Did Senator Schumer Lead a Boycott on Feingold's Censure Hearing?

[radio4progressives]

Enquiring Minds Would Like to Know!

If true, maybe the "Inconvenient Netroots" should consider leading a Boycott against Schumer and the DSCC?? (just kidding)

Check out this little tidbit posted by Jane Hamsher at Firedoglake:

http://www.firedoglake.com/

The Inconvenient Netroots

As head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) it’s Schumer’s job to take back the majority in the Senate in November. A worthy goal, and nobody is denying the necessity of much of the hard-nosed pragmatism Schumer has exercised in getting the job done. But it is a goal he pursues by demanding ideological fealty to the middle and abandonment of progressives and progressive values. No doubt this is why he led a boycott of Feingold’s Judiciary Committee censure hearings. He envisions a party that stands for almost nothing.

I was kidding about boycotting Schumer and the DSCC, but I think it might be useful to consider forming a delegation to meet with him for a very serious pow wow - asap.

Having said that, maybe no one will think it's worth it after reading this article :

The Bush-Cheney Era Ends Here
If Chuck Schumer can make his dream of a Democratic-controlled senate come true.
By Ryan Lizza

Democrats have a dream. They dream that they will wake up on November 8 and that West Virginia senator Robert Byrd, the 88-year-old antiwar firebrand, will be in charge of appropriating every dollar spent in Iraq. They dream that Patrick Leahy, the Vermont senator who led the effort against Samuel Alito, will be the man deciding which Bush judges get considered. They dream that a senator from South Dakota named Tim Johnson will be running the now-dormant Ethics Committee, aggressively investigating GOP lobbyists looting their way through Washington. They dream of a vote on a minimum-wage increase and public hearings on global warming. And Democrats soothe themselves to sleep every night with visions of beating six years’ worth of secrets out of the Bush administration—on pre-9/11 intelligence, the Plame affair, Katrina, Dubai Ports World, Halliburton—through the fearsome power of the subpoena.

~snip~

cont...

http://newyorkmetro.com/news/politics/16584/index.html

[MessiahRp]

1. Schumer's turning into a scumbag.

He and his DSCC have been going around *selecting* Dems for races too. They have tried to railroad the much more progressive Ford Bell in Minnesota in favor of the no position is concrete, Amy Klobuchar, and now that same committee is sending Barack Obama in to do more dirty work in Amy's favor. They don't want primaries and they don't want progressives. Schumer wants all centrists and he's willing to screw over any Dem that steps in his way to acheive that.

Rp

[radio4progressives]

2. Yes.. Did you read the article of the second link? It's stunning

in explains race by race, how Schumer has been strategizing.

it's entirely anti-progressive, hell, it's even Anti-Liberal!

He was described as a "Reagan Democrat" ...

I always thought that was some sort of canard, i never actually believed real Democrats liked or supported Reagan. but the New Yorker article is several pages long and very in depth - gets into every single race and describes the challenges and depicts the general strategy.

Schumer is simply calling the shots on all levels. That article will be an important reference source in the future - there's actually a mention that a strategy to hold off winning the Senate until 2008 is mentioned, because a victory in 2006 would be a weak majority and it would be too hard to "govern". (!)

[PassingFair]

6. Why do you hate Democrats?

:sarcasm:

As my stomach turns....

We can do NOTHING except continue
to support PROGRESSIVE candidates.

I return EVERY solicitation from
the DLC, DCCC and DSCC with a little
note describing exactly where my
money and efforts are going.

We are going to have to take the party
back from the bottom up, because they
ARE NOT going to go away.

Hobson's Choices until then.

[radio4progressives]

10. These are the moments when I think I should Move to Washington DC

Just so I can beat down the doors of these vichy Dems every day of the week they're in session.

:banghead:

[Jeffersons Ghost]

7. I HAVE A DREAM...

I dream of a day when a politician will not be judged by the content of his bank account but by the color of his character.

[radio4progressives]

11. fabulous graphic! i'm saving it! thanks! Did you do this work?? eom

[radio4progressives]

9. errata corrigendum (too late to edit post)

In the post above i made reference to the wrong publication, i incorrectly stated "New Yorker" (article) but should have said New York Metro (article) ..

[blm]

19. I think Schumer is working to protect the namebrand Dem powerstructure.

.

[Doremus]

3. Well, this quote from your second link speaks volumes:

In essence, national Democrats can move only as far left as their most conservative Senate candidate in the six target states, four of which were carried by Bush in 2000 and 2004.

I'd love to know who came up with that one and what brand of drugs they were on. Were the repigs similarly self-restrained -- or did they go for the gusto? Can you just imagine the dough boy saying We can't be too conservative now guys; it might hurt our blue-staters. Yeah, right.

