Liz Holtzman for Senate

[davidswanson]

New York state could soon be represented in the U.S. Senate by a woman with more respect for and understanding of democratic representation, the Constitution, and the rule of law than we've grown accustomed to finding in Washington, D.C., a woman who has done more to oppose the abuses of power of the Bush administration than have most current members of the House or Senate.

Elizabeth Holtzman has asked the Governor of New York David Paterson to consider appointing her to fill a seat that may be vacated by Senator Hillary Clinton, whom President elect Obama intends to nominate for Secretary of State. I encourage you to ask everyone you know in the state of New York to contact the Governor and ask him to choose Liz.

Liz Holtzman served four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and was the youngest woman elected to Congress, where she quickly took a leading role in the impeachment of President Richard Nixon. She served two terms as the first woman elected District Attorney of Kings County (Brooklyn) and served as the first woman elected New York City Comptroller.

Before any of that, she co-founded Law Students Civil Rights Research Council, which recruited law students to work in the civil rights movement in the South. In 1963 she worked for a civil rights lawyer in Georgia. In 1964 she interned for the NAACP and helped write a brief on the first anti-miscegenation case.

Holtzman entered Congress in 1973 and took a seat on the House Judiciary Committee, just in time to pursue the impeachment of a lawless president. She gained national attention for her work on that impeachment, and for her questioning of President Gerald Ford about his pardoning of Nixon. She then gained international attention by exposing the presence of Nazi war criminals in the United States and forcing the creation of a special Justice Department unit to bring them to justice. Holtzman led committee work and passed legislation on a wide range of issues in Congress, but in the area of justice alone it is worth noting that she co-authored the special prosecutor law and brought a lawsuit challenging Nixon's unauthorized bombing of Cambodia.

Serving as District Attorney in Brooklyn from 1982 to 1989, Holtzman played a key role in ending racial discrimination in jury selection, led the effort to reform New York's rape and child molestation laws, persuaded the Court of Appeals to allow prosecution for marital rape, and created the first environmental crimes bureau in the state.

I didn't know Liz for most of this history, but I can understand how she got so much done everywhere she went, because I have seen her advocacy work during the Bush-Cheney era. She has been one of the most articulate, authoritative, persuasive, and energizing speakers, writers, and agitators against warrantless spying, torture, the occupation of Iraq, and the erosion of the rule of law in our federal government. In 2006, she published, together with Cynthia Cooper, "The Impeachment of George W. Bush: A Practical Guide for Concerned Citizens." Whether or not you want Bush impeached, this book is worth reading for a refreshingly different view of the law and the balance of power in our government. Here's a video clip of Liz testifying in Congress on this topic earlier this year: http://youtube.com/watch?v=dohgkV53tBQ

If you would like to see her in the United States Senate, please send your comments and your name and New York address to Governor David A. Paterson, State Capitol, Albany, NY 12224, or call 518-474-8390 or Email at http://161.11.121.121/govemail

[aquart]

1. Now there's a contender.

[elleng]

2. FABULOUS!

What a WONDERFUL idea!

[byeya]

3. Ms Holtzman or Sen Holtzman

I was very proud of her work in Congress. She was unafraid and was not a goalong,getalong lawmaker. She would be perfect and would immediately rise to the intellectual and moral top of the Senate. Here's hoping...

[antimatter98]

4. Brilliant idea; she'd be excellent. No more of 'the South' ignorance in the Senate. n/t

[lisa58]

5. Great Idea!

[mopinko]

6. an absolutely fabulous idea!!!!!

what a great candidate. my most whole hearted knr.
new yorkers- get on this!!!

[mopinko]

7. and david

when this thread sinks off the greatest, please repost in gd. pm me for a knr the second time around.

[davidswanson]

20. can you do it

please?

[glitch]

8. Awesome idea k & r nt

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. That would be poetic justice!

one of the brightest and fiercest members of the House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate hearings, later rooked out of a Senate seat by Jacob Javits' decision to run against her in the general election, even though he knew he was dying of ALS.

Oh, and she's been spending the intervening years as a prosecutor.

[tomp]

10. head and shoulders over the caroline in qualifications.

i mean, that's obama's thing right, the best person for the job? a supporter of impeachment, too.

[tomp]

11. k&r no one can argue kennedy is more qualified. nt

[Smarmie Doofus]

12. She's outstanding but I can't see it happening: NYS DEM politics.

The party regulars have always hated her... pushy, relentlessly antiwar, resolutely liberal, feminist from the old "New Left". It's a state where the party apparatus and the MSM set out to ruin her with their stalking horse: the unimpeachable ( only 'cause he resigned first) *Alan Hevesi* ( remember him ? Mr. Integrity! Hah, hah, hah. ).

Holtzman made some foolish moves as NYC comptroller that gave them ammunition and they pretty much persuaded the electorate that she was Al Capone in drag. Exaggerate, lie; exaggerate, lie, repeat, repeat, repeat, the Bloomberg strategy, more or less.) Meanwhile they persuaded the insensate that mediocrities such as Clinton and Ferraro were the feminist wave of the future.

I don't see Paterson giving her a job ( for all those reasons )... but Obama, that's another story.

Hmmm.....

