My Senator (Continued)

Tom Watson inspired this post with his In Praise of Chuck post.

The Gotham Gal and I have been big fans of our senator, Chuck Schumer, for a long time.  He’s a nice guy, he "shows up" as Tom says, and he cares about what matters.  He’s also a master at raising money.

Chuck was thinking about running for Governor here in NY in 2006, pitting him in a primary battle against Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.   Since we like Eliot a lot too, that would have been a tough one for The Gotham Gal and me.

But Chuck did us a favor on Monday when he announced he was not going to run for Governor in 2006 and instead had joined the new Democratic leadership in the Senate and more importantly, had agreed to become the Chairman of the DSCC, which is the organization that works to elect Democratic Senators around the country.

A lot of people outside of New York probably think Chuck is a "liberal".  He has been one of the most ardent proponents of gun regulations in Congress.  He has led the Democrat’s efforts to stop the appointment of conservative judges.  And so he is seen as a liberal.

But the reality is that Chuck is a middle of the road guy.  He’s from Brooklyn.  He understands the people and their everyday problems.   He is very well liked in the Republican parts of upstate New York.  He’s a pragmatic guy who gets things done.

So I agree with Tom when he says that Chuck is the right guy to lead the Democrat’s efforts to take back control of the Senate.  If he asks us for help, we’ll be there for him.