Caroline Kennedy is nothing more and nothing less than a woman with good horse sense. She can do whatever she wants and be whatever she wants to be, not because of her pedigree, but despite her pedigree. Like her brother, John F. Kennedy Jr., who had the grace and the intelligence that was necessary to follow in the footsteps of his father, she too has what it takes -she is extremely intelligent, cultivated, serious and, you know, unpretentious.

Where it began,
I can't begin to knowin'
But then I know it's growing strong
Was in the spring
And spring became the summer
Who'd have believed you'd come along.

Hands, touchin' hands
Reachin' out, touchin' me touchin' you
Sweet Caroline
Good times never seemed so good
I've been inclined
To believe they never would
But now I, look at the night
And it don't seem so lonely
We fill it up with only two.

And when I hurt,
Hurtin' runs off my shoulders
How can I hurt when I'm with you
Warm, touchin' warm Reachin' out, touchin' me touchin' you
Sweet Caroline
Good times never seemed so good
I've been inclined,
To believe they never
Oh, no, no

Sweet Caroline
Good times never seemed so good Sweet Caroline,
I believe they never could
Sweet Caroline.........

Sweet and intelligent was evidently not good enough. The Senator from New York was evidently selected by the powerbroker activity of Alfonse M. D’Amato. Alfonse M. D’Amato, the former senator, stood alongside Mr. Paterson for the announcement of Ms. Gillibrand’s appointment. She worked as an intern in Mr. D’Amato’s Senate office for two summers.

Mr. D’Amato, a Republican from Long Island who served three terms in the Senate, left official power in 1998, after being defeated by Charles E. Schumer. He got over it pretty quickly. While George E. Pataki was governor, Mr. D’Amato became a major lobbyist. At one point, he was paid $500,000 for helping a building owner who was making a deal with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The task required no heavy lifting beyond a phone call to the authority’s chairman.

The rise of a government controlled by Democrats in Albany has not stopped Mr. D’Amato. He has become one of the major fund-raisers for Mr. Paterson, an article by Wayne Barrett on the Village Voice Web site reported. The article noted that many of the same D’Amato clients who attended the fund-raiser for Mr. Paterson had also attended a fund-raiser for John McCain’s campaign, “a symmetry that knows no ideology, only D’Amato connections.”