The Senate May Get Caroline, But Biden Gets Carney And A Canine

Joe Biden snuggles puppies, and Drudge might be using this picture to announce Ana Marie Cox's old boss's new job, but there is also news of bombs, shoes, dodges and Caroline Kennedy to discuss.

ANA MARIE: Gonna try a little experiment and NOT WATCH Morning Joe during our chat.

MEGAN: Well, you're not missing anything. Joe just made fun of Mika for correctly pronouncing Printemps when talking about the French department story bomb and now they are accusing Franken of trying to steal the election and arguing about the supposed LBJ fraud in Texas, but that last bit is mostly Pat Buchanan. Oh, and Erin Burnett has teased the fuck out of her hair this morning.

ANA MARIE: Buchanan nurses old wounds with great care.

MEGAN: But she did just illustrate the rule of supply and demand for Joe Scarborough by crossing her arms in front of her face, which was sort of awesome. Okay, I'll stop now, too.

ANA MARIE: I sort of wish I was watching because — wait for it — I think I'm coming around on Erin. She seems to not take herself seriously which is a rarity for a hot newsreader, who take themselves seriously so that others don't have to.

MEGAN: I mean, she just explained Econ 101 to Joe Scarborough on television with what Joe correctly identified as a cheerleading move.

ANA MARIE: Joe would know.

MEGAN: I think that says a lot about their respective collegiate experiences.

ANA MARIE: Oh, you said "experience"! I say: "Caroline Kennedy" Wait. Something's wrong there...

MEGAN: Apparently, though, according to the New York Post, she's going to bring fashion sense back to the seat by always wearing ball gowns. Just like Daniel Moynihan.

ANA MARIE: Interesting phrasing in the NYT story on her decision:

Yet Caroline Kennedy’s decision to ask Gov. David A. Paterson to appoint her to Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Senate seat suggests that she believes she is as well prepared as anyone to serve as the next senator from New York.

See, I don't actually believe you need a lot of government or elective experience to be a good senator (or president!) but I also think that VOTERS should be the ones to make that decision/take that risk.

MEGAN: That's the thing. Is there any real sense that she wouldn't get elected in a real race? New York does love its carpetbaggers, as long as they have name recognition and aren't Alan Keyes.

ANA MARIE: Then let her run! Let her make her case to the People, not to the Dumb Guv.

MEGAN: Well, but it 's the governor who's deciding.

ANA MARIE: That's my point.

MEGAN: I mean, I stand firm on one point in this: do not appoint Andrew Cuomo.

ANA MARIE: Put in a placeholder, like they did in Delaware, where Beau Biden will, yes, probably win if he runs. But it'll be the voters' fault/decision. In any case, this is going to REALLY piss off Hillary people. REALLY.

MEGAN: I hate the placeholder idea. I particularly hate it when it's done for a political dynasty.

ANA MARIE: Almost as if Paterson (or someone) planned it that way.

MEGAN: But Paterson was a huge Clinton supporter in the primary.

ANA MARIE: I know! That's what's weird! I talked to a Hillary person yesterday and this person was steaming about it. Smoke out of ears.

MEGAN: Wait, so, he's not supposed to appoint a woman? It's so hard to tell with Clinton supporters like that, as they broke down into two camps: there is no woman in the United States remotely as qualified as Hillary Clinton; or it's more important than anything to have women in higher office.

ANA MARIE: He's supposed to appoint a woman that's worked for it, I think was this person's point. Rattled off a few names that to be honest I did not recognize. Which is the problem, I guess.

MEGAN: Well, I'm sorry, there are really not that many women high up in New York politics, and Nita Lowey took herself out of the running more than a week ago.

ANA MARIE: I just hate appointments in general, I think.

MEGAN: I understand the thinking behind Carolyn Maloney, and she's great, but she's not exactly a dynamic person. Which I'm sure Chuckie-boy loves. I'll bet Chuck's pushing for Maloney.

ANA MARIE: He would like to fill the seat himself. His ego certainly could use the extra room.

MEGAN: I mean, in a state where some incumbents won with more than 90% of the vote — and the average is about 70, if I'm eyeballing it — how is it not basically a state of appointments? It's just the appointments are made by local or state party officials.

