Rep. King: Senate Drama Shows ‘Dysfunctional Gov’t’

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), a likely 2010 Senate candidate, is focusing his fire on Gov. David Paterson (D) and other Democrats now that Caroline Kennedy has dropped her bid for the vacant Senate seat.

“This looks more and more like the gang that can’t shoot straight,” King said on MSNBC Thursday.

King said he has questions over why Kennedy dropped out just before Paterson’s expected to announce his Senate pick and after she had spent weeks campaigning for the seat, vacated by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. The New York Times said that Kennedy withdrew from consideration because of the health of her uncle, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), but the New York Post attributed Kennedy’s decision to her dwindling chances of being picked. Paterson is expected to announce his decision this week.

King said that Paterson also deserves blame for how the appointment process has played out.

“I mean, David Paterson is a good friend of mine, but so far this whole process just makes no sense at off,” King said. “And we’re talking about a very important seat, in one of the most important states in the country, and we’re going without representation, and it’s just really making it look like a circus. And, you know, the position deserves more than that.”

King said that the process showed “dysfunctional government at its worst.”

“This is not that difficult a decision,” he added, “This is, you have two months to pick one person. And, you know, this isn’t a war, this isn’t a depression or a recession, this isn’t a financial crisis, it’s picking someone, and you know all the characters involved.”