OK, NOW CAROLINE KENNEDY IS PISSING ME OFF

I initially argued that it wouldn't be a terrible idea for Governor David Paterson to name Caroline Kennedy as the replacement senator for Hillary Clinton. I wasn't counting on the possibility that Kennedy would decide she could simply appoint herself. But that appears to be what's going on:

Ms. Kennedy ended weeks of silence with a series of rapid-fire phone calls to the state's leading political figures, including Gov. David A. Paterson, in which she emphatically and enthusiastically declared herself interested in the seat, according to several people who received the calls....

On Monday, she called dozens of political figures to let them know she was interested in the job. Besides Mr. Paterson and Christine C. Quinn, the New York City Council speaker, Ms. Kennedy called upstate officials like Representative Louise M. Slaughter and Byron Brown, the mayor of Buffalo; the Rev. Al Sharpton, the civil rights leader; and Charles E. Schumer, New York's senior senator....

Ms. Kennedy has also retained Knickerbocker SKD, a well-connected political consulting firm founded by Josh Isay, a former chief of staff to Mr. Schumer....

David Paterson is an accidental governor, thrust into the job when Eliot Spitzer got caught with his pants down. He doesn't have a significant power base or fund-raising apparatus. He doesn't have clout. And Caroline Kennedy does. She's taking advantage of him.

There are Bigfoots (Giuliani, Bloomberg) who could take the governorship or the Senate seat, or both, from the Democrats in 2010. I understood if Paterson thought he should choose Kennedy as a way of strengthening the party's prospects. But she apparently doesn't want him to have a choice in the matter. She's daring him to say no.

This is an inherently undemocratic process -- but we have a right to expect an answerable official to make the decision, not to have it made for him by the appointee.

*****

And I have to say that this isn't impressive:

And, in a move that carries an unmistakable echo of the "listening tour" that jump-started Mrs. Clinton's candidacy in 2000, Ms. Kennedy has made plans to visit parts of upstate New York, where she is perhaps least well known, and where her candidacy may draw the most skepticism.

Mr. Brown said that he expected to meet with her in western New York in the coming weeks.

"She wanted a lay of the land, she wanted to talk about some of the issues that are important to people from Buffalo and upstate," Mr. Brown said.

She's going to get the "lay of the land" upstate "in the coming weeks"? If she's appointed, she's going to be a senator "in the coming weeks" -- maybe next month, after the Clinton confirmation. Hillary was elected to the Senate in November 2000; her listening tour started more than a year earlier. She had time to get up to speed.