Senator Kirsten Gillibrand's Record Is Not So 'Hot'

American Thinker ^ | September 29, 2010 | Fred J. Eckert

[neverdem]

Desperately trying to think of something both positive and credible to say about New York State's accidental U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid blurted out that Gillibrand is the Senate's "hottest" member.

Reid's remark, made on September 20 at a ritzy private Democratic Party fundraiser in Manhattan, was sufficiently unimportant to qualify for massive media coverage.    

Unfortunately for Senator Gillibrand, part of the fallout from this particular instance of media pursuit of the trivia has been to make New York State residents more aware of her and curious about her record.

What they are now beginning to discover about their heretofore largely unknown senator, who was appointed by New York's scandal-tainted governor to fill the remainder of Hillary Clinton's unexpired term, is that her performance in office is not so hot.

And this is why the usually reliable SurveyUSA poll shows that Gillibrand's Republican-Conservative opponent, former Congressman Joseph DioGuardi, a Tea Party favorite who bucked the Republican establishment to get on the primary ballot and then beat them, is now running neck-and-neck with Gillibrand -- down only one point, 45-44. 

Who would ever have thought that New York State might be the state that tips the US Senate into Republican control? 

Start thinking it.

In the past few weeks, polls on this race have gone from 51-31 to 49-39 to 48-42 to 45-44. Being under 50 is always bad news for an incumbent -- especially this late in the game.

Look for Joe DioGuardi -- a shrewd, feisty, highly energetic professional accountant who has the numbers down pat and who can point to a very long, very solid record of sounding alarm bells about Washington's fiscal follies -- to turn the heat way, way up on Harry Reid's "hottest" senator.

In a year when character just might matter more than it usually does to voters, Gillibrand suffers from the fact that, as the University of Virginia's Larry Sabato put it, an analysis of her performance in office does not turn up any evidence of her having much in the way of principles.

This is a woman who could give John Kerry lessons in flip-flopping. Consider Gillibrand's string of major flip-flops:

• Against gay marriage as a member of the House -- For gay marriage since the day her appointment to the Senate was announced.
• For keeping "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in place while in House -- Against as senator.
• Against gun control while in the House (100% NRA rating) -- For gun control as a senator.
• Against any form of amnesty for illegal immigrants as a member of the House -- For as a senator.
• For withholding federal funds from sanctuary cities while in House -- Against as senator.
• For making English the official language while in the House -- Against as senator.
• For empowering local police to enforce federal immigration laws while in House -- Against as senator.
• Against the McCain- and Obama-endorsed Bush $700-billion TARP bank bailout in a vote in the House, calling it "fundamentally flawed" -- For the Obama $787-billion "stimulus" bill four months later as a senator.

You get my drift. You'd have a very tough time turning up any Gillibrand principles even if you had a search warrant for them.

And then there's the fact that her positions on the issues that matter most this year make her what the military likes to call "a target-rich environment."

The issue, of course, is the financial mess. Look for DioGuardi to soar as he begins educating New York voters about Gillibrand's key role in helping to cause the meltdown.

When that wacky wrecking crew of the Clinton administration, Chris Dodd in the Senate, Barney Frank in the House, and Andrew Cuomo as HUD Secretary were smashing the banking system by foisting destructive subprime mortgages on the banks, causing collapses, leading to massive bailouts and triggering financial pain and suffering for millions of Americans, right there in a key supporting role at Cuomo's side as HUD legal counsel was...Kristen Gillibrand.

Gillibrand was the person whom that gang tasked with promoting "new products" for HUD, a euphemism that means forcing banks to provide subprime mortgages to millions who could not afford them.

Now that Cuomo is running for governor on the same ticket with Gillibrand, watch what happens when Joe DioGuardi and Republican-Conservative-Taxpayers Party candidate for governor Carl Paladino expose the duo as the Bonnie & Clyde of the banking collapse. Unlike Bonnie & Clyde -- who John Dillinger said gave bank-robbing a bad name -- the team of Gillibrand & Cuomo stuck up not just banks, but all of us.

That old "I feel your pain" line liberals love to use won't work for Gillibrand. She and her husband profited really big-time by selling short companies heavily into subprimes. This is something not very many New York voters are aware of -- but they soon will be.

DioGuardi may well be able to send Gillibrand packing just by fully exposing her role in the financial meltdown. 

