The Senator Has the Floor

But Schumer has been effective, amassing a solid cache of legislative accomplishments in both chambers. A champion of gun control, he was the main House sponsor of the Brady Bill in 1993. He has been instrumental in securing funds for New York after 9/11 and won reelection with 71 percent of the vote last year.

"There's obviously a certain truth to every rap," says Rep. Peter King, a New York Republican, referring to Schumer's reputation for spotlight-mongering. But at the same time, he works harder than most people, King says. "It's hard to get myself worked up about Schumer," King says. "If you add it all up, he's just a hard-working guy."

Schumer's father owned a small Brooklyn exterminating business, and the son is no Senate millionaire. He relies heavily on unpaid publicity.

He competes for attention on the Judiciary Committee with non-shrinking violets such as Ted Kennedy and Joe Biden. And he represents New York along with Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose photo on the wall at Hunan Dynasty is three times bigger than Schumer's. He once went to the restaurant with Clinton and much of the kitchen staff came out to greet her. "I had no idea the staff was so big," he recalls thinking while he waited for the fuss to subside.

Reading Roberts

It takes almost an hour for the conversation to return to Topic A. Schumer says he has met twice with Roberts -- once for an hour, once for 1 hour 15 minutes. They were good meetings, he says, and reminded him of late-night rumination sessions at Harvard Law School (which he attended in the early 1970s, a few years before Roberts). Schumer is still trying to determine whether Roberts is a "conservative ideologue," in which case he plans to vote against him. "He's a personable guy, but not a friendly guy," Schumer says, adding that he is "trying very hard to get to know Roberts" and "learn where he's coming from."

Just as important is for Roberts to learn where Schumer is coming from. "I wanted to tell him who I am and what motivates me on judges more than anything," Schumer says. He launches into a 10-minute retelling of what he says he told Roberts -- a zigzagging narrative of his own experience at Harvard College in the '60s, and how it left him "pro-authority" but "anti-ideologue."

Other matters are on his mind, too. Among them:

· "God has been good to me," Schumer says. "And yes, I believe in God." He goes on to explain that he believes in "an intervening God," as opposed to a God who simply "set the forces of the universe in motion" and let man determine his own fate.

· Schumer was raised as a Reform Jew, but admires modern Orthodoxy's "blend of modernity and tradition."

· Schumer appreciates the "blend of ethnic groups" of New York and the "blend of tastes" in Chinese food.

· His favorite ice cream flavor is coffee.

· President Bush calls Schumer "Ellis," the senator's middle name, inspired by the island.