Always fun when one Harvard grad slams another, right? Elizabeth Wurtzel keeps hammering away at Caroline Kennedy—and Elizabeth, whose talent is sometimes underappreciated because her persona is not always respected, puts the issue well.

The tension in the Kennedy clan between royal insouciance and hardy human-ness is playing out right now in the person of Caroline Kennedy, and only because she insists on pursuing a paying job that would require her to represent the interests of an entire state. The question people keep asking is if she’s qualified —what I can’t figure out is why she wants the job in the first place. And there’s only one way I or anyone else is ever going to find out: Caroline Kennedy needs to explain herself. Loud and clear.

I think that’s right. Those who don’t think Caroline Kennedy shouldn’t be senator aren’t going to win on the issue of qualifications. She’s not really qualified, but there are probably lots of people who actually get elected to the Senate who aren’t qualified either.

The question that cuts more deeply is, Why do you want to be senator?

And the answer is probably something like, Because I can be. Or, because I’m ready now. Or, because my kids are grown up. Or, because that’s what Kennedys do.

It’s probably not something like, I have a burning desire to work tirelessly to improve the lives of ordinary citizens in places like Syracuse and Utica and Albany.