US News

SILVER NOW TAKES SHINE TO CAROLINE

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who last week sharply questioned whether Caroline Kennedy should be appointed to the US Senate, said yesterday he’s rethinking his views because he believes Gov. Paterson may soon pick her.

“I have determined there’s a good possibility she will be the appointee of the governor,” Silver, the state’s second most powerful Democrat, told The Post.

“If she is the appointee of the governor, I will certainly be supportive of her. I will work for her and will work strenuously for her election.”

Last week, Silver said Kennedy seemed more loyal to Mayor Bloomberg, who has twice defeated Democratic opponents, than she was to Paterson.

He also said he was unhappy with Kennedy’s less than 100 percent commitment to support the Democratic candidate who’ll run against Bloomberg, who was twice elected as a Republican, this year.

Asked if he was now more favorably inclined toward Kennedy then he was last week, Silver responded, “Yes, it’s true.”

The speaker insisted he had no inside information – from the governor or anyone else – that Kennedy would be named to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton, President-elect Barack Obama‘s choice to be secretary of state.

But he said he reached the conclusion her appointment was likely because of “public opinion polls, which are not negative, and because the governor, I think, wants to run [in 2010] with a strong candidate, and I’m sure . . . having a well-known woman on the ticket will be helpful.”

While a national poll earlier this week showed a majority of Americans view Kennedy as qualified to be senator, a survey of New York voters last week found that 41 percent felt she was not qualified and 40 percent thought she was.

Kennedy’s halting performance during a series of interviews last weekend has been severely criticized in political circles.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg’s top political aide, Deputy Mayor Kevin Sheekey – who has been lobbying for Kennedy – played his trump card yesterday. He argued that only Kennedy, an early Obama supporter, would have the clout a cash-strapped New York will need within the next administration.

“I think New York needs someone who can work with the new president. I think New York needs someone who supported the new president. I think New York desperately shouldn’t appoint someone who opposed the new president,” Sheekey said.