Schumer, Senate Democrats Under Pressure on Gay-Inclusive Immigration Reform

(chris johnson - twitter)

Senate Democrats are increasingly nervous about the prospects of gay-inclusive amendments filed last week by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) killing the comprehensive immigration reform bill, Politico reports:

After strategically keeping the White House at a distance, some key Democrats are privately advocating for the president himself to ask Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chief proponent of the measure, to hold off on offering the amendment until the floor debate, where it’s unlikely to pass.

“He is working behind the scenes,” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), a Gang of Eight member, told POLITICO when asked whether Democrats wanted Obama to get involved, although declined to get into details. “Obviously it is Sen. Leahy’s call.”

Leahy said he spoke with Obama on Wednesday, but the issue didn’t come up. Even if it did, Leahy said, a presidential intervention wouldn’t necessarily sway him.

“I am the most senior member of the Senate, I’m an experienced chairman. He’s happy I’m handling immigration,” Leahy said. “He hasn’t suggested whether I should or shouldn’t do it because he knows I’ll make up my own mind.”

It's also still unclear whether Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) would vote for the amendments, they add:

After the Gang of Eight didn’t include the protections in the underlying bill, Schumer assured advocates that the issue would get a vote in the Democratic-controlled Judiciary Committee, the most favorable venue for passing the amendment because the threshold is a simple majority, rather than the filibuster-proof majority on the Senate floor.

But now [LGBT advocates] are worried that might not even happen.

Earlier, today, Schumer received, via hand delivery from the advocacy group GetEQUAL in coordination with the pro-immigrant organizations Presente.org, DRM Action and Uniting We Dream, 6,500 petitions urging him to include gay binational couples as part of the legislation.

Reports Chris Johnson at the Washington Blade:

Felipe Sousa-Rodriguez, co-director of GetEQUAL, personally handed the names to Schumer’s staff on Thursday as part of a group of about a half-dozen activists.

“It’s interesting because he’s making a political mistake,” Sousa-Rodriguez told the Blade. “The whole reason why this is even happening is because of Latinos, and Latinos hold the key to the White House. But 64 percent of voters support the inclusion of same-sex couples in immigration reform and 59 percent of Latino voters support same-sex marriage. Latinos have turned a page, the country has turned a page, but D.C. keeps being stuck in the ’90s.”

A Brazilian native who’s married to a U.S. citizen, Sousa-Rodriguez is an undocumented immigrant who came to the United States at a young age and would be able to gain citizenship through a marriage-based green card application if the immigration reform included the provision for bi-national couples.

More at the Blade...

Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) Won't Commit to Voting for Gay-Inclusive Immigration Amendments: VIDEO

Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) won't commit to voting for gay amendments filed by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) if offered up for the immigration reform bill, the NYT reports:

“I would like very much to see it in the bill, but we have to have a bill that has support to get UAFA passed. That’s the conundrum. Because if there’s no bill, there’s no UAFA, either.”

He added: "Look, this one is something I worry about all the time. I’m a good sleeper, but I wake up in the morning thinking of these things, sometimes early in the morning.”

The paper adds:

Mr. Leahy’s amendments, if offered, promise to create a politically sticky situation for Democrats in the bipartisan group like Mr. Schumer, who personally support the measures but are hesitant to vote for anything they believe could hurt the broader bill. Though Mr. Schumer is already facing pressure from gay rights groups, he declined to say how he might vote.

“I’m not going to get into speculatives,” he said.

Watch an interview Politico did with Leahy about the amendments, AFTER THE JUMP...

Schumer, Boxer Get Behind Hagel Nomination, Cite His 'Sensitivity and Understanding' of Gay Military Issues

New York Senator Charles Schumer and California Senator Barbara Boxer are getting behind the nomination of Chuck Hagel as Defense Secretary.

Politico reports that Boxer has been swayed by a persuasive letter and "extensive" phone conversations:

“First and foremost, he has pledged without reservation to support President Obama’s polices — policies that I believe have made our world safer and our alliances stronger,” Boxer said in a Monday night statement.

