Fred Dicker, the Murdoch New York Post's Capitol bureau chief, also has a one-hour radio show on WGDJ every weekday.
The show largely reflects Dicker's conservative take on NY politics, but occasionally goes national.
Today in the first half-hour, he chatted with Andrea Tantaros, a GOP operative who now cashes checks from Fox "News" and the NY Daily News, about her pro-Cuomo, anti-Obama op-ed in the DN.
In the second half-hour, he had former Postie Maggie Haberman, now writing at Politico, on to discuss national politics.
And Senator Kirsten Gillibrand came up.
Details, below.
Dicker and Haberman started talking about Obama, Romney, Bachmann, Perry, etc., then digressed into discussing Gillibrand for several minutes.
Haberman noted that NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo's success with the marriage equality law would help him with the LGBT community in 2016, then added that "Gillibrand's name has been mentioned."
Dicker essentially guffawed; he could not believe what he heard, since he does not read DKos and is so Albany-centric that he thinks Gillibrand is John Sweeney's "pretty face" who has done nothing at all in her four-plus years in DC.
Here's a pretty accurate transcript of the exchange (podcast available at the first link above):
MH: Kirsten Gillibrand's name has been mentioned.
FD: For what?
MH: For president.
FD: Are you kidding? No seriously, I've never heard that. She's obviously a New York Senator who's known in this area. Who would possibly think that she would be of the status to be considered for President? Who's been doing the mentioning?
MH: It's been behind the scenes, and it's been kind of quiet and whispered, but I think some of her supporters think she could be a contender.
FD: That is to say her people are stimulating the talk, but nevertheless that's often how things start in politics.
snip
MH: (Can't make it out, but she mentions Hillary's support of Gillibrand.)
FD: But what accomplishments does she have at all? Of course she has to get through the next election.
MH: (More hard-to-make-out from MH, who was calling in) She would have been, presumably, twice elected. At that point, the appointment would be more of a memory. She would capitalize on trying to promote a women-in-politics niche. She was involved in LGBT issues very early, it was part of her track-left when she was first picked as you recall. ... In terms of stature, it's a different issue, but in terms of what she would run on ...
FD: But it will be very, very interesting to see how she does. She does have to face an election in NY next year, does she not?
MH: Is anyone running against her?
FD: Does the Republican Party have anyone to run against her?
MH: Right. Exactly.
FD: Well, Bill Weld.
MH: I think the time for the Republicans to take her out was last year.
FD: Bill Weld might have a shot, if he decided to run, the former governor of Massachusetts, who was obviously interested in running of governor, then failed to get the nomination back in 2006.
MH: He did pretty poorly last time out.
FD: I agree, although how strong a candidate Gillibrand would be is still in doubt, because while her poll numbers are up, she is still virtually unknown by most New Yorkers.
snip
FD: I think you referred to Gillibrand having won as election to the Senate. There was never an election to the Senate, she was named to ...
MH: Last year ...
FD: Maybe I missed it. Who did she run against?
MH: She ran against what's-his-name, uh, uh, uh, DioGuardi.
FD: Right, to fill out the term, but it was easy to forget DioGuardi.
Indeed.
Kirsten Gillibrand has had a big target on her back, according to conservative media types like Dicker, since she won NY-20 in 2006.
Yet she has never lost an election. because she is a solid, hard-working politician who faithfully represents Democratic values in Washington.
New York voters appreciate that, and maybe some day she will be a serious candidate at the national level, for President or Vice President.
Or maybe not, in which case she will be an effective Senator from New York for as long as she likes, gaining seniority every two years.
Either way, our country wins.