KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND: Saint or Scammer

Kirsten Gillibrand:

Saint or Scammer

By D.S. Mitchell & Trevor K. McNeil

The Pendulum Swings

It seems like each new each day brings us a new candidate for the job of president of the United States. At the beginning of Trump’s third year, anyone able to walk and talk at the same time, thinks they can do a better job than Trump. In fact, not to bring peels of laughter from the audience, I am sure that I could do a better job. Being able to do a better job than Trump however could probably be accomplished by any of the last six Westminster champions.

Blinded By Desperation

There are those who say there is no way Trump can win in 2020.  Didn’t everyone say that about Trump in 2016? The prognosticators also said George W. Bush couldn’t win in his second term in 2004. Single term presidents do occur, although not often. In every case such losses occurred it was due to a compelling opponent. The most recent instance, when relatively unknown Arkansas governor Bill Clinton ran against, and beat George H.W.Bush. Who was, by all accounts, in line for a second term.

A Champion Shall Rise?

If the Republicans stick with tradition and name Donald Trump their nominee for 2020. The key to victory for the Democrats will be selecting the right candidate. Someone with a specific set of attributes that appeal to the base, as well as making them impervious to Trump’s already proven attacks and tactics. One of a bevy of Democrats to recently throw their hat into the ring is second-term New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.

Upper Middle Class Life

Kirsten Gillibrand is a child of American privilege. Not a Kennedy or a Rockefeller by any means, but both her parents were attorneys. Her father also worked as a lobbyist.  Kirsten Gillibrand was born Kirsten Elizabeth Rutnik in 1966. She attended a private girl’s school, the Emma Willard School. When she graduated she went on to Dartmouth where she graduated Magna cum Laude in 1988 with a degree in Asian studies. After Dartmouth she attended UCLA School of Law and passed the bar exam in New York in 1991.

Philip Morris

Gillibrand went to work for Davis, Polk and Wardwell, as an associate. While at Davis she served at defense attorney for Philip Morris defending them in at least three major lawsuits, including civil and criminal racketeering and perjury cases. Her work for Philip Morris and later large financial contributions to her from the company has created multiple and lingering questions about that relationship. Gillibrand says associates don’t get to choose their client load. Comments by Davis insiders refute that, insisting associates always have a choice. She counters with her work at Davis and later at Boies, Schiller & Flexner allowed her to take on pro-bono work (no charge cases) defending poor and abused women, injured tenants against negligent landlords, and other clients with social justice issues.

The Clinton’s

During the last year of Bill Clinton’s presidency Kirsten Gillibrand served as Special Counsel to Secretary of HUD,  Andrew Cuomo.  In 1999 Gillibrand began working for Hillary Clinton’s 2000 N.Y. senate run. Clinton and Gillibrand became close and Gillibrand gave a $12,000 donation to the campaign. Gillibrand later said that Hillary Clinton had been an inspiring mentor to her.  Furthermore, she said Clinton was the principle reason she had decided to enter politics.

Time to Run

Kirsten Gillibrand decided to run for the House in 2006. Her upstate N.Y. district was heavily Republican, with Democrats being outnumbered 2:1. The Clinton’s threw their support behind her campaign. Both Bill and Hillary appeared more than once at rallies in her support. Philip Morris also came through donating at least $23,000 to her congressional run. Despite her district having been a Republican stronghold since 1913, Kirsten Gillibrand won 53% of the vote. In 2008 she beat her Republican opponent by 62% to 38%. Gillibrand’s legal representation of Philip Morris again was brought in to question when records showed an  $18,000 donation from Philip Morris.

Barack Obama Nominates

In 2009 Barack Obama  announced the nomination of Hillary Clinton as US Secretary of State. When Hillary Clinton resigned her senate job to take the cabinet position it threw the choice of her replacement into the governor’s hands. Pundits mentioned celebs, including Fran Drescher, Caroline Kennedy and Andrew Cuomo.  Gillibrand is known to have actively campaigned for the job meeting with then governor David Paterson at least once personally. She later said she had pointed out to the governor her huge victories in a largely conservative district. She emphasized her ability to win. The governor’s goal of course was to find a candidate that could win the seat in a general election for the Democrats.

And Back to Hillary

On 1/23/2009 Gillibrand was appointed to fill Hillary Clinton’s empty senate seat.  Her appointment was met with tepid reactions. Many insiders were baffled that Paterson would appoint a little known junior legislator barely known outside Albany for Clinton’s senate seat. By 2010 things had changed and Gillibrand won her primary contest with 76% of the vote, and the general election 63-35%. Her win in the 2010 special election allowed her to finish Clinton’s term which would end January 2013. In 2012 Gillibrand ran for a full six-year term. She won the election by 72.2% of the vote, achieving the largest victory margin for a statewide candidate in New York history.

