WASHINGTON #- It's 10 minutes into the interview, and New York's junior senator hasn't stopped talking. She is gesturing eagerly in the Senate dining room and the table is shaking, water splashing from the glasses, as she argues that she is misunderstood.

“Folks don't know me well,” she says, “and they need to know who I am, what I believe in.”

Appointed to fill Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's former Senate seat after serving only one term in the House, Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand has been under siege ever since #- by some of her colleagues who say she is too inexperienced, by the New York tabloids that say she is suddenly flip-flopping on issues and by advocates who say her long-standing positions on gun control and immigration are out of step with the majority in their Democratic state.

But she is determined not to allow her critics to define her.

“Before this happened, I had very strong relationships with, I believe, all of my colleagues, and I am quite hopeful that I will have very strong relationships ... going forward,” says Gillibrand, whose former Upstate district surrounding Albany is largely white and solidly Republican. “They have far more legislative experience than I do ... and I think they are just disappointed.”

“Disappointed” is certainly one way to look at it. New York Democratic Gov. David Paterson infuriated many state Democrats in January when he chose Gillibrand after a messy process that embarrassed perceived front-runner Caroline Kennedy and passed over more-seasoned politicos.

Democrats worry that the doubts about Gillibrand have created a cloud of uncertainty over the seat, once held by icons Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Robert F. Kennedy. Gillibrand faces a special election in 2010 to fill out Clinton's term and, if successful, another campaign in 2012. Threatened challenges from within her own party as well as from Republicans ensure she will be fighting for her political survival, which some fear could undermine her ability to be an effective Senate player.

Even her father, Doug Rutnik, noted jokingly: “She has a lot of rowing to do.”

Benefiting from Clinton's stature, Gillibrand was assigned to three high-profile committees: Environment and Public Works; Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry; and Foreign Relations. But she has spent considerable time just trying to calm critics.

New York City Independent Mayor Michael Bloomberg sees curbing gun violence as a high priority in New York and was not comforted by Gillibrand's 100 percent approval rating from the National Rifle Association. She has tried to assure voters #* and colleagues #* in Harlem, the Bronx and Brooklyn that a lawmaker from a rural GOP House district can represent a broader, more urban constituency.

While she says her views aren't necessarily changing, there is no question that she is tweaking them as she goes.

Gillibrand thinks she has persuaded some critics to give her the benefit of the doubt. Last month, she met with Bloomberg in Washington, and afterward the mayor said they would work together.

Said Democratic House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, who represents Harlem: “Lyndon Johnson wasn't the most compassionate man when he was in the Senate. But when he was elected president, he took a leadership role on civil rights.”

But others are still skeptical. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., an ardent gun-control advocate whose husband was killed in the 1993 Long Island Rail Road massacre, was so incensed over the appointment that she immediately announced that she might challenge Gillibrand in 2010. Lawrence O'Donnell, a Democratic activist who favored Kennedy, said Paterson “has chosen someone better at representing cows than people.”

Meanwhile, Gillibrand's allies are pushing back. “We're pretty sophisticated up here,” says her mother, Polly Rutnik, of Albany. “This is not Montana. ... New York is a state of divergent opinions. We're not ruled by New York City.”

Since Gillibrand's appointment to the Senate, it has been her stated positions on guns and immigration that have brought her the most grief. “Let me say it in my own words,” she says when pressed to explain her stances. “I will always protect hunters' rights. Always. I will always protect the Second Amendment. I will make sure every American has the right to own a gun. ... That's very different from how do we protect our communities from gun violence, how do we reduce gang violence, how do we make sure we have a strong trafficking law to make sure criminals don't have access to guns?”

She says critics are “up in arms that I am supported by the NRA. And so they equate me with the NRA. I do not support the NRA's agenda. I support my constituents' agenda.”

On immigration, Gillibrand has been against amnesty, in favor of declaring English the official language and for requiring local police officers to take on immigration enforcement duties. But she says she has learned a lot in the past few weeks. For instance, she has backed down from her belief that local police should be permitted to conduct raids. Constituents have described scenes in which toddlers have seen guns being drawn on their parents. “No child should have to witness that,” she says.

Chung-Wha Hong, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, was encouraged after meeting Gillibrand. “She said she was willing to make a clean break with her past and voting record,” said Hong, an initial skeptic.

“She is going to be able to evolve without being seen as a flip-flopper,” said New York's senior senator, Democrat Charles E. Schumer. “When I was a congressman, I never voted for a farm subsidy. Now I do because I have constituents who have farms. That's what the system is about.”