsea to tell her she was backing Obama.
One intriguing element of Obama's family history that resonated with Caroline was a long-buried story that was brought to her attention last summer. It drove home for her how history replays itself, how two generations of two families—separated by distance, culture and wealth—can intersect in strange and wonderful ways, and how people have no idea that their good deeds may come back to them someday.
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