Caroline Bucks Barack, Hillary On Gay Nups

By Glenn Thrush

(The Politico)  Caroline Kennedy's spokesman provided seven answers to eight questions Ben and I submitted on a wide array of political and policy questions.

Many of the answers were relatively vague and politician-y, but she did make some news: She supports gay marriage -- bucking her mentor Barack Obama and possible predecessor Hillary Clinton.

"Caroline supports full equality and marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples," wrote spokesman Stefan Friedman.

She also dissed Clinton's Oct. 2002 vote authorizing the Iraq invasion: "Caroline opposed the war in Iraq from the beginning. She supports President-Elect Obama's plan to work with our military leaders to begin a responsible withdrawal."

The question she didn't answer? "Will you commit to supporting your party's nominee for mayor against Michael Bloomberg in 2009? Did you back the mayor's efforts to suspend term limits?"

Not surprisingly, Kennedy completely supports the no-new-taxes approach of Gov. David Paterson, lavishing praise on the man who controls her fate.

"Based on what she's read about the budget released a few days ago, Caroline believes that Governor Paterson's budget appropriately includes both revenue increases and budget cuts while still protecting the most vulnerable. On the issue of where to cut or what revenue to increase, she leaves that up to the governor and the legislature. Governor Paterson was one of the first elected officials in the nation to sound the alarm about our fiscal crisis and he has led the charge to get Washington to give aid to the New York because we have been hit so hard by the financial meltdown."

And she gave a relative free hand to Israel in dealing with Iran's nuke program.

"Caroline Kennedy strongly supports a safe and secure Israel. She believe Israel's security decisions should be left to Israel."