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The rapid nature of the turn against Chuck Schumer, ostensibly the most powerful Democrat in Washington as Senate Minority Leader, is a sign of a Democratic Party in utter chaos. Axios reports today that the calls from House Democrats for Schumer to step down from his post have already begun, following on outside progressive groups who deemed him unworthy as a wartime consigliere. The colossal miscalculation of standing up the possibility of fighting only to cave immediately to keep the government from shutting down has consequences. For the aging Senator who has held on so long, his spectacles perched at the edge of his nose, it seems like he is living on borrowed time.
Progressives may have a rehab program in mind, but how long can that last? In just six months, Schumer will once again be faced with spending choices that could lead him to play Charlie Brown with the football once again – a status no leader wants, but one teed up by the diminutive leadership of a toothless Democrat House. Their demands, in triplicate, are ridiculous on their face:
- The groups want to influence the discussion earlier in the process and a more proactive plan to battle Republicans
- Elevate younger voices in the party, especially Senators Chris Murphy and Brian Schatz and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Schumer brought Murphy and Senator Cory Booker, known for their media savvy, into his leadership team this year
- Go on offense. They want more fight from Schumer – and are pushing him to encourage his members to host town halls in their states’ redder areas if the GOP representatives don’t. ‘It is a source of real pain for the Republican party when veterans and Trump voters in Republican districts have a voice,’ PCCC co-founder Adam Green told Axios
Yes, that’s what America wants from Democrats – more Chris Murphy, more Brian Schatz, come on down! – as if that is something Schumer was working to prevent. But Nancy Pelosi, the Italian Emerita Speaker could not resist twisting the knife into Schumer’s side, leaning into the obvious: if you’re good at something, never do it for free. Per Politico:
“I myself don’t give away anything for nothing,” Pelosi told reporters during a news conference at a children’s hospital in San Francisco. “I think that’s what happened the other day.”
“We could have, in my view, perhaps, gotten them to agree to a third way,” Pelosi said. She said a potential outcome could have been a bipartisan continuing resolution to delay a shutdown for up to four weeks while negotiations continued.
She added, “They may not have agreed to it, but at least the public would have seen they’re not agreeing to it – and that then they would have been shutting (the) government down.”
The problem for Schumer – currently on an aborted book tour, but still managing embarrassing appearances on CBS and The View – is that he doesn’t really have an answer that satisfies his left flank at all. Instead, he’s reduced to arguing against his fellow Democrats that no, it’s not time to go. It has shades of Joe Biden in his senility – an old man, clinging to power, damaging his party, unwilling to do the one thing they need to rip off the Band-Aid and start healing again.
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