Fundamentally, there is a difference between a celebrity running for office, and a celebrity being appointed to office.

It’s even more extreme when said celebrity has little in the way of personal accomplishments, and is being considered simply because of who her father was, and the fact that she is a FOB (friend of Barack).

But now, Caroline Kennedy is refusing to make financial disclosures unless she is offered the appointment:

If she were applying to be, say, an undersecretary of education in Barack Obama’s new administration, Caroline Kennedy would have to fill out a 63-item confidential questionnaire disclosing potentially embarrassing text messages and diary entries, the immigration status of her household staff, even copies of every résumé she used in the last 10 years.

If she were running for election to the Senate, Ms. Kennedy would have to file a 10-part, publicly available report disclosing her financial assets, credit card debts, mortgages, book deals and the sources of any payments greater than $5,000 in the last three years.

But Ms. Kennedy, who has asked Gov. David A. Paterson to appoint her to succeed Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton — and who helped oversee the vetting process for Mr. Obama’s possible running mates — is declining to provide a variety of basic data, including companies she has a stake in and whether she has ever been charged with a crime.

Ms. Kennedy declined on Monday to reply to those and other questions posed by The New York Times about any potential ethical, legal and financial entanglements. Through a spokesman, she said she would not disclose that kind of information unless and until she becomes a senator.

“If Governor Paterson were to choose Caroline, she would, of course, comply with all disclosure requirements,” said the spokesman, Stefan Friedman.

Caroline Kennedy has led an intensely private life by the standard of a Kennedy, and has generally eschewed the limelight, and I’m beginning to wonder if she’s trying to throw the appointment derby, and that she is in only because the family is pressuring her to do so.

If that’s the case, it would better to be honest with her family. If that is not the case, this is insanely reckless and stupid.

If she is not willing to make these disclosures prior to a selection, particularly given Governor Patterson’s concerns that have popped up among his own staff regarding proper vetting, then she is not ready for any public office.

But what she is doing now is just nuts.