Posted on 11/15/2006 12:12:55 PM PST by Liz
Exultant Chuck Says He’ll Veto the Next Alito; New King of Washington Promises Moderate Court; Rove-like, Plans Permanent Democratic Majority; More N.Y. Homeland Money, Iraqi Federalism
More than the inability to influence Iraq policy or the President’s tax cuts, Chuck Schumer says that the single greatest failure of the Democrats as an opposition party was allowing Samuel Alito to join the Supreme Court.
“Judges are the most important,” said Mr. Schumer, who orchestrated the implausible Democratic takeover of the Senate last week. “One more justice would have made it a 5-4 conservative, hard-right majority for a long time. That won’t happen.”
From now on, all the President’s judicial appointments will need to meet the requirements of Mr. Schumer, the Park Slope power broker who has happily accepted the mantle of chief architect for the Democrats’ effort to build a majority for the 2008 elections and beyond.
The Senator also intends, in the coming months, to rework the federal government’s funding priorities in New York’s favor, to steer the Democrats toward a radically new position on Iraq and, while he’s at it, to cement his position as the unofficially declared tactical guru for the national party.
And in case anyone’s wondering, yes, Mr. Schumer is entirely comfortable with this sort of power.
With his Gold Toe–stockinged feet dangling, the 55-year-old slumped in his armchair on Friday morning as if it were a leather throne. On his apartment’s front door, a neighbor taped up a front page of The New York Times heralding the Democrats’ success and scrawled “Congratulations Schumers!” across the cover.
The candidates that Mr. Schumer recruited, groomed and bankrolled had won a comprehensive victory over the incumbent Republicans, giving the Democrats a narrow majority in the Senate to complement a rout in the House. Since the election, Mr. Schumer has been awash in attention from the media, his Democratic colleagues and even from the President, who called, quite sportingly, soon after the results were finalized.
For Mr. Schumer, who was installed on Tuesday as Vice Chairman of the Democratic caucus and officially reinstated as head of the DSCC, the attention couldn’t be coming at a better time.
“I am writing a book, about how to build a permanent—a long-term majority,” Mr. Schumer said during an early-morning interview in the pink den of his apartment near Grand Army Plaza. He sat between a view of lower Manhattan and portraits of Democratic icons Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Al Smith. “I generally have an eye toward longer-term strategy and politics, and I think my colleagues rely on me for that.”
His book, Positively American: Winning Back the Middle Class Majority One Family at a Time, will be released right around the President’s State of the Union address, and will fit neatly into the role that Mr. Schumer now envisions for himself as tactician in chief for the newly ascendant Democrats.
“I’ve always had some influence, and I guess now, because of what we’ve been able to accomplish, I have some more influence,” Mr. Schumer said. “So when I say we shouldn’t do this or we should do that, I guess people will pay a little more attention. Or go along with it, even if they don’t agree.”
Certainly, the party wasn’t united behind Mr. Schumer’s election strategy this year. He championed a traditional approach: directing the bulk of the party’s financial and logistical resources toward handpicked candidates in a few competitive races. Howard Dean, who heads the Democratic National Committee, advocated a “50-state strategy,” spreading money around toward the longer-term goal of making the party viable even in areas that have been Republican strongholds.
After the victory—the Democrats picked up six Republican-held seats and defended every Democratic one—Mr. Schumer hardly seemed ready to concede the point.
“Fifty-state is a good thing to do, but it didn’t help us in this election,” said Mr. Schumer. “My only disagreement with Howard is that he should help us fund taking back the majority, because it would make a difference with things like the Supreme Court. And he came through—he ended up giving us $7.5 million. We tried the honey approach rather than the vinegar approach, and it worked.”
--SNIP--
-PJ
sorry, they would serve only until 2011.
Thank you John McCain, Mike DeWine, Lindsey Graham, Trent Lott and the rest of the Senaors that betrayed by signing their name to that pact or supporting it in the shadows. Well done fools.
It's uncanny, isn't it? That had to be a political move to make it seem like Bush tried to be 'progressive' with Miers and Alito was just a secondary choice. That's the only "explanation" that keeps me from pulling out clumps of hair.
Freudian slip---prez (gag) wannabe.
Chuck's principles? What principles?
When does this bozo come up for re-election anyway?
"Harriet Miers might be the best we can get now."
Don't be so sure. Clarence Thomas was confirmed with 57 democrats in the Senate.
As for Schumer: the phrase 'pride goeth before destruction' comes to mind.
BUT, Clarence was not the 5th vote to overturn Roe (Bork would have been the 5th vote, I think)
No, it couldn't have been Bork. Bork was nominated by Reagan. After Bork we got Scalia, I think.
Let me just say this: think of dem senators from red states who want to be re-elected. W should be able to hold all 49 GOP votes. He'll only need an additional 2 (or 1 with Cheney breaking a tie). The Court is not lost.
Let me add one more thing about the Court. John Roberts, I believe, was truly an inspired choice for CJ. The Chief does not and can not tell justices how to decide, but, the Chief does have tremendous power of influence and persuasion. If you watched the Roberts hearings before the Senate, you know that he can win an argument quite well.
Chuckie Schroomer confirms yet again that the 'RATS have totally and permanently trashed all "bi-partisan" traditions of Congress, such as the long-standing presumption in favor of a President's nominees so long as they are well-qualified in objective professional terms. Now the 'RATS see everything through the lens of ideological warfare, and it does not matter how many competent judges or justices or UN Ambassadors a Republican president may nominate, these 'RATS will judge them only in relation to subservience to a left/liberal agenda.
To think of all the Republicans who blithely voted for Ginsburg and Breyer out of respect for Senate traditions..... from now on it is political warfare all the way!!
LOL
Great, NOW I understand!! :-)
LOL LOL LOL
Nancee
I also hope to see a new , yet older version of the crazed Chuck Schumer who climbed to the top of a pile of rubble at Waco, exultingly holding aloft a rifle, triumphantly celebrating the murder of 7 dozen people by his Attorney General. That remains the most disgusting political image that still lingers in my mind. I hope my memory is not faulty, and that someone can confirm this. It was a long time ago, and I can find no ready reference to it.
And even if he didn't physically do it, he did it in other ways, by his grandstanding and the way he dealt with the Branch Davidians, blaming the entire thing on them.
How times change...
C. C. Schmucker/Schumer is the worst. See my # 94---do you remember this?
Now, that's a call to arms, isn't it? The people who voted him in (and the ones that didn't) now have the responsibility to watch him like a hawk and not accept any excuses. Remember, his father is the Casey in the infamous Planned Parenthood vs. Casey. If Junior does not deliver as promised, he will be a one-term Senator.
Even pro-choice Sen. Carper voted to ban partial-birth abortion and that was because we hounded him mercilessly on it. Somebody ping the PA list!
Those whom God exalts, he can also destroy. God is famous for making things go very, very wrong at the last minute... and at the worst possible time.
I am beginning to think the answer to this question is too long.
Nancee
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.