Schumer and Durbin: Roommates to rivals?

Friday, Apr 23, 2010

The two leading candidates to replace Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, if he loses, still live together in D.C


WASHINGTON -- Running for a job someone else already has is awkward enough. But running for a job someone else already has -- and having to beat out your roommate to get it?

That's the situation Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin could find themselves in this year. Both men may want to take over as Senate majority leader if Harry Reid loses his reelection campaign in November. And both men, when they're not in their respective home states (Illinois for Durbin, New York for Schumer) live together in a Capitol Hill house owned by Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., along with Rep. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass. Which means an already delicate situation could wind up being truly weird.

Neither Durbin nor Schumer wants to seem like he's after Reid's job, or to discuss the prospect of seeking it. "They're still friends, and they will be when Harry Reid is reelected, too," Durbin's spokesman, Joe Shoemaker, told me Thursday -- just after saying he was about to hang the phone up, once I started asking questions about a leadership race. At least he answered it; Schumer aides, for their part, didn't even return phone calls.

But there's little doubt in Washington that both of them are preparing for a campaign no Senate Democrats would like them to have to run. Reid trails all his potential Republican rivals, and history says he probably won't make it. And Democratic sources say some colleagues are starting to see Durbin and Schumer's actions as part of that preparation. "It's uncomfortable," one senior Democratic aide says. "It's waiting to dance on Reid's grave."

Both Durbin and Schumer, for instance, have solicited input from freshman Democrats about how to overhaul the filibuster rule -- with Schumer scheduling a committee hearing on the idea after Durbin started his own work. Schumer pushed for a public option in the healthcare reform bill last year, even though the votes weren't there to get it in the final bill, which some observers thought was an attempt to play to progressives. Durbin strongly resisted an effort by Max Baucus, the Senate Finance Committee chairman, to write a bipartisan jobs bill this year with Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa. During the ongoing bank reform bill, Schumer -- who, after all, represents most of the financial world -- hasn't been quite as vocal about bashing Wall Street as he ordinarily would on a populist issue. Durbin, on the other hand, has been a little more visible than he usually is.


remainder: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2010/04/23/chuck_schumer_dick_durbin_roommates_and_rivals/index.html

Schumer has Israel on the Brain

Reid has been ineffective. Durbin would be a welcome change to a more aggressive and progressive approach.

Schumer has been an advocate for John Bolton, Chertoff and Mukasey. Furthermore his support of Israel seemingly trumps what should be his main priorities and allegiances as a US senator and citizen. I say this as a NYer who thinks he has forgotten who he actually is supposed to be working on behalf of.

unfortunate, but telling.

If you would like to leave a comment for Schumer on the subject, call him here:

Phone: 202-224-6542.


And you may want to call the White House and suggest that someone counter Schumer's bullshit. Switchboard: 202-456-1414

NY # Phone: 212-486-4430

Here is the article:

April 22, 2010
Categories:Middle East.Schumer: Obama's 'counter-productive' Israel policy 'has to stop'

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0410/Schumer_Obamas_Counterproductive_Israel_policy_has_to_stop.html

And cited the Clemons piece on his radio interview. I asked the question Clemons asked, is he a US senator or a member of the Knesset.

I've called his office before and got the impression that they didn't care what constituents thought. Also, they don't bother to answer their emails with an automated response.

His Wall Street/Israel train has left the station.

:-(