Spin Cycle

New Yorkers could have saved more than $68 million if they were able to file their taxes online for free last year -- according to an analysis released today by Sen. Chuck Schumer and the Joint Economic Committee in Washington. Nationwide, taxpayers could have saved more than $1 billion.

So with tax returns due to the Internal Revenue Service, Schumer plans to introduce a new bill Tuesday that would make it free for all taxpayers to file online and directly to the IRS. This bill will work in conjunction with a proposal by Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) to require the IRS to set-up its own online tax-filing system.

"The e-file fee is like a tax on paying taxes," said Schumer, the New York Democrat who chairs the Joint Economic Committee.

Right now, only people with annual incomes below $54,000 can file their tax returns electronically for free, based on an agreement . . .

Kristen Daum

After three years as Sen. Charles Schumer's man on Long Island, Matt Cohen is leaving the post to work where so many other local government officials have gone: the Long Island Power Authority.

Cohen, a diminutive 26-year-old Northport native, coordinated Schumer's effort to reduce helicopter noise on Long Island. He will soon become LIPA's director of government relations. His last day with the senator’s office is March 24.

Cohen will be replaced as Schumer's Long Island director by Gerry Petrella, who presumably knows of the long days he faces doing the senator’s advance work. Petrella was North Hempstead Supervisor Jon Kaiman's director of intergovernmental relations.

“Matt Cohen was an incredible gift to our office but far more importantly to the people of Long Island,” Schumer said. “We will miss him so.”

Reid Epstein

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, on a tour of the Mideast, made his first trip to Iraq and sat down with U.S. armed forces personnel. “It has been one of the greatest honors of my life to spend New Year’s Eve with the brave men and women serving in Iraq,” Schumer said in a statement released by his office. “I have visited with troops all day today, many from New York, and there is no question that they represent the best of America. I am proud to convey to our troops the best wishes and enduring thanks of a grateful nation during the holiday season.”

He made no contentious statements on U.S. administration policy, at least in his release today.

Earlier today, Assembly Democrats gathered in the Brooklyn Marriott and with Speaker Sheldon Silver acting as host, asked questions of U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer and Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

Pols are funny types, so more than one of them noticed how Schumer mentioned exactly 24 of his same-party colleagues by name during his session and Spitzer mentioned approvimately two. That's just emblematic of the difference in styles. As he did on Oct. 1 before a gathering of the state Democratic committee, Schumer -- without mentioning the governor by name -- criticized those who knocked the comptroller appointment of former Assemblyman Tom DiNapoli (apparently without offending the two other then-candidates for the post who were in the room).

For his part, Spitzer said he talked about the state Democrats as family, who talk and sometimes squabble. Mercifully, he did not go so far as to recycle Gov. Mario Cuomo's 20-plus-year-old Family of New York riff. Nor did he mention this family's driveway wars with its Republican neighbors who occupy the house next door, the Senate.

School budgets were a concern...

Dan Janison

Confirming reports that were circulating, US Sen. Chuck Schumer has issued a press release announcing that Hofstra will host one of the 2008 presidential debates right here on LI. The date will be Oct. 15 -- and, naturally, Sen. Never-shy Schumer wants everyone to know that he deserves credit for making it happen:

"Schumer has led the fight to bring a presidential debate to Hofstra."

Also, he gives props to the university: “This is great news for Long Island and for Hofstra. It shows the importance of the suburban middle class vote and further strengthens Hofstra as a national and international center of excellence.”

It's the third, and last, presidential debate, by the way. Full text of the release after the jump.

In an earlier item about Tribune buyer Sam Zell's New Yorker comment that Chuck Schumer was "hustling" for someone who wanted to buy Newsday, we promised an update on who he was representing, and why.

First: Jim Klurfeld, Newsday's longtime editorial chief who recently left the paper, tells us that Schumer had expressed concerns about Newsday's future to him, and Klurfeld referred Schumer to Frank Zarb, the former NASDAQ and Long Island Power Authority chairman rumored to have been looking at an effort to buy Newsday from Tribune earlier this year.