“I asked him about a number of issues — including America’s special relationship with Israel, the threats posed by Iran to the world and the treatment of women and gay and lesbian members of our military — and his answers were reassuring and show a sensitivity and understanding of these issues.”

Boxer added Hagel would meet with her about the Pentagon’s efforts to eliminate sexual assault in the military, presuming he’s confirmed by the Senate.

The outreach shows how the White House has placed a premium in wooing key Democrats early in the confirmation process — even ones like Boxer, who does not serve on the Armed Services Committee.

And Schumer says he's now on board too, saying, in part:

On issues related to female and LGBT service members, Senator Hagel provided key assurances as well. He said he is committed to implementing the Shaheen amendment to improve the reproductive health of military women. He also supports the full repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

In general, I believe any President deserves latitude in selecting his own advisors. While the Senate confirmation process must be allowed to run its course, it is my hope that Senator Hagel’s thorough explanations will remove any lingering controversy regarding his nomination.

Read Schumer's full statement here.

Read Hagel's letter to Boxer, AFTER THE JUMP...

Senators Not Keen On Hagel For Defense Secretary: VIDEO

Former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel cleaned up one political headache, kind of, by apologizing for comments he made in 1998 about Ambassador James Hormel being "aggressively gay."

Hormel has accepted the apology, though does point out it most likely came to clear a path for President Obama to nominate Hagel to be the next Defense Secretary. "While the timing appears self-serving, the words themselves are unequivocal--they are a clear apology," Hormel wrote. 

But there's still the pesky problem of Republicans who oppose Hagel for opposing the surge in Iraq, his votes and comments about Israel and his resistance to sanctions on Iran. If Sen. Lindsey Graham's remarks this morning are any indication, that GOP problem isn't going away anytime soon.

"The Republicans are going to ask him hard questions, and I don’t think he’s going to get many Republican votes," Graham said on Meet the Press. "His positions -- I didn’t really, quite frankly, know all of them -- are really out of the mainstream and well to the left of the president. I think it would be a challenging nomination." Asked if he would support Hagel, Graham said he's going to wait until the nomination hearings. Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer was also asked, but said he's standing by until an actual nomination has been put forth.

Meanwhile, independent Sen. Joe Lieberman used similar language on CNN's State of the Union, telling host Candy Crowley, "...If I were in the Senate on the Armed Services Committee and he was nominated, I would have some really serious questions to ask him, not just about Israel, but to me, the most significant foreign policy challenge for President Obama and our country and the world in the next year or two is Iran and it's nuclear weapons program. Chuck Hagel has had some very outlying votes on that."

Watch Graham, Schumer and Lieberman discuss Hagel's odds AFTER THE JUMP.

Watch: Gillibrand and Schumer Speak Out for Marriage Equality

Senators Gillibrand and Schumer line up for New Yorkers for Marriage Equality.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

Obama Nominates Second Gay Man to Federal Bench

Earlier in January I reported that Obama had renominated more than 40 judicial candidates. Among them was Edward Carroll Dumont of D.C., nominated to be United States Circuit Judge for the Federal Circuit. DuMont would be the first openly gay federal appellate court judge in the nation. DuMont was originally nominated last April.

Yesterday, Obama nominated a former Clinton administration lawyer recommended by Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY): "The lawyer, J. Paul Oetken, 45, is a senior vice president and associate general counsel of Cablevision."

Oetken has been nominated as a federal judge in Manhattan.

The NYT:

Senator Schumer said on Thursday that Mr. Oetken fit his three criteria for federal judges: legal excellence, moderation of views and diversity.

“I am looking for people who fit the three criteria, and I was shocked to learn there were no openly gay male judges on the entire federal bench.” Mr. Oetken “fit the bill,” he added.

Mr. Oetken, a graduate of the University of Iowa and Yale Law School, was a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun and worked in the Justice Department and in the White House counsel’s office.

Before joining Cablevision, Mr. Oetken was in private practice in New York.

Schumer's previous recommendation Daniel Alter was rejected in October, reportedly because of remarks he made about a case challenging inclusion of the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, and additional remarks suggesting that merchants not wish shoppers "Merry Christmas" during the holidays.