Welcome to the Big Show

Welcome Senator Gillibrand. You are not in your sleepy upstate county anymore. Welcome to the big show. Welcome to the shark tank. I hope you have some good repellant, you may need it if some of the stories in the press mean anything.

Going through my paper this morning there was a podium picture of those who came to Albany to support Governor Paterson and his choice Rep. soon to be Senator Gillibrand. Front and center in the front row is former Senator Alfonse D’Amato from the other side of the aisle.

Also present was the County Executive from upstate Monroe County Maggie Brooks who is also a Republican. Not often you see two Republicans attend the announcement of the appointment of a new Senator from the other party.

Also with the new Senator’s rating from the NRA, a 100% rating, Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, a Democrat from Long Island, is not happy with the choice, and “snubbed” the announcement as my paper Newsday put it and has vowed to run in a primary against Senator Gillibrand if nobody else does. For those of you who do not remember or do now know, Congresswoman McCarthy’s husband was among 6 killed and her son was among 19 injured on a Long Island Railroad Train when Colin Ferguson took out a gun and starting shooting for no reason in 1993. She was elected to congress on a strong anti-gun and gun control platform.

So job one is to get everyone familiar with the Senator who when all the paperwork is filed in Washington will be sworn in as the junior Senator from New York sometime Sunday. Her first meeting/appearance is with Rev. Al Sharpton at his weekly rally at headquarters in Harlem. Now for someone from upstate, you don’t get more downstate than that. She said the economy was her first priority and she did take some questions about her gun control issues. I am sure there are many more downstate appearances and “get to know you’s” scheduled in the coming weeks and months. After all, once she takes the office she immediately has a seat to protect and a race to run.

Funny though, I have not seen anything on what will happen to her seat in NY’s 20th CD. Are Governor Paterson and the state party going to concede that seat back to the Republicans in what was a major upset just 4 years ago when the now Senator won that seat from an entrenched Republican incumbent in a conservative leaning county.

This choice is obviously to bolster the governor with upstate voters for his pending election in 2010 the next state wide election when he, the entire state leadership and both US Senators (Senator Gillibrand in a special election to serve out the final 2 years of Hillary’s term and Chuck Schumer for his full term) will be up. But here downstate she is not only not only not well known or known at all but does not seem all that popular. It appears there are major splits in the NY Democratic party over this. Another against the pick was Kennedy supporter Mayor Mike Bloomberg a registered Republican who has plenty of money and influence to help elect the newly minted Senator or an opponent of his choosing. Mayor Bloomberg said in a story in the Washington Post this morning, “She has actively opposed the efforts of New York City, and cities around the state and nation, to enact common-sense measures that keep illegal guns out of the hands of criminals,” he said in a statement. “For instance, she has voted to keep critical data needed to track illegal gun traffickers from law enforcement, has voted to tie the hands of the ATF, and has also voted to protect dealers who sell guns illegally.” You can read the whole Post story here.And as you can see it is not the gun control people who have problems with the new Senator’s voting record.

Now I know many out there in the NQ readership and radio audience are looking at this appointment as the governor appointing a woman to finish out Hillary’s term. And there is something to that. However I am not sure how I feel about this appointment. I am looking at it on the issues, not on gender. I don’t care if a candidate is a man or a woman, black, white, red, blue or green. I care what they have to say and what they do. It is one of the reasons I supported Hillary Clinton in her runs for Senate and in the primary. In this case I am not happy with my new Senator’s stance with the NRA. You see I have had gun violence touch my life. I don’t want to get in to details but years ago a co-worker was gunned down and murdered in an incident that garnered some national attention due to the sensational nature of the case. So yes, gun control is an issue in my life and something I happen to agree with Congresswoman McCarthy with. So as far as my opinion of this appointment to be honest I don’t know. I am going to have to do my homework on it and see how I feel. And if there is a primary contest I am going to really have to do my due diligence.

I guess this is as good a place as any to plug my NQ Radio show, “No Topic Taboo…Everything Else with Jay” which will be in it’s usual slot, Wednesday night at 9PM Eastern…you know the rest depending on where you live.Now to be perfectly honest I was not sure what the topic of this week’s show was going to be but I guess this qualifies. As always everything is on the table, in addition to the new Senator from NY we can discuss the upcoming Super Bowl in Tampa, the first 8 days of the new administration, oh and here’s something. I got my hands on the Nielsen ratings of the top 58 markets for last week’s coronation I mean inauguration. You might be a little shocked to see who was #1 and where a certain mid-west city landed in the list.

I am really interested what you out in NQ-land feel about this. And you can let me know. You can leave comments here and I may print them out and read them on my show, you can email me at my show email address, ntteewithjay@me.com, or you can call me on show night at 347-677-0792. It’s going to be open line night, you will be my guest so I really can’t do this week’s show without you.

So that’s all I have to say. What about you?