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On Friday’s program, the members of our reporters roundtable debated Caroline Kennedy’s credentials to be New York’s next U.S. Senator. Watch the video above.

Tonight’s program includes Steve Cassidy, the firefighters union president, and the Monday Consultants Corner.

The New York Times

Rashbaum & Bagli report: “Prosecutors in Manhattan are expected to announce manslaughter charges on Monday against three construction supervisors and a subcontractor in the deaths of two firefighters who were killed while battling a smoky fire in August 2007 at the Deutsche Bank building in Lower Manhattan, people briefed on the matter said on Sunday.”

Jeremy Peters writes: “Gov. David A. Paterson visited American troops and officials in Iraq on Sunday with members of a Congressional delegation that included other New York lawmakers.”

Manny Fernandez notes: “It may be one of the longest-running, least-known and most mysterious acts of gift-giving in New York City. On Monday, adhering to a tradition they have honored for decades, the people who evict New Yorkers from their apartments begin a two-week holiday.”

Charles Delafuente writes: “When Gov. David A. Paterson proposed reducing pension benefits for new city and state employees last week, he was reaching into the past for an idea that was used to rescue the city from the fiscal crisis of the 1970s. But that idea — both then and now — generated immediate and vehement opposition from powerful unions.”

Jane Gottlieb looks at how Gov. Paterson has closed the state ice rink in Albany to save money.

New York Post

Retter & Geller writes: “The same Queens Democrat who said Caroline Kennedy is no more qualified to be senator than Jennifer Lopez yesterday compared her to Sarah Palin and questioned whether she has ‘the guts and the gumption to do the job.’ Appearing on CBS's ‘Face the Nation,’ Rep. Gary Ackerman said the Kennedy legend won't be enough if Gov. Paterson appoints JFK's daughter to succeed Hillary Rodham Clinton. ‘Everyone knows who she is, but I'm not sure what she is,’ Ackerman said. ‘Nobody knows what her values are,’ he added. ‘We don't know... what kind of fighter she will be. Does she have the guts and the gumption to do the job?’ “

In his weekly column, Fred Dicker writes: “Gov. Paterson will hold direct talks with Long Island Rep. Steve Israel about picking him, and not Caroline Kennedy, to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton in the US Senate during their surprise trip to Iraq, The Post has learned.”

And Page Six notes: “Senate wannabe Caroline Kennedy breakfasting at the Regency with Ed Malloy, president of the powerful state building and construction trades union, and Gary LaBarbera, the Teamsters boss who becomes president of the city building trades union on Jan. 1.”

Dicker & Mollica writes: “State Senate Republicans will try to force Democrats to take a stand against Sen.-elect Hiram Monserrate with a resolution to keep him from being sworn in until he resolves criminal charges alleging he slashed his girlfriend's face with a broken glass.”

The edit-heads praise state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo for creating a proposal to reduce local property-tax burdens.

Post editorial board member Adam Brodsky has some ideas to reduce the state’s pension burden.

New York Daily News

The News notes: “Hillary Clinton has cut the debt from her presidential campaign almost in half, but still owed $6.4 million at the end of last month.”

I can’t find the link for it on the News website but Jaccarino and Einhorn report that the former City Commissioner who headed the Department of Aging has been hit by a sexual harassment lawsuit by his former secretary.

In her weekly column, Liz Benjamin reports: “Supporters of state Sen.-elect Hiram Monserrate are quietly putting a more sympathetic spin on his now-infamous confrontation with his girlfriend. Sources say Monserrate backers have told people the outgoing city councilman was upset to discover drugs in girlfriend Karla Giraldo's purse after they attended the Queens Democratic Party's holiday dinner on Thursday.”

Erin Durkin notes: “Brooklyn’s famous wild parrots, whose nests have caused electricity outages and held up construction projects, have a powerful new pal.
Queens Councilman Tony Avella wants the city to relocate the Quaker parrots' nests when necessary and make it illegal to capture them.

Frank Lombardi writes: “Courage or cowardice? With one eye on the canyon-like budget gaps and the other on reelection, City Council members voted 33 to 18 last week for a 7% property tax rate hike. As far as Mayor Bloomberg is concerned, the 18 no-sayers took the cowardly route, not taking responsibility for assuring essential services and workers - such as cops, firefighters and sanitation workers - are maintained.”

Newsday

Dan Janison writes: “The circus surrounding Caroline Kennedy's bid for a U.S. Senate seat has overshadowed Gov. David A. Paterson's other high-stakes personnel choice - a chief judge, to succeed the retiring Judith Kaye. Kaye, the first woman on the elite Court of Appeals - who then led the panel for 15 years - is believed to strongly prefer Jonathan Lippman, who, as chief administrative judge, ran state court operations for 11 years. But some Paterson-istas are pulling for Theodore Jones from Brooklyn, the only African-American now on the seven-member high court, who Eliot Spitzer nominated.”

Until tomorrow.

Bob Hardt

To drop us a line, write to political_itch@ny1.com.