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Sen. Charles Schumer is a legendary pursuer of television cameras. But look at the way the national media are covering Schumer's heavy-breathing pursuit to make Attorney General Alberto Gonzales cry uncle and resign. It makes you wonder just how hard Schumer has to work to get press attention. The media appear Schumer-owned and operated. One interview really captures how the press acts more like a Democratic goon squad than nonpartisan observers of the national scene. On ABC's "Good Morning America," news anchor Christopher Cuomo, son of Mario Cuomo, asked this pushy question on July 27: "Is Alberto Gonzales out of...

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) declared that his decision not to lead a successful filibuster in January 2006 of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's nomination was one of his "greatest failings" as a senator. In an address to liberal legal scholars of the American Constitution Society, Schumer said that after watching the work of the newly constructed "Roberts court" the past 18 months, he would block any future Supreme Court nominee of President Bush's should a vacancy arise between now and January 2009. Schumer's address covered his views on the confirmation processes for Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts. Conservatives have...

WASHINGTON -- Senator Charles Schumer says the federal government should scuttle its Department of Homeland Security. The New York Democrat is particularly incensed by the agency's plan to require passports to drive across the Canadian border. He says he's trying to convince his fellow Democrats in the Senate to dissolve the Homeland Security department into smaller agencies. But Schumer says he's not sure if there are enough votes to dismantle the agency formed in response to the September Eleventh terrorist attacks. Speaking to a group of New York business leaders in Washington, the senator called the department a conglomerate that's...

President Bush, urging Congress to craft a war spending bill quickly, offered no clues Saturday about whether he'll compromise over linking U.S. support to stability in Iraq. Bush and Congress have been talking about how to agree on a bill to finance combat operations through September. The president demands the money without strings attached, but Democrats say Bush eventually must accept some conditions on the U.S. commitment to the war. Earlier this week, Bush vetoed a $124 billion bill that would have provided money for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan while requiring troops to begin returning home by Oct. 1....

Radio host Don Imus on Friday took an obviously flustered Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., to task for never bothering up to visit wounded soldiers at the military's Walter Reed Hospital. While Schumer was quick to blast the Bush administration for failing to maintain facilities for wounded military personnel at Walter Reed, he was apparently surprised when Imus began questioning him about his own dealings with Walter

U. S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., embraces Iyanna Brown, 5, in front of an apartment building in Starrett City, in this Feb. 12, 2007, file photo in the Brooklyn borough of New York. President Bush's Housing and Urban Development Secretary, Alphonso Jackson, visited the nation's biggest government-subsidized rental complex Friday, Feb. 16, 2006, warning that a real estate mogul's $1.3 billion bid to buy Brooklyn's Starrett City could threaten the working-class housing market, saying: 'I will aggressively review this sale and give it close scrutiny.'

December 14, 1999 WASHINGTON A prominent commodities trader who acknowledges a business history with a reputed Soviet Bloc crime figure and a notorious arms dealer has been one of New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's top campaign supporters. Commodities trader Semyon (Sam) Kislin and his family also lavished thousands of dollars in contributions to Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer, to the Clinton-Gore re-election campaign, to former Republican Sen. Alfonse D'Amato and to a number of state and city politicians. Kislin sits on the New York City Economic Development Board. Kislin is not alone among emigres from the former Soviet Union who have...

While Democratic Sens. Charles E. Schumer (right) of New York and Richard J. Durbin (center) of Illinois voted to move ahead with the war resolution yesterday, Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, voted no in a parliamentary maneuver.

Politicians are forever trying to protect voters from themselves. Hence the relentless onslaught of campaign-finance regulations. They assume that the average citizen is not sophisticated enough to verify the truth or falsehood of political advertising. So laws are needed to punish anyone - primarily those with deep pockets - who would "mislead" or "deceive" the public. Or to prevent big-time donors from "corrupting" the political process. America's founders were loath to let the government draw the line between deception and hyperbole (or even embellishment), especially in the political arena. That's one reason the language of the First Amendment is so...

President Bush yesterday said there is a growing "income inequality" gap between rich and poor Americans, and told companies they should rethink the giant compensation packages they offer top executives. The markedly populist message, a divergence from the past, in which Mr. Bush has accused critics of practicing class warfare, was all the more noteworthy given his venue -- a speech at Federal Hall in New York, in the middle of Wall Street, the capital of capitalism. But the president called for conservative market-based answers, including demanding that Congress renew trade-promotion authority, which allows him to negotiate trade agreements then...

