New York has a love affair with the Kennedys. And, over the years, the Kennedys have reciprocated.
It wasn't always like this. I remember when just nine months after his brother, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated, Bobby Kennedy ran for the U.S, Senate in New York. Many politicians didn't like the idea. They taunted Bobby as a carpet-bagger from Massachusetts. But he showed them he knew a little about politics. When his Republican opponent, Kenneth Keating, bought television time to denounce him for refusing to debate, Kennedy suddenly appeared in the corridor outside the studio and demanded to get in to confront Keating. But Keating wouldn't let Kennedy share his broadcast and Bobby paced up and down shouting into my microphone: "Let me in! Why won't you debate me?"
Kennedy, helped by the landslide victory of Lyndon Johnson in the presidential election, won the New York Senate seat.
His niece, Caroline, the daughter of the martyred president, was seven-years-old. Now, she wants to succeed her uncle as the next Senator from New York.
Unlike her father and her uncle, Caroline has been low key. She hasn't shunned the public spotlight but has not projected herself on to center stage in her activities in New York. Her interest in politics developed gradually. In recent years she helped raise millions of dollars for New York City schools. She spent six weeks campaigning in battleground states for Barack Obama this fall.
Now, in a dazzling reversal of her modest approach to political matters in the past, Caroline Kennedy has, according to insiders, spent much time on the phone in recent days telling the state's leading politicians that she is interested in the job once held by her uncle, Senator Robert Kennedy. Gov. David Paterson is also reportedly seriously considering appointing her. It's solely at his discretion.
Caroline Kennedy's most delicate task is to deal with those elected officials who themselves may have hoped to get the job, to soothe their feelings and appeal to their party loyalty. One major party leader from upstate, Louise Slaughter, says, ''What we need, obviously, is someone of great stature to follow Hillary Clinton.'' Caroline Kennedy's father, Jack Kennedy, once said he would be happy if either of his children entered politics.
The Kennedys are a captivating family. I remember the twinkle in Bobby Kennedy's eyes. I remember his sharp, inquisitive mind, his devotion to the poor. When he saw me once in a while for a drink at the Carlyle, his opening question always was "How's Lindsay doing?" He had a feeling, I guess, that some day our youthful looking, liberal Republican Mayor, might battle it out with him in a presidential election.
I remember the moment when Sen. Kennedy was leading the St. Patrick's Day parade up Fifth Avenue and, at 57th Street, he stopped the parade to go over to the sidewalk to say hello to an elegant lady. It was Jackie Kennedy, Caroline's mother. After a warm exchange of greetings, the senator resumed his place and the parade moved on. Jackie tried always to shield her two children from public view. But, if she could see the emergence of Caroline as a public figure, she probably would enjoy it and say it was meant to be.
The Kennedys and New York have a symbiotic relationship. Is that the word? One dictionary definition is, "A cooperative relationship between two persons or groups." You might say so. Even though some members of the family have a Massachusetts accent, like her uncle Teddy, who very much wants her to get the job.
