THE DEATH LOBBY'S JEWISH BULLDOG:

Chuck’s New Role: Is War Senator–On Bush Nominee (Ben Smith, 11/04/05, NY Observer)

How had the combative Brooklyn Senator risen, without fanfare or official recognition, to be “the voice of the Democrats on judges,” in the words of Schumer ally Kate Michelman, a former president of the National Abortion Rights Action League?

On a Senate Judiciary Committee stacked with famous names, Mr. Schumer has emerged as the Democrats’ most prominent voice on what is, right now, the most important battle in Washington. That position allows him to step out of the giant shadow cast by his superstar colleague, Hillary Clinton, the would-be, may-be Presidential candidate. With his staunch opposition to conservative judges, his denunciation of “theocrats” and “economic royalists” in Mr. Bush’s coalition, and his media ubiquity, Mr. Schumer has become an unlikely champion of the Democratic left.

“He’s not going out looking for a fight, but when it’s appropriate that there’s a fight, that’s where the fact that he’s a Brooklyn guy really helps the party,” said Mr. Schumer’s former chief counsel, Jeff Berman.

So do Democratic strategists sit around in a room somewhere and come up with the idea of having the Jewish Senator from NY be the front man against Catholic nominees?

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 4, 2005 8:20 AM