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January 23rd, 2009
03:16 PM ET

Kirsten Gillibrand is a star

[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/POLITICS/01/23/gillibrand.profile/art.gillibrand.cnn.jpg]

Paul Begala
Special to CNN

The big news in New York politics is not that Caroline Kennedy, a deeply private person, preferred to be in private life.

Rather, the big news - and for Democrats, the good news - is that Gov. David Paterson has put another crack in the glass ceiling by appointing Kirsten Gillibrand to the Senate.

Gillibrand has it all. She moves with equal ease among Manhattan high-rollers and Delaware County dairymen.

She knocked off an entrenched Republican congressman in a conservative district. When she began, no one but she and then-Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman Rahm Emanuel thought she could win.

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Filed under: Paul Begala • Raw Politics • What You Will Be Talking About Today
soundoff (4 Responses)
  1. Suzy

    She is a rockstar!

    January 23, 2009 at 10:45 pm |
  2. Janice Holloway - Picton, ON

    How can this mother of two be a gun supporter?

    January 23, 2009 at 7:36 pm |
  3. Charlotte D

    Wow, this sure is the time for women in their 40's in politics to take the fast track to national prominence. First Palin for the Republicans and now Gillibrand for the Democrats. Talk about being in the right place at the right time.

    January 23, 2009 at 5:38 pm |
  4. JC- Los Angeles

    It's stunning to continually see the establishment and career political operatives write glowing pieces about nominees AFTER they become a nominee.

    Paul, where was this ringing endorsement BEFORE? Were you afraid to upset a Kennedy? probably; don't want to bite the hand that feeds you?

    Our nation has been run into the ground by the connected few who are constantly mainlined into cushy jobs and positions of power.

    With a chance to appoint a self-made person, what do we get? in the words of one Paul Begala, "Gillibrand comes from a well-connected clan."

    As much as things change, unfortunately, Washington stays the same.

    January 23, 2009 at 4:23 pm |
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