New York's Etch-a-Sketch United States Senators: Not Fit for Full Terms
On March 23, 2012, Long issued this statement: "Today, the second anniversary of Obamacare I challenge Senator Gillibrand to use her Etch A Sketch to switch to the right position for a change: she needs to shake up her position on this job killing, anti-competitive hostile government takeover of American medicine and health insurance."
New York has had a couple of Etch-a-Sketch United States Senators since I started paying attention in 1960. Each was appointed to replace a United States Senator. Each ran for a full term. The first lost very badly. The second is running now, hoping that an etch-a-sketch politician is finally in vogue her in New York.
In 1968, Robert F. Kennedy, then the junior United States Senator from New York, was assassinated and Governor Nelson Rockefeller appointed Charles Goodell, then a little known conservative upstate Congressman, to replace him.
Sadly, Goodell proved to be an Etch-a-Sketch Senator.
He suddenly morphed into a liberal and the New York Conservative Party put principle first and nominated James Buckley to run against him in 1970.
With 38% of the vote, Buckley won a three-way race on the Conservative line against Republican Goodell and Democrat Richard Ottinger.
Wikipedia: "Although he had been a moderate to conservative member ithe House, as a Senator he was nearly as liberal as New York's other Republican Senator, Jacob K. Javits.
Javits was a registered Republican who ran on the now defunct Liberal Party line and earned the Liberal line by being liberal.
New Yorkers realized that Goodell was just another opportunistic politician and preferred the principled Buckley.
On Election Day 2012 New York's current Etch-a-Sketch United States Senator, Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, who was appointed in 2009 to succeed Hillary Clinton and elected in 2010 to complete Clinton's term, will be running for a term of her own.
This time the Etch-a-Sketch Senator is an opportunistic Democrat woman instead of an opportunistic Republican man.
This time the Conservative (and presumptively Republican) alternative is a principled Republican woman, Wendy Long.
In 2010 Fred J. Eckert, a former New York Republican congressman and United Nations Ambassador for President Reagan, concluded that Senator Etch-a-Sketch could give Senator John Kerry flip-flopping lessons.
Eckert, in "Senator Gillibrand's Record Is Not So 'Hot'" (www.americanthinker.com/2010/09/senator_kristen_gillibrands_re_1.html):
"This is a woman who could give John Kerry lessons in flip-flopping. Consider Gillibrand's string of major flip-flops:
*Against gay marriage as a member of the House -- For gay marriage since the day her appointment to the Senate was announced.
* For keeping 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' in place while in House -- Against as senator.
* Against gun control while in the House (100% NRA rating) -- For gun control as a senator.
* Against any form of amnesty for illegal immigrants as a member of the House -- For as a senator.
* For withholding federal funds from sanctuary cities while in House -- Against as senator.
* For making English the official language while in the House -- Against as senator.
* For empowering local police to enforce federal immigration laws while in House -- Against as senator.
* Against the McCain- and Obama-endorsed Bush $700-billion TARP bank bailout in a vote in the House, calling it 'fundamentally flawed' -- For the Obama $787-billion 'stimulus' bill four months later as a senator."
On March 23, 2012, Long issued this statement: "Today, the second anniversary of Obamacare I challenge Senator Gillibrand to use her Etch A Sketch to switch to the right position for a change: she needs to shake up her position on this job killing, anti-competitive hostile government takeover of American medicine and health insurance."
In addition, Long spokesman David Catalfamo stated: "Since taking office as U.S. Senator, Kirsten Gillibrand can best be described as America's 'Etch A Sketch Senator.' Having flipped flopped on issues ranging from the Second Amendment to immigration from the KSM trials to the War in Iraq no position is too sacred or too safe from a simple shimmy, shake and redraw."
It promises to be an especially noteworthy and critically important race--the principled advocate of constitutional fidelity and the American way versus the opportunist who thinks the meaning of the Second Amendment depends upon whether she's a United States Representative from upstate New York or New York's junior United States Senator.
At her campaign website (www.wendylong.com), Long, no etch-a-sketcher, explained why she is running in part as follows:
"There is nothing wrong with America, or New York, or the rich, or the poor, or our children, or our senior citizens. Something is very wrong with the elected officials like Barack Obama and Kirsten Gillibrand who wield power over them.
"There may be some years when a comfortable, entrenched, well financed incumbent Senator can take re-election for granted, but 2012 is not one of them. Politicians like Senator Gillibrand take far too much for granted as it is.
"They vote for $862 billion in 'stimulus' spending, which 'stimulated' nothing except corporate cronyism, as our hard-earned dollars went to Obama campaign supporters and failed companies like Solyndra.
"This is intolerable.
