LOS ANGELES — U.S. Democratic Sen. Charles E. Schumer has a tiger by the tail. And since he hails from the mean streets of Brooklyn, you can count on the fact that he's not about to let go soon, no matter how loudly the tiger roars.
This is a bit of a problem for China. For Schumer, who first came to the U.S. Congress at the tender age of 29, knows the internecine intricacies of American politics the way many Chinese carefully study calligraphy. He's very active on the Senate Banking Committee.
I knew Schumer from my days as an editor at New York Newsday. He was then, as now, a hardworking politician who sometimes came across like a Brooklyn bookie, despite the smarts learned at Harvard College and Harvard Law School. In New York they would say he oozes a street trait called "moxie." One of the most famous Brooklyn neighborhoods is Red Hook, once synonymous with on-the-waterfront grit.