FAMILY AND POLITICAL NEWS - AT 7:40 P.M. ET:  As we learned in the 1960 election, the Kennedy family has political connections in Illinois, so much so that still one more Kennedy wants to, gosh darn, help the people of the state in any way he can.  Andrew Malcolm, at Top of the Ticket (L.A. Times), explains the delicious irony:

In their master plan to have a family member elected to federal office from every state in the Union, another Kennedy is considering a run for the U.S. Senate.

Word out of Chicago today that Chris Kennedy, son of Robert Kennedy, once of New York, nephew to Ted Kennedy currently of Massachusetts, cousin to Caroline Kennedy, also of New York, is seriously pondering a run at the Illinois Barack Obama Senate seat in next year's election.

And no one, absolutely no one, is suggesting that the fix is in:

Mayor Richard M. Daley, whose father Mayor Richard J. Daley was not a Kennedy either but loved them and did provide the 8,000 or so votes from somewhere that gave John F. Kennedy his narrow White House electoral win over Richard M. Nixon in 1960, has already said Chris Kennedy is a big name.

So that signal has gone out.

We're sure he just meant to be helpful, maybe to inform school children that this young Kennedy is a member of a famous family.  That's all.  The Daleys always look for opportunities to teach various lessons.

Young Kennedy, son of Robert, runs the huge Merchandise Mart in Chicago, once run by Sargent Shriver, husband to President Kennedy's sister, Eunice, and father to Maria.

A sensitive point:  The Kennedys identify with the civil-rights movement, when useful.  The man holding the seat Kennedy covets is Roland Burris, an African-American appointed by disgraced former Governor Blago after the elected senator, Barack Obama, acquired another job.  This will have to be handled with, as they say, sensitivity.  As Andrew Malcolm puts it:

So if he's smart -- and there's no guarantee of that once you spend time in D.C. -- he'll step out of the way next year and let the next generation of Illinois Democrats march in. And he'll get put in some lucrative commission job or reap a pile of state legal business to shut up about it.

Senator Burris, beware of any phone call from Mayor Daley, or, indeed, President Obama, that begins with, "Roland, let's talk about your great future..."

May 20, 2009