Kennedys profit off ‘nonprofit’
Joe K II, Kerry pocket funds from gigs
Do you know how much money Joe Kennedy, the former congressman, is now making at his “nonprofit”? According to the most recent documents, his “public charity” has filed with the state attorney general, in 2016 Kennedy pocketed a total of $824,929 — $109,336 from Citi- zens Energy and $715,703 from “related organizations.” His second wife, Beth, grabbed another $316,573 — $55,222 from Citizens Energy and $261,351 from those “related organizations.” Joseph P. Kennedy II is a hotin tempered moron, the original Wizard of Uhs. He’s about to turn 66, and he couldn’t spell “cat” if you spotted him the “c” and the “t.” And yet he and the bride are taking down a cool $1.1 million-plus — from a “nonprofit.” Imagine how much they’d be making if Citizens Energy was a for-profit enterprise! Joe Kennedy is, as they used to say at the State House, forgotten but not gone. At least I’d forgotten about him, until his equally vacuous sister, Kerry Kennedy, got back into the news recently. Remember Kerry? She used to be married to Andrew Cuomo until she cheated on him with a polo player. Divorced, she penned a book called “Being Catholic Now.” You can’t make this stuff up. She and her equally brilliant ex can’t stay out of the news New York — the governor proudly announced earlier this week that he too had received a bomb in the mail. Uh, it turned out to be a flash drive. Meanwhile, Kerry is splitsville from the polo player, beat an impaired-driving rap (it was Ambien) and has resurfaced as a “human rights advocate.” Don’t laugh — it beats working. And like her older brother, Kerry, too, is fabulously well-to-do thanks to a family “nonprofit.” The Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights foundation pays her $352,298 a year, including a $70,000 “bonus.” The New York Post looked it up after Kerry’s latest brainstorm, to use the foundation’s money to bail hardened criminals out of New York jails. What could possibly go wrong? Here was the headline in the Post: “Another RFK bailee skips court date.” This was a woman who’d robbed a Manhattan sex shop at knifepoint. It was the fifth time she’d jumped bail, and now the RFK Foundation may have to forfeit the $50,000 bail. A day earlier, another jailbird recipient of Kennedy largesse skipped in Brooklyn. Warrants have now been issued for the arrests of both Ralphie Myree and Tamika West. It would take a heart of stone not to laugh — at least if you don’t have to worry about being the next victim of these thugs. Reading the stories about Kerry’s big payday reminded me of Joe K. And it’s not only him and the second missus who are getting rich off the Citizens Energy gig — I mean, nonprofit. According to the public filing, CE’s CEO, one Peter Smith, made $627,983 in 2016. The chief financial officer, Ernest Panos, pocketed $447,260. Joe’s flack in his congressional office — Brian O’Connor — now makes $240,962 a year at Citizens Energy. Multiple requests for comment were sent to Citizens Energy in the past few days, but when the phone didn’t ring, I knew it was the Wizard of Uhs. For those of you who don’t remember Joe K’s extinguished political career, here are a few of his greatest hits. Once he quoted his uncle JFK’s famous quote about cutting taxes. But he … botched it. “A rising tide lefts all boats,” he said. Not lifts, he said “lefts.” This was his brilliant analysis of one of then President Bill Clinton’s Cabinet nominees who, it turned out, had employed an illegal immigrant as a nanny: “You know, you know, I mean the thing about the woman who, uh, hired some, uh, illegal, uh-uh-uh-uh, aliens in this country, I mean the fact is I live in Brighton and, you know, uh … ” And now he and his wife are making $1.1 million a year. At a nonprofit. I just thought of another old saying. I’d rather be lucky than good.