While I like Dick Durbin better than Chuck Schumer and I am more aligned on issues with Durbin as well, I am not sure that Durbin would be the better Majority Leader. Being a nice guy isn’t necessarily a positive for that particular job. Either one of them would be an improvement over Daschle and Reid, however, since both of them come from solidly blue states. It’s hard to represent the left if you represent South Dakota or Nevada. It’s dumb to pick leaders from red or purple states. At least the House understands this.
So, who would you pick between Durbin and Schumer? And, aside from who you’d pick, who do you think has the better temperament and skill set to be Majority Leader?
Bernie Sanders. There is no Dem in the Senate that is left enough to effect real changes.
Heh.
Yeah, but that ain’t happening. Your choice is Durbin or Schumer.
Schumer – he won’t cry on the Senate floor.
Dick Durbin is a good man and a principled liberal. Chuck Schumer is a dick and an asshole. In order to get anything accomplished in this Senate, we need a majority leader who is a dick and an asshole.
Yes, yes, and yes.
I’d prefer Durbin. I just don’t trust Schumer. Can’t quite put my finger on it but he’s just slimy…
BTW- Harry Reid’s campaign called me and asked me to work for them. I told them “Work for him? I can’t even commit to voting for him. If he would step down as majority leader, I’d definitely support him, but he sucks as leader.”
What did they say in response??? Good for you!
“Sorry to hear that.” They didn’t want to know what made me feel that way. They know.
Btw – I’m in search of an open thread where I can post this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/02/cia-investment-financial-eamon-javers
The CIA teams up with Wall Street to help Hedge Fund managers detect liars…. Why does this make me queasy?
Btw – I should mention that I work directly below a CIA floor in my building. How ironic, eh? And normally I don’t think about that at all, but one day a security guard did something that gave me pause.
I never have visitors at work. I don’t have packages delivered. There’s no reason for any of the guards to know or care what my name is.
But one day I forget my badge, and had to have them buzz me in. And the guy at the security desk said, oh, so YOU’RE Lisa Pease. That was just a bit weird, don’t you think? I was so thrown by that I didn’t ask a follow up. Didn’t see the guy again after that, either.
in the building where you work knows your name?
Yes, because there are thousands of more important people in this particular building.
And why am I not surprised at your response, Ed. 😉
Maybe because all three parties involved merely have to find a mirror to detect the most toxic liars in America?
they want to detect liars for the first cut in the hiring pool, saves them all that stupid interviewing and the risk that an honest person might slip past their net
Durbin’s my senator, and I like him. I think he’d be better at articulating a left/liberal position than Schumer, and be more likely to fight for it. Schumer might be better at twisting arms and making deals, but you’d never be sure which side he was really working, so where’s the benefit? This is no time for the Senator from Wall Street to be setting the agenda.
Schumer would be a better leader, I reckon; he’s also raised a shit ton of money for the party.
As I said in our earlier talk about this, I don’t think that Durbin will be the next leader despite being the whip, which is technically next in line.
Reid followed Daschle, and from what I’ve heard…Schumer has been following Reid.
I suspect I was right, and I think it will be Schumer.
I would go w/NY tough over Chicago at this point so I choose Schumer. He is the one who brought in Nelson by going to Nebraska to pheasant hunt with him. We need someone versatile like this for the leader. I really like Durbin, but Chuck seems more aggresive and will kill to get a vote. (Birds anyway.)
Hadn’t heard that story. I wonder if it was like a Cheney dove hunt.
Some choices:
Wall Street or
Chicago Board of Trade?
Publicly feisty and privately ???? or
Publicly calm and straightforward and privately ???
Close to Obama or
More independent of Obama
Openly running for it or
Waiting his turn
The guy who helped out your Senate campaign or
The guy who understands why you vote the way you do
It really is hard to choose between these two.
My inclination is to say Durbin would be good. Schumer seems like he would choke on issues involving Wall Street — unless he proves me wrong in the next six months.
Like Tarheel, I think Schumer has a Wall Street problem, and that’s particularly toxic this year.
I think it’s got to be Schumer. We know he will fuck us on the Wall Street issues but is enough of an asshole to make the rest work and let’s face it: does anyone think we’re actually getting financial regulation? We’re going to have to wait until the next bubble.
Schumer.
Btw, does it hurt Durbin that with him the Majority Leader would be from the same state as the President? Has that happened before? I know it has in the House with Delay and Bush, not sure about the Senate.
an afterthought: say Reid survives in November, any chance he’d step aside as Majority Leader anyway?
It would probably have to be the other way around.
I’m for the one who is most likely to dump the filibuster.
I was looking at the seniority list and Durbin is #23 among Democrats (24 if you want to count Turncoat Joe) and Schumer is 27 (or 28). I’m not sure what that says about the current roster, if anything. A few too many complacent lifers, perhaps?
at this juncture, l’m for anybody but reid…he’s worthless as majority leader.
that said, l very much favor durbin. we need a more progressive voice in the senate as leader to compliment pelosi in the house. he’s been whip a long while, and as such knows all the weak spots of the caucus members, as well as probably pretty good info re: where the bodies are buried. l also suspect he’d be much more inclined to nuke the filibuster given the recent history of the senate.
also, schumer’s bought and paid for by wall street…hell, l’m surprised his pac isn’t listed on the nyse…and he’s not going to challenge his gravy train™. in a nut shell: schumer=bad idea.
Durbin’s been looking pretty pissed lately, even long after his “they own us” comment. I think he might be ready to kick some ass, given the chance.
l agree. l think much of his effectiveness as whip has been seriously compromised by reids waffling and acquiescence.
l think he’d be a strong leader, and could well surprise a lot of people. especially if the wh would get off the dime and start being aggressive.
we shall see.
I don’t trust Schumer and being a nice guy as Durbin seems doesn’t preclude being tough.
http://durbin.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=239278
That weeping, cringing, apology was deeply embarrassing to me as a Democrat.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/we-demand-an-apology-from_b_3018.html
Schumer. Knife fighter. Media savvy. Fundraiser extraordinaire. Political ass kicker. DSCC under Schumer never would have let Coakley go on two weeks’ media vacation. Like Durbin, but he is too nice.
I think the most important question is if either of them want to use the nuclear option. If neither one does, then fuck them both and find someone who does.