The man Reid is pushing forward to be the voice – and if Schumer has his way, the face – of Senate Democrats is the antithesis of the anti-spending, pro-limited government message voters just sent to members of both political establishments.

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Fresh off an electoral thrashing that diminished his caucus and flipped the majority in the House, what does Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) do?  Appoint the chamber’s biggest ego to be the point man for all of the Democrats’ political communications and floor strategy.  Say hello to Senator Charles Ellis (Chuck) Schumer (D-NY), America.  And don’t forget to check your pockets when he leaves. 

In the news reports heralding the brilliance of elevating Schumer to his new level of Senate leadership, much attention is being paid to his electoral prowess.  In that case, praise is deserved.  He’s never lost an election in 35 years running for public office, and his stewardship of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) in 2006 and 2008 brought in two waves of Democratic senators that created and kept the party’s majority status for the first time in four years.  Reid owes his leadership perch to Schumer’s efforts, and probably needed to reward the New Yorker or fear a coup. 

But the man Reid is pushing forward to be the voice – and if Schumer has his way, the face – of Senate Democrats is the antithesis of the anti-spending, pro-limited government message voters just sent to members of both political establishments. 

In the same week Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) embraced a ban on congressional earmarks, Schumer’s view of pork barrel spending is worth comparing.  During Senate debate on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (i.e. the “stimulus bill”) Schumer said, “And let me say this to all the chattering classes that so much focus on those little, tiny, yes porky amendments.  The American people really don’t care.” 

Wrong.  People cared enough to rise up in defiance and kill then-Senator Ted Stevens’ (R-AK) infamous “bridge to nowhere” project.  They cared that the stimulus bill Schumer was voting to fill with pork created or saved jobs mostly for Democrat-friendly public employee unions.  Though only a part of the overall spending problem, congressional earmarks are an incredibly unpopular method of politics-as-usual.  It would be an easy win for Democrats to join Republicans in an earmark ban during the next Congress, but instead they’re giving their communications operation to a man who scorns the notion that taxpayers care how politicians spend their money. 

For all his campaign savvy, it’s instructive to understand Schumer’s blueprint for getting reelected.  Unlike President Barack Obama, Schumer does not suffer from the need to remake American society.  Instead, he prefers playing political “small ball,” demanding endless intrusions into everyday life that garner him support from affected groups while never quite rising to a level that sufficiently irritates the broader public. 

Consider his current top priorities.  On Tuesday, Schumer demanded and received a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ban on caffeinated alcoholic beverages.  Now he wants the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to conduct a study on the amount of lead in plastic grocery bags.  If you’re waiting for Schumer to come out in favor of school uniforms in public education just give this practitioner of Clintonism a few weeks to warm-up.  For politicians obsessed with maintaining power, every decision a person faces can be converted into an inane policy that grabs a headline and limits individual freedom. 

Schumer’s brand of encroachment politics may be the best Democrats can hope for during the next Congress.  As ObamaCare, the Dodd-Frank financial “reform” and the EPA’s global warming “endangerment” finding continue to work their way toward implementation, Schumer seems like an ideal person to accentuate of the liberal approach to bureaucratic meddling.  Reports are surfacing that one of Schumer’s primary goals for the Democrats’ floor agenda is to hold a series of votes on issues that have marginal relevance to the current economic crisis, but could divide the Republican caucus. 

With Chuck Schumer at the communications helm, Senate Democrats are sending a rebuke of their own to the millions of voters who want solutions for a broken economy, and an out-of-control budget deficit.  It’s about politics, not progress.