At the funeral of brother Sen. Edward M. Kennedy Saturday, Jean Kennedy Smith was praised as “a sister everyone in the world would love to have in (her) devotion.”

Penny Pritzker, the billionaire heiress who oversaw Barack Obama’s record-breaking fund-raising efforts, has taken herself out of the mix for U.S. Commerce Secretary.

Will she or won’t she? The possibility of a more public profile for Caroline Kennedy, who stepped out of the shadows to play a prominent role in Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, is a subject of intense political speculation.

With all the talk of political dynasties passing the torch - or being shoved out of the way - little attention has been paid to another Democratic scion who shared the stage with Hillary Clinton last night. Her name is Cecile Richards.

Eliot Spitzer got a lesson in political humility from one of New York’s wealthiest and most-connected society mavens this week.

British actor Michael Caine has observed that Superman is how America sees itself, and Batman is how the rest of the world sees America.

The sweet scents of women’s cosmetics and the stench of politics are an unlikely blend. Yet few corporate boards are more politically active than that of Estee Lauder.

For only the second time in two decades, neither presumptive nominee for U.S. president is an alumnus of Yale’s oldest and most secretive senior society. (The only other time in recent history that happened was in 1996, when Bill Clinton faced Republican Bob Dole.)

When Arizona Sen. John McCain said last week that he would veto “every single beer - bill with earmarks,” it seemed more than a mere slip of the tongue.

Gates men are suckers for smart women.

Rupert Murdoch’s distaste for New York Sen. Hillary Clinton has often spilled out onto the pages of the New York Post, and into broadcasts on Fox News, both of which he owns.

How is actress Kim Basinger connected to musician Brian Wilson of Beach Boys fame?

Nobody does nicknames better than the mob.

And nobody, except maybe the tabloids, loves mob nicknames more than the feds.

The Connie Mack dynasty extended its reach over the weekend.

After a two-year courtship, U.S. Rep. Connie Mack IV of Florida married U.S. Rep. Mary Bono of California.

It’s a billion-dollar family feud straight out of central casting.

The first great-grandchild of legendary Dallas oil tycoon H.L. Hunt is suing his father and other family members for alleged mismanagement of two trust funds with up to $4 billion in assets.

We’ve come to expect political dynasties. They’re a fact of life in the U.S., perhaps even more than royal succession is in the modern UK.

The Kennedys. The Bushes. The Fords. The Rockefellers. If you define dynasty as families holding power for at least three generations, with living people of influence, these names rule.

The Ford dynasty

The Meyer-Graham dynasty

The Ochs-Sulzberger dynasty