Gillibrand a Poor Fit for Democrats’ Big Tent:
Commentary by Albert R. Hunt
Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) -- The two major political parties in the U.S. thrive when they embrace a “big tent” approach, which is inclusive and avoids narrow litmus tests. Democrats in the past decade, and Republicans today, have suffered when they didn’t.
There is a corollary that’s equally true in American politics: When a party puts expediency above core principles, it’s also punished by voters.
These dueling realities are at the heart of Kirsten Gillibrand, tapped to fill the U.S. Senate seat in New York vacated by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
New York Governor David Paterson, who appointed Gillibrand, 42, and supporters say her conservative record on issues from guns to immigration reflects her Upstate New York district, and embodies the virtues of the big tent.
Critics say she’s out of the mainstream of New York Democratic politics and trying to obfuscate her positions.
A look at her record on key issues is revealing.
Many anti-gun, liberal politicians such as Congressman Barney Frank and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, openly welcome pro-gun Democrats. They say it makes no sense to cast that as a standard for acceptability, especially in Western and Southern states, where the culture is different than in many urbanized areas of the country.
Gillibrand is a self-proclaimed champion of “hunters’ rights” -- boasting that her mother shoots her own turkey at Thanksgiving.
Washington Gun Ban
Her record is more extensive than that benign defense suggests. Along with many other members of Congress -- but few from the Northeast -- she co-signed with Vice President Dick Cheney a brief that went far beyond President George W. Bush in calling on the Supreme Court to knock down Washington, D.C.’s restrictions on gun ownership. The brief implies that the Constitution prohibits localities from banning any sort of gun.
As a member of the House of Representatives, Gillibrand voted for a measure that would have specifically prevented the nation’s capital from outlawing semiautomatic weapons.
Last year, she backed a proposal by Congressman Steve King, an Iowa Republican, that would have barred state and local law-enforcement officials from getting data from the federal government on guns used in crimes.
Studies have shown that more than half these weapons come from about 1 percent of gun dealers, and the information can be helpful in tracing illicit activities.
Criticism From Hispanics
It’s not surprising for a Democratic lawmaker from Albany, New York, to support hunters’ rights. It is unusual when those apparently include the right to bag Bambi with an AK-47 or prevent cops from pinpointing possible criminal activity.
Pro-immigration and Hispanic groups have criticized her appointment, with one Latino politician suggesting her views border on “xenophobia.”
The new senator has disputed this, insisting she is pro- immigrant and only favors tough enforcement of current laws, in keeping with the sentiments of her district.
The record shows a fairly hard line. She has suggested that an immigration bill sponsored by Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, and Senator Ted Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, was tantamount to “amnesty” for illegal aliens.
In fact, the legislation, the centerpiece of the immigration debate and backed by both Bush and then-Senator Barack Obama, granted a pathway to citizenship for illegals only after stiff fines, vigorous background checks and a lengthy waiting period.
Against Illegal Immigrants
She joined the most vocal immigration skeptics in the House to cosponsor a measure -- the Save ACT -- that, under the auspices of tougher enforcement, seemed designed to rid the country of illegal immigrants. She supports proposals to make English the official U.S. language, a move opposed by Hispanic groups, Obama and Hillary Clinton, among other leaders.
These positions, her defenders say, were necessary in her district. Yet there was no bigger supporter of the Kennedy- McCain bill than Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican of South Carolina, which has greater nativist sentiments than Upstate New York. Recently, Nashville, Tennessee, rejected making English the official language after local political and business leaders exposed it as an insult to Latinos.
Last September, she was one of a minority of House Democrats who voted against the $700 billion financial-rescue plan. The legislation failed, and markets around the world cratered.
Several days later, the House reconsidered and passed the measure. Even strong supporters acknowledged that the measure was deeply flawed; some free-market conservatives and anti- business liberals opposed it on principle.
Staving Off Disaster
Yet prominent Republican conservatives, like Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, and Democratic liberals, principally House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, appreciated that whatever its imperfections, financial disaster loomed if action wasn’t taken.
The measure then passed with more than two-thirds of Democrats heeding presidential candidate Obama’s plea to support it. Gillibrand voted against it a second time; a month later, she won re-election with 62 percent of the vote.
She has also supported an amendment to the Constitution that would require a balanced budget. Right before she was appointed to the Senate she called gay activists to say she supported gay marriage, a reversal from her earlier position.
She is a self-styled, open-government reformer. Still, standing right behind her, in the most prominent place when she got the Senate appointment, was former Republican New York Senator Alfonse D’Amato, never known as a reformer.
Too Busy
The new senator’s office was asked to elaborate on these issues. Rachel McEneny, Gillibrand’s communications director, said they had too many requests and were too short-staffed to respond.
For Gillibrand and her defenders, including New York’s other senator, Charles Schumer, it always comes back to how critics just don’t understand the politics of her congressional district.
Albany isn’t Manhattan, and Republicans may well win the special election for the House seat she’s giving up.
It isn’t Mississippi, either. Obama carried the district by 3 points last November.
(Albert R. Hunt is the executive editor for Washington at Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)
To contact the writer of this column: Albert R. Hunt in Washington at ahunt1@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: February 1, 2009 11:42 EST |
