Book: Caroline Kennedy Dropped Senate Bid for Her Kids

It wasn't tax problems, it wasn't because Governor Paterson wasn't going to pick her, it wasn't because of the indignity of the process—it was for the children. That's how a new book about Ted Kennedy spins Caroline Kennedy's abrupt withdrawal from her push to win Hillary Clinton's senate seat. A Vanity Fair excerpt from Edward Klein's forthcoming book Ted Kennedy: The Dream That Never Died cites an unidentified family adviser's account of Caroline's oldest daughter (pictured) pleading with her, "Mom, you are above this." And her other children "told her that if she was getting this worked up just getting the job, they didn't want to see what she would be like in the trenches of a political campaign or a fight in Washington." The intervention reportedly "jerked Caroline back to reality," and the family friend insists that "after that conversation, she wouldn't have taken the job if Paterson had come begging on his hands and knees." The book, which examines the internecine power struggles currently roiling the Kennedy clan, also suggests that Caroline was only trying to please her ailing uncle Ted, who was pressing her to become a senator "almost like a last wish."