"But we support the troops!" Has there been any phrase that has been so used and abused by the Democrats as they seek to give themselves cover? But in one fell 'slip', Chuck Schumer gave away the game this morning: the claim to support the troops is a sham. It is merely something to be figured out later, after Democrats, with some Republican support, rush through a resolution telling our troops that the mission for which they are putting their lives on the line is not just meaningless but absolutely antithetical to our nation's interests. David Gregory interviewed Sen. Schumer...

An attorney for former ambassador Joseph Wilson, whose wife, Valerie Plame, is at the center of the Plamegate scandal in Washington, was raked over the coals by a judge Thursday for remarks she made the day before on MSNBC's Hardball. During an interview on the program, Melanie Sloan said that former administration official Scooter Libby could still be convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice even though he may not have been the first person to reveal that Plame was a CIA agent. In a stinging rebuke from the bench, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton said that he "would not...

The city is losing its competitive edge and could give up its place as the financial capital of the world in as little as 10 years, a report commissioned by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Sen. Charles Schumer has found. On Monday at City Hall, the New York leaders were expected to discuss the report from consulting group McKinsey & Co. Bloomberg and Schumer have been concerned about what they say is a growing threat to New York's position as a global leader.

In a revealing new book on politics, Sen. Charles Schumer comes out with guns blazing - not at President Bush, but at his own Democratic Party. Schumer, one of the most powerful figures in Washington, rips his party for being in the clutches of special-interest groups for too long and for losing touch with the middle class. -snip His manifesto puts forth 11 meat-and-potatoes issues that he insists Democrats must press. He says the secret recipe to winning over the Baileys and other middle-class voters is a "50 percent solution." That means Democrats should aim to boost math and reading...

"U.S. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. along with Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. greet Buffalo residents staying at the Edward Saunders Community Center in Buffalo, N.Y. on Saturday, Oct. 14, 2006." "Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., listen to the concerns of an elderly Buffalo resident staying at the Edward Saunders Community Center in Buffalo, N.Y. Saturday, Oct. 14, 2006. A rare early October snowstorm dumped a record 8 inches Thursday, downing tree limbs and toppling power lines, leaving more than 155,000 customers without electricity. Clinton canceled a trip to Nevada so she could visit the area."

HOUSE PASSES ATF REFORM BILL . . . With a 277-131 vote, the U.S. House of Representatives last week passed HR 5092, the "Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) Modernization and Reform Act of 2006." The legislation, which represents a major advance in protecting the rights of firearms retailers, now heads to the Senate. Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) have threatened to stall Senate consideration. The bill will bring consistency to ATF enforcement actions and provide ATF with additional compliance tools short of license revocation.

Associated Press WASHINGTON — President Bush blamed Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid today for the potentially fatal blow dealt to compromise immigration legislation. The landmark bill, which would offer eventual citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants, fell victim Friday to internal disputes in both parties. But Bush — echoing earlier complaints from Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. — sought to place all the blame on Reid, D-Nev., who refused to permit votes on more than three Republican-backed amendments. "I call on the Senate minority leader to end his blocking tactics and allow the Senate to do its work and...

It reads like a novel on the New York Times best selling list. A little over a year before a U.S. Senatorial campaign, two politcal operatives who work for an influential and clearly partisan U.S. Senator, illegally obtain the personal credit report of an African-American U.S. Senatorial candidate, who's trying to make history by being the first black U.S.Senator to represent the state of Maryland. At first glance, it looks like a slam dunk for any news media individual or company trying to garner attention and sell papers or increase their ratings. The story involves "illegal political spying" which seems...

    As the Dubai ports fiasco unravels, it's worth examining the performance of key players in the last few weeks' debate. The senior senator from New York, Charles Schumer, has played a central role. He is the exploiter-in-chief of the Dubai acrimony and merits the first look.     Mr. Schumer has barely missed an opportunity to promote himself. On Wednesday, he hoodwinked fellow senator and Democrat Ron Wyden of Oregon into making Mr. Wyden's unrelated amendment a carry-on for Mr. Schumer's Dubai ports grandstanding. Now, we're with Mr. Schumer on the substance -- there are serious problems with the Dubai deal --...

This weekend I've added the Saturday night/Sunday morning Fox/WSJ "Journal Editorial Report" to the mix.  It looks to be a very interesting addition (on "our side," maybe?).Last weekend I clearly missed the MSM spin on the "White House is being too secretive" meme (though I was on  the right track with the "they're being mean" idea).  When I post a meme it is simply my best guess and I'm desperately reaching out for others to correct or augment anything I post.  That's the purpose of my thread.  Not to declare "this is what is" but to ask "is this close"...