N.J. congressman accuses Clinton camp of attempting to exploit black-Jewish tensions
By Ami Eden on Jun 6, 2008 in Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Presidential Race |
From today’s Star-Ledger:
U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews, who supported Hillary Clinton throughout the primary season, disclosed he received a phone call shortly before the April 22 Pennsylvania primary from a top member of Clinton’s organization and that the caller explicitly discussed a strategy of winning over Jewish voters by exploiting tensions between Jews and African-Americans.
“There have been signals coming out of the Clinton campaign that have racial overtones that indeed disturb me,” Andrews said at his campaign headquarters in Cherry Hill Tuesday night after he lost his bid for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination.
“Frankly, I had a private conversation with a high-ranking person in the campaign … that used a racial line of argument that I found very disconcerting. It was extremely disconcerting given the rank of this person. It was very disturbing.”
Andrews said the phone call came after he angered the Clinton camp by making some positive comments about Obama. He would not disclose the caller’s name because of the private nature of the conversation.
The Obama camp declined to comment. Clinton’s campaign issued an angry response to Andrews, who once was charged with lobbying other members of Congress to support her.
“Comments like these, coming so soon after Congressman Andrews’ crushing defeat, are sad and divisive,” said Clinton’s chief national spokesman, Phil Singer.
If anyone is surprised that the Clinton campaign was based on racism, they obviously weren’t paying attention.
Thomas Mc | Jun 6, 2008 | Reply
The Clinton campaign did not have to do anything to “exploit tensions between Jews and African-Americans.” By posing with, praising, and endorsing a prominent anti-Semite (and racist) like Al Sharpton, Obama did that just fine on his own.
The same goes for Obama’s obvious reluctance to “reject” the endorsement of Louis Farrakhan, another racist, anti-Semite, and Catholic hating bigot in the bargain, and his solicitation and acceptance of the endorsement of MoveOn dot org. It is a matter of record that MoveOn welcomed anti-Semitic hate speech, including an outright blood libel of Jews, at its now disgraced Action Forum.
Bill Levinson | Jun 6, 2008 | Reply
Bill Levinson is a racist supporter of Jewish terrorists and has no real facts to back up his claims.
http://jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/ne.....msnbc.html
Speaking of racist anti-Semites and Catholic hating bigots, where’s your denunciation of John McCain for waiting as long as he did to reject the support of John Hagee?
Frank N. Bean | Jun 6, 2008 | Reply
As one who knows neither party, FNB’s intemperate personal attack seems to reinforce Levinson’s comments, Making a personal attack and then asking for ‘real facts” while presenting none in refutation is a demagogic strategy which convinces no one.
David Sternlight | Jun 6, 2008 | Reply
Obama does not have to try to win the jewish vote because jews hate blacks. My mother who had credit score of 890 could not get a jewish person to rent her an apartment in ny even if she tried. The young jewish kids in ny told us that they could only come out and talk to us when their parents were not home because they did not like them talking to blacks.
I am not muslim or study islam. I am a born again christian.Liberman will not back a black candidate it’s as simple as that.
American | Jun 7, 2008 | Reply
I know someone will comeback and state that I am some antisemite or some thrife. I do not have any jewish friends, and refuse to socialize with any jewish people, because there is only so many times someone can look down at you as filth. You get the idea that your skin color, is the problem. On two occasions, going to a job interview and being told ‘ we do not want your kind ‘. I do not hate jewish people,I just stay away from any personal involvement with them after I reached the age of 20.
American | Jun 7, 2008 | Reply
Sadly, so many of the responders seem to be either incredibly stupid/bigoted. Those who responded claiming to be blacks who had bad experiences with Jews are just plain ignorant. Jews have been in the forfront of the civil rights movement and for those idiots to make a blanket indictment of Jews shows what kind of ignorant fools they are. Unfortunately, all polls indicate that the level of antisemitism in the black population is significantly higher than in the white christian population is very troubling as is the reluctance of blacks to denounce racists such as Wright and Farrakhan.
Phil | Jun 11, 2008 | Reply
As for the link Mr. Bean cited, yes, Obama “rejected” Farrakhan’s support–after Tim Russert and Hillary Clinton pressed him on it three times. The first two times, he gave long, rambling, and evasive answers. That is a matter of record as shown by a transcript of the Democratic debate in February. This is why FNB must attempt to intimidate me with personal defamation (which is not going to work); the facts are totally against his candidate.
Jeremiah Wright has close ties to Farrakhan, and so does Michael Pfleger. Obama accepted the endorsements of Wright and Pfleger, although he now wishes he hadn’t. Screen shots of those endorsements are posted at numerous blogs. The reason Obama was so reluctant to “reject” Farrakhan is probably that he agrees with him. If you surround yourself with bigots, and those like Pfleger and Wright who praise bigots, a strong argument can be made that you are one yourself.
I’m not going to defend what Hagee once said about the Catholic Church but, unlike Wright, Sharpton, Farrakhan, Pfleger, and the rest of Obama’s stable of professional hate mongers, Hagee recently apologized for what he said.
Bill Levinson | Jun 11, 2008 | Reply
Being reluctant to renounce Farrakhan has nothing to do with agreeing with him.
Like it or not, Minister Farrakhan is well respected in the Black community for his work on behalf of the impoverished, the imprisoned, and the addicted. His attitude towards Jews may be deplorable, but to brush him aside as a crackpot who need not be reckoned with is to suggest that the Black community itself should not be catered to as a political group in the United States. He is a beloved Black leader. End of story. Same with Sharpton.
Considering the fact that the U.S. is 20% Black and less than 1% Jewish, the idea that a politician should brush aside a larger segment of the population by denouncing their leaders in order to pander to a smaller segment seems completely undemocratic and chauvinistic to me.
In that, Obama has 20 times more of a reason to take Farrakhan seriously than he does Jews. There are 20 times more Blacks in America than there are Jews.
However, because Jews are disproportionately affluent, influential and wealthy, they appear to wield more power than Blacks, as evidenced by Obama’s decision to denounce Farrakhan explicitly.
Frank N. Bean | Jun 12, 2008 | Reply