Well what do you know? Via Patrick Ruffini comes a post by Glenn Trush musing about rumors that Harold Ford Jr may be testing the waters for a possible run against Kirsten Gillibrand.

Not that I am against primarying Gillibrand --as I have said before, I want both Gillibrand and Schumer to sweat their asses for the Senate seats they're not entitled to have. But ... I mean ... HAROLD FORD JR?!?!? Sure, the post is based on a single forum entry at Democratic Underground that posited: I live in NY and was just polled about a possible primary between Kirsten Gillabrand and Harold Ford Jr. for the Senate seat. I was wondering if anyone had heard if he was considering to run. But ... I still mean ... HAROLD FORD JR?!?!?

Is this the best New York State Democrats can come up with? A former Congressman for Tennessee who was thisclose to being a Republican?

In Congress, Ford had an ideologically conservative voting record. He supported a ban on benefits for same-sex couples, as well as the Federal Marriage Amendment (which would ban same-sex marriage). He told Democrats they should be more supportive of the Iraq War and criticized Senate Democrats who attempted to filibuster the nomination of Samuel Alito. He was one of the few Democrats who voted for the Bankruptcy Bill, and he supported some restrictions on abortion, defining himself as a pro-life candidate, including supporting a ban on intact dilation and extraction (called by its opponents, partial-birth abortion). He supported the Republican effort to intercede in the Terri Schiavo case

Ponder that one for a second.  read more »

This is awesome! Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is co-sponsoring the DREAM Act of 2009:

According to Gillibrand, estimates indicate 50,000 to 65,000 students would benefit from the DREAM Act each year.

The Senator says the DREAM Act would create better opportunity for New York's immigrant students in two ways:

First, it would repeal an outdated section of immigration law that discourages states from providing in-state tuition and other higher education benefits to New York students born outside the U.S., and without legal immigration status.

The bill would also allow students who are eligible for the DREAM Act to qualify for conditional permanent resident status which would put them on a path to citizenship upon acceptance to college, graduation from high school or being awarded a G.E.D.

Under this plan, students would have six years to obtain this temporary status, during which the student must have graduated from a two-year college or vocational college, studied for at least two years toward a bachelor's or higher degree, or served two years in the U.S. military. Any student who commits a crime or serious misconduct would not be eligible.  read more »

From The Washington Times :

An analysis conducted by the Center for Responsive Politics found that Madoff and his wife, Ruth, gave the bulk of their campaign contributions to Democrats. The couple donated $238,200 to federal candidates, parties and committees since 1991, and Democrats received 88 percent of those donations.

Madoff gave $11,400 to nine Republicans in the same time period. None of them is in office now. Former Rep. Jack Fields of Texas received the most - $5,000. Other recipients included former Sen. Alfonse D´Amato of New York, former Rep. Vito Fossella of New York and former Rep. Michael Oxley of Ohio.

And people wonder why one of the truisms of a progressive blogger is that mainstream media has always tilted to the right if not to the hard-right.  read more »

From AIG bonus checks may be taxed at up to 100%, says Sen. Chuck Schumer:

"They should voluntarily return them. If they don't, we plan to tax virtually all of it," New York Sen. Chuck Schumer declared on the Senate floor.

"To those of you getting these bonuses: be forewarned, you will not be getting to keep them."

Cuomo, in a letter to Congress, said he had learned that 11 AIG executives who got retention bonuses of over $1 million no longer even work there.

In total, Cuomo said, the top 10 bonus recipients at AIG shared a combined $22 million, 73 got more than $1 million and the most handsomely paid got a whopping $6.4 million.

Schumer called it "Alice in Wonderland business practices" to give bonuses to executives at a firm that lost nearly $100 billion last year and had to be rescued with $170 billion in taxpayer money.

"It boggles the mind," he said.

Isn't Schumer adorable when he gets all outraged?

So answer me this, because I feel like am missing something here : Where was he when TARP was being written up? What exactly did he do to ensure that the books of these financial institutions saw the day light and came under the scrutiny needed to prevent this kind of chicanery?

And for that matter, where was he along with the whole NY State Congressional delegation all these years? What were they doing to make sure Wall Street was accountable for their gains in good times and in bad?

This is not a rhetorical question. You guys know more about the trappings of the NY politicosphere way more than I do. Was he really a crusader?  read more »

Now that the nanny and taxes have convinced Carolyn Kennedy of dropping her ridiculous bid for Hillary Clinton's Senate seat, PIX News is confirming that Governor Patterson's choice to replace Hillary Clinton in the Senate is Kirsten Gillibrand, Congresswoman to New York's 20th District. She is what I call a right-wingish Democrat for her opposition to gun-control. It's because of her support of the NRA that Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy has vowed to primary Gillibrand in 2010 if Paterson appoints her to the Senate. Yet it's Wayne Barrett who plunges the knife and kills the Congresswoman's "fairy tale" political ascent, which is often times used to explain her political currency :

The irony is that Paterson may be swinging from the nation's most prominent Democratic family to one with strong Republican ties. Gillibrand's father, Doug Rutnik, is an Albany insider and lobbyist whose ties to former GOP powerhouses Joe Bruno, George Pataki and Al D'Amato are legendary. In fact, Gillibrand won her seat when a state police domestic violence report about the GOP incumbent, John Sweeney, was mysteriously leaked, ostensibly with the acquiescence of the Pataki administration, which had its own reasons to oppose Sweeney. Bruno is under federal investigation now, and some of the subpoenas in the case involved a real estate deal that partnered Rutnik with Bruno and another lobbyist. Rutnik dated, and eventually lived with, a top Pataki and D'Amato aide for many years, until he broke up with her in 2006 to marry a cousin of his, Gwen Lee, who'd worked in high-paying state jobs secured by the same aide. Rutnik and D'Amato have been registered lobbyists for some of the same clients.

Yet my favorite bit of trivia about the woman is that, if indeed she will be appointed, she would have beaten her former boss, Andrew Cuomo, for the open seat. A low blow for a guy that should have had it in the basket with his solid Democratic "political dynasty" pedigree vis-a-vis her Republican background.  read more »