A New York Times profile of Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) notes that his “ballooning place in the conservative imagination is about more than his anticipated promotion.”
“He is increasingly seen as an avatar of Democratic craftiness and frustrated conservative aspirations: a wily tactician who has routinely defanged his Republican adversaries with ease, first as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and more recently as a lead negotiator on the issue of immigration reform.”
“The White House lit into Sen. Chuck Schumer on Friday for his decision to vote no on the Iran deal and suggested that he’s put his clear path to be the next Democratic leader in doubt,” Politico reports.
“And a person familiar with Schumer’s decision said the senator’s allies blame the White House for leaking news from a private call Schumer made to President Barack Obama on Thursday afternoon and breaking a direct request the senator made to the president to give him until Friday to put word out about his decision. The person also noted, with more than a little acidity, that Obama was the only person Schumer told of his decision before the news started to leak out.”
During the middle of the GOP presidential debate last night, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), “the most influential Jewish voice in Congress, said that he would oppose President Obama’s deal to limit Iran’s nuclear program,” the New York Times reports.
“His announcement comes as Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the minority leader, labors to build a firewall in the House in support of the deal, which has been denounced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. At six meetings in recent weeks, Ms. Pelosi has assembled an informal team of Democrats determined to win over the 146 House Democrats needed to uphold a veto.”
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Politico: “People who have spoken with the senior New York senator believe the pressure campaign is having an effect: They say there is a growing sense inside and outside the Capitol that Schumer will vote against the deal when the Senate considers it in September. The bigger question many have now is this: How hard will he push against it?”
“Schumer is one of about 15 Democratic senators who will decide the fate of President Barack Obama’s Iran nuclear deal in Congress. The president can afford to lose no more than a dozen Democrats on the Senate floor, and as the next Democratic leader, Schumer may be the most critical of them all.”
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) “raised his hand to stop questions Tuesday when a Post reporter asked for his position on the Iran nuclear deal,” the New York Post reports.
“Approached in the basement of the Senate, New York’s senior senator — who is almost always available to the press — refused to answer where he stands on the agreement.”
Politico: “McConnell, now the Senate majority leader, and Schumer, the Democratic leader-in-waiting, will now have to figure out how — and when — to drop their political swords. Despite serving 16 years together in the chamber, the two men have developed virtually no rapport in a body where trust and relationships are essential. To the extent they’ve engaged, it’s mainly been to launch political — and at times, personal — attacks.”
“But with Schumer set to replace Sen. Harry Reid as Democratic leader in the next Congress, the New York Democrat and the Kentucky Republican will soon have to work with each other on a daily basis — on issues as mundane as the Senate schedule and as profound as the country’s domestic and foreign policy.”
“When it comes to winning influence with Democratic senators, few can hold a candle to Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY),” The Hill reports.
“That’s why Schumer is set to succeed Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) as Democratic leader, and why Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) is in danger of being on the outside looking in on the next Senate Democratic leadership team. Most of the caucus owes Schumer political chits for various services he has rendered — ranging from fundraising help to arranging extra office space and doling out desirable Capitol hideaways from his old perch as Senate Rules Committee chairman.”
Sen. Dick Durbin’s (D-IL) job as Democratic whip “is in danger in the absence of a crucial endorsement from New York Sen. Charles Schumer, the incoming Democratic leader,” The Hill reports.
“Democratic aides say Schumer’s backing could make or break Durbin’s bid to hang onto his job as the Senate’s No. 2 Democratic leader.”
“No one has said they will challenge Durbin for whip but, tellingly, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), the fourth-ranking member of the Democratic leadership hasn’t ruled it out, either.”
Washington Post: “So much for a neat, orderly succession for Senate Democrats.”
“He will be elected to replace me in 22 months. I think one reason that will happen is because I want him to be my replacement.”
— Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), in an inteview with Nevada Public Radio, on backing Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to replace him as Senate Democratic leader.
“In his eight years as the Senate’s Democratic leader, Harry M. Reid earned a reputation for legislative sorcery epitomized by the way in which he muscled President Obama’s health-care reform bill through the Senate. And so, it may be fitting that the Nevadan’s retirement announcement came Friday accompanied by an almost magical development: a quiet and bloodless succession,” the Washington Post reports.
“Reid’s endorsement of Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), makes Schumer the favorite to assume the Democratic leader’s chair in 2017, forestalling a messy intracaucus battle that would have played out over the next two years.”
Politico: Inside Schumer’s 24 hour campaign for leader
Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) told the Wall Street Journal that he will take a call from any senator at any time and the most frequent caller is Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), “who has memorized several of Mr. Reid’s phone numbers.”
Said Reid: “He knows all the tricks. If my wife takes the phone of the hook he just calls on the other line. But if that didn’t work he’d call my cellphone.”
“Long-muted tensions within the Democratic Party over policy and strategy are beginning to surface publicly, a sign of leaders looking beyond President Obama’s tenure in the aftermath of the party’s midterm election defeat,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“A prominent example came this week, when Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) gave a rare public rebuke to Mr. Obama over the centerpiece of his presidency: the health-care overhaul of 2010… On the same day, the White House surprised Democratic leaders in the Senate by threatening to veto a tax package negotiated by both parties.”
“The twin developments were among fissures within the party that, at their broadest level, show Democrats at odds over what economic message to present to voters ahead of the 2016 presidential race. Worried that they lacked a compelling position in the midterms, Democrats are split over whether to advance a centrist message or a more populist economic argument that casts everyday families as victims of overly powerful corporations and benighted government policies.”
“Republicans will continue to paint government as the enemy and the media will continue to highlight government failures, because they make for better copy than government success. That leaves the job to we Democrats.”
— Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), quoted by Politico.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said that Democrats made a mistake by passing President Obama’s health-care law in 2010 instead of focusing more directly on helping the middle class, Bloomberg reports.
Said Schumer: “Unfortunately, Democrats blew the opportunity the American people gave them… We took their mandate and put all our focus on the wrong problem — health care reform.”
“Schumer’s comments represent an unusual public intra-party critique of the way Obama’s signature legislative achievement was enacted.”
National Journal: “Rep. George Miller’s Capitol Hill row house, the inspiration for the Amazon series Alpha House, has been the Washington dwelling of many Democratic lawmakers over the past three decades. Its current tenants, Sens. Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin, have lived with Miller for more than a combined 50 years (Schumer moved in back in 1982; Durbin a decade later).”
“But that arrangement is coming to an end. Asked if the gang was sticking together with Miller’s impending retirement, Durbin replied with an emphatic ‘nope.’ Asked to clarify, he said the house was being sold. He did not answer if he and Schumer would be house-hunting together or striking out on their own.”
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) “has long been viewed as the heir apparent to Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, with such strong support among moderates that a group of them privately urged him to mount a coup for party leader after the midterm election meltdown,” Politico reports.
“Schumer didn’t take on Reid — he’s too loyal — but he is being forced to face a new power center inside the caucus, populists such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)… Warren’s rise in Senate leadership – and her popularity among grassroots liberals – represents an unexpected presence in Schumer’s leadership orbit, where he has spent years cultivating a reputation as one of the masterminds of Democratic messaging.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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