[radio4progressives]

13. I'd have to go back and double check but I think that was Schumer's quote

again, it has to be doubled checked - even if he isn't the source of the quote, clearly it is how he thinks.

going around from one Senate Race to the next, selecting the candidates who he wants in the race, though understandable from his point of view, is outrageously anti-democratic - and that's the bottom line issue, and Schumer, the "Reagan Democrat" doesn't want anyone left of Reagan on the Democratic Ticket.

So, we're not even talking about "anti-progressive" , we're talking "anti-liberal" -- that's fvcking outrageous no matter how you slice it.

[itzamirakul]

18. It makes me wonder if Schumer and Al From of DLC are not working in

cahoots to keep the Democratic Party continue to APPEAR as though it was middle-of-the-road/centrist, instead of becoming more and more left of center.

Also, we have to keep in mind that Israeli political interests are tied up in American political interests and from what I understand, Israel has a mostly conservative ideology, so any Party here has to appear, at the very least, to be distanced from left-wing progressivism. I am sure that Mr.Schumer is keeping Israel's concerns in mind as he makes his candidate selections and keeps the Party appearing to be aligned along the center.

Apparently no one else wanted the job of leadership of the Party, because Schumer seems to be the only one who stepped up and took the job.

Schumer is my senator and I have voted for him since he first ran for office. There have been times that I have been very proud of his willingness to step forward and speak out, but even more time that he has made me furious with some stand on some issue. I wish that we had the opportunity to have debates between the candidates and some challengers. Elections are "too fixed" these days. The DLC just sticks someone out there and says "They are winnable," and no one else is allowed to run.

**

[radio4progressives]

22. Interesting points you raise here..

I would like to think that the DLC and Party Elite are playing a smoke and mirrors op to make it appear that the party is more right/center (than it actually is)and we can play the game ourselves..

unfortunately, Schumer has demonstrated CONTEMT for progressive pov's and his actions just on the Censure Resolution alone, not to mention public comments in an array of other issues, is revealing of where is politics lie. He's about party Elite, Corporate America. He can't wait to get on the Finance Committee. I almost worry about that, but it surely can't be worse than what the Repukes have done.

The point is, will it be better, or just an "illusion of better" ?

I tend to avoid getting involved in the Israeli politics discussion, largely because I agree with your pov.

[WildEyedLiberal]

4. Patrick Leahy did NOT lead the fight against Alito

What an easily disproved lie. Why is Ryan Lizza lying?

[blm]

12. Lizza ALWAYS gets half his articles wrong. Every now and then he may say

something excitingly insightful, but he's just not accurate enough in any consistent way to hold a job as a journalist, imo.

[radio4progressives]

16. blm, just curious are you a North Easterner? eom

[blm]

17. Grew up in Ohio -

Most of adult life in LA and NY - now in NC.

[radio4progressives]

21. I grew up in NC...

what part of the state do you reside?

[blm]

23. heheh...I try to answer all questions with complete candor, however,

considering the posting history here, I think I'll stop with NC.

[Sugarcoated]

5. I don't know if there's something going on between them behind the scenes

But when Russ did the press conference after his speech on the floor for censure, one of the first questions was something about actually giving a press conference, and his response was something like 'Chuck Shumer gives a press conference every ten minutes, I love the guy but (?) I don't do it that often'. If Shumer was angry about the way Russ presented his proposal that could've added fuel to that fire. I did call Shumer's office the day of the hearing to see if he was going to attend and I got a pretty robotic staffer basically saying he needs to be on the Senate floor and he'll get a transcript. :mad:

That said all I needed to know about Shumer, or at least all I thought there was to know. So he may not have been just hiding under his desk. It sounds it was a bit more insidious.

[radio4progressives]

14. Exactly.. First Schumer ran out on the Senate floor and introduces

a bill that was essentially an End Run around the entire issue, and while he does that, he makes snarky remarks against Feingold, dissing him as someone on the fringe.

I have a fantasy of my own right now.. Remember that old 9 to 5 movie with Dolly Parton, and Lilly Tomlin and Jane Fonda? Remember what they did to their boss? They had him literally hog tied, gagged and dangling from a ceiling hook for weeks until they were able to completely transform the company's culture and employee policies?

That's the fantasy i'm entertaining right now... :evilgrin:

love to find the graphic for that scene, and then have someone super-impose Schumer's face on to the boss that's bound and gagged and dangling from the ceiling !

[mrgorth]

8. After reading that article...

Goddamn I hate politics. I wish I wasn't interested in this stuff. You mean the national message has to be as moderate as the reddest state we're working on? No wonder noone believes we'll do anything differently.

[radio4progressives]

15. I know.. the"Inconvenient Netroots" are going to have to be a hell of lot

more than just "inconvenient" and 'irritating.'..

hmm..

[Totally Committed]

20. This says it all:

"He envisions a party that stands for almost nothing."

He needs to be dealt with. This needs to stop. We've already had YEARS of the above, and look where it's gotten us!

TC