The American Spectator

Washington Prowler

(Page 2 of 2)

Ickes will be a key player in everything unfolding, in part because of his close ties to organized labor in New York and nationally. The AFL-CIO is integral to Democratic hopes in the fall.

"In some ways Ickes is more important than Bill," says a former Hillary Clinton campaign adviser. "He can work behind the scenes in ways that Bill can't. Any 'Hillary for Veep' program is going to have to be pulled off with his help."

p> TOP BANANA br> New York Sen. Chuck Schumer is well known for spending as much energy to get face time in front of a camera as he is for planning partisan attacks against Republicans. There is also good reason he is not known for his sense of humor. That's because he doesn't have one. /p>

The latest evidence comes after his colleague and regional neighbor, Sen. Jon Corzine of New Jersey, ribbed Schumer during a speech at the 50th annual Washington Press Club Foundation dinner a few weeks ago.

Corzine, who in the same speech claimed that Sen. Elizabeth Dole was the beneficiary of performance enhancing drugs because of her husband's Viagra use, told the audience of mostly reporters and editors, "Frankly, sharing a media market with Chuck Schumer is like sharing a banana with a monkey. Take a little bite of it, and he will throw his own feces at you."

Schumer was not amused. In fact he was so angry, according to a staffer on the Senate Judiciary Committee, that he planned on holding a press conference about it. "He just didn't see the irony in that," says the staffer.

p>Ultimately, cooler heads prevailed. But Schumer and Corzine have yet to speak about the incident. According to another Senate source, when Corzine approached Schumer in the Senate cloakroom recently, the New York senior senator was decidedly cool. br> /p>

topics:
Hillary Clinton, NATO, Energy