But she's also a defender of ObamaCare and other policies just as unpopular with voters, including job-destroying "cap-and-trade" and the wildly disliked idea of denying workers the right to a secret ballot when deciding whether to unionize, something even George McGovern has denounced as un-American.

Gillibrand is prone to falsifying her record on issues and even her résumé, alleging, for example, that this or that flip-flop was no change and that during the period when she was performing questionable lawyering for Big Tobacco that she's been caught lying about, she was somehow engaged in "public interest" legal work. She also suffers under the delusion that she could and should be president.

Currently, DioGuardi has a 7-point advantage among independents and a two-to-one advantage among younger voters and leads everywhere in the state -- except in the five boroughs of New York City.

But wait until it really sinks in with voters in those five NYC boroughs where Gillibrand stands regarding the matter of the wisdom of inflicting upon New York and all America a giant Muslim mosque next to Ground Zero. She's joined Mayor Bloomberg as a cheerleader for it. Bloomberg's approval ratings plummeted to a five-year low when he took up that cause with such self-congratulatory scorn for those of us who do not share his wild enthusiasm for it. Most New York City residents now disapprove of him. 

The Ground Zero mosque issue just may play a deciding role in this race.

So Gillibrand needs to go -- but what about DioGuardi? Well, I know Joe DioGuardi. Joe DioGuardi is a friend of mine (served with him in Congress). And Joe DioGuardi not only is no Kristen Gillibrand, but he's her complete opposite -- a conservative who understands what's gone wrong and who will stand up and vote right to fix things.

Check out his book, Unaccountable Congress: It Doesn't Add Up (Regnery, 1992), and visit the website Truth In Government, the nonprofit organization he founded twenty years ago.

Joe DioGuardi can win, possibly being the upset that tips the U.S. Senate into Republican hands -- if conservatives and Republicans across the country pitch in and make sure he has the resources necessary to communicate to New Yorkers the clear and compelling difference in both content and character between him and that "hot" senator with the not-so-hot record.

Fred J. Eckert is a former conservative Republican congressman from New York and twice served as a U.S. Ambassador (to the U.N. and to Fiji) under President Reagan, who called him "a good friend and valuable advisor."

[neverdem]

Dioguardi For Senate

[Clintonfatigued]

Can DioGuardi muster the necessary resources?

[God luvs America]

“That old “I feel your pain” line liberals love to use won’t work for Gillibrand. She and her husband profited really big-time by selling short companies heavily into subprimes. This is something not very many New York voters are aware of — but they soon will be.”

---

and the fact is Gillibrand worked with Cuomo at HUD when this went down yet Cuomo, as NY AG, turned a blind eye to this insider trading...

[PMAS]

I’m sending to everyone here in NY

[highlander_UW]

Isn’t that sexual harassment when the lead at work makes inappropriate sexual remarks about your appearance?

[neverdem]

Can DioGuardi muster the necessary resources?

I don't know. That's why I included that link in comment# 1.

[Sun]

Yeah, when Gillibrand was a congresswoman in a rather conservative district, she pretended to be a blue dog Dem. Then she is picked to be U.S. Senator, and becomes a hard liberal.

One thing Gillibrand has been consistent on is the “right” to kill unborn children. She never budged an inch on her antilife stance.

[neverdem]

Isn’t that sexual harassment when the lead at work makes inappropriate sexual remarks about your appearance?

Only for the GOP, not for the rats.

[ThunderSleeps]

Hmm, I went to google images and searched... If that’s what passes for “hot” to Reid... Yet another lie by the left.

[The Doctor]

Apparently Gillibrand and her husband made a tidy sum ($45K) by betting against the subprime market just at the end of her tenure at HUD. For more info, see http://stopdamato.wordpress.com

[The Doctor]

Apparently Gillibrand and her husband made a tidy sum ($45K) by betting against the subprime market just at the end of her tenure at HUD. For more info, see http://stopdamato.wordpress.com

[Republican Wildcat]

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid blurted out that Gillibrand is the Senate's "hottest" member.

Can you imagine the press firestorm that would have occurred if a Republican Senator said something like this? "Sexist" "Republican Male pig", etc.

[The Doctor]

I read that DioGuardi met with the NY Jets owner last night, as well as the NSRC. Let me know if you find out anything more.

[Republican Wildcat]

Unfortunately the media market there is as expensive as several other states combined...it would be a huge risk to expend the resources...otherwise going for it would certainly be a no brainer.

