It has left massive amounts of collateral damage–starting with Caroline Kennedy, of course, continuing with the Governor of New York, and even encompassing the political circle of Senator Kennedy, who is quite mad with his niece. Such is the price, of course, of attempting to loft to great political heights a public figure who is quite clearly unprepared for the rough-and-tumble of politics.

What was amusing, of course, was the degree to which Democratic politicians involved in the matter refrained from sitting Caroline Kennedy down and making it quite clear to her that she does not have the chops to get and keep the Senate seat and be an effective advocate for the state of New York. Instead, these politicians tried their very best to humor her; if any effort whatsoever was made to explain the facts of life to the Dauphine, it was emphatically not clear to the public and if the efforts were actually effective, this farce would not have gone on nearly as long as it did.

Now that it has, and now that it has burned a number of prominent Democrats, I suspect that the political world will be a little colder for Caroline Kennedy to inhabit. She should not be surprised; this entire enterprise was always over her head. And I imagine that the people whose reputations she dragged down thanks to their involvement in this process will not forgive her clumsiness anytime soon.