Dear Senators Gillibrand and Burris...Renounce your Governors

[SuperTrouper]

I think that both picks in a surreal way are good picks. However, the newest Democratic Senators need to distance themselves from their tarnished governors if they expect to survive in 2010. I think that Gov. Paterson is damaged goods and I know that Blago is a rotten fruit waiting to be removed from the Governorship in Illinois. Talking about Gillibrand here is an excerpt from Politico:
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0109/Gillibrand.html?showall


"David Paterson's choice of Kristin Gillibrand is, by the estimate of the New York pols I talk to, a pretty good pick: A young woman who won a hard-fought, bruising upset in a Republican district in 2006 and held her seat with unexpected ease last year. She has a "moderate" reputation for her pro-gun stance -- but is more or less a down-the-line liberal Democrat*; the gun position draws her some flack on her left flank to the same degree that it protects her right and strengthens her upstate. But she assured the state's leading gay rights group yesterday that she backs same-sex marriage, and shows no other conservative leanings.


Winners here: Chuck Schumer, who was pushing for Gillibrand behind the scenes, and is expected at today's press conference; another Chuck connections: his chief of staff is married to Gillibrand's legislative director; and Hillary Clinton, whose protege she is.

The loser, of course, is Paterson, whose strong choice is overshadowed by a process that deeply alienated one of America's most powerful political families, humiliated a friend of the president of the United States, and generally appeared utterly, needlessly chaotic -- at a time when the accidental governor is struggling to demonstrate that he has a firm grip on his power and can stand up to a powerful legislature. When the headline is "Blago Did Better," you know you have a problem.

The process could badly damage Paterson in 2010, and the risk for Gillibrand that she be tarnished by the process that chose her -- it's a different (and lesser) version of Roland Burris's problem -- and yoked to a governor who is in serious trouble.

*UPDATE: I stand corrected on the "down-the-line" liberal; she's voted to the right on items like the bailout, the balanced budget amendment, lowering the gas tax, and supporting the war.

[ananda]

1. And FISA.

Gillibrand is a DINO.

[SuperTrouper]

2. C'mmon guys, let's give the lady a chance. She may surprise all of us...

Paterson, however is a different story. He has proven to be incompetent and erratic. I think that Cuomo will be the Governor in 2010 and Patsy will just be an asterisk like Malcolm Wilson.

[BklynChick]

3. all the liberals I know in NYS are furious about this !

[SuperTrouper]

7. I know, I am getting sh*t from my friends for giving her a chance.

[BklynChick]

9. these are really smart powerful people who say she's anti-gay, anti-immigrant and very pro-gun

Paterson screwed up.

[TimesSquareCowboy]

15. I'm a liberal and I'm fine with it. Some progressives had decided to run someone in the primary in

2010 no matter who Paterson selected.

[WeDidIt]

4. The IL Senate starts the proceedings on Monday

Blagojevich refuses to attend because he said, "it's rigged."

[PBS Poll-435]

I love Blago

After he gets out of jail he totally needs a talk show.

[WeDidIt]

8. Odd that you mention a talk show

A radio statioin in Chicago has offered him a job...

so long as he resigns as governor.

[PBS Poll-435]

11. Awesome

Syndicate that show!

[SuperTrouper]

5. LOL!! I know, he feels this is his Pearl Harbor

[WI_DEM]

6. Why should Patterson be renounced?

[SuperTrouper]

10. For incompetence, for not controlling his staff from leaking rumors about CKS and for

not having any control of the budget in NY. He has been a failure and his polling numbers are dropping faster than Dick Morris drops to suck toes.

[Curtland1015]

16. Patterson inherited a lot of problems when he was thrust into power...

I'm not saying the guy is doing a perfect job, but NY's budget problems have been spiraling out of control for YEARS. I'm not going to put it on Patterson to have it fixed in such a relatively short amount of time.

[TimesSquareCowboy]

12. Paterson did exactly what he said he would exactly when he said he would do it.

The chaos was the fighting between Bloomberg aide Sheeky and Clinton supporters. Bloomberg is the big loser here.

[SuperTrouper]

13. MSNBC Tamron Hall segment: Gillibrand is close to Schumer and Hillary NOT Paterson!

and she got the job because of her association with Hill and Chuck. So it looks like Paterson is about to be thrown under the bus...

[TheWraith]

14. Politico should be ashamed of themselves: they got basic facts wrong.

Gillibrand did NOT vote to support the war. She ran on a withdrawal platform, and voted in 2007 to begin troop withdrawals within 90 days.