United States Senator Charles Schumer today joined Democrat Bill Stachowski in Buffalo to announce that he was endorsing Stachowski in his campaign for the New York State Senate.

Schumer orchestrated the Democratic takeover of the U.S. Senate in 2006 and is leading the effort to expand on that majority in this year's election. Despite his very busy schedule, New York's senior senator made time to support Stachowski and appear at events in the 58th State Senate District, where he noted how important it is to have partners like Stachowski in Albany.

Glass houses, meet stones: republican Senator Ted Stevens, notorious for referring to the internet as 'a series of tubes' and for being so ostentatiously corrupt that he managed to attract the attention of even the rabidly politicized Bush Justice Department, came out swinging today, referring to Senator Charles Schumer as stupid.

Yes, of course there's video.

Stevens is being challenged by former Anchorage mayor Mark Begich. Show the man some love and help raise the tone in the Senate, here.

I heard Senator Schumer speak at the NYSDC Fall Meeting; the speech, to summarize, was one long glowing exposition of how wonderfully the Congressional Democrats were doing, and how, if we're just patient, give them a bigger majority and wait until 2009, everything will come up roses, and pretty pink ponies will fly through the sky.

The audience, of course, clapped enthusiastically, as we bloggers simply stood there and shook our heads in amazement.

Today, The New York Times editorial page took issue with Schumer and his capitulation caucus.

Abdicate and Capitulate

It is extraordinary how President Bush has streamlined the Senate confirmation process. As we have seen most recently with the vote to confirm Michael Mukasey as attorney general, about all that is left of “advice and consent” is the “consent” part...

An interesting tidbit via Daily Kos: it appears that a group of people decided to show their lack of amusement at Chuck Schumer's vote for Michael Mukasey by staging a protest in front of his office.

Imagine, there's even a video.

What's interesting about this simply this: New York electeds are used to essentially doing whatever they want without consequence. Support a bigot for a judgeship, no biggie. Support someone who can't say that waterboarding is torture, or that the law binds even the President, equally, it appears, not a big deal.

Guess these folks didn't get the memo titled Shut Up and Clap. Good for them.

And still they wonder where their approval ratings have gone.

The New York Times reports that Judge Michael Mukasey of New York has been confirmed to the post of Attorney General, to which he was originally nominated on the advice of New York's senior Senator, Charles Schumer. Forty Democrats voted against the nomination; fifty three Senators, including Schumer, voted in favor; and all five members of the august chamber who are currently running for President absented themselves from the vote.

Mukasey is notable for being the first Attorney General of the United States to be sworn in after having refused to say whether he would prohibit torture, and after making an equally remarkable statement to the effect that the President can act outside of and contrary to the law.

Needless to say, this nomination was not subject to the ongoing republican filibuster that now requires the Senate to have sixty votes to pass much of anything.

Now, forty four Democrats did oppose this nomination, including all four Presidentials, ironically creating one of the few divergences of opinion between Senators Clinton and Schumer. Fine speeches were delivered, much high-sounding rhetoric echoed up to the high ceilings of the Senate chamber.

UPDATE: Progressive Democrats of America, Brooklyn For Peace & others plan a protest at Sen. Schumer's Park Slope home Tuesday night. They write:

Senator Schumer's support of Mukasey for U.S. Attorney General is outrageous and we must respond.

New York Progressive Democrats of America joins with Brooklyn For Peace and other Neighborhood Peace organizations to protest Senator Charles Schumer's decision to support the nomination of Michael Mukasey for U.S. Attorney General.

PROTEST VIGIL - TUESDAY, NOV 6th, 6:00 pm
at Senator Schumer's residence: 9 Prospect Park West (corner of President Street in Park Slope)Brooklyn, NY

Protest Schumer's support of Michael Mukasey - who will support Bush's continued use of torture.
Protest Schumer's increasing support of military action against Iran and Bush's attempt to launch a new war.
Protest Schumer's continuing support of funding for the war against Iraq.

As Senate Judiciary power broker, Senator Schumer green-lighted the nomination of Michael Mukasey as Mr. Bush’s replacement AG to hit for Gonzo. The bad news of course is that Judge M cannot figure out whether waterboarding is torture. This put our senior senator in a spot. He now favors the Mukaseky. He may be a key to defeating it. What a sad situation.

Shorter Schumer: "January 20th, 2009, is here".

From Politico:

New York Sen. Charles E. Schumer, a powerful member of the Democratic leadership, said Friday the Senate should not confirm another U.S. Supreme Court nominee under President Bush “except in extraordinary circumstances.”

“We should reverse the presumption of confirmation,” Schumer told the American Constitution Society convention in Washington. “The Supreme Court is dangerously out of balance. We cannot afford to see Justice Stevens replaced by another Roberts, or Justice Ginsburg by another Alito.”

A very timely reminder to an Imperial White House run amok about the powers of Congress, one would think; and one would be right in thinking so. The republican minority in Congress and their discredited figurehead in the White House have already obstructed as much as they could of the Democratic agenda the voters endorsed in November; fine, Democrats control the committees, and 'advise and consent' doesn't mean 'a free pass for every rightwing ideologue that comes down the turnpike'.

Some pictures from last night's book party for Senator Schumer's first offering; is it just me, or are Democratic grassroots events getting increasingly posh? Another observation: when Schumer announced himself a Hillary man, there was some scattered cheering at the front; the rest of the room remained in stony silence. Heh.

Dave Pollak, state party-co-chair, with orchids

June O'Neill (right), the other co-chair, with Trudy Mason, feminist icon.

Senator Charles Schumer.

...well, you were wrong. We're just getting started. Next up: an event with Senator Schumer on February 21st. He'll be reading from his new book, Positively American.

We'll bring you more details as they become available.

The New York Times reports on a lawsuit brought against the City by a Muslim counter-terrorism officer. The suit concerns anti-Muslim and anti-Arab hate speech contained in emails by a City contractor, who was presumably quoting various republicans. This war on terror business isn't serious enough, I guess, to maybe stop hating our own intelligence guys if they happen to belong to the wrong religious or ethnic group. Muslim: for Michelle Malkin and others, it's the new n****r. Call it what it is.

Also in the Times, a glaring setback for "Public" Advocate Betsy Gotbaum. It turns out that the court handling the Brooke Astor case couldn't substantiate the claims of elder abuse brought against Brooke Astor's son; the Astor case, of course, was a cause celèbre eagerly taken up by Gotbaum, who tends not to make an appearance when, say, 100,000 normal-income people lose power for nine days. By the by, rumor has it that she's running for mayor, god help us all.

The Albany Project celebrates its first week. Good work, gentlemen; you're showing why we need citizen blogs.

DMIblog has a downright shocking piece on comparative incarceration rates.

Heh. DailyKos guffaws at republican lawmakers' indignation over the new, more work-heavy schedule to be adopted by the House in January. No more four day weekends for you.

"The best investment a government can make is to put milk into babies". Said by Churchill, now taken up by Schumer.

Lastly, more Schumer: The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle calls on the senior Senator to bring back tax deductibility for college tuitions. That does seem more worthwhile than a flag-burning amendment.