It’s been an unbelievably bad year for New York’s senior senator. When Sen. Charles “Chuck” Schumer, D-N.Y., agreed in the spring to avoid a federal shutdown for the good of the country by siding with Republicans, he soon found himself at odds with the far-left wing of his party.
Not wanting to repeat that experience in the fall, he discarded his long-term refrain that government closings are futile. He not only let the budget expire but went on to defend, ad nauseam, the longest government shutdown in the nation’s history. Then, when seven Democratic senators broke loose to support a clean Continuing Resolution extending Biden-era spending, the left once again turned its criticism toward Schumer.
They blamed him for letting it happen.
In other words, his position became “damned if you do and damned if you don’t.”
I’ve known Schumer, who was once my congressman from Queens County, for over 30 years. Even though we disagree on many issues, I realized long ago that he is one of the most astute politicians I’ve ever met.
For better or worse, Chuck Schumer has been a lifelong public servant.
After graduating Harvard Law School in June 1974, he threw his hat in the ring and was elected to the New York State Assembly that November. He went on to serve three terms in that body and was easily elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1980 — the year Reagan beat Carter in New York — receiving 77% of the vote.
Eighteen years later, he beat former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary. That November, as Republican Governor George Pataki was easily reelected to a second term, Schumer took down Sen. “Pothole” Alfonse “Al” D’Amato.
Schumer is a workaholic and has never missed a chance to stand before a television camera. He’s been reelected four times by big margins because he’s been a very pragmatic politician. He reached across the aisle to New York Republican congressmen to advance legislation benefiting their state.
Following Sept. 11, 2001, he worked closely with then President George W. Bush to secure $20 billion in recovery aid. He has collaborated with unions as well as Wall Street and has been a prodigious fundraiser, helping to finance campaigns for his Senate colleagues.
Why is he in the political doghouse?
The members of the far left live in ideological bubbles and have no use for elected officials who govern by consensus to get things done. For those radicals, “it’s their way or the highway.” And if they don’t get their way, they will viciously turn against perceived trespasses and strive to destroy them.
Political analyst Matthew Continetti wrote: “Schumer’s realism has been a key to his longevity. But realism counts for little in today’s Democratic Party.”
Chuck Schumer is becoming an anachronism in his party. It explains why the most powerful politician in New York State was booed at, of all places, the Metropolitan Opera in September.
To make matters worse, the unnerved Schumer — who knows better — has been trying to appease the lunatic fringe of the Democratic Party. He must know that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani, and their fellow Democratic Socialists will never be satisfied until he is driven from office.
That’s why the shutdown was for naught. As Continetti noted: “Forcing the government shutdown was a classic Schumer gambit — flashy and misguided. He knew it wouldn’t work, yet he did it anyway, with chaotic results.”
“He went along with the loudest voices in his party to minimize his torment at the hands of activists,” Continetti added. “What did it bring him? More anguish.”
Chuck Schumer is the longest-serving U.S. senator in New York State history. He’s been visiting every one of the Empire State’s 62 counties annually for 29 years and holds the record for most press conferences and for bringing home the bacon to New York.
Yet, his career is threatened by a potential thirty-something challenger in the 2028 primary. Ocasio-Cortez couldn’t even name the three branches of government when she was a freshman in the House of Representatives.
Sen. Charles Schumer is this year’s top loser in my home state because he has capitulated to political upstarts whose ideology is out of sync with the nation and New York.
