Chuck's A Liability

Apparently the Dems recognize the horrid New York Sen. Chuck Schumer as a potential liability. Novak reports:

Republican senators, in seeking renewed debate on judicial confirmations before the November elections, want to spotlight Sen. Charles Schumer of New York on national television.

Schumer, who heads the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, was one of the most aggressive Judiciary Committee members questioning Supreme Court nominees John Roberts and Samuel Alito. During those hearings, Schumer expressed to colleagues frustration with his inability to target the conservative nominees.

In the belief that Schumer's performance hurt the Democratic cause, GOP senators want a high-profile nomination fight. During Tuesday's debate leading to Senate confirmation of Jerome Holmes as a circuit judge, Schumer voted no but uncharacteristically did not speak.

He's an egotistical ideologue with a New York accent, perceived, as Randy Newman might put it, as a "smart-ass New York Jew."

Most Americans don't find that accent endearing, unless associated with comedy or war movies. Usually the working-class kid from Brooklyn gets killed heroically in the first reel. And although stereotypes can have an unpleasant negative side, like most, this stereotype does partake of some truth, albeit partial and subject to misuse. And in Chuck's case, the shoe fits like a glass slipper.

So, uncharacteristically, Schumer shut up, which is sufficient to make it a red-letter day.