“Frank and Chuck Schumer talked at some point. That’s pretty much my recollection," Klurfeld says. “Chuck was concerned about the future of Newsday and having a strong journalistic product on Long Island and that was the nature of his concern.” Klurfeld didn't know about any contacts Schumer may have later had with Zell.

Second: Schumer says he called Zell to figure out what his plans were for Newsday because of concerns about the paper's future, and wanted Zell or someone else to be willing to invest in it. “It wasn't hustling. It was making an inquiry about the future of something very important to Long Island. A newspaper is more than a private business....I don't care who owns it as long as it is a strong quality newspaper.”

The contact(s) apparently occurred some time ago -- back in the spring or summer. In June, according to news clips, Zell lobbied Schumer to sign a letter asking the FCC for a quick ruling on a request from Tribune to retain an exemption from cross-ownership rules so the company can continue to own both newspapers and TV stations in NY, LA and Chicago.

Schumer signed the letter, along with Sens. Dick Durbin and Harry Reid. The waiver still hasn't been granted. If it isn't approved pretty soon, Zell's purchase could be derailed and the pieces could end up for sale after all. “The financing would unravel, Tribune would be auctioned off in parts, and it would be the end of the company,” a Trib vp says in this article.

Sam Zell, who's in the process of taking control of Newsday owner Tribune Co., tells the New Yorker that Chuck Schumer has been helping someone who wants to buy Newsday:

“I’ve had offers on every single asset in the portfolio. Chuck Schumer calls me, because he’s hustling for some people who want to buy Newsday."

We don't know who -- the name most prominently mentioned in the past has been investor Frank Zarb. The New Yorker article, separate from the quote about Schumer, mentions that Rupert Murdoch has had interest in a stake in Newsday.

In any event: We're used to Schumer caring for Wall Street contributors on various matters of financial regulation on the theory that they're big NY employers, and we've written recently about how he intervened with the Philippines on behalf of big contributors from SentosaCare as part of his "ongoing efforts to assist health care companies as they address the nationwide shortage of nurses."

But here's a question: How is it part of Chuck's public duty to provide special help and special pleas on behalf of someone who wants to buy Newsday? And does whoever that person is understand that it might make the public a little cynical about the neutrality of the paper's coverage of Chuck if Chuck helps a buyer close a deal?

Update: We've asked Schumer's press office to tell us who the senator is representing, and why. We'll let you know when we get a response.

Chuck Schumer, explaining his decision yesterday to vote confirm Michael Mukasey as AG despite Mukasey's refusal to commit to banning waterboarding, said that "he came to his decision after winning assurances from Mukasey in a meeting Friday that if confirmed he would enforce laws Congress might pass to broadly ban waterboarding as torture."

This is getting some pretty scathing commentary. The problem: Doesn't Schumer essentially put the onus on Congress to specifically ban something that a lot of people believe is now and always has been illegal? And doesn't that mean that maybe it can continue if Congress doesn't pass a law specifically banning it -- which, by the way, President Bush could veto? And isn't the idea that Congress needs to specifically address different possible methods of interrogation a pretty dangerous one?

Blogger Andrew Sullvan: "Schumer's promise ... is insufficient. It presupposes that the torture techniques described are not already illegal, thus retroactively exonerating all those who authorized them."

Legal blogger Jack Balkin: "Who is the bigger fool, Judge Mukasey for making these representations or Senator Schumer for believing them?"

So here was U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, getting ready to deliver his take-back-America speech for the Democrats, in front of a big banner proclaiming the identity of the luncheon host, state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.

"So many of us in this room knew what a great comptroller Tom DiNapoli would be," Schumer said. "He has lived up to every expectation." Of course, Gov. Eliot Spitzer wasn't in the room. He was the guy who recently and emphatically reversed his declaration that DiNapoli was inqualified in favor of praise for the former Assemblyman's "absolute integrity."

In full party mode, Schumer exchanged a joke from the podium with Nassau Legis. Roger Corbin, something about the fight he'd been having with party chairman Jay Jacobs, who sat at the same front table. He said only his mother and one other person call him "Chuckie." The other person is Assemb. Vivian Cook.

