Caroline Kennedy, widely believed to have been a contender for the vacant U.S. Senate seat in New York once held by Hillary Clinton, removed herself from consideration last night due to “tax trouble and an employee problem,” according to sources close to the situation.
A source to the New York Post said Kennedy was “mired” in an issue over taxes, her nanny and possibly her marriage.
Senator Edward Kennedy’s staff is said to be angry because Caroline seemed to be using his illness as her excuse.
The New York Times, for instance, wrote in its Thursday morning edition: “The person who spoke with Ms. Kennedy said she cited concerns about the health of her uncle, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who suffers from brain cancer and was hospitalized after a seizure Tuesday, as the reason for her abrupt withdrawal.”
Time Magazine said, “He is crazy about her. He encouraged her” in her bid for the Senate seat, one close associate says of Ted Kennedy’s relationship with his niece. “But using him as an excuse, as though things were on the downward spiral, is not going to be O.K. with him … This will get in the way of health reform” – by suggesting that a key legislator involved in putting the bill together may be incapacitated.
TIME:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/2009
0122/us_time/08599187332800
Danny Hakim and Nicholas Confessore wrote for the New York Times Thursday that “Problems involving taxes and a household employee surfaced during the vetting of Caroline Kennedy and derailed her candidacy for the Senate, a person close to Gov. David A. Paterson said on Thursday, in an account at odds with Ms. Kennedy’s own description of her reasons for withdrawing.”
Ms. Kennedy’s employee problem, known to involve a housekeeper, is believed to include tax irregularities and withholding for an alien.
Interestingly, President Barack Obama’s Treasury Secretary nominee has admitted to tax problems already….
Treasury Secretary nominee Timothy F. Geithner told the Senate Committee considering his nomination that the nonpayment of payroll taxes in the three years he was at the International Monetary Fund from 2001 to 2004 “were careless mistakes. They were avoidable mistakes. But they were unintentional. I should have been more careful.”
Fool Timothy Geithner testifies before the Senate Finance Committee on his nomination to be US Treasury Secretary at the Dirksen Senate office Building in Washington, DC. Geithner apologized Wednesday over past tax transgressions…. He wants to run the IRS so he can make sure you pay your taxes….”I was careless”….(AFP/Mandel Ngan)
He remains the nominee for Secretary of the Treasury.
In 2004, President Bush’s choice for Secretary of Homeland Security, Bernard Kerik, was forced to withdraw himself from consideration for the post when it was revealed that he had employed an illegal alien nanny and failed to withhold taxes from her paycheck. The former New York City police commissioner would have been responsible for enforcing the immigration laws he violated had he been confirmed by the Senate.
Kerik was not the first cabinet appointee to be derailed by violations of immigration and tax laws. President Clinton’s first two choices for Attorney General, Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood, and President Bush’s first choice for Secretary of Labor, Linda Chavez, were scuttled by revelations that they had employed illegal immigrants in clear violation of the federal laws they would be required to enforce in those jobs.
Read the entire New York Times report:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/nyr
egion/23caroline.html?_r=2&hp
CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/
22/caroline.kennedy.withdraws/index.html
Fox News:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/0
1/22/pub-kennedys-exit-senate-race-boost
s-cuomos-candidacy/
The Associated Press made a report which included this:
Kennedy jumped to the top of statewide polls in early December, but her public support waned following a brief upstate tour and a few press interviews.
She was criticized as reluctant to answer questions, and her knowledge of New York and its issues were suspect. She was also mocked nationwide for her frequent use of “you know” and “um” in interviews and was branded a lackluster campaigner.
The Kennedy reports came hours after Rep. Carolyn Maloney, some Democrats’ top choice, was named chair of the Joint Economic Committee in Congress. That’s a significant move because Paterson had made it clear the next senator’s top job should be to help land a federal stimulus package to help New York out of its historic fiscal crisis.
Read the entire article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090122/a
p_on_el_se/caroline_kennedy_32
From The New York Post:
In a stunning revelation, a source close to Gov. David Paterson insisted this afternoon that the governor “had no intention” of picking Caroline Kennedy for New York’s vacant senate seat – because she was “mired” in an issue over taxes, her nanny and possibly her marriage.
Kennedy was “mired in some potentially embarrassing personal issues,” the source said, citing tax liabilities and worker compensation liabilities connected to the employment of a nanny.
The source also said the state of her marriage may have presented a problem as well.
“She has a tax problem that came up in the vetting and a potential nanny issue,” the soruce said. “And reporters are starting to look at her marriage more closely,” the soruce continued, refusing to provide any specifics.
Read the rest:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/01222009/ne
ws/politics/carolines_kaput_151351.htm
In this Dec. 17, 2008 file photo, Caroline Kennedy, daughter of former President John F. Kennedy, listens to a reporter’s question during a news conference at City Hall in Buffalo, N.Y. In a statement released early Thursday, Jan. 22 Kennedy says she told Gov. David Paterson that she is abandoning her attempt to succeed Hillary Rodham Clinton for personal reasons.(AP Photo/Don Heupel, File)
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