For Chuck Schumer, a turn at center stage

Even for Chuck Schumer, this has been a month of high visibility. As the master of ceremonies for President Obama’s second inauguration, the senior senator from New York introduced the president’s address with a rabbinical cadence that evoked, for “The Daily Show’s” Jon Stewart, “post-Shabbat service announcements.” Schumer also presided over the luncheon at Statuary Hall in the Capitol with jazz hands and toasts. (“Slainte. L’chaim. Salud. Cent’anni.”) He concluded by directing attendees to the next event: “It’s now time to head to our next happy stop — the presidential parade.”

Casual viewers who tuned in to watch the festivities could have been forgiven for mistaking Schumer for the president’s Borscht Belt footman.

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On Monday, New York's Sen. Chuck Schumer, along with a bipartisan coalition of senators, told reporters they have created a set of principles based upon which they hope lawmakers will pass immigration reform by summer.

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Actually, he’s become the president’s right-hand man on Capitol Hill.

That’s a remarkable development.

During Obama’s first term, Schumer groaned about the president’s naivete in espousing post-partisan “come together” platitudes. He anguished over the president’s tendency to cave in to Republicans. He bemoaned the president’s decision to push for health-care reform before ensuring that the economy was on a solid footing. He wanted to crush the opposition, not compromise.

On Inauguration Day, though, the senator looked pleased by the president’s pronouncement of an assertive and almost Schumeresque progressive agenda. The man who publicly took the oath of office Jan. 21 had learned many of the hard political lessons that Schumer already knew in January 2009, when Obama was sworn in for the first time.

But Schumer, too, has taken a new direction. At a time when Republicans are feeling battered and need a path back to electoral viability, Schumer has embraced Obama’s old bipartisan religion in a move to realize the president’s second-term agenda, and in the process attain so-far-elusive legislative accomplishments to solidify his power and status in the Senate.

In the past, the media-hungry Schumer might have simply elbowed his way onto center stage, a move common enough that his colleagues came to dub it “getting Schumered.” This time, the president is focusing on bringing along the public and giving Schumer room to work the Senate. Other Democrats are signing on, and key Republicans are eager to work with him.

Schumer is not one to let the opportunity slip away. On Monday, he led a bipartisan group of top lawmakers during a jampacked news conference, unveiling a framework for immigration reform. That night, he was instrumental in securing bipartisan support for a $60 billion relief package for victims of Hurricane Sandy. On Tuesday, he appeared with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” to tout bipartisan support for the immigration package. On Wednesday, the duo had a return engagement at a Politico Playbook breakfast, where McCain said Schumer was assuming the role of the late senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts as the Democratic lion able to bridge the partisan divide. Later that day, Schumer said at a gun-control hearing that “as we meet here today, I’m having productive conversations with colleagues on both sides of the aisle” to introduce new legislation.