Chuck Schumer

Last night I attended the annual dinner of the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats, a local club where my wife is a club officer. I want to share with you a highlight of that evening. Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer spoke to us and his speech was excellent and covered several points that we all should pay attention to.

Now Chuck Schumer is certainly not my favorite Democrat. Too hawkish, somewhat prone to using Bush talking points, and disappointing as my Senator. Joy and I even had a run in with his office when we were part of a MoveOn.org delegation to object to an early funding request from Bush for the Iraq Quagmire. We were basically told to shut up and vote for Chuck anyway.

Chuck Schumer too often has been among the Democrats who has most disappointed me because for someone who is supposed to be such a bulldog, he has too often shown too much of a lack of spine against Bush.

But last night he gave an excellent speech, and one that could be seen as critical of the very weakness that Chuck has sometimes himself displayed under the Bush Administration.

The key message of his speech can be summed up by the quote I used as the title for this piece and one that all Democrats around the nation should be taking up: "I am not afraid of John McCain."