One slip, one fall

I have always been troubled by New York Governor Patterson's appointment of Kirsten Gillibrand to the U.S. Senate, to fill the seat vacated by Hillary Clinton.

First, she had only served one term in Congress, hardly the significant experience that was being called for by those who were objecting to a possible Caroline Kennedy appointment.

Second, she has never really proven herself as a vote-getter, having beaten the disgraced wife-beater John Sweeney in 2006, and riding the Obama wave to reelection in 2008. Thus, she is, electorally speaking, a very weak candidate for reelection (having never even run a statewide campaign).

Third, she is a social "moderate" whose votes are not reliable for the Democratic majority, a liability that is acceptable in the House (in fact, it can help to moderate Pelosi and others in the House Democratic leadership) but not in a Senate that is corrupted by its inability to seat a rightfully-elected Senator and an abused filibuster imposing a phony 60-vote requirement.

But most importantly, it put at risk a hard-fought Democratic seat in a solidly Republican up-state New York district.

Today we're witnessing the folly of that decision, in a neck-and-neck count and probable recount of the votes to fill Gillibrand's seat.  Even if Democrat Scott Murphy pulls this off (and I don't have high hopes - Republicans typically outdo Democrats in absentee ballots, which is going to decide this thing), this shouldn't be happening at all. 

It's. Just. Dumb.