Beautiful Vestige

Gillibrand is on record supporting abortion rights and same-sex marriage. Despite being somewhat quiet about her opinion on “don’t ask, don’t tell”, Gillibrand was a key member of the committee that repealed it in 2011. She has also vocally supported abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.), calling it a “deportation device”.  In fact, she was the first senator to call for its elimination, saying “I believe we should get rid of it, start over re-imagine it and build something that actually works. I think we should re-image ICE under a new agency with a different mission.” This has caught the attention of various Left leaning organizations. The ACLU which gave Gillibrand a 90 percent rating, and the website OnTheIssues.org labelled Gillibrand a “hard-core liberal”.

Moving Left

Despite her staunchly Democratic appearance, Gillibrand was a member of the Blue Dog Committee while in the House of Representatives. The Blue Dogs are a group of fiscally conservative Democrats. Her stance on gun control has been wobbly. She had consistently gotten “A” ratings from the National Rifle Association, up until 2018 when she suddenly dropped to an “F”.  Although a supporter of gun rights while in the House, Gillibrand has moved toward gun control.  When questioned about her swivel politics she said her change came after meeting with a family that lost their daughter to gun violence. Gillibrand said her earlier stand on gun control had been “wrong”.

Writing About It

Kirsten Gillibrand original positions on immigration have morphed over the years. She was against driver’s licenses for immigrants in New York. She voted to withhold federal funding from sanctuary cities. Gillibrand vocally opposed amnesty to undocumented aliens. She supported deputizing local law enforcement officers to enforce federal immigration laws. She also signed on to making English the official language of the United States.

Past History

Gillibrand now states she is “ashamed” of her prior votes on immigration. Kirsten discusses these and other personal and political issues in her book, “Off the sidelines: Raise Your Voice, Change the World”. She has been a supporter of “Medicare for All” since her first house run in 2006 and sees health care as a “right”.  She has introduced The Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act, which would give paid family leave. Although she has been a top corporate donation recipient in earlier years she now rejects PAC and corporate funding and is currently focused on fundraising on-line.

Moving Left

Rightly or wrongly, Gillibrand seems to be someone who is defined by the respective constituencies she serves.  At Davis she represented whole heartedly Philip Morris. As a house member from upstate conservative NY she was pro-gun.  As a NY senator representing liberal NY state, especially as defined by New York City she is a gun control advocate.  The NY Times suggested, “Gillibrand had spent recent months injecting her portfolio with a dose of the kind of economic populism that infused the Bernie Sander’s campaign in the 2016 presidential primary.”

Impressive Numbers

2018 saw her run for a second term as New York senator.  New York is well-known for its strict gun control laws. She won that election, carrying 67 percent of the vote. 52 percent would have been an uncontroversial win. Winning by a nearly 70% plurality is amazing. With such a stunning vote of confidence from New York voters is impressive, considering the millions of potential votes involved state-wide. New York’s proportion of eligible voters rivaling the national population of Australia. This came after pledging she would serve out the full six-year term. Now less than six months later she is running for president of the United States.

The Cracks Begin to Show

Gillibrand was a vocal critic of Donald Trump’s State of the Union Address. Apparently finding the entire notion to be problematic if not offensive given the context of the event. A position which she then leveraged to raise donations for her presidential campaign. Which I am not shaming here. Trump in fact had donation requests after both the Oval office speech and the State of the Union speech.

Unclear On Women’s Rights

Gillibrand has taken a strong stance on women’s equality. She personally declared a “zero tolerance” doctrine for sexual harassment among senators. Yet, when President Trump said during the State of the Union Address, he wanted to put an end to sex trafficking she, and the other female congressional representatives, were obvious by their silence. Despite being more than willing to applaud and congratulate themselves when the president mentioned that they existed. Making it clear that they were not simply refraining to agree with Trump on general principle.

Hard of Hearing?

The majority of sex trafficking victims are female. Roughly half are children. One would think that any move or sentiment, empty as it might be, toward ending it would be something those concerned about the health, safety and equality of women and girls would unreservedly support. No matter what the source. The issue simply being too important for the usual petty, partisan, pandering and squabbling. The enslavement of women and girls is a real thing and Senator Gillibrand’s disregard for the issue has made me uneasy.  Hopefully she will wake up to the horrors of sex trafficking and put her energies to its eradication.

Toss the Dice

Is Kirsten Gillibrand a “hard-core liberal” active feminist, who has made some mistakes, but has had a Road to Damascus Conversion on the issue of guns and immigration? Or is she a shrewd, iron willed, Machiavellian pragmatist who could trick the Devil if it ever came down to it? I suspect Kirsten Gillibrand is closer to the Machiavellian pragmatist than a liberal snowflake. But time will tell as the wheels of electioneering begin their two-year grind.

References:

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/02/twenty-things-you-probably-didn’t-know-about-kirsten-Gillibrand/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/kirsten_Gillibrand

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/24/nyregion/kristen-gillibrand-2020-economic-agenda.html

 

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