Schumer's superb job
During my junior year of college I interned for Senator Schumer. At the time I was an independent who was willing to work for either party and I came away with two impressions of the Senator: (1) he wasn't a particularly caring person or good person to work for and (2) he had a great political mind. As the head of the DSCC in this election cycle he has made a number of great political moves:
(1) Getting Paul Hackett out of the primary and clearing the nomination for Sherrod Brown. While Brown is an uninspiring politician and an ardent protectionist, he was just the boring candidate the Democrats needed for the manufacturing heavy state of Ohio. Hackett was a loose cannon who would have continually made news that would have hurt Democrats in other races and made the Ohio race at the very least, competitive.
(2) Getting John Kerry to apologize. Kerry was all prepared to continue his attacks on Republicans in wake of his apparent joke gone bad and Schumer called and apparently got Kerry to issue a retraction. This stemmed the bleading from Kerry's gaffe and after two days the news switched to other topics.
(3) Clearing the way for Bob Casey Jr. in Pennslyvania. While many Democratic loyalists were unhappy with this decision, Casey would not have run if he didn't have a cleared field in the primary as his dream has always been to be governor. A divisive primary or a candidate like Joe Hoeffel would have made this a far more competitive race.
(4) Forcing out Senator Mark Dayton. Senator Dayton was polling very poorly and he claimed one of the reasons he decided not to run was because Schumer kept bothering him about fundraising. Another good decision as this seat went from being a toss-up to solid blue.
(5) Backing Jim Webb in the Democratic primary. Webb has been able to appeal to disgruntled Republicans and Reagan Democrats and has turned this race into a nailbiter which effectively ruined any chance George Allen has at being President. The alternative Harris Miller would have made for an easy Allen win.
(6) In general, he has been a great fundraiser who has typically outraised his counterpart, Elizabeth Dole at the NRSC, and has created a great rapid response operation.
All this I reluctantly have to admit as someone who wants the Republicans to keep as many seats as possible.
(1) Getting Paul Hackett out of the primary and clearing the nomination for Sherrod Brown. While Brown is an uninspiring politician and an ardent protectionist, he was just the boring candidate the Democrats needed for the manufacturing heavy state of Ohio. Hackett was a loose cannon who would have continually made news that would have hurt Democrats in other races and made the Ohio race at the very least, competitive.
(2) Getting John Kerry to apologize. Kerry was all prepared to continue his attacks on Republicans in wake of his apparent joke gone bad and Schumer called and apparently got Kerry to issue a retraction. This stemmed the bleading from Kerry's gaffe and after two days the news switched to other topics.
(3) Clearing the way for Bob Casey Jr. in Pennslyvania. While many Democratic loyalists were unhappy with this decision, Casey would not have run if he didn't have a cleared field in the primary as his dream has always been to be governor. A divisive primary or a candidate like Joe Hoeffel would have made this a far more competitive race.
(4) Forcing out Senator Mark Dayton. Senator Dayton was polling very poorly and he claimed one of the reasons he decided not to run was because Schumer kept bothering him about fundraising. Another good decision as this seat went from being a toss-up to solid blue.
(5) Backing Jim Webb in the Democratic primary. Webb has been able to appeal to disgruntled Republicans and Reagan Democrats and has turned this race into a nailbiter which effectively ruined any chance George Allen has at being President. The alternative Harris Miller would have made for an easy Allen win.
(6) In general, he has been a great fundraiser who has typically outraised his counterpart, Elizabeth Dole at the NRSC, and has created a great rapid response operation.
All this I reluctantly have to admit as someone who wants the Republicans to keep as many seats as possible.
posted by The partisan moderate at 10:39 PM
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