New York: The Silent Auction

Kathleen Parker may be a Republican, but that doesn't disqualify her comments on the New York senatorial scenario, which she describes as a "silent auction" as opposed to the Illinois outrage. She also has sensible things to say about celebrity and Americans' inconsistent attitude toward dynastic politics. But perhaps because she's conservative in temperament, she doesn't suggest the obvious solution to these gubernatorial follies. The idea of filling all Senate vacancies by special elections as a federal rule, because it would be a form of democratization and a diminishment of states' rights, may not even have occurred to her. But it's still a good sign that national columnists are starting to notice the New York situation amid the sturm und drang from the Chicago area. I'd like to see Governor Paterson put on TV, preferably on one of the Sunday talk shows, so he can sweat more publicly over the choice -- and also correct the dubious impression created by his impersonator on Saturday Night Live. The tastefulness of that performance is a topic for another time.