She's Repug not a Blue Dog.

Gillibrand is a horrible choice because she will divide the party, and it shows that Paterson is either an interest group sycophant or a buffoon.

...plus the Dems will automatically lose a House seat in 2010.

Don't love her blue-dog views, but on the plus side, she is a big agriculture supporter for the remaining farms in upstate New York. If we're serious about eating local and supporting farmers, she'd be a good pick from that perspective.

He's a Republican Legacy - Gillibrand's father, Doug Rutnik, is an Albany insider and lobbyist whose ties to former GOP powerhouses Joe Bruno, George Pataki and Al D'Amato are legendary.

Caroline might have been a lot of things, but at least she was a Kennedy. You knew where she stood and where she would have voted on all of the key issues.

The GOP is celebrating tonight. What a circus.

For the record, I'm going see how she does. But man oh man.

Oh, and this was never a choice between Caroline and someone bad (Gillibrand, Cuomo, whoever). Also, for the record not a huge Caroline fan or hater, for that matter. There was a field of contenders here. It's our loss we never really discussed them.

I blame the NetRoots. You guys had a chance to get behind Kennedy, a for-real progressive. A strong pro-Kennedy NetRoots campaign (like the one Al Giordano tried to start) could have helped her with the media circus that followed her announcement ("She says 'you know'! Oh my God, she's a JOKE! What a PRINCESS!").

But the NetRoots swallowed the MSM talking-point and swallowed hard. Even with the MSM's great track-record as of late: Obama's unelectable, we're a center-right nation, Bush kept us safe, there's no conspiracy in the DoJ firings, etc. etc.

Thanks, Kos.

Recall that Hillary campaigned very hard in Republican-leaning upstate and understood the network of baronies and satrapates that are part of NY politics. The probable nominee may be more in the Sen. Clinton mold than first meets the eye.

The new senator is going to have to run in 2010 and then again in 2012. Whoever gets it is going to have to be willing to campaign hard and raise money.

While I think Kennedy might have made a good senator and certainly could have raised the money, I just can see New York easily electing two NY-oriented politicians to the Senate. And by forgoing the celebrity route, the governor really does set up very competitive special election in 2010.

Whether Patterson survives or not remains to be seen. Voters certainly are not going to vote him down because he passed on Caroline Kennedy, you know? They have more pressing concerns.

Here's a post from over at dailykos:

"gillibrand is Polly Noonan Rutnik's granddaughter and Erastus Corning left his money to Noonan. [You don't even want to know the story behind that]

Banking titans and railroads. Albany Bank.

"British in-laws. ... the Gillibrands are the senior share holders and chairs to BAE and AMEC - the largest defense contractors and oil and gas pipeline builders in the world. AMEC currently holds over $2b (yes that is a B for billion) in rebuild contracts in IRAQ."

Her father is an Albany lobbyist."

Just from looking things up, this appears to be a pretty red district she's from, after multiple redistrictings, the history of which is too hard for me to follow this early in the East European morning.

That being said, she toppled a Republican stronghold of seven straight terms, the last two of which were by the despised Florida recount thug John E. "we gotta shut that down" Sweeney who, like Gillibrand, has no tolerance for gun control. Sweeney had it coming, with a whole history of other colorful events involving cars, alcohol, wife-beating, and romance, so taking him down was not as difficult as it might seem.

As she moves from what seems a reddish district to statewide office, does she move left in her positions, interestingly? She has to be looking at a primary challenge in 2010, and she could be vulnerable to a Mr. Nice Guy liberal-ish Republican, right?

Speaking as someone who lives further upstate than Gillibrand, I think this is a pretty good appointment. The guns issue is really determinative up here & I'm pretty sure that Senator Gillibrand will be somewhat more liberal than Representative Gillibrand. I think she mihgt turn out to be quite a bit like Clinton, who is wildly popular up this way because she knows retail politics -- something CK had no clue about.

So we have a Blue Dog gun advocate in Bobby Kennedy's Senate seat. Great. This is change we can grieve over.

Wow, a lot of people are talking smack about NYS's new Senator and have no diea who she is. Perhaps you should read up on her positions before making snap judgments. Blue Dog = Republican and you just assume the label is correct without checking her stances. She actually has public positions and a record to base what kind of Senator she will be, rather than Caroline Kennedy who was a blank slate.

http://www.ontheissues.org/NY/Kirsten_Gillibrand.htm

Yes, Kirsten Gillebrand is less progressive than I would have liked. I would have preferred Randi Weingarten (who is rumored to be the runner-up) or Carolyn Maloney or Jerry Nadler. But Upstate needed some love and representation in the Senate and Paterson gave it to her. Byron Brown was her only competition upstate and I don't think he could hold the seat if Republicans put forward a strong nominee in 2010 (or an opportunistic asshat like Peter King). It was a smart pick - she'll be a good senator. Much smarter than Caroline Kennedy would have been had he just caved and anointed her simply because she wanted the seat.

If you needed any proof that CK would have been a HARR-IBLE Senator, look no further than her mangling of this whole process. Some people are not meant to be politicians no matter what family you are born into. Caroline should have saved herself the embarrassment and pulled out of contention rather than try to have out of state pressure cram her into a Senate seat the majority of New Yorkers thought she was wholly unqualified for.

Gov. Paterson deserves some respect for not letting Harry Reid or Bloomberg or Barbara Boxer or Teddy Kennedy intimidate him into making an appointment simply based on nepotism.

I don't like the way that Patterson handled this. Very ugly and not appropriate.

I predict that Cuomo will make a primary challenge against Patterson.

the Gillibrands are the senior share holders and chairs to BAE and AMEC - the largest defense contractors and oil and gas pipeline builders in the world. AMEC currently holds over $2b (yes that is a B for billion) in rebuild contracts in IRAQ."

And a war profiteer to boot...

" ....But while Kennedy had both Obama and Bloomberg behind her, she still somehow managed to self-destruct...."

I think it's more likely that Patterson never intended to appoint Kennedy, but didn't have the balls to just say so or to just go on ahead and appoint his own choice. Kennedy's instincts picked up on that. Kennedy didn't self-destruct so much as Patterson backed her off the cliff with his weird dynamics. Patterson's handling of this appointment has been monumentally inept. And now we see that Mrs. NRA is his choice. Whew, that really sucks. I've never been a fan of nepotism, but I also don't see why politics has to be a blood sport. I really liked Kennedy's sincerity and unsoiled political "naivete".