All Schumer, All the Time

As a resident of New York State, I have the displeasure of having to deal with two of the most self-serving Democratic United States senators in the country. While I think Hillary is a politician first, and representative of the people second, I don't totally dislike her; I'm just not a supporter. I will, like most good Democrats, hold my nose and vote for her if she's on the ballot in 2008.

I used to feel this way about Chuck Schumer. No more. Schumer is a meddlesome hack, who is only interested in consolidating more power for himself, at he expense of the progressive movement, the netroots, and good government. Serious charges, you say? Absolutely.

I cite first Schumer's baffling, and quixotic, backing (some might say manipulation) of Tom Suozzi to run in the primary against Elliot Spitzer, one of the true stars of the Democratic Party. What purpose did it serve? Spitzer was going to win in a landslide. Fredric Dicker over at The New York Post (yeah, I know) managed to shed some light on this:

A prominent Democratic political operative said Schumer's support for Suozzi was "rooted in a personal rivalry over who is going to be the first Jewish president, over who is a more significant political figure from New York, in Chuck's perception that he was insulted by Spitzer, and in what could be called class rivalry."

Pretty petty shit, huh? Well, that's our Chuck.

Moving right along, we have item number two. Schumer's people, apparently, leaked the name of Bob Menendez to the news media as newly-elected Governor Corzine's replacement in the United States Senate -- an appointment Corzine, you know, might have wanted to himself announce, seeing as it was up to him to choose the person to fill his old seat, yadda, yadda.

This time, it's Josh Benson at The New York Observer who picked up this tidbit from Matt Stoller at MyDD:

Over at MyDD, former Corzine campaign blogger Matt Stoller sums up the reports of friction between Chuck and New Jersey Senator/Governor-elect Jon Corzine, including the blame emanating from Jersey on the subect (sic) of who leaked the Menendez announcement.

"No word yet on the next politician Schumer's going to piss off," writes Stoller at www.mydd.com.

Worth noting that I've never actually seen much evidence of Chuck-Jon animus, and Schumer's DSCC spokesman Phil Singer tells The Politicker that the two Senators "get along famously."

Also: "The report that we leaked [the Menendez story] has no basis in reality," he said.

If nothing else, though, the episode offers one more chance (just one more!) to reprint Corzine's line at a DC roast a while back:

"Sharing a media market with Chuck Schumer is like sharing a banana with a monkey.... Take a little bite out of it and he will throw his own feces at you."

Jeez, ya' think that line might have pissed-off little Chucky a tad?

All of this is bad enough. And what we begin to see here is a pattern of petty vindictiveness that would rival old Senator Pothole.

But it gets worse.

Tom Curry at MSNBC wrote this piece regarding Paul Hackett's unfortunate exit from the Democratic senatorial primary in Ohio. Here are a few graphs:

At first blush, HackettÂ’s exit seemed good news for the Democrats since it removed the danger of a costly primary and left seven-term Democratic Rep. Sherrod Brown a clear shot at defeating incumbent Republican, Sen. Mike DeWine.

But left-leaning Democratic bloggers helped lift Hackett to his near-victory last year and some are irate that their man appears to have been squeezed out of the race.

Hackett said Monday party leaders pressured him to leave the race and made phone calls to his donors urging them to not contribute to his campaign.

The NYT, also, had a piece by Ian Urbina that more directly states what went on behind the scenes:

Mr. Hackett said Senators Charles E. Schumer of New York and Harry Reid of Nevada, the same party leaders who he said persuaded him last August to enter the Senate race, had pushed him to step aside so that Representative Sherrod Brown, a longtime member of Congress, could take on Senator Mike DeWine, the Republican incumbent.

Hackett, needless to say, was mighty pissed:

"This is an extremely disappointing decision that I feel has been forced on me," said Mr. Hackett, whose announcement comes two days before the state's filing deadline for candidates. He said he was outraged to learn that party leaders were calling his donors and asking them to stop giving and said he would not enter the Second District Congressional race.

"For me, this is a second betrayal," Mr. Hackett said. "First, my government misused and mismanaged the military in Iraq, and now my own party is afraid to support candidates like me."

While no one is mentioning Schumer by name, he is the chairmann of the DSCC, so his fingerprints are all over this.

And now we get to what sent me off on this tirade. As many of you know, Ned Lamont is challenging that ersatz Dem, and Bush loyalist, Joe Lieberman, in the Connecticut Democratic senatorial primary. Well, today we have this, via a David Sirota diary on DailyKos, from Time Magazine:

[L]amont says as recently a few weeks ago, even as he was investing hundreds of thousands of dollars into his campaign, Charles Schumer, the head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, asked him to drop out. Schumer has told colleagues he thinks that if Lieberman lost the primary, it would send a bad signal to moderate voters and might hurt the party's chances of winning Senate seats in places like Montana and Missouri in November.

I suppose some would argue that Schumer is simply doing his job as head of the DSCC. Then why have primaries? Why not just have the old system of back-room deals and the quid pro quo? Because voters are supposed to decide these things, last time I checked. Forcing good people out of primary races is anti-democratic, and un-American.

Schumer should be ashamed of himself.

I'd like to see a good progressive challenge Schumer in 2010. New York deserves better.

Postscript: Please give generously to the Ned Lamont campaign. Here is the link.

Post-postscript: This is the first of what will be many fund raising appeals as we go into the November elections. Oh, and I fixed a couple of typos.

[Update]: I would like to thank the fine folks at SchumerWatch for linking to my post. Seems we're of a like mind on Chucky.