While Camelot could be returning to the White House, not everyone is enamored of the possibility that two members of the fabled Kennedy clan might score prized posts in Barack Obama’s cabinet.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental lawyer and activist, is reportedly being considered for the position of administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency while cousin Caroline Kennedy is a possibility for ambassador to the United Nations.
Marc Landy, a Boston College political science professor who wrote a book on the EPA, said Robert Kennedy would be an “innappropriate” pick for the EPA post, which he described as “one of the hardest” public management jobs in government.
“It’s not a good place to make a kind of symbolic appointment,” Landy said yesterday. “You need a pro.”
The professor said Kennedy was an “estimable environmentalist” and consciousness raiser about the issue but he’s not a public manager. “It’s innappropriate. It’s wrong,” Landy said. “Government is not all about symbol and impulse, it’s an awful lot of grinding, managerial work.”
Kennedy told the Huffington Post that he would serve in the Obama administration if they asked. “You know what, I would be of service in any way that the administration asked me to be,” Kennedy said. Kennedy’s assistant did not return a call to the Herald.
As for Caroline Kennedy, Landy said the United Nations ambassador is a symbolic figure who does a lot of speechifying and attends many receptions.
“One could imagine Caroline Kennedy, given the resonance of her name, her poise and her fine public presence, being really quite an estimable U.N. ambassador because of the nature of the post,” Landy said.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental lawyer and activist, is reportedly being considered for the position of administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency while cousin Caroline Kennedy is a possibility for ambassador to the United Nations.
Marc Landy, a Boston College political science professor who wrote a book on the EPA, said Robert Kennedy would be an “innappropriate” pick for the EPA post, which he described as “one of the hardest” public management jobs in government.
“It’s not a good place to make a kind of symbolic appointment,” Landy said yesterday. “You need a pro.”
The professor said Kennedy was an “estimable environmentalist” and consciousness raiser about the issue but he’s not a public manager. “It’s innappropriate. It’s wrong,” Landy said. “Government is not all about symbol and impulse, it’s an awful lot of grinding, managerial work.”
Kennedy told the Huffington Post that he would serve in the Obama administration if they asked. “You know what, I would be of service in any way that the administration asked me to be,” Kennedy said. Kennedy’s assistant did not return a call to the Herald.
As for Caroline Kennedy, Landy said the United Nations ambassador is a symbolic figure who does a lot of speechifying and attends many receptions.
“One could imagine Caroline Kennedy, given the resonance of her name, her poise and her fine public presence, being really quite an estimable U.N. ambassador because of the nature of the post,” Landy said.
Go to:
No comments:
Post a Comment