[clear eye]

27. I think you've got it backwards

According to a couple of columnists, Paterson said in private that he doubted Kennedy had the fight to get NYS what they needed at this time of budget crisis, but Obama's people have given her the thumbs up since she was an important fundraiser and used her Democratic superstar name and tact to get people to answer sticky questions during the vetting of the possible VP candidates. She's made no secret of being starstruck by Obama, and would be totally beholden to him for putting her name in play if she got the appointment.

Paterson may be considering Holtzman seriously, but her age works against her. She is 67 now and will be 71 in 2012 when the election for a 2nd term would take place. Still, she's a lot better option than most, and infinitely better than the novice Kennedy.

[tomp]

13. can holtzman beat giulliani? nt

[Smarmie Doofus]

14. Probably not; which is another reason why it's unlikely. nt.

[clear eye]

28. Maybe, if she hit at him w/ some of his unappealing acts as mayor,

like reversing the tradition of allowing the homeless to sleep in the lobbies of welfare offices on severely cold nights when the shelters were full, or often stonewalling the city council when they asked for accounting of spending in a number of city programs. Or not fully spending funds allocated for Aids programs, or closing long-established neighborhood community gardens on vacant lots, even when there were no plans to use the land for anything else.

If she could convince the electorate that they could expect the opposite from her--full accountability and caring for people's needs, who knows?

[Gregorian]

15. This is good thinking. Let's improve the quality of the senate.

Bravo!

[Gregorian]

16. People, remember to send a message to the Gov of New York.

I so dearly would like to see this happen.

[clear eye]

29. Link

http://www.ny.gov/governor/contact/index.html

[OswegoAtheist]

17. K&R

A very nice letter will be sent to Gov. Paterson's office, as well as a phone call.

Oswego "But I'm still my first choice" Atheist

[disndat]

18. Forget about it

Unless Caroline Kennedy pulls out, it's a done deal. Some say H.C. was paid off (huge campaign debt) to clear space for C.K.

[bertman]

19. Recommended. She was very impressive at the Impeachment investigatory hearing

that Dennis the K got going back in July of this year. I did not know about her previous experience. Sounds like a true liberal Democrat. Not a chance in hell they'll seat her. I'm very sorry to say.

Got to have that Kennedy name recognition.

[psquare]

21. Elizabeth Holtzman was the most anti-defense congressperson I've ever heard of.

She was derided constantly for never having voted for any defense appropriations bill during her time in Congress. She must have thought (judging from her voting record) that the United States did not need an Army, Navy or Air Force. Positions like this just don't work in practice. True, she was virulently anti-war, and she seemed to have a visceral hate of all Republicans. This may have worked well in her congressional district in NYC, but even in New York you have to have some appreciation for our friends on the other side of the aisle. She won the Democratic primary by a slim margin over the NYC Commissioner of Consumer Affairs, the former Miss America, Bess Myerson, and also John V. Lindsay, the former Republican mayor of NYC.

I thought either Lindsay or Myerson would be much better choices for Senate, especially considering what happened on the Republican side. Alfonse D'Amato won the Republican primary against the incumbent Senator, the very moderate and cancer-stricken Jacob Javits. It looked like an extreme right vs. left kind of election campaign. Javits reasoned that he could run on the Liberal Party line and gather up the moderate voters enough to win re-election. He had the Jewish vote and the support of organized labor.

Holtzman was way too far left to appeal to me, and I doubted that enough Democrats would hold their noses and vote for her regardless, given the opportunity to keep Javits in office. Of course, what happened was that Javits split some of the Democratic vote with Holtzman, and he got only 11%, and D'Amato won by 1% over Holtzman. But I am still proud of my vote, it's the highest office for which I ever voted for a non-Democrat.

I still think that the New York Democrats made a very poor choice in the 1980 Senatorial Primary. D'Amato went on to serve three terms in the Senate, until Chuck Schumer finally brought the seat back into the Democratic column in 1998.

[mopinko]

24. maybe she just thought

that our defense dollars were not making us safer. gee, turns out she was right.
besides, i am sure none of those bills was in any danger of failing. i applaud her conviction, and agree with her 100%.

[mmm413]

22. If Holder doesn't make it as AG

then Holtzman should definitely be considered. Or, in the alternative (a lawyerly phrase), if Holder does make it then she should go to the DOJ. She'd be much more effective there than in the Senate. Holtzman is too valuable to have to do the money route, and the election degredation. I've downloaded every article (that I'm aware of) that she's written in the last 8 years. This woman is brilliant, courageous and really and truly is better than having to have her hand out for money to run for the Senate.

[defendandprotect]

23. Yes--! In fact, Liz Holtzman would be a fantastic choice for Governor-NY -- or President --!!

[mopinko]

25. thank you new yorkers for this thread, and i hope she makes it.

i suspect that going up against a kennedy will be tough. but maybe your gov is in his right mind, unlike mine.

best of luck to liz. i think she would be such a great choice.

[clear eye]

26. She is among a group of excellent older people who have superb records and backbone,

but it would be nice to have the person who gets the advantages of incumbency, name recognition, etc., by being in the job for two years before coming up for election, to be young enough to give us the benefit of a 2nd term starting in 2012. Holzman is 67 now, and will be 71 in 2012, an age at which many want or may need to retire. Maurice Hinchey and Louise Slaughter are two other very worthy older people whose names have come up.

Unfortunately Nydia Velazquez has formally turned down the offer. Looking at the other names being considered, I prefer Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who is 60. See my article on her here: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/clear%20eye/43