ANA MARIE: I guess that's why we just keep having national elections, too, even though you can predict those results pretty well sometimes: It's what democracies do. You could cut out the pesky voter-middleman but that sets a bad example.

MEGAN: I guess I'm just agnostic on appointing Senators, since I'm not really sure what the difference is between that and the regular system, at least in New York.

ANA MARIE: Oh, and speaking of bad examples: Shoe thrower folk hero?

MEGAN: Poor guy is probably getting the shit beaten out of him as we type, which totally won't make him any more of one.

ANA MARIE: And it sort of undermines Bush's weird logic that shoe-throwing is just what happens in "free societies." If true, I have missed all the major shoe throwing events in Washington.

MEGAN: I would never throw my shoes unless it was a pair I didn't like anymore, but I usually donate those to Goodwill anyway.

ANA MARIE: Seems to me that shoe-throwing really more of a mark of a DESPERATE society:

China's Foreign Ministry spokesman said he would be watching out for journalists taking off their shoes in news conferences after an Iraqi reporter threw a pair at outgoing U.S. President George W. Bush in Baghdad.

MEGAN: However, if I knew there was to be an official shoe throwing event — perhaps in concert with a dunk tank? — I would totally get a pair.

ANA MARIE: Flip flops! Those size 10s, they seem a little deadly.

MEGAN: I wear a 6 and 1/2 shoe, I think I would fall on my face if I attempted to walk in size 10 flip flops.

ANA MARIE: Wow, TINY feet. You must clean up at sales. They are always out of 71/2s. AND SPEAKING OF CLEANING UP (don't you love how I do that?): Jay Carney, the last employed journalist in Washington. Finally he will earn some money out of flacking for Obama-Biden team ! (Just kidding, Jay!)

MEGAN: Man, he went and got a grown-up job. Some days, I feel like I need one of those.

ANA MARIE: Oh, I don't know how grown up it is. I mean, a large part of any comm director job is schmoozing, which Jay already has ninja-level skillz in. And what with Joe Biden shrinking down the job of VP to "puppy snuggling" and funerals, I'm not sure what's left for Jay to do. But I'm sure he'll do it well.

MEGAN: I am an excellent puppy snuggler, if Jay needs a deputy.

ANA MARIE: He also was totally rocking the suit jacket/buttondown/no-tie look LONG before BHO.

MEGAN: But did you know he was a Democrat, unlike your other colleague Joe Klein?

ANA MARIE: Uhm, yes.

MEGAN: Yeah, I didn't figure details like that would escape you.

ANA MARIE: Maybe I had more drinks with him than Joe did, though that seems unlikely. Ask the McCain people if THEY knew he was a Dem!

MEGAN: The McCain people thought the entire press corps were Dems by the end. If Bill Kristol had been on the plane, they probably would've called him in the tank for Obama.

ANA MARIE: And, obv, the funny part is that the people on the Obama plane were the least tanky. They were, on the whole, the most critical. And, seriously, I think Jay will be great in this job and I've always thought his writing was more elegant than most newsmag stuff (and he's actually quite funny tho that rarely made it into print) but... Don't Rs have every right to be pissed? That might be the wrong way to put it. It just confirms their worst suspicions.

MEGAN: Well, they might except how many of their writers went to work for McCain? I'm looking at Michael Goldfarb here.

ANA MARIE: If you want to equate Time and the Weekly Standard, I'm fine with that but I doubt either of the magazines would be. And, in the end, it comes down to what the written record is.

MEGAN: Well, I'm not talking about the magazine but the writer. Is Goldfarb going to admit that everything he ever wrote was intellectually disingenuous and hacky and aimed at getting someone specific elected? Probably not, right? Then he should shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down.

ANA MARIE: Or if people want to spend a few years going through everything Jay's ever written looking for bias, well, it'll be more enjoyable than reading the ourve of others, and that's pretty much the only way to actually make a serious case out of the argument. Everything else is just generic whining.

MEGAN: And no one likes a whiner.

ANA MARIE: It does tend to go hand in hand with losing.