I was wrong.

Completely understand your point, and... (4.00 / 1)

appreciate the explanation, but all the things you listed on her "tenure" strike me as issues that have only been up for debate Congress and in the MSM in just the past month--also the time when Gillibrand has begun to feel pressure from potential challengers.

I respect your explanation saying you realize you were wrong about Kennedy, but I still can't see where Kirsten Gillibrand's record stands out in any real way from any of the other NY Dems in her time in the US Congress aside from her standing out as a Blue Dog while she was in the House.

Just my 2¢.

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by: CuseDem09 @ Mon Jun 29, 2009 at 22:29:29 PM UTC

I never saw her "standing out" (4.00 / 1)

as a Blue Dog when she was in the House.  

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by: nrafter530 @ Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 00:07:14 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Gillibrand was not chosen just for her voting record (4.00 / 2)

relative to other NY House Members.

Other major factors surely included gender and geographic balance for the 2010 ticket, her work ethic, her fund-raising ability, her connections to Schumer and the Clintons, her labor and women's group support, her relative youth, her Energizer Bunniness, and her ability to connect with people in person.

Paterson has made more than a few mistakes this year, but selecting Gillibrand was not one of them.    

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by: devtob @ Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 00:16:45 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Energizer Bunniness?! (4.00 / 2)

LOL! That's great--and she definitely fits the description. How does she do it with two little kids, traveling the State non-stop, proposing new legislation, interviews, meeting constituents, and fund-raising? Makes me feel verrry lazy.

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by: fran20 @ Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 00:24:52 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Here's a photo album (4.00 / 1)

of a day in her busy life, courtesy of Gillibrand-endorsing Emily's List.

Working in the Senate, four events, and being a mom in between -- pretty impressive, and some pretty pictures.  

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by: devtob @ Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 00:44:36 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

How about DODT & health care? (4.00 / 1)

Two very clear examples are her strong advocacy for a public option in health care, and her unequivocal support for gay marriage and DODT. She stood for her picture with the dismissed Lt. and that's more than even the president has been willing to do. I call that leadership.

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by: fran20 @ Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 00:22:18 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

A couple points. (4.00 / 1)

I had the opportunity to be part of a group meeting with Gillibrand back in early April. I'm a member of the Wyoming County Democratic Committee, and we're one of the largest dairy producing counties in New York; our one county alone holds about .5% of all dairy cattle in the United States, which is to say nothing of the rest of the farming counties around us. I can't be sure, but we may have been the first delegation to officially gripe to the Senator about the steep fall in milk prices.

For her part, she grabbed the subject and ran with it. I distinctly recall her first statement: "Twelve dollars per hundredweight is absolutely screwing us." Then she went into the spiel about the system of milk pricing, the questions about where the money was going, the possibility that some middlemen may be running afoul of federal law with regard to pricing, and the need for measures to fix the problem now. So, while the bills may have just come out, this is not the first time that she's started thinking about things.

Second, nobody else is taking the lead on DADT like she is. Everybody else in Congress seems to have been waiting around for Obama to take the heat on it rather than legislating on their own. She stepped up and became the public face in favor putting repeal legislation forward. She did the same thing with regard to endorsing a public option, being one of the first Senators to do so. She was one of the first Senators to endorse gay marriage.

As far as her congressional record standing out, Gillibrand ran on an anti-war platform in one of the reddest districts in the state, and she won. Even Eric Massa couldn't do that the first time. And she won on a platform that also included public health insurance way before anyone else was talking about it.  

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by: Adama @ Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 01:19:40 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

I saw her do more than five minutes (4.00 / 1)

on milk pricing at a March fund-raiser at Goold Orchards in Schodack.

She was responding to an unscreened question from a dairy farmer, and showed that she REALLY knows what she's talking about.

Which is a good quality for a U.S. Senator to have.

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by: devtob @ Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 01:47:58 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

She did five minutes for us in the span of about 60 seconds. (4.00 / 2)

The lady talks fast. I've lived my entire life in the boonies, and I learned things I didn't know about dairy.

Not to mention she fielded a whole bunch of unscreened questions on dairy and agriculture related matters during her recent press conference by phone, literally conducted from the Senate cloak room. And I can personally attest that not only were they unscreened, but they let almost anybody on the call--one of the questions was mine.  

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by: Adama @ Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 02:04:23 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

I like her, too (4.00 / 2)

And I am really glad NY has a Senator that really knows agriculture, including organic agriculture.

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by: robinia @ Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 02:16:28 AM UTC

Thanks for another installment of Pimp My Pol (2.00 / 2)

here at The Gillibrand Project.  

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by: JohnS @ Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 12:40:37 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I like her too. She's my Senator. I will be proud to vote for her, (4.00 / 1)

and thirty years from now, I think she'll be one of the most respected senior politicians in the country.  She works hard to represent her constituents.... yes, when her constituency changed, she reflected that change.  I will be proud to tell my grandchildren that I worked on her first Senate campaign.  

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by: janed @ Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 13:20:16 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

30 years from now? (4.00 / 2)

watch out for her in 2016 :-D

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by: Jrathman @ Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 15:57:17 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

It's a higher level of discussion than you're offering. (4.00 / 2)

JohnS, these at least are substantive issues and concerns expressed, and people's direct experiences.  If this site is going to be useful, folks need to focus on that substance instead of a handful of anti-this or that talking points.  

Your response is s troll, and I'm marking it such.  Got anything other than name-calling to contribue?

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by: Hyde @ Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 13:25:50 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Why Gillibrand? (4.00 / 1)

Gillibrand was chosen for two reasons -- she can raise a LOT of money, and Chuck Schumer wanted someone who would let him be the senior senator.

That being said, it doesn't mean she can't be a great senator.  Teddy Roosevelt was put on the Republican ticket in 1900 because he was a blowhard (his charge up San Juan hill would have been a disaster, were it not for the fact that the Spanish army was run by people even more militarily inept than he was), but he proved to be, arguably, the greatest peacetime president we have ever had.

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by: Dan Jacoby @ Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 13:35:17 PM UTC

Merits Aside.... (4.00 / 2)

There's nothing wrong with having an opinion, analyzing it later, and saying "Well, I think I got it wrong, and here's why." Regardless of who one thinks would have made a better Senator, it's refreshing to see someone willing to reconsider a position in the light of new evidence. It happens all too rarely in political discussions these days, and I think we would have more informative and less divisive dialogue if more people did so.

Most MSM pundits (left and right) rarely look back at their statements and columns and admit how often they blew it, much less explain why. When they don't, they come off as ideologues who believe what they want to believe regardless of the facts, in which case only the already converted will by paying any attention. It may be good for punditry careers, but it's not going to change any minds or advance the discussion.

Anyway, it never hurts to have an opinion but keep an open mind, and I think it's good to see it in action.

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by: dsimon @ Tue Jun 30, 2009 at 14:54:38 PM UTC

Big News, sorta (0.00 / 0)

I've been staying out of this on purpose, but I thought you might all enjoy these articles:

The Daily News says that Maloney is 100% declaring, two weeks from now. Politico reports she's hired Joe Trippi, which is news to me, although it may not be fresh.

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by: Amherst Guy @ Wed Jul 01, 2009 at 13:12:57 PM UTC