The ‘blame Schumer’ talking point

March 20, 2007

Over the weekend, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) offered a new complaint about the purge scandal that seems to be a new GOP favorite.

“When the leader of the effort on the judiciary committee is the leader of the Democratic Senatorial campaign Committee, Chuck Schumer, I think it undermines the legitimacy of a legitimate inquiry…. Senator Schumer has a conflict of interest. They’re raising money on the Democratic senatorial campaign web site over this issue. I think that undermines the legitimacy of what I agree is a valid inquiry into the facts.”

Apparently, the rest of the White House’s allies have gotten the memo — the right believes the real problem with this scandal is Schumer.

Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, has long been seen as one of the best political performers in Washington, a master of spotting hot issues and wringing the most out of them. Now Republicans are using that reputation to raise questions about Mr. Schumer’s credibility, as he mounts a fierce assault against the White House over the ouster of eight United States attorneys in what critics call a political purge….

Republicans are questioning his motives. They say that as chairman of the Senate Democrats’ campaign committee, Mr. Schumer has been more interested in exploiting the issue for political gain than he has been in conducting an impartial investigation.

Republicans note, for example, that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has aggressively highlighted the dismissals in campaign literature it has disseminated in recent days, even as Mr. Schumer forges ahead with the investigation.

As attempts to change the subject go, I suppose this is as silly as any, but I’m hard pressed to understand exactly what the right is complaining about here. As Digby put it, “Here we have Karl Rove potentially orchestrating of the firing of US Attorneys who are failing to politicize their offices to his satisfaction and yet the big problem here is the appearance of impropriety because Chuck Schumer is speaking out on the issue?”

Where, exactly, is the “conflict of interest”? The Senate Judiciary Committee is investigating the administration’s conduct, and Schumer is on the committee. The investigation has nothing to do with the DSCC, or even the NRSC, so what’s the problem? Schumer isn’t even chairman of the Judiciary Committee; Leahy is.

The issue came up on Meet the Press a couple of days ago, when Russert posed the question to Schumer directly.

MR. RUSSERT: There are some supporters of the president who are saying “Schumer — Chuck Schumer’s a member of the Judiciary Committee, but he’s also chairman of the campaign committee to elect Democratic senators, and this is all about politics.”

SEN. SCHUMER: Yeah, this is much too serious to be about politics, and the bottom line is our committee is simply looking into the misdeeds in the executive branch, in the Justice Department, in the administration. Anything that has to do with any elected official, any congressman, any senator, will be handled by the ethics committee. So there’s no conflict whatsoever.

You don’t suppose the right is whining about Schumer because it’s easier than addressing the substance of the scandal, do you?

but there was never a credibility problem when the leader of the republican senate campaign committee was speaking out on a particular issue? this is just so much bullshit, one can hardly walk around any more without slipping and falling into it.

  • Republicans never politicise issues before the Judiciary Committee, of course.

    Is it just me, or does it seem that Republicans are much quicker to play up the roles of Democrats named “Schumer”, “Feinstein”, or “Pelosi”, than “Reid” or “Leahy”?

  • From Coryn’s Website : “John Cornyn was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2002. In a short period of time, he earned a national reputation as a forceful and articulate voice for Texas values. He was selected by his colleagues in December 2006 to be a member of the five-person Republican Senate leadership team – Vice Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference – the only first-term Senator in recent memory to be so honored. ”

    Ummmm… Okay, so Coryn has a political stance in this, too. Looks like he should shut the heck up, or?

  • The right has to whine. It’s in their genes. I listened to Tom Delay being interviewed on NPR this morning and he sits there with a straight face and talks about the “politics of personal destruction” as it applies to himself but that everything that was done to Clinton was perfectly legit and had everything to do with substance and issues. They really are either totally delusional or utterly without scruples and I’ll take the latter. Delay all but parroted Grover Norquist’s description of bipartisanship as “date rape”.

