JFK’s daughter seeking Clinton’s Senate seat

Clinton is expected to be confirmed as President-elect Barack Obama’s secretary of state.

At an afternoon news conference to discuss last week’s paralyzing ice storm, New York’s senior senator, Charles Schumer, said he has also talked to Caroline Kennedy about the job.

“And she’s clearly interested,” he said.

Kennedy is the daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy. Her uncle, the late Robert F. Kennedy, once held the Senate seat she wants. Paterson has sole authority to name a replacement for Clinton, who was first elected in 2000 and re-elected by a wide margin in 2006.

Over the past week, Kennedy, who lives in Manhattan, has reached out to several prominent New York Democrats to tell them of her interest in the Senate seat. They included Joel Klein, chancellor of the New York City Department of Education. Kennedy worked closely with Klein as executive of the Office of Strategic Partnerships for the New York City Department of Education, where she raised about $65 million for the city’s schools.

“I think she’s thought about it a long time,” Klein said of a conversation he had with Kennedy on Monday. He said the campaigning she did for Obama this year helped acquaint her with the gritty rituals of retail politics.

“She’s a highly determined woman and she’s clearly been thinking about her life and how to make an effective contribution,” Klein said. “Everyone knows Caroline, and everyone has a great historical respect for the Kennedy family.”

Other Democrats who appear to be on Paterson’s short list include New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who won’t say publicly whether he’s interested.

One of the early front-runners, Rep. Nydia Velazquez of Brooklyn, took herself out of the running Friday.

Paterson will appoint someone to fill Clinton’s seat for two years if she is confirmed as secretary of state.

Republicans wasted no time in criticizing Kennedy as unqualified for the job and unfamiliar with the state.

“If anything, it makes me more determined to run,” said Rep. Peter King, a Long Island Republican who has already expressed his interest in the seat.

“As far as record of achievement, I strongly believe that I’m much more qualified, much more experienced, and have an independent record,” King said. “Nothing against Caroline Kennedy, but I don’t think anyone has a right to a seat.”

Besides being a member of America’s most famous political family, 50-year-old Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg is president of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and a member of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award Committee.

She is also a director of the Commission on Presidential Debates; a director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund; honorary chairwoman of the American Ballet Theatre; and vice chairwoman of New York City’s Fund for Public Schools.

She has a bachelor’s degree from Harvard and a law degree from Columbia University. She and her husband, Edwin Arthur Schlossberg, have three children.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, a prominent civil rights activist, said Kennedy called him Monday. For Democrats, Sharpton could be an important ally, and an early call on such political matters can be a critical show of respect. If Sharpton eventually supports Kennedy, his endorsement could go a long way in helping ease any criticism that a black candidate was passed over.

Sharpton said he disagrees with those who say she isn’t qualified to be US Senator.

NYT criticises Bush on shoe-throwing incident

New York

Noting that hitting someone with shoe is a particularly strong rebuke in Iraq, a leading American daily has lamented that President George Bush refuses to read it that way.

Interpreting the incident in the context of the Iraq war, the ‘New York Times’ said more than any other issue, the “the war of choice” will define Bush’s legacy. Yet he remains “stubbornly convinced” that the 2003 invasion was absolutely right thing to do.

“No one laments the fact that Saddam Hussein is gone. But there are serious questions about whether war was the right approach and whether Iraq is better off given how Mr Bush and his administration mishandled the aftermath of the invasion,” the paper said in an opinion piece written by its “Editorial Board.”

The throwing of shoes by Muntader al-Zaidi, an Iraqi TV journalist, at President Bush during a joint press conference on Sunday with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Baghdad’s super-secure Green Zone, transformed him into a “symbolic figure in the debate about the American military’s presence in Iraq,” the paper noted.

The Times called for “speedy trial, a fair process and access to a competent lawyer for Zaidi, saying Bush should not see the incident as a source of “endless shoe” jokes but must make it clear to Baghdad that the United States does not

condone abuse of defendants. The paper’s comments came in the context witnesses

telling it that Zaidi was severely beaten after the press

conference and dragged out.

The Times noted that the Human Rights Watch portrays a

judicial system in Iraq under which defendants are often

abused in custody and held for months or even years before

being referred to a judge.

When cases are heard, the defendants are often left

without adequate defense counsel to answer charges, which are

frequently based on secret informants, coerced confessions and

flimsy evidence.

Juvenile detainees are often held with adults, the

report found, despite an Iraqi law ordering them to be held

separately, it added.

UN official gets online death threats

New York

Death threats against United Nations General Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto, who is highly critical of the United States and Israel, have been posted on the Internet, his spokesman said, adding that both United Nations security and the United States have been informed.

“This matter is being looked into by the pertinent authorities,” spokesman Enrique Yeves told reporters.

The president had come to know of the threats four days ago, he said. These are very serious threats against his life and he is taking them pretty seriously. Besides, the UN security staff is also tasking it very seriously, he added.

Yeves did not go into the details but said that “some extra security” measures are already being taken. However, it was not immediately known who were behind the threats.

Generally, the United Nations does not give details of the security measures taken.

The spokesman also dismissed as “untrue” the reports that Escoto had last week tried to block Israel’s UN Ambassador Gabriela Shalev from speaking during debate on the 60th anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

He described it as “malicious and absolute lie that could characterised as slander” as pro Israel correspondents closed questioned him during daily briefing.

Escoto served as Nicaragua’s as foreign minister in the leftist Sandinista government and had recently angered Israelis by comparing their treatment of Palestinian to apartheid in South Africa.

Yeves said that Escoto was meeting with Shalev on Monday but the Israeli mission later said the meeting was cancelled and described the president as divisive.