"The usually unavoidable-for-comment, if-it’s-Sunday-here-is-my-press-release senior senator from New York is being a little tetchy about going on the record," writes Michael Powell in his lead.

His detractors are even more reticent. The harshest criticism of the man with a $19 million dollar war chest, who just might be the next Senate majority leader, comes—not surprisingly, and, as it often does—on background, at least for now.

And the background noise doesn't seem to bother Mr. Schumer. “There was another poll this same week that had much different numbers, so you can’t rely on polls,” he told The Times.

A better measure of Mr. Schumer's vulnerability might be when more people start saying—on the record—things like this.