[Liz]

STATUS CUOMO-KILLIBRAND: Pass the word.

When Cuomo was Housing and Urban Development secretary, he was the prime mover behind programs that destabilized Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and his programs to mandate banks loan to low-income and bad-credit homebuyers were a significant factor in the housing collapse.

Congresswoman Gillibrand served as Special Counsel to Andrew Cuomo, Pres Clinton's appointee as Secy of HUD. Gillibrand played a key role in furthering HUD’s Labor Initiative and *New Markets initiative (sub-prime mortgages); Gillibrand worked to strengthen the Davis-Bacon Act and drafting new markets legislation for public and private investment in building infrastructure to revitalize lower income areas across the nation."

Translation: Their fingerprints are all over the current recession.

"Sure, I know how I got the job. Clinton needed my daddy in his corner, so he
gave me the HUD job. That's how I got the $18 million to run for Governor."

CUOMO AND BILL CLINTON CREATED CONDITIONS FOR MELTDOWN (Village Voice 8-5-08) Andrew Cuomo, the youngest Housing and Urban Development secretary in history, made a series of decisions between 1997 and 2001 that gave birth to the country’s current crisis. He took actions that—in combination with many other factors—helped plunge Fannie and Freddie into the sub-prime markets without putting in place the means to monitor their increasingly risky investments. He turned the Federal Housing Administration mortgage program into a sweetheart lender with sky-high loan ceilings and no money down, and he legalized what a federal judge has branded “kickbacks” to brokers that have fueled the sale of overpriced and unsupportable loans.

Three to four million families are now facing foreclosure, and Cuomo is one of the reasons why.......

SOURCE http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-08-05/news/how-andrew-cuomo-gave-birth-to-the-crisis-at-fannie-mae-and-freddie-mac/

[Liz]

STATEMENT FROM NY GOVERNOR DAVID A. PATERSON
Appoints Kirsten Gillibrand to Hillary's Senate seat
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 23, 2009

EXCERPT “New York State laws empower the Governor to appoint a new Senator if a seat should come open. It is my privilege and my responsibility to make this choice on behalf of the people of New York."

“That is why I am proud to announce my appointment of Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand to represent New York in the United States Senate. I am appointing Kirsten Gillibrand because she is the right leader for this decisive moment in our history. “Kirsten Gillibrand, the next junior Senator from New York will have big shoes to fill. This seat has been held by icons of New York State: Robert Francis Kennedy, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Hillary Rodham Clinton."

" During the administration of President Clinton, Congresswoman Gillibrand served as Special Counsel to Andrew Cuomo, Pres Clinton's appointee as U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development."

"At HUD, Congresswoman Gillibrand played a key role in furthering HUD’s Labor Initiative and *New Markets initiative, working to strengthen enforcement of the Davis-Bacon Act and drafting new markets legislation for public and private investment in building infrastructure to revitalize lower income areas across the nation."

Following federal service, Congresswoman Gillibrand entered the private sector, joining one of the Country’s premier law firms.

READ MORE AT: http://www.state.ny.us/governor/press/press_0123091.html

================================

NOTE * New Market Initiatives are also known as "subprime markets," the self-same sub-prime markets that precipitated the destruction of the US economy.

[IndePundit]

If we the people come forward and make a statement that we don’t want political machines running our government, then, yes, DioGuardi can get the neccessary resources.

If you’re interested, you contribute here:
http://www.facebook.com/JoeDioGuardiForUSSenate?ref=ts#!/JoeDioGuardiForUSSenate?v=app_4949752878&ref=ts

[UCANSEE2]

Isn’t that sexual harassment when the lead at work makes inappropriate sexual remarks about your appearance?

On top of that, his answer was in response to questions about her PERFORMANCE.

[QueenCarlaC]

Hail Joe DioGuardi. Like Dick Morris said on Hannity, the New York Senate race is one of the hot races to watch this Election season. It's time to send Gillibrand home packing. She has not done enough for New York especially in Albany. Her treasure chest of funds and continued flip flopping doesn't help one bit. Go Joe Go.

Great quote from Joe from the Hugh Hewitt show last week, "Transparency is presenting yourself, who you are, how you stand toe to toe in a nice way with someone else, presenting your views, your energy, your personality, your ideas, no, we're not going to get that." Joe DioGuardi on Kirsten Gillibrand.