Keep both eyes on Chuck Schumer. The senior Senator from New York for 23 years, a paragon of centrism, the ultimate political insider, the Majority Leader, the most powerful man in the U.S. Senate, is looking around corners, scared of a young, loud and popular two-term Congresswoman from Queens…so incredibly scared.
Let’s call it the AOC-ification of Charles Ellis Schumer.
Here’s a quick look at the recent political landscape in New York and
what’s happened to mainstream, long-serving Democrats. Joe Crowley…served in the House from Queens for 20 years. We all know what happened to good ol’ Joe…he got AOC’d. Eliot Engel…he and his mustache represented the north Bronx and southern Westchester for 16 terms, 22 years. He got trounced by another socialist, Jamaal Bowman.
During his almost three decades in Congress, Chuck Schumer has done a helluva lot for New York and the people have rewarded him with reelection after reelection. But he’s also survived and thrived by being a political python, squeezing the life out of potential rivals. (When was the last time you saw Kirsten Gillibrand in the Five Boroughs?) There’s no way he’s going to let someone outflank him on the left. He’ll be damned if he’s going to let AOC out-liberal him.
So, Chuck has uncoiled and has been slithering left, inch by inch.
In his first interview after becoming Senate majority leader, Chuck chose to be interviewed by MSNBC’s uber-liberal talk show host Rachel Maddow. He told Maddow that “America needs immediate bold change.” Senate filibuster rule? I’m with Alexandria. The Build Back Better 3-point whatever trillion dollar spending bill? An orgasmic yes! Cancel student debt? Brilliant idea!
In the 2021 Buffalo mayor’s race, Schumer endorsed the avowed socialist India Walton. He called her “an inspiring community leader…with a clear progressive vision for her hometown.” Also endorsing Walton were AOC and Bernie Sanders. New York’s Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul didn’t endorse anyone in that race. The state’s Democratic Party Chair Jay Jacobs refused to endorse her. But Chuck did.
It didn’t help because Walton lost. She was defeated by the incumbent mayor Byron Brown, who lost the primary but won the general election with write-in votes.
But Chuck made his point. He can love progressives as much as anyone else in New York and he sure isn’t going to open the door to a challenger.
Chuck Schumer’s political radar is a bit antiquated but highly tuned. Let me tell you this story about his Sunday news conferences that are as holy to him as the Western Wall is to the Jews.
When I was the News Director at one of New York’s major TV stations, I told my staff not to automatically cover those Sunday events. Week after week reporters flocked to his announcements without exercising any journalistic discretion. If it was Sunday it had to be Schumer. So, I told my staff to judge the Chuck’s events as we could judge any politician’s news conference. No one was “entitled’’ to coverage.
Well, when we didn’t show up every Sunday, Chuck sure noticed and he was pissed. His staff contacted me and demanded a sit down. Breakfast would work and I was told Chuck liked to go to diners.
So I met him at Mansion on the East Side of Manhattan and we had an interesting and at times intense chat. Over spraying cottage cheese and half a cantaloupe, he tutored me about how vital it was for the citizens of New York to see the important announcements he was making on their local TV news. I explained to him how what he was doing every Sunday was very old school and that there were newer ways for him to communicate the same information. He accused me of being a Trump lover. Hey, whatever.
We ended up agreeing to disagree.
The point of all this to know one thing about Chuck Schumer. He believes he is deeply connected to his constituents and their feelings. He won’t give up on what’s worked for him in the past. He is a lifelong politician, that’s all he’s ever known. He will pull any lever keep his job even if it means blurring his centrist credentials. He won’t give a leftist inch to AOC.
But in 2022 will that be enough? The old middle-of-the-road Dems, Schumer supporters, are aging. New York has become the epicenter of progressive politics and politicians. Will they choose a new media-hungry, rising political star to replace him?
By cloaking himself in the progressive toga, Chuck is trying to abort any primary challenger. If that gambit fails, he will be up against highly motivated voters in a highly unsettled political milieu (SAT word…wait! No more SAT’s?) with a highly unpopular Democratic President.
Senator, that is a recipe for an upset.
2 thoughts on “What’s Up Chuck?”
Shumer the Shomere will even forget he’s Jewish to keep the progressives at bay.
I agree with Sully. Shumer basically sells whatever he thinks the powerful are buying.
He has done much good in the past but is a chameleon – not a statesman.
The problem in the next election is that unless something changes, we are stuck between a very large boulder and a very hard place with nothing yet to help us escape intact except jumping of a high cliff.