Slaughter Likes Kennedy — But Not Written Answers

Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) defended Caroline Kennedy’s campaign for Senate but added that she wouldn’t have answered reporters in writing like the campaign has done.

Slaughter, who has endorsed Kennedy, was asked on MSNBC Monday whether she agreed with Kennedy’s decision to respond in writing to questionnaires from Politico and The New York Times but not take many questions in person.

“I don’t know, and, frankly, I would not have done that,” Slaughter said. “That’s not something I would have recommended, but I know that the truth of the matter is when she came up, she spoke to me first a week ago, today, thanking me for something I had said over the weekend, and her visit was not to be a great splash, kind of, taking a lot of press conferences, but it evolved to be that.

“I don’t think there’s any question that between her stop in Syracuse and into Rochester and on to Buffalo that she became much more vocal to the press, and she will do that,” Slaughter added. “There’s nothing shy about her. They’re not trying to hide anything. She did enormous numbers of press conferences during the Obama campaign. She was on stage all the time. This notion that she’s not up to it, I think, is grievously unfair.”

Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.) criticized Kennedy’s campaign on Sunday, suggesting that her campaign was inaccessible in the same way that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s (R) vice presidential bid was.

“[Kennedy’s] not talking to reporters as she makes this grand tour,” Ackerman said on “Face The Nation.” “They