OPINION:
COMMENTARY:
Test your knowledge of public affairs. Who are J. Bonnie Newman, Ted Kaufman, Michael Bennett, Kirsten Gillibrand and Roland Burris, and what do they all have in common? (And, yes, I had to look a couple of them up.)
They all are or are about to be U.S. senators, and they got to the world’s greatest deliberative body, if the Senate does say so itself, without the hassle and stress of an election.
That means a measurable percentage of the Senate is unelected. If these five distinguish themselves, we might be able to save time and money by filling the Senate with random appointees. Certainly the voters seem dispensable to the process.
Ms. Newman will fill the Senate seat of Republican Judd Gregg of New Hampshire when Mr. Gregg is confirmed as President Obama’s commerce secretary. Mr. Gregg said he would only join the Cabinet if the governor of his state, Democrat John Lynch, agreed to appoint a Republican so as not to upset the delicate balance of power in the Senate.
Ms. Newman was Mr. Gregg’s chief of staff in the 1980s, served in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations and has held a couple of distinguished academic posts.
Ms. Newman, 63, says she will not run for a full term in 2010. So not only do the people of New Hampshire get to decide whether they would maybe rather have a Democrat, if they like Ms. Newman they don’t get to decide whether to keep her.
Mr. Kaufman, 69, is the Democrat appointed to fill Joe Biden’s Delaware Senate seat. Mr. Kaufman knows the Senate. He was Mr. Biden’s chief of staff for 19 years and he teaches a course at Duke on the workings of Congress. But he’s not staying, either.
It is widely, and undoubtedly correctly, believed that the longtime Biden adviser is keeping his old patron’s seat warm until the vice president’s son, Beau, the state’s attorney general, returns from a National Guard tour in Iraq and can run for it himself. It’s good that the people of Delaware are not roiled by unnecessary confusion over the identity of their next senator.
One appointee who says he will run for a full term in 2010 is Mr. Bennett, the Democrat appointed to fill Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar’s seat when he left to become interior secretary. Mr. Bennett, 44, was the head of the Denver public schools. He has an impressive resume in business and civic administration but has never held elected office. No matter. It’s good to start at the top.
One who is definitely running again — and likely again and again and again - is Democrat Mrs. Gillibrand, at 42 the youngest member of the Senate. She has only one term in the U.S. House to her credit, but is reckoned a rising star in New York politics. She replaces Hillary Rodham Clinton, who gave up her Senate seat to become secretary of state.
The choice of Mrs. Gillibrand was noteworthy because New York Gov. David Paterson spurned two powerful political dynasties, the Kennedys and the Cuomos, who each had an eye on the job for one of their own, to name her. New York politics being New York politics, Mrs. Gillibrand was threatened with a 2010 primary challenge the second she was named.
Lastly, there is Mr. Burris, 71, of Illinois, Mr. Obama’s Democratic replacement. Choosing him seemed to be now-former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s way of thumbing his nose at his many critics. Mr. Burris last held elected office in 1995 and has three unsuccessful races for governor, one for senator and one for mayor on his resume. His appointment was notable for the publicity given the size and opulence of his personal mausoleum.
Mr. Burris hasn’t said definitively whether he’ll run in 2010, but says if he does he’ll win.
Even if you’re only there for two years, you get to be called “senator” for the rest of your life. Cool.
• Dale McFeatters is a nationally syndicated columnist.
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