DC Kisses Gilly Hello, As NY Dems Eye Her Suspiciously

Photo Courtesy AP/J. Scott Applewhite

Yesterday Kirsten Gillibrand was sworn in as New York's newest senator by Vice President Joe Biden. The youngest member of the legislative body, Gillibrand has already been appointed to the Committees on Agriculture; Environment and Public Works; and Foreign Relations; and the Special Committee on Aging. Gillibrand spent much of yesterday meeting and greeting her new colleagues and enjoying the ceremonies with family members who made the trip to Washington. The Times reports that Biden "greeted her nieces and nephews with high fives and 'hey, man' and 'hi, cuz.'"

Meanwhile back in her home state, politicians were not quite celebrating the coronation via satellite. After initially being put on the defensive more than once for her stance as a protector of gun rights, now local Democrats have honed in on her positions on immigration. As a congresswoman, Gillibrand has voted in favor of bills that increased financing for law enforcement against illegal immigrants and that protected businesses requiring their employees to speak English on the job. She also co-sponsored the Save Act, which proposed what some see as harsh methods to crack down on illegal immigration.

This prompted El Diario to call her "a disappointing choice" over the weekend and led to a coalition of Latino Democrats in Albany led by Assemblyman Peter Rivera to label her as "pandering to xenophobes." Rivera was scheduled to have a press conference yesterday announcing "total opposition" to the new senator's stances, but called it off as she attempted to reach out to him and plan a meeting to discuss the issues.

Gillibrand has already hired a Latino consultant to help deal with her immigration record. An immigration lawyer told the Times he expects her to "modify" her positions, perhaps similar to how Seantor Schumer suggested she will "evolve" on the gun rights issue.

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By Billy Parker in News on January 28, 2009 4:33 PM

Comments [rss]

Clarice City

That baby is so damn cute. That said, are babies the new accessory for politicians just as they have been for Hollywood actor-garbage as of late?

Not Your Sweetie

Yeay! The media got yet another woman to crucify!

Let's hear for the hangings in effigy and the new edition of BROS before HOS T-shirt!

And someone should let us know: did Ted Kennedy forgive Jimmy Cartier for beating him in 1980? It's not a non-sequitur, as all this is fueled by the perpetual chip on the shoulder of a sore loser.

Future Taliban

WE hereby demand that Americans continue to provide us with Sarah Palin-type candidates that we international fans can continue to masturbate to, instead of these chubby & matronly-looking ladies who fail to arouse anything in us other than feelings of guilt at jerking off to someone's mom.

Not that there's anything wrong with it.

ides_of_march

JFK would be considered a right-wing nut these days compared to the hard-line red-diaper babies like Schumer who have taken over the democrat party.

fugothamist

so we have a mayor & corrupt city council, lead by the pig Quinn, trying to steal extra terms

an unelected governor with stupid tax ideas and who did a horrible job with this Senate appointment

an unelected junior senator who might as well be a Republican

a senior senator who assisted in deregulating Wall Street, setup his bff as AG to further our torture program, and is a complete phony media whore

talk about taxation w/o representation

Polite New Yorker

Good to see there are some real Democrats left in New York. I'm glad I'm still a registered Democrat so I can vote for her.

fugothamist

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/02/02/090202fa_fact_macfarquhar?currentPage=all

"Paterson has no comprehension of upstate New York, absolutely none, and has chosen someone better at representing cows than people,” Lawrence O’Donnell says.

“What you have is the daughter of a lobbyist, instead of the daughter of a former President or the son of a former governor. This is the hack world producing the hack result that the hacks are happy with.”

snoopydog

I must say whoever Gothamist got to do their new web serving really Ponzied Gothamist. The service totally sucks! It takes forever to sign on. It takes forever to post. It just plain sucks! Get rid of them!

Getting back to the topic at hand. Is she really that short or is Joe really that tall?