Post by dgriffin on Jan 23, 2009 17:59:18 GMT -5
And the new Senator from New York is .....
..... Kirsten Gillibrand?
Gillibrand Is a Centrist With a Tenacious Style
Kirsten E. Gillibrand, the two-term Democratic congresswoman chosen to fill the Senate seat vacated this week by Hillary Rodham Clinton, has married a relentless political and fund-raising style to a centrist brand of politics.
Ms. Gillibrand (pronounced JILL-uh-brand), a 42-year-old lawyer and mother of two young children, had never held political office before defeating a four-term incumbent in a vastly Republican district in 2006. Her district extends from the flatlands of the Hudson Valley to the mountainous North Country.
She comes from a politically connected family; her father is a prominent state lobbyist who once had close ties to former Gov. George E. Pataki, a Republican, and her grandmother was prominent in the formidable Albany Democratic machine. Ms. Gillibrand worked as an intern for a Republican senator, Alfonse M. D’Amato, and clerked for a federal judge appointed by President Ronald Reagan.
Her politics, perhaps reflecting her conservative district, cannot be easily charted along a left-right axis. She earned a high rating from the National Rifle Association and opposed efforts to extend state drivers’ licenses to illegal immigrants. At the same time, she favors abortion rights, voted to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq and to extend middle-class tax cuts, and she has opposed privatizing Social Security. She raises large sums of money from Wall Street, but voted against the first bailout bill last fall; that vote angered some Democratic leaders in Congress.
www.nytimes.com/2009/01/24/nyregion/24gillibrand.html?hp
Ms. Gillibrand always reminds me of a kindergarten teacher. That's sort of a compliment. She beat out a long time Congressman from Columbia County a few years back. Actually, he really lost the election when he got drunk and beat up his wife a few weeks before the election.
There are a number of women politicians who I think were more deserving and more experienced, but these days it's looks and connections. Don't kid yourself, "Senator Pothole," Alfonse Damato, still swings a big one in political circles. And her grandmother was a player in the Albany Machine? Whoa, baby!
Anyway, she seems the perfect person to take orders from Senator Chuck and the rest of the band on the congressional bus. When a person tells me a politican is a "centrist," I always figure they're for sale. We'll see.
..... Kirsten Gillibrand?
Gillibrand Is a Centrist With a Tenacious Style
Kirsten E. Gillibrand, the two-term Democratic congresswoman chosen to fill the Senate seat vacated this week by Hillary Rodham Clinton, has married a relentless political and fund-raising style to a centrist brand of politics.
Ms. Gillibrand (pronounced JILL-uh-brand), a 42-year-old lawyer and mother of two young children, had never held political office before defeating a four-term incumbent in a vastly Republican district in 2006. Her district extends from the flatlands of the Hudson Valley to the mountainous North Country.
She comes from a politically connected family; her father is a prominent state lobbyist who once had close ties to former Gov. George E. Pataki, a Republican, and her grandmother was prominent in the formidable Albany Democratic machine. Ms. Gillibrand worked as an intern for a Republican senator, Alfonse M. D’Amato, and clerked for a federal judge appointed by President Ronald Reagan.
Her politics, perhaps reflecting her conservative district, cannot be easily charted along a left-right axis. She earned a high rating from the National Rifle Association and opposed efforts to extend state drivers’ licenses to illegal immigrants. At the same time, she favors abortion rights, voted to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq and to extend middle-class tax cuts, and she has opposed privatizing Social Security. She raises large sums of money from Wall Street, but voted against the first bailout bill last fall; that vote angered some Democratic leaders in Congress.
www.nytimes.com/2009/01/24/nyregion/24gillibrand.html?hp
Ms. Gillibrand always reminds me of a kindergarten teacher. That's sort of a compliment. She beat out a long time Congressman from Columbia County a few years back. Actually, he really lost the election when he got drunk and beat up his wife a few weeks before the election.
There are a number of women politicians who I think were more deserving and more experienced, but these days it's looks and connections. Don't kid yourself, "Senator Pothole," Alfonse Damato, still swings a big one in political circles. And her grandmother was a player in the Albany Machine? Whoa, baby!
Anyway, she seems the perfect person to take orders from Senator Chuck and the rest of the band on the congressional bus. When a person tells me a politican is a "centrist," I always figure they're for sale. We'll see.