This is a diary I’ve been meaning to write for a few days now. With all the concentration on the health care fight and other assorted stuff, I am finally getting around to it. I don’t think I’ve seen anything written about this here yet.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is not a very popular guy around these parts. Then again, who thought that having sixty senators in your caucus wasn’t enough to pass legislation. So what to do about the Senator from Spinelessland? Well he’s up for election this year and there are definite rumblings about getting someone new.
Can we say, "Chuck Schumer, Majority Leader"?
More after the jump
I was perusing the NY Times web site last week when I came across this on one of their blogs-
Some journalists and politicians speculate that New York Senator Charles E. Schumer would be a great replacement for Senator Harry Reid of Nevada as Senate majority leader. The position is up for re-election this year, and some think Senator Reid is vulnerable. Senator Schumer and his office emphatically deny any interest in the position and say they back Senator Reid.
Well, that certainly got my attention. I think Schumer would be great. The guy never met a tv camera he didn’t love. He has no fear of losing his seat here in New York.
The little blurb in the Times came from a blog, PolitickerNY.com. The original article says that Schumer’s office recoils from any mention of this possibility.
So, for example, the very mention of the words "majority leader" within 10 inches of Mr. Schumer’s name drives him and his office, pretty literally, insane, since there is no evidence that he is actively maneuvering for that particular position or that he is anything but supportive of the current majority leader, Harry Reid. Mr. Schumer, for whom this seems to be a highly sensitive issue, wants to make sure that’s abundantly clear.
Despite that politeness, the author of the piece, Jason Horowitz makes it clear that other New York politicians see things a bit differently. Congressman Eliot Engel, who represents the 17th CD in New York (Parts of the Bronx, Westchester, and Rockland counties)says point blank,
"I think he’s the future majority leader," in response to a general question about Mr. Schumer’s influence. "I do."
Nice!
Of course other New York politicians love the idea as well. Few things are better for a state than to have one its Senators as Majority Leader. Mayor Michael Bloomberg thinks that whatever Schumer touches will pretty much turn to gold.
"I think Chuck Schumer would be good at anything he does, majority leader or anything else," Michael Bloomberg told The Observer at a press conference a few blocks down from Mr. Schumer’s office. He continued, "He’s helped a lot of other senators, which gives him the access and ability to at least get an audience and maybe even convince them, and you should not make light of that. I would rather have Chuck Schumer than almost any other senator, maybe any other senator, representing this state and this city. At one point, a lot of people were urging him to run for governor, he chose not to, he’s making his career in the Senate and every day he is just going to get more powerful."
The article continues about exactly how powerful and influential Schumer already is in the Senate. And of course, that is obviously true. He is in the midst of seemingly every single piece of major legislation. He was in charge of the Democratic Senate campaign in 2006 and 2008 that got us the 60 seats we now have.
I’ve gotten to meet Sen. Schumer on a couple of occasions. His dog and pony show of little news conferences actually came to my house back in 2005. That January, a friend of mine sent me a text message- Would I be home the next day to have Chuck Schumer do press thing and talk to me about a proposed tax change (eliminating the deduction for state and local taxes)? He had gotten a call from someone he knew who worked for the Senator. Well, of course I made sure I’d be home. You don’t say no to something like this. It was surreal to be quite honest.
And if he does become Majority Leader, I believe we would see a much more forceful, much more effective Democratic Caucus in the Senate. Beyond all that, the heads of the right would simply explode- and that alone makes it a great thing.