New York Replacement Governor David Paterson has finally decided who will fill Hillary Clinton’s vacant Senate seat and – surprise! – he didn’t go with the progressive neoptism choices of Caroline Kennedy or Andrew Cuomo. Instead, he picked Kirsten Gillibrand, a sitting one-term member of the House of Representatives.
Gillibrand is not without her own political connections but she certainly wasn’t on anyone’s short list. I imagine that the Democratic political machine in New York right now has to be just a bit unhappy. Gillibrand is an active member of the Blue Dog coalition of right-leaning Democrats in the House. Even though she has the thumbs-up from the ACLU and labor unions, she also has a very strong rating from the NRA, opposed the TARP bailout twice, supports the Bush tax cuts, voted for funding the War in Iraq, and supported telecom immunity related to so-called warrantless wiretapping. She practices an unusually-high amount of transparency, to the point where she made her earmarks requests public and posts her daily schedule online.
In short, she’s not at all the typical Democratic Senator. In fact, she’s closer to what conservatives want to see in an elected official than most of the RINOs like John McCain. Republicans ought to be very happy. They’ve just been given a gift from a very unexpected source.
Tags: David Paterson, Democrats, Kirsten Gillibrand, sen
Perhaps you could call her a DINO–i thought they were extinct
LisainDallas