On a flight from New York to D.C. this past Sunday, both of New York’s Democratic Senators, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, were chatting away on their cell phones before the plane was ready to take off. Schumer continued talking, even after an announcement was made telling passengers to turn off their phones.
When a flight attendant approached Schumer and asked him to end his call, Schumer asked if he could just finish his conversation. The attendant said no. According to a GOP aide seated nearby, Schumer ended his call but not without insisting that he was entitled to keep his phone on until the cabin door was shut. The attendant told Schumer passengers must turn off their phones whenever a flight attendant demands so.
As the attendant walked away, Schumer muttered “bitch,” as if channeling Gilda Radner’s Emily Litella after receiving a scolding from Jane Curtin. Makes you think Al D’Amato wasn’t out of line for calling this guy a “putzhead” back in 1998.
Of course, there were no cameras present, so Schumer figured he could let his guard down. It is a wonder he did not pull the old “Do you know who I am?”
Interesting that it has been Schumer who has for years been pushing for the subways to have signals so cell phones can be used on them in case of emergencies. Just what we need. The subway is one of the few places left where we do not have to be subjected to endless loud yakking on cell phones – instead, we are subjected to idiots listening to garbage they think is music at decibel levels so loud it actually makes my spleen ache.
Hey, everyone says something off-color or inappropriate at one time or another. Dick Cheney had that incident where he told Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) to go perform a physically impossible sexual act on himself. Dubya called a New York Times writer a slang word for a popular human orifice.
Oh, but wait, those were those big bad mean nasty Republicans with no manners. Elitist Democrats who speak in measured tones like Chuck Schumer don’t use the B word. Schumer is an outspoken advocate for the rights of women. He would never use a coarse word to denigrate the fairer – though, of course, totally equal - sex. How out of character.
This reminds me of my favorite Ed Koch story. Shortly after he was no longer Mayor of New York City, Koch went to a supermarket in Greenwich Village. On his way in, some guy stopped him and said, “Ya know, you were a lousy mayor.” Koch, now just a regular citizen, looked at the guy and, without missing a beat, told him to perform the same sexual act on himself that Cheney had suggested to Sen. Leahy.
The difference was Koch was no longer an elected official. Schumer should know better, especially in such closed quarters. Guess all of the hours he is putting in trying to reform health care must be taking their toll on New York’s most lens-loving legislator.