"Hi Chuckie!" Cook chriped from one of the tables.

In the more sober portion of his speech....

In a detailed investigative report today, Newsday's Ridgely Ochs and Michael Amon describe how U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer helped prod officials in the Phillipines regarding staff recruitment for a nursing-home chain whose principals are among his campaign backers.

In the political universe, prominent names with a role in the disputed issue include the nation's president, President Gloria Macagapal-Arroyo.

Closer to home, there's Howard Fensterman, chief attorney of the nursing home company SentosaCare, who is Schumer's Long Island finance chairman and a top fundraiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, chaired by Schumer.

As noted in the story, Fensterman's an owner of a SentosaCare nursing home in Great Neck, as well as a leading fundraiser for Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. He is also chairman of the Nassau Industrial Development Agency.

UPDATE: Nassau Democratic chairman Jay Jacobs comes to Fensterman's defense, with remarks here.

Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota's probe of the nurses at the center of the controversy is described and elaborated on here.

Chuck Schumer took Nevada Republican John Ensign to task this morning at a committee hearing after Ensign apparently suggested that other disasters (tornadoes, Katrina, etc.) were comparable to the Sept. 11 attacks. We're told things got quite snippy, with Chuck shouting, "WILL THE GENTLEMAN YIELD?" and Ensign (whose game-show-host hair often earns him honorable mentions on DC's "Most Beautiful" list) snarling in defiance.

Transcript coming up soon, we hope.

Glenn Thrush

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer is preparing legislation that would close a controversial tax loophole enjoyed by highly paid hedge-fund managers. His bill also will affect other industries. It comes weeks after he drew bipartisan fire on the topic.

"Senator Schumer wants to make sure that everyone is taxed at the same and fair rate - including oil and gas companies, who enjoy a similar tax break, and will introduce legislation to ensure just that," spokesman Josh Vlasto said Friday.

Most of the U.S. workforce encounters income tax rates as high as 35 percent. Those managing hedge funds pay a flat 15 percent of earnings. But Schumer last month balked at a Senate bill sponsored by Max Baucus (D-Montana) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) addressing that disparity. Critics then accused New York's senior senator of holding out for a broader but harder-to-pass bill merely as cover, since he's helped raise many millions of dollars from Wall Street for Senate Democratic campaigns.

Dan Janison

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y) has opened a new line of attack on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales – calling for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate whether Gonzales misled or committed perjury in testimony before Congress.

Schumer, who was the first to call for Gonzales to resign in March, clashed with Gonzales during his appearance before the Senate on Tuesday over his past testimony that Schumer said other Bush administration officials and members of Congress had contradicted.

In the letter seeking the special counsel, Schumer and three others senators level three charges of contradicted testimony by Gonzales -- charges that in themselves are somewhat complex.

They charge Gonzales misled Congress when he claimed there had been no serious internal Justice Department disagreement about the controversial warrantless wiretapping program but others testified there had been concerns raised; that the program questioned internally wasn’t the warrantless wiretapping program acknowledged by the president, when others said it was; and that he had not discussed the prosecutor firings with his staff that was involved when one of the staffers said he had.

Joining Schumer in the call were Democratic Senators Dianne Feinstein of California, Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.

Gonzales denied the charges on Tuesday.

White House spokesman Tony Snow this morning sought to come to the aid of the beleagured attorney general in his “gaggle” session with reporters. “Unfortunately we get into areas that you cannot discuss openly. It’s a very complex issue. But the Attorney General was speaking consistently,” Snow told reporters.

But pressed by reporters about statements from other administration members contradicting Gonzales’ testimony, Snow sounded oddly similar to Gonzales on Tuesday: “It’s simply more complex than that, and I can't go into any more detail.”

Tom Brune

Sen. Chuck Schumer seems to be forging a new fight with U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Yesterday, just four days after a failed push for a Senate vote of no-confidence in Gonzales — who is under fire from Congress for the controversial firings of eight U.S. attorneys — Schumer, who has led the investigation, sent a letter to Gonzales seeking support for two pieces of legislation aimed at protecting children from online predators. The measures, which he co-sponsored in January and February, would require the Justice Department to add online identifiers such as chat screen names and e-mail addresses to the National Sex Offender Registry.

