SCHUMER STEPS UP AS THE HEAD OF THE HILLARY CAUCUS

It sounded odd that Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., the man who perhaps most aggressively represents Wall Street’s interests in the Senate, was advertising a speech in which he would urge the Democratic Party to “embrace government.” The two entities would pretty well have to get naked to get any closer, but there’s always appeal among ideologues for the belief that more ideological purity is the answer to political problems. Schumer, however, seemed a strange messenger. While there is a strong Carneysian relationship between Schumer’s financial-sector constituents and a beefy federal government, Schumer is far closer to his fellow former New York Senator and Goldman-Sachs enthusiast Hillary Clinton than any of the self-styled “populist progressives” of his party. So what gives? It turns out that Schumer was making not an argument for government but for governing, a strong echo of the already emerged themes of Clinton’s campaign. Schumer most notably attacked ObamaCare, not for its goals or provisions, but for the way it was introduced, passed and implemented saying that Democrats “blew the opportunity the American people gave them.”