Scrivener.net

Saturday, September 17, 2005

Chuck Schumer judges Judge Roberts but can't comprehend Law and Order.

The LA Times relates an entertaining tale of veteran Rep. George Miller (D., Ca.) showing some entrepreneurial spirit, making a few bucks on the side by operating "what amounts to a boarding house for fellow lawmakers ... known as 'the animal house.'"

Among the residents, my own Senator, Charles Schumer ..

Schumer and Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.) have beds in the living room.

"It's not as exotic as people think," Miller said of the living arrangement. "Sometimes we talk real business and a lot of times it's just politics and strategy. And sometimes it's just watching 'Law & Order.' "

When they do watch the NBC drama series, Miller said, Schumer often does not understand the plot.

"He has to keep asking you, 'Who is that person? Why did he do that? Why is she saying that?' I'm like, 'Shut up! We'll send you the tape.' "

So he can't figure out the goings on of a TV-courtroom show when he's not leading the Democrats' challenge to Judge Roberts' Supreme Court nomination, in his own indomitable style...

Yesterday's opening of the John Roberts confirmation hearings was a time for historic firsts. Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) made 49 first-person references in a 10-minute statement that was, ostensibly, not about himself. [WaPo]
No, Senator Chuck isn't the first politician about whom it's been said "the most dangerous place to be is between him and a camera", but he may be the most apt.

But back to life at Animal House. Schumer, it seems, has a record of stealing cereal from poor children...

Leon Panetta, the former Democratic congressman ... remembers he had to protect breakfast cereal from marauding roommates — especially Schumer.

"My son was interning at the State Department one year and he stayed with us," said Panetta. "The poor kid used to buy cereal to have in the house because we didn't have much food. Schumer used to eat his cereal...."

Is this what we expect from our liberal leaders? Stealing food from kids?

Well, the cereal sellers were gouging us then, so theft was understandable. Remember?

Today Senator Chuck has moved on to calling for tariffs against China and price gouging investigations of gasoline sellers. But back then he was making a name for himself as a young Rep. by calling for Attorney General Janet Reno to lead a federal investigation of extortionate pricing by breakfast cereal makers.

One of my favorite memories of Senator Chuck is from back then -- him at a news conference railing against the outrageous mark-ups on the contents of cereal boxes, drinking bottled water all the way through...