“Since then, despite a number of requests, we have not received the Department’s official views,” Schumer (D-N.Y.) writes in the letter. “The delay is inexplicable.”

Schumer’s letter comes after Gonzales responded earlier this week to the Senate’s effort by saying he was, “spending my time focused on what’s important...ensuring that our kids are safe from pedophiles.”

A Department of Justice spokesman said the department received Schumer’s letter and was reviewing it, but had no comment on its content.

Aaron Cahall

Sen. Chuck Schumer’s vote of no-confidence on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales failed last night, but he said his investigation into the embattled cabinet member will continue.

Schumer (D-N.Y.) was a chief proponent of the vote of no confidence, which was blocked by Republicans in a 53-30 Senate vote, seven short of the 60 votes needed to bring it to full debate.

"The investigation into the U.S. Attorney firings continues," Schumer said today. "It's imperative that we hear from White House officials."

Those officials would include presidential adviser Karl Rove and former White House Counsel Harriet Miers, among others, according to Schumer’s office.

Aaron Cahall

When Sen. Charles Schumer met Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy at a news conference in Babylon Thursday, the senator just couldn’t resist.

Schumer said he coveted the cross-party support Levy now enjoys, but he ribbed the county executive for accepting the support of Suffolk Republicans, joking that now representatives of any and every political party were waiting to endorse him.

“There’s a line outside his house,” Schumer said. “The Nepalese Freedom Party wants to endorse him.

“They came all the way from the Himalayas!”

Erik German

Sexiest Long Island press conference of the week: U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer stopped in Babylon to plug funding for municipal waste-water systems.

Sens. Chuck and Hillary have good news for New York, and they told all about it yesterday in a joint news release.

New York and five other high risk cities “will receive an additional $35 million” in anti-terrorism funding collectively under a bill that will be voted on by the Democratic-controlled Congress this week.

What New York Democrats Charles Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton didn't say in their media missive is that the bill containing the promised money is a veto magnet -- and has virtually no chance of being penned into law.

President George W. Bush has vowed to reject Congress’ $124.2 billion supplemental war spending bill because it includes an Oct. 1 deadline for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq.

Martin C. Evans

Singing its praises as a presidential debate site, Sen. Charles Schumer has fired off a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates to give his "unqualified support for choosing Hofstra University" in its bid to host what would be this state's first presidential debate in 40 years.

Calling the campus an "ideal venue," Schumer says, "Hofstra is armed and ready to host one of the most signficant events in the 2008 election" and that he will work hard toward "persuading the commission" pick the campus.

Rick Brand

For '08, Sen. Charles Schumer, big-time New York Democrat, is of course in the camp of his junior state colleague, Hillary Clinton.
But Schumer, always mindful of how some of his own constituents might feel, is not ready to go reckless, or even crtitical, on Rudy the Republican, that other New Yorker in the race.
Asked his take on the Giuliani candidacy as he swept through Albany Tuesday, Schumer began: "Well, you know, I worked well with Giuliani on anti-crime stuff and I like him as a person. He hired good people, shall I say..."
He said that with a grin, since his wife Iris Weinshall served as a commissioner under the former mayor, and as well as under Mayor Michael Bloomberg until recently.
Schumer then moved a little more onto message in the impromptu exchange.

Dan Janison

Sen. Charles Schumer was on the Don Imus show this morning talking about the president's State-of-the-Union speech. Schumer also was hawking his first book, “Positively American — Winning Back the Middle-Class Majority One Family at a Time,” from Rodale Books ($24.95). He talked about his “imaginary friends,” Joe and Eileen Bailey of Massapequa, the fictional couple he has been talking to for 15 years — running policy decisions by them, explaining how those policies could benefit them. And listening to them when they argue those policies won’t be of assistance.
Schumer said he considers the Baileys his moral compass — and that he has even encouraged fellow Senate members to find their own Baileys in their own states when considering the implications of new legislation.
By doing so, Schumer argued, the Democrats can win back middle-class America, the section of the voting population he believes will decide the next Presidential election.

