Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), in typical Chuck Schumer fashion, is taking his cut of the bin Laden story by proposing a “No Ride List” for Amtrak trains.  Evidence collected in the terrorist’s lair evidently suggests that al Qaeda has considered attacking U.S. trains! How could we have overlooked that?

Schumer’s list would emulate the “No Fly List”, which prevents suspected terrorists from boarding commercial airline flights. (If no Amtrak watch list exists, why do we have to show ID when taking Amtrak?)

This, of course, is simple headline grabbing.  If Schumer really wants to protect passengers his “No Ride List” would logically extend to every train, subway car, trolley (and bus) in America.  Any one of them is a terrorist target.  Check points woud have to be erected, of course, to prevent illegal boardings, and metal detectors, wands, and body scanners also would have to be employed.  In this case. we would need armed guards as well, every half mile or so, along the hundreds of thousands of miles of U.S. railway track, because one doesn’t need to board a train to take it out. A quiet bend, 20 minutes, and a crowbar will do the trick.

And even if Amtrak could be thoroughly “hardened”, doing so would only make softer targets like commuter rail more attractive.

The simple truth is that we cannot harden every conceivable terrorist target in America, just as we cannot prevent Chuck Schumer from standing in front of television cameras every weekend with yet another opportunistic proposal to get his mug on TV.

I don’t mean to sound so harsh, but Schumer’s shtick is beyond tired.