Schumer's 15 Minutes of Fame

By Dan Rattiner

Posted 02/20/2009

Senator Chuck Schumer's YouTube video has now been seen by more than a quarter of a million people.

Here is what he said in a speech last week.

"...and let me say to all the chattering class that focuses on the little tiny, let's face it, porky amendments - the American people don't care."

The comments about this 15-second video range from "Let's remember this guy come election day," to "Yes, we DO care, sir."

This is probably the largest crowd of people to ever hear Senator Schumer speak. Right now, it's two and a half Superbowls full of people, heading for three.

I have to say that Schumer, in his own quiet way, has become one of the best senators this district has ever had. He's been reelected over and over by ever widening margins. Now, through seniority, he has considerable power. And he uses it wisely, it seems to me. He's in the news a lot now. And now this.

It does make you wonder what he really meant, and I think it is this. When you are a State Senator, you vote for what you think is best for the country, and you vote for what you think is best for your state. Sometimes these are not the same thing, so you have to choose. You also have in there your loyalty to the party that elected you.

In other words, it's complicated. And "pork" is such a loaded word. It implies lard and obesity and bloat in a Congressional bill which otherwise is a lean and mean and wonderful thing.

The word leaves out the possibility that the bill could be a lard bucket of federal spending with something mean and lean for a particular state in there.

Sometimes I wonder about the words we throw around about our government. The phrase "bridge to nowhere" certainly comes to mind. I'm not trying to defend this bridge, but there have been plenty of bridges in American history that were built to an adjacent, uninhabited place so our pioneers could make new settlements. Opening up other parts of Alaska might have been what this bridge was all about. Unless, of course, it was just a lot of pork.

Another pretty crummy word we throw around these days is "bailout." We bailed out Wall Street, now we might have to bail out the Detroit. It's all about we versus they when actually it's about us.

I found it interesting that the Obama administration chose to not call their new $720 billion plan a "bailout" but a "stimulus." As I recall, during the presidential campaign, Obama referred to what he would do about the nosediving economy would be a "recovery" plan. Now, it seems, since it's a long, long way from October to February, he's retreated to calling it a "stimulus" as in get down to the emergency room fast because we have to jolt a heart attack victim with a burst of electricity to the chest. Get the paddles! Ready? Clear! Maybe it will work, maybe it won't.

If it doesn't, we go mouth to mouth.

Or punt.