Judd Gregg: The Schumer factor

I never understood what anti-matter was when I was told I needed to understand it in order to pass a science course.  

My own definition is that it is something that should not be able to exist because it defies the basic laws of nature, yet it does exist.

{mosads}Under this definition, Sen. Charles ‘Chuck’ Schumer (D-N.Y.) is the political equivalent of anti-matter.

A Chuck Schumer should not be able to exist in the world of electoral politics but he does, which is why he is a true piece of political anti-matter.

At a dinner, in the gym, on the floor of the Senate or at a press event — especially at a press event — he talks in non-stop sentences, with great flourishes, often making the most excessively partisan statements.  

Much of what he says is comprised of rambling, metaphysical thoughts on how conservatives are bad and liberals are good. But, because it is Chuck and because he is from New York, it has an impact. 

He is one of the major stones in the pyramid of the great America theatre known as politics.

He is irrepressible, constantly political, and unabashedly partisan, yet his colleagues like him. Even those who have him occasionally on mute like him, because he is refreshing and fun to be around — and because, after all the flourishes die down, he really likes to get things done.

He occasionally lays waste to the idea that linear thought is a component of success in the marketplace of political ideas. But underlining it all is a desire to be constructive — and politically successful.

Once, he inserted in a bill a $2 billion earmark to run a new subway line from downtown Manhattan out to Queens or Long Island or somewhere. It got taken out of the bill and thus killed by an amendment I offered that said we needed to find a way to pay for it.  

To my knowledge, he only held this against me for a month or so. (The silence was refreshing.) But he was soon back, cornering me in the gym or on the floor or in a hallway to promote some other idea or initiative.

I never knew Teddy Roosevelt, but it must be something in the New York City water that creates these folks who are the anti-matter of American politics. Their presence is fortunate for all of us, since without them our politics would be terribly bland.

As I write this, Chuck is in the process of moving to take the heir apparent position in the leadership of the Democratic Senate caucus.   

This ascension will certainly bring change. 

For starters, he may want to put a stamp of independence on his leadership by  pointing out that President Obama’s stance on the Iranian nuclear talks has serious negative implications for Israel, our Arab allies in the Middle East and ourselves.

The president’s approach abandons the one thing that is having an effect on slowing the march by the mullahs to obtain a nuclear weapon. This is the use of aggressive economic sanctions.

Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel and Egypt do not want us to ease these sanctions. As their actions in Yemen show, they greatly fear the “greater Iran” that is developing and are even more fearful of a deal that will free Iran from the sanctions that are limiting that expansion. 

The evolving agreement with Iran must be viewed through the lens of real politics, not rose-colored glasses.   

The Democrat most likely to point this out is Schumer. 

He brings to the table a toughness bred on New York City politics, where you learn you do not deal from weakness, especially when you are dealing with an enemy.

The Congress, and specifically the Senate, has an important and constitutional duty to engage on how to limit the Iranian threat and its quest for a nuclear weapon.

Republicans misfired on this when they sent the letter to the Iranian leaders. The letter should have been sent to Obama.   

Now Schumer, wearing the mantle of de facto leader of the Senate Democrats, has a chance to get the upper chamber’s role right.    

He should use his considerable talents to make it clear to the president that bypassing the Senate on this issue is not going to fly.   

If he does this, he will do the country and the Senate an important service. He will also set the right tone for his new position.