    It’s been said so many times but I still have some sense of wonder at the right’s ability to say absolutely anything they can imagine if they think it might make them look better and make Dems look bad. No matter how hallucinatory it might be. They can say it. They are truly a screwed up bunch of people.

  • “… this is all about politics.”

    Yes, I’d say Russert and his Meet the Press are all about politics. Politics of a particularly Republican flavor. Any “news” show which would seek out the opinions of an indicted criminal like bug man Tom DeLay can’t possibly be about serious analysis. It’s a shame … years ago it used to be a pretty good show.

  • “They’re raising money on the Democratic senatorial campaign web site over this issue.”

    WHAHHHH! they’re using our festering corruption problem to raise money, to elect more Democrats, and that will lead to more… OVERSIGHT! WHAAAAH!

    Get Cornyn a new diaper. His load is beginning to smell pretty bad.

  • I wish Schumer had beaten back charges of partisanship on the merits. Something like, “exactly what have I done that would make anyone think I’m acting out of partisanship? Did I testify falsely before Congress? Did I write all these different accounts of what happened and who was involved we’re hearing from Justice and the White House? Did I threaten the ousted prosecutors with retribution if they continued to air their grievences? All I’m doing is looking at the facts and those are the facts, and to ignore them as Conyn seems to want to do, is what’s truly partisan… “(you get the idea).

    On that same Russert show, Andrew’s and Sestak shot down a number of false claims by Delay and Perle. They did it with facts and conviction, but without enmity, and were quite effective.

  • Ed sez: Any “news” show which would seek out the opinions of an indicted criminal like bug man Tom DeLay can’t possibly be about serious analysis.

    Makes me wonder if he would be interviewed from his prison cell after he was convicted.

    Pumpkinhead really doesn’t seem to realize that having indicted Republicans on his show makes him look just like a Republican tool. But maybe he figures that’s just his role now.

  • More on #2 –

    For example, did you notice how in last year’s elections, “Speaker Pelosi” was supposed to be a horror story to scare everyone from voting for Democrats, but no one brought up the horrors of “Majority Leader Reid”? Even though the average voter knew exactly as much about Reid as about Pelosi (ie nothing)?

    Same with Schumer. And it doesn’t hurt the subtext that he looks and sounds so much like a wise-guy Brooklyn Jew. At least his middle name isn’t “Hussein”.

  • If your 1st 16 excuses don’t work, try try again. I look forward to tomorrow’s nonsense.

  • The thing is, Liddy (Libby?) Dole was a screw-up, so you never really heard what she said repeated on the evening news.

    Schumer, OTOH, did a great job last year, so they’re kinda scared of him and are trying to neutralize him…

  • You don’t suppose the right is whining about Schumer because it’s easier than addressing the substance of the scandal, do you?

    “When you have the facts on your side, argue the facts. When you have the law on your side, argue the law. When you have neither, holler.”
    — Al Gore

  • Republicans note, for example, that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has aggressively highlighted the dismissals in campaign literature it has disseminated in recent days, even as Mr. Schumer forges ahead with the investigation.

    And the problem is?? The unintentional stupidity of this complaint is a thing to behold.

    Is there a better way to highlight the political malfeasance of the Republican party other than calling attention to the consequences of (their) politicizing all aspects of governing?

    It appears in Cornyn’s case that his mouth is disconnected from his brain which, in all cases, is disconnected from reality.

  • ANYONE who defends this WH’s indefensible move to politicize federal prosecutors is truly a fool who puts his/her party above what is importantly an independent judicial mechanism – the law! NOW is the time to put ALL Republicans on notice that they need to show their commitment to the laws of the land, and not to their party’s political viablility. Do Republlican leaders consider themselves Americans first, and party leaders second, or do the Republican leaders of today put their party first and America second? If it is the latter, some of these “Republican leaders” are sounding a bit Soviet these days! -Kevo

  • i don’t think schumer is jewish. at least he said he wasn’t on bill maher’s show.

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