John Valenti

Meet Sen. Charles Schumer's composite couple from Massapequa.

Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is being elevated to a newly-created, number-three slot as vice chairman of the Democratic Conference in the Senate Majority as a prize for spearheading the stunning Democratic takeover of the Senate.
The current number three, Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, is stepping down as secretary of the Democratic conference in exchange for a plum committee slot, according to a Senate staffer. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will announce Schumer's new title at a Capitol Hill news conference.
Schumer, 55, who raised more than $100 million as chairman of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, ranks behind Assistant Majority Leader Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Reid's number two.
Washington Sen. Patty Murray will take Stabenow's slot, which will now be the fourth most powerful position in the Senate leadership.

Glenn Thrush

Dueling endorsements greet the Suffolk morning.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-Brooklyn) is due at Democratic Party headquarters at 9 a.m. in Bohemia to back Senate contenders Brooke Ellison and Jimmy Dahroug, as well as County Clerk candidate Vivian Viloria Fisher and Assembly candidate Barbara LoMorriello.
Schumer will then move to MacArthur Airport for a second endorsement news conference with Philip Nolan, the Democratic candidate for Islip supervisor.
Just up the road in Hauppauge, meanwhile, more than a dozen Suffolk GOP officials are due to rally around the GOP’s newest political celebrity, Comptroller candidate Christopher Callaghan, who became a serious contender following disclosures that incumbent Democrat Alan Hevesi violated the law by misusing the labor of state employees to drive his wife around.
Among those expected to boost Callaghan are state Senators Owen Johnson, Caesar Trunzo and Kenneth LaValle, along with GOP Assembly members and county Clerk Judith Pascale, Treasurer Angie Carpenter and County Comptroller Joseph Sawicki, who is running for re-election with Demcoratic backing.

Rick Brand

In a sign of thawing in the acrimonious relationship between Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and Sen. Charles Schumer, the two are planning to meet up later today at the state fair in Syracuse, and pose for some pictures together.
Christine Anderson, Spitzer's spokeswoman, said she thought they would be walking around the milk tent.
"I wouldn't interpret it as anything other than two elected officials who are at the fair on the same day," she said.
The two hyper-ambitious politicians, both of whom are said to aspire to be the first Jewish president, butted heads over this year's governor's race. Eliot angered Chuck by trying to line up early endorsements a couple of years ago in an attempt to beat the senator to the punch. Chuck then reportedly encouraged Tom Suozzi in his run against Spitzer.
Of course, Spitzer's apparent imminent election as governor could be one reason the two are playing nice-nice.

Michael Rothfeld
Update: They are scheduled to meet up at 2:45 at the Dairy Products Building, Anderson reported.

Stranded in London by the Heathrow terror bottleneck, vacationing Sen. Chuck Schumer has decided to ditch the Amsterdam leg of his vacation and tour galleries in the British capital through the weekend.
On Sunday he goes to Paris, where he will no doubt find it impossible to get good Chinese take-out.

Glenn Thrush

Sen. Charles Schumer, passing through Heathrow with his wife and daughters for an Amsterdam connecting flight, is apparently stuck in London and looking for his luggage after the terror busts.

Question: Will the frosty relationship between U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer and AG Eliot Spitzer, as described in Newsday today, matter to the future of the state?

Israel Klein, Chuck Schumer’s sunny, unsinkable Washington press guy, is joining the crowded ranks of Schumerians who have left their boss to find fame, fortune and the semblance of normal personal life, Newsday's Glenn Thrush reports. Klein is returning to work for his former boss Rep. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts liberal who works at a marginally less frenetic pace than Schumer. No word on a replacement. (When called for comment, the ever-loyal Izzy would only say, "I hope you’re not writing anything bad about Chuck.")

Other ex-Schumer staffers include: Mike Bloomberg’s spokesman Stu Loeser, Democratic consultant Josh Isay, Third Way founder Jim Kessler and, of course, the Son-of-Chuckie himself, Rep. Anthony Weiner.