It is pretty amazing that all someone has to do is criticize Israel and they are lionized as a hero by Greenwald. If anyone else applying for a senior foreign policy position had been a staunch defender of Saudi and Chinese dictatorships, they would have been barbecued on these pages. Since he is also a critic of Israel, he is made out to be a hero. The man is on the Board of Directors for the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, take a minute and Google "CNOOC" and "Sudan" and see what this man is supporting.

Greenwald's hatred of Israel is so strong that it clouds his judgment.

I've been leery of Schumer ever since I read that he was in favor of keeping the ridiculously low tax rate for hedge fund managers. Recently he was a big supporter of Kristin Gillibrand, who received a 100% rating by the NRA, to replace Hillary Clinton as senator from NY. So this latest information about Schumer's voting record just cements one thing in my mind. It's time to replace our other NY senator with one who would truly represent the wishes and needs and interests of an average New Yorker and American. I will line up at the polls on primary day to vote him out of office.

Chuck Schumer represents nothing other than the rotted ways of Washington.

Sounds like a bit of a Catch-22: we need to get Schumer out of there so saner heads can (hopefully) prevail. Yet by anyone challenging him risks the destruction of their reputation and having a constellation of powerful interests arrayed against them should they win both the primary and the election.

And even if the winner proves durable enough, how well will they fare in the rotten atmosphere of the Senate itself? Look at how often even the 'principled' Barack Obama and Russ Feingold have set those principles aside.

If anyone else applying for a senior foreign policy position had been a staunch defender of Saudi and Chinese dictatorships, they would have been barbecued on these pages.

Can you give any examples of that -- of "defenders of Saudi or Chinese dictatorships being barbecued on these pages"? No, you can't. The entire U.S. Government considers Saudi Arabia a major American ally. Who in the U.S. Government is proposing that we break off ties to the Saudis or that we take any meaningful actions against China -- as though we could?

You don't have to agree with every view of someone in order to consider them qualified to serve in an intelligence post. Overwhelmingly, the attack against him -- as his most honest attackers are admitting -- was about one thing and one thing only: whether making "statements against Israel" should disqualify an American citizen from serving in the American government.

To point out suicidal behavior in us and our ally constitutes hate? Up is down in his world.

He is everything that's wrong with our system, but he will never, ever, ever be voted out. He's got too much money and too many powerful allies. He's the Don of what is our corrupt political system here in NY.

I wrote to him about the Mukasey nomination. His response was laughable, including the following:

We now have the potential to improve this critical department. There is virtually universal agreement, even from those who opposed Judge Mukasey, that he would do a good job in turning the department around. Indeed, my colleagues who opposed his confirmation have gone out of their way to praise his character and qualifications. More importantly, Judge Mukasey has demonstrated his fidelity to the rule of law, saying that if he believed the president were violating the law he would resign.

Nice, huh? He also justified voting for a torture advocate because he was co-sponsoring S.1943, which would ban torture. Except (and I pointed this out to him in another letter) he and I both knew that letter was going nowhere.

So to recap: When Schumer had the ability to actually do something about torture, he demurred. When he had the opportunity to make a show of caring about torture, he jumped at the chance and lauded that as his anti-torture bonafide.

The guy is scum. Too bad he's got a lifetime appointment.

Another sad day for New York. Such is the nature of politics in the state that even admirable politicians like Jerry Nadler lose all sense of perspective when it comes to Israel. Hillary did the same when she was a Senator, and it is only now that she is on the national stage and actually responsible for dealing with the human beings on BOTH sides of the Israeli/Palestinian situation that she is exhibiting some sense of fair play. For those reasons, I believe that NY politicians are caught in a circle jerk of sell fulfilling expectations. They assume or have been told that they must unconditionally support Israel's policies or they won't be elected, or reelected, but none have the guts to test that contention by exhibiting some independence from AIPAC. As a New Yorker, I have frequently written to my reps to complain, and have in return received form e mails thanking me for supporting their Middle East policies!?! Perhaps someday, some courageous NY pol will test the limits on knee jerk, unconditional support for Israel and be pleasantly surprised by the reception. Sadly, that person will never be Chuck Schumer.

there's another Senator from Tel Aviv. Just what we needed.

The simple fact that we've voted out the GOP doesn't mean that we've gotten rid of the neoconservatives. Schummy may stick to his partisanship better than Lieberman, but there are few democrats in Washington as neoconservative as he.

Politics in New York is dominated by Jews. While the Israelis were bombing Gaza we had the spectacle of watching our mayor and our black governor dancing the Have Nagila on the streets of the city in celebration of the carnage. There is no mystery to Chuck Schumer, he is a Zionists first, last, and foremost. As is any politician that wants to succeed in the state.