"They run up outrageous levels of debt - almost $16 trillion of it, to the point that our national debt exceeds our gross domestic product. In midtown Manhattan, we've had a national debt clock for over 20 years. Thanks to President Obama, Senator Gillibrand, and their fellow Democrats, the United States has added 5 trillion dollars in new debt since 2009, the debt clock is running faster and faster every day.
"We have reached the point where even interest on the debt - every dollar of it - is now paid with more borrowed money.
"This is intolerable.
"Year after year, Senator Gillibrand and her friends fail even to produce a federal budget - the most basic job that we taxpayers are paying them to do.
"This is intolerable.
"They tell us that we can make up for their lack of an American energy policy and their failure to build pipelines and refineries by inflating our tires, tuning up our cars, driving electric cars, and using algae to create energy. This as gas prices have doubled since Barack Obama was elected and Kirsten Gillibrand moved to the Senate side of Capitol Hill.
"This is intolerable.
"Year after year, Senator Gillibrand, now ranked by National Journal as the #1 most liberal Senator in America - due in part to her vote as one of only seven Senators to continue funding the scandal-ridden ACORN organization with taxpayer dollars - and her elite liberal crowd in Washington treat the money we earn as theirs for the taking, even here in New York, one of the highest-tax states in America.
"This is intolerable.
"With so many serious issues and responsibilities before the United States Senate, New York needs a Senator who thinks for herself - not just someone who rubber-stamps the Obama agenda or checks with Chuck Schumer and says, 'Me too!'"
Long continued:
"The main purpose and idea of my campaign is not original. I can't claim authorship. An inspired group of New Yorkers and other Americans came up with the idea, about 225 years ago.
"It's called limited self-government, of the people, by the people, and for the people.
"No one in this country is above the law, and no one is beneath it. The law is what protects the weak from the strong, affirms the dignity of every person, and overlooks no one in its demand of equal justice.
"The principles and ideals of the American Constitution and Declaration of Independence are what give us hope for a future that is bright for businesses large and small, for jobs and free enterprise and private property in New York, for safety for our families, and for individual freedom.
"More than anything else, our Constitution and its principles are what unite us, and always have.
"I won't go to Washington looking for enemies, but I won't go there fearing anyone, either. With all the troubles our country faces, we can no longer take time for granted. I know I am not the only one who sees this nation at a turning point, where things could get much worse or much better, depending on the choices we make in this election.
"President Ronald Reagan, who carried New York two times, reminded us that 'government cannot be clergyman, teacher and parent. It is our servant, beholden to us.' This is the spirit of my campaign - and I will ask the support of every man and woman in our state who believes in the limits of government and the possibilities of freedom.
"This is the right path. And it is the only path can lead us to victory on the sixth of November."
New York urgently needs Senators who stay on the right path instead of opportunistically pander.
New York needs Wendy Long in the United States Senate.
Michael J. Gaynor has been practicing law in New York since 1973. A former partner at Fulton, Duncombe & Rowe and Gaynor & Bass, he is a solo practitioner admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts and an Association of the Bar of the City of New York member.
Gaynor graduated magna cum laude, with Honors in Social Science, from Hofstra University's New College, and received his J.D. degree from St. John's Law School, where he won the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence and served as an editor of the Law Review and the St. Thomas More Institute for Legal Research. He wrote on the Pentagon Papers case for the Review and obscenity law for The Catholic Lawyer and edited the Law Review's commentary on significant developments in New York law.
The day after graduating, Gaynor joined the Fulton firm, where he focused on litigation and corporate law. In 1997 Gaynor and Emily Bass formed Gaynor & Bass and then conducted a general legal practice, emphasizing litigation, and represented corporations, individuals and a New York City labor union. Notably, Gaynor & Bass prevailed in the Second Circuit in a seminal copyright infringement case, Tasini v. New York Times, against newspaper and magazine publishers and Lexis-Nexis. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, 7 to 2, holding that the copyrights of freelance writers had been infringed when their work was put online without permission or compensation.
Gaynor currently contributes regularly to www.MichNews.com, www.RenewAmerica.com, www.WebCommentary.com, www.PostChronicle.com and www.therealitycheck.org and has contributed to many other websites. He has written extensively on political and religious issues, notably the Terry Schiavo case, the Duke "no rape" case, ACORN and canon law, and appeared as a guest on television and radio. He was acknowledged in Until Proven Innocent, by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson, and Culture of Corruption, by Michelle Malkin. He appeared on "Your World With Cavuto" to promote an eBay boycott that he initiated and "The World Over With Raymond Arroyo" (EWTN) to discuss the legal implications of the Schiavo case. On October 22, 2008, Gaynor was the first to report that The New York Times had killed an Obama/ACORN expose on which a Times reporter had been working with ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief.