CliffyWorld

Aren’t you all tired of this “experience crap” already? After a long campaign season questioning the experience of Barack Obama and Sarah Palin we now have to start analyzing the qualifications of Caroline Kennedy as a NY Senator. Why not Caroline Kennedy for NY Senator?

So what if she doesn’t want to disclose where all her money comes from. We all know anyway ....books, her foundation, her dead families’ inheritance, a piece of her Uncle Ted’s 43.8 million. She’s filthy rich so just get over it already!

Can she fill Hillary’s shoes? Hillary had no experience, wasn’t born in NY, failed to disclose her finances, and received over $500,000 in contributions from the Marc Rich family. Let’s not forget her husband “Willy the Stain” who got plenty of money from his “Mein Kampf” book, countless public speaking appearances and maybe through some secret deals…a few UAE Dirhams on the side. Was Hillary qualified to be NY Senator when she first ran for office? At least Caroline was born in NY and not Illinois.

Are these guys any better than Caroline?

Former Governor Elliot Spitzer (NY-D)
On September 21, 2007, Spitzer issued an executive order directing that state offices allow illegal immigrants to be issued driver's licenses effective December 2007. This order was later overturned.

Spitzer had patronized a high-priced prostitution service called Emperors Club VIP and met for over two hours with a $1,000-an-hour call girl. Spitzer had at least seven or eight liaisons with women from the club over six months, and paid more than $15,000. According to published reports, investigators believe Spitzer paid up to $80,000 for prostitutes over a period of several years while he was Attorney General and later as Governor.

Senator Chuck Schumer (NY-D)
In July 2008, the director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, John Reich, blamed the failure of savings and loan and mortgage originator Indy Mac on comments made by Schumer, who sent a publicized letter to the regulator raising concerns about the bank's solvency. Schumer wrote that he was "concerned that Indy Mac’s financial deterioration poses significant risks to both taxpayers and borrowers and that the regulatory community may not be prepared to take measures that would help prevent the collapse of Indy Mac." In the following 11 days, panicked depositors withdrew a total of $1.3 billion in mostly insured funds. Schumer conceded his actions may have caused some depositors to withdraw their money prematurely but denied blame for Indy Mac’s downfall.

Congressman Charlie Rangel (NY-D)
The New York Times reported on July 10, 2008, that Rangel rents four apartments in the Lenox Terrace complex in Harlem at below-market rates. The newspaper reported that Rangel paid $3,894 monthly for all four apartments in 2007, but that the going rate for similar apartments offered by the landlord in that building would be as high as $8,125 monthly. Three adjacent apartments on the 16th floor were combined to make up his 2,500-square-foot home; a fourth unit on the 10th floor is used as a campaign office, even though that violates city and state regulations that require rent-stabilized apartments to be used as a primary residence. The apartments are in a building owned by the Olnick Organization. Rangel received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from one of the company’s owners, according to The Times. Rangel told the newspaper his rent does not affect his representation of his constituents.

Congressional ethics experts cited by the Times indicated that the difference in rent between what Rangel was paying and market rates on the second, third and fourth apartments he rented, an estimated $30,000 per year, could be construed as a gift as the savings is granted at the discretion of the landlord and is not offered to the public at large; if this should be treated as a gift, it would exceed the $100 limit established by the House of Representatives. In late July, the House voted 254 to 138 to table a resolution submitted by Minority Leader John Boehner that would have censured Rangel for having "dishonored himself and brought discredit to the House" by occupying the four apartments.

Rangel had been accused of failing to report income from the rental of a villa he owns in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, a three-bedroom, three-bath unit that has been rented out for as much as $1,100 per night in the busiest tourist season, from mid-December to mid-April. Labor lawyer Theodore Kheel, one of the principal investors in the resort development company and a frequent campaign contributor to Rangel, had encouraged the congressman to purchase the beachside villa. Rangel had purchased the unit in 1988 for $82,750 and financed $53,737.50 of the purchase price for seven years at a rate of 10.5%, but was one of several early investors who had interest payments waived in 1990. In September 2008, Lanny Davis, Rangel's attorney, disclosed that Rangel had failed to report $75,000 in income he had received for renting the condo on his tax returns or in congressional disclosure forms. His accountants were calculating the amounts owed and would be filing amended city, state and federal tax returns to cover the liability for back taxes.

In late November 2008, Republican members of Congress asked the House Ethics Committee to look into Rangel's defense of a tax shelter loophole that allows tens of millions of dollars in tax breaks for a company which has donated $1 million to the City College of New York school named after Rangel; under the loophole approved by Rangel's Ways and Means Committee, Nabors Industries has been allowed to open a small outlet in Bermuda and call itself a foreign corporation. Rangel denied the charges.

In December 2008, it surfaced that Rangel paid $80,000 in campaign funds to an internet company run by his son for the creation of his PAC website.

Is Caroline the right choice?

Does it really matter? You the voters have re-elected your Senators, Congressmen and Governors including the ones under investigation or on the take over and over again so why all the rhetoric about the selection and qualifications of Caroline? She is generous, philanthropic and much smarter than Al Franken... so there! If she wants to jump into the “slime pit”…..let her and quit your whining!

The staff at CliffyWorld wishes everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year.

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