The Rude and Crude Senator Schumer

Back in the day the United States Senate was called the world’s greatest deliberative body. Being a member of such a body required that you to show decorum and good manners, at all times and in all places. A senator did not cease to be a senator when he walked out of the chamber.

The world’s greatest deliberative body is governed by rules of propriety. It is governed by rules of gentility, rules that allow one to behave as a gentleman or a lady. These rules proscribe rants, raves and even fisticuffs. Each member calls each other member "honorable" and takes him or her to be so.

We are living in the Age of Trump, however, and New York’s senior senator and Democratic leader Charles “Chuck” Schumer has chosen to give the senate a black eye. He has chosen to tar the reputation of the body. Chuck recently made a spectacle of himself by throwing a tantrum at Hilary Califano, wife of longtime Democratic political operative Joseph Califano. For the record Joe Califano worked for both the Lyndon Johnson and the Jimmy Carter administrations. His wife Hilary is the daughter of William Paley, famed founder of CBS.

Anyway, the Califanos were dining at a popular New York neighborhood eatery, called Sette Mezzo last Sunday. There they encountered the rude and offensive and obnoxious Chuck Schumer, who went off at Hilary Califano because she had voted for Donald Trump. One does not know how he knew it, but apparently his capacious memory had been storing the detail for just such a moment.

Fox News reported the incident:

One witness said of the restaurant rant, “They are a highly respected couple, and Schumer made a scene, yelling, ‘She voted for Trump!’ The Califanos left the restaurant, but Schumer followed them outside.” On the sidewalk, Schumer carried on with his fantastical filibuster: “ ‘How could you vote for Trump? He’s a liar!’ He kept repeating, ‘He’s a liar!’ ”

Hilary confirmed the confrontation, telling Page Six, “Sen. Schumer was really rude . . . He’s our senator, and I don’t really like him. Yes, I voted for Trump. Schumer joined us outside and he told me Trump was a liar. I should have told him that Hillary Clinton was a liar, but I was so surprised I didn’t say anything.”

Call it evidence of Trump Derangement Syndrome, but it shows that Sen. Schumer has no business criticizing anyone for a lack of decorum and for bad public behavior. It was a pathetic display and he ought to stand up in the the senate and offer a public apology. He did not just tarnish his own reputation; he diminished that of the senate itself. After all, he did not rant and rave in private. And besides, what gentleman accosts and assaults a lady in public.

We are now waiting for feminists to defend Mrs. Califano.