After, evidently, Maloney took some shots at Gillibrand regarding the appointment process, Carter asks:
But has she done a good job after the initial introduction?
CM: I think that she's working hard, but what are the accomplishments? Has she been working hard at getting elected? Again, some people run to get elected and some people run to do a job to help people.
But in the New York magazine, she says, "I was living in New York City, I didn't think I could run in New York City, so I moved upstate to run."
If she moved to another section of the state, is she going to change her positions again?
DC: Why are you considering challenging her?
CM: Well, I feel that principles are very important and it's troubling to me that she could change her position on so many issues that are important to the country, the city and the state within 24 hours, and say I just decided to change my mind.
I feel that the best way to judge a candidate is not on what they say they'll do in the future, but what they've done in the past. And her past record is a troubling one to me.
DC: What is your timeline for making a decision on whether or not you're gonna challenge her?
CM: We'll study it. Independence is important to me and Democratic values and actually getting the work done. I think some people run to get elected and others run to get a job done, to help people.
(evidently a snip in the tape)
Wall Street was calling me and saying, "If you don't stabilize our markets, we will have a 1929 crash," there's no question about it, every economist says it's true, and the one bill that provided the money that we could spend to stabilize our markets, not only for New York but for the whole country, she voted against twice.
I think if you can't stand up for the economic interests, not only of your city and state, financial capital of the world, what do you stand for?
Let's start with the attack line Maloney used twice -- "some people run to get elected and others run to get a job done, to help people."
Gillibrand helped a lot of people in her former district, on issues great and small. Sure, it helped her get re-elected by almost 2-1 in the most Republican-by-registration district in the state, but this attack line is absurd.
As a freshman, she did not get her name atop any bills, but that's how the House works. But she represented her district well, particularly on agriculture issues, and worked hard doing so.
Gillibrand is not the first, nor will she be the last, political hopeful to move from one district to another. Maloney evidently considers that some kind of flip-flop, which is also absurd.
For those with short memories, Gillibrand worked for more than a year to defeat Miami Mob Leader John Sweeney, a four-term incumbent in a district drawn to be his for a decade. Sweeney tried to tar her as a carpetbagger from the city, now Maloney is trying to do much the same thing.
Maloney's attack that Gillibrand "change[d] her position on so many issues that are important to the country, the city and the state within 24 hours" is simply a lie.
Finally, the TARP bank bailout bills were unpopular in her district, and Gillibrand at the time was not representing the city or the state, despite Maloney's insinuation to the contrary.
Gillibrand obviously wasn't against stabilizing the market, but she was against handing Bush and Paulson a blank check with no accountability.
She had substantive reasons for opposing TARP, according to this New York Times blog post by Cyrus Sanati:
Gillibrand's opposition to the bailout bill seemed to be focused on its approach, rather than the idea of helping Wall Street firms. When she first voted against the bill, she made a statement saying that she recognized the need to recapitalize the banks but that, "if the federal government needs to intervene, then [it] should receive a fair equity stake in the company in order to protect the taxpayer."
At the time of the votes, the bill was generally held up as a means to buy troubled assets from banks. That plan was later scrapped by the Treasury secretary at the time, Henry M. Paulson Jr., in favor of direct equity investments - which seem to be more along the lines of what Ms. Gillibrand had advocated.
FWIW, Chris Bowers of Open Left agreed with Gillibrand's approach to bailouts:
Case in point: the Wall Street bailout, otherwise known as TARP. Gillibrand voted against it back in October, then she voted in favor of the auto bailout in December, then voted in favor of Barney Frank's oversight bill on Wednesday, and then voted against the release of the second half of the funds yesterday. This makes Gillibrand one of 26 House Democrats who would have voted the same way I would have voted across all four of those bills.
There will presumably be a lot more baseless negativity from Maloney, should she decide to end her political career by challenging Gillibrand next year.
The NY1 interview is